Meta-ethical Reasoning: Applied to Economics and Business Principles

A bstract . Ethics and ethical thinking involve two primary and interdependent elements of analysis: the individual and the society. Economic thought dichotomized these two elements into the individual (competitive capitalism ) or the society (Marxist socialism ), with one element being the cause, and the other the effect. Views of economic reality were developed not on the basis of the interdependence of the individual and the society but their mutual antagonism.
Economic thought is based on the scientific reasoning of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its abstract definition of reality narrowed the significance of the concrete appearances of things in favor of the rules (science) that define things. Science requires both an objective causal order (independent of human definitions and beliefs) and the development of laws (independent of the human observer or participant) that explain the nature of the objective world. Ethical reasoning requires that economic causality be defined to include both the individual and the society. Ethical reasoning is needed to bring together both the scientific and the metaphysical for human meaning. The science of means must be joined to the human purposes of ends.     

Antecedents of Budget Participation: Leadership Style,Information Asymmetry,and Evaluative Use of Budget

This study explores the causes or antecedents of budget participation to understand more fully the role of participation in the workplace. The study focuses on the reasons why superiors encourage the budget participation of their subordinates and draws upon several theoretical perspectives including leadership theory, agency theory and organizational justice. To examine the issues, a survey was administered to managers and supervisors in several companies. Results of path analysis suggest that superiors encourage subordinate participation when the superior's leadership style is considerate. This implies that budget participation may mediate the relation between leadership style and work outcomes. Results also suggest that superiors encourage participation when budget goals are used in the performance evaluation of subordinates, in which case, the study argues, the superiors encourage participation because of concerns about organizational justice. This finding implies that budget participation may mediate the relation between the evaluative use of budget and those work outcomes that prior research has linked to organizational justice. The proposed relation between information asymmetry and budget participation is not supported.     

Do High‐Frequency Data Improve High‐Dimensional Portfolio Allocations?

This paper addresses the debate about the usefulness of high‐frequency (HF) data in large‐scale portfolio allocation. We construct global minimum variance portfolios based on the constituents of the S&P 500. HF‐based covariance matrix predictions are obtained by applying a blocked realized kernel estimator, different smoothing windows, various regularization methods and two forecasting models. We show that HF‐based predictions yield a significantly lower portfolio volatility than methods employing daily returns. Particularly during the 2008 financial crisis, these performance gains hold over longer horizons than previous studies have shown, translating into substantial utility gains for an investor with pronounced risk aversion. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Internet use in Ukraine's Orange Revolution

The Ukrainian presidential elections of 2004 witnessed a massive uprising of the Ukrainian electorate against the incumbent government's tactics of vote rigging and ballot fraud. In this paper, ten Ukrainian websites focusing on the election are critically evaluated and compared by analyzing their website activity data. Despite lacking access to mass media, supporters of democratic change compensated through skillful use of the internet to recruit volunteers, raise funds, organize campaigns, report breaking news, and garner the sympathy of the global democratic community. Comparisons with broader web usage are made, and social and business implications are suggested.     

Economics and ethics

Business theory and management practices are outgrowths of basic economic principles. To evaluate the proper place of ethics in business, the meaning of ethics as defined by economic theory must be assessed. This paper contends that classical economic thought advocates a nonethical decision-making context and is not functional for a modern complex, interdependent environment. Bernard J. Reilly, Professor of Management and Health Policy, came to Widener in September of 1980. Since coming to Widener he has published and presented over 90 professional papers in the fields of management and health administration, in such journals as Academy of Management Review, Inquiry, Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law, Human Relations, Hospital and Health Services Administration, Social Science and Medicine, Personnel, etc., and at several national conferences on organizational behavior and health policy. He is presently working on two books, the first on modern management principles, and the second on corporate business ethics. Recently, Dr. Reilly was awarded the Christian R. and Mary K. Lindback Foundation Award for distinguished teaching. Forthcoming articles will appear in Business and Professional Ethics Journal and Technology Management. Myroslaw J. Kyj, Associate Professor of Marketing at Widener University, has been involved in the research areas of the use of customer service in competition, pre-conditions for marketing channels and the inter-play between marketing, ethics, and social responsibility. Dr. Kyj has recently published several articles in such journals as Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, and a forthcoming article in Business Horizons.     

Vertical information sharing in the budgeting process

This study develops a model of vertical information sharing between superior and subordinate in the budgeting process. Upward information sharing involves the revelation of private information by subordinate to superior. Its proposed antecedents are budget participation and organizational commitment while job performance is a proposed outcome. Downward information exchanges from superior to subordinate are also examined by including role ambiguity in the model. Survey results suggest that vertical information sharing is an important intervening variable in understanding the performance effects of budget participation and organizational commitment.     

A Relational Framework for Analyzing Ventures in Cognitive Environments: Illustrations from the TNK-BP Experience

This article looks at multinational investments in Central and Eastern Europe from a relational matrix perspective. The matrix posits a set of business relationships as outcomes of environment, regulatory or cognitive, and cluster valence combinations of power, urgency, and legitimacy. BP's pursuit of petroleum reserves leading to the venture with Russia's TNK is offered as a case study pointing to two general propositions relating the conduct of global firms in the region. Data analysis relating foreign direct investment with degrees of perceived corruption supports the propositions of opportunistic behavior and acceptance of opaque environments by global petroleum companies. The legitimacy construct is shown to be most prone to erosion, and its diminution impacts a firm's operating flexibility.