The Proactive Corporation: Its Nature and Causes

We argue that the stakeholder perspective on corporate social responsibility is in the process of being enlarged. Due to the process of institutional isomorphism, corporations are increasingly adopting organizational features designed to promote proactivity over mere reactivity in their stakeholder relationships. We identify two sources of pressure promoting the emergence of the proactive corporation -- stakeholder activism and the recognition of the social embeddedness of the economy. The final section describes four organizational design dimensions being installed by the more proactive corporations today -- cooperation, participation, negotiation, and direct anticipation.     

The Evolution of Health Insurer Costs in Massachusetts, 2010–2012

We analyze the evolution of health insurer costs in Massachusetts between 2010 and 2012, paying particular attention to changes in the composition of enrollees. This was a period in which Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) increasingly used physician cost control incentives but Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) did not. We show that cost growth and its components cannot be understood without accounting for (1) consumers’ switching between plans, and (2) differences in cost characteristics between new entrants and those leaving the market. New entrants are markedly less costly than those leaving (and their costs fall after their entering year), so cost growth of continuing enrollees in a plan is significantly higher than average per-member cost growth. Relatively high-cost HMO members switch to PPOs while low-cost PPO members switch to HMOs, so the impact of cost control incentives on HMO costs is likely different from their impact on market-wide insurer costs.     

Max weber revisited: Some lessons from East Asian capitalistic development

Weber's thesis of the incompatibility of the Confucian ethos and rational entrepreneurial capitalism has been challenged by the economic miracles of many East Asian countries. One thesis presented here is that Confucianism is compatible with and has facilitated Asian capitalism by its influence on managerial values and practices. According to Weber, the release of tensions created by Calvinism was an important motivating force in the development of capitalism in the Occident. Confucianism offers a parallel mechanism to the profit-seeking drive in Western capitalism. We show that, in Confucian societies, there also exists tensions — in this case, between ideals and reality. These tensions are released through the Confucian concept of a ceaseless pursuit of renovation, a motivational mechanism for the development of capitalism in East Asian societies that parallels the West. Weber held that the classic model of bureaucracy, with impersonality at its core, is essential to the development and continuation of capitalism. Our second thesis is that humanism is an important element in Confucian bureaucracy and that humanistic bureaucracy can be both effective and efficient for the development of capitalism.     

变革者的经验法则

变革是任何组织永恒的主题--相信我,下面介绍的变革者经验法则,会对很多在推动变革过程中不断受挫的人们有所裨益.     

Teaching Business Ethics Through Literature

America's economic ideology lacks a vocabulary of ethics. If, as we assume, an economic system requires a moral component for long-term survival, students in business schools must be exposed to a vocabulary of ethics that is consistent with the ideology of capitalism. We present a vocabulary of ethics and describe an approach to teaching business ethics based on business-related classic literature and moral philosophy.     

Toward an understanding of ethical climate: Its relationship to ethical behavior and supervisory influence

In recent years, theoretical and empirical developments in the area of organizational climate has provided the impetus for research concerning ethical climate. According to this latter research, ethical climate is a multi-dimensional construct which is manifested in organizations. Studies, however, have not focused on the relationship between ethical climate and ethical behavior. Furthermore, an enhanced understanding of the multi-dimensionality of ethical climate will likely advance what we know about organizational climate and culture in general. We propose further examination of ethical climate by: (1) showing the conceptual relationship between ethical climate and ethical (or unethical) behavior in organizations; and (2) examining supervision as one of the principle influences on ethical climate and concomitant subordinate behavior. Finally, we explore the implications for future research on ethical climate.James C. Wimbush is Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Department of Management at Indiana University, Bloomington. His current research is about ethical issues in human resources management.Jon M. Shepard is Head of the Department of Management at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His most recent publications include Egoistic and Ethical Orientations of University Students Toward Work-Related Decisions (Journal of Business Ethics). His current research interests include ethical climate and the accountability of institutions.     

An Empirical Examination of the Multi-dimensionality of Ethical Climate in Organizations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the ethical climate dimensions identified by Victor and Cullen (1987, 1988) could be replicated in the subunits of a multi-unit organization and if so, were the dimensions associated with particular types of operating units. We identified three of the dimensions of ethical climate found by Victor and Cullen and also found a new dimension of ethical climate related to service. Partial support was found for Victor and Cullen's hypothesis that certain ethical climate dimensions are associated with particular forms of organizational governance and control.     

An Examination of the Relationship Between Ethical Work Climate and Moral Awareness

This paper draws from the fields of history, sociology, psychology, moral philosophy, and organizational theory to establish a theoretical connection between a social/organizational influence (ethical work climate) and an individual cognitive element of moral behavior (moral awareness). The research was designed to help to fill a gap in the existing literature by providing empirical evidence of the connection between organizational influences and individual moral awareness and subsequent ethical choices, which has heretofore largely been merely assumed. Results of the study provide evidence that ethical work climate (EWC) is a primary predictor of individual moral awareness, and that the influence of social factors often overrides the effects of individual differences in a work group setting. Implications for future research are provided.     

An Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Ethical Climate and Ethical Behavior from Multiple Levels of Analysis

Victor and Cullen (1988) identified several dimensions of ethical climate that exist in organizations and organizational subunits. We tested the relationship between these dimensions of ethical climate and ethical behavior at different levels of analysis. Using Within and Between Analysis (WABA) (cf. Dansereau, Alutto and Yammarino, 1984), partial support was found for a relationship between dimensions of ethical climate and ethical behavior.     

The Short-Run Incidence of a Gasoline Tax Rebate Plan

The aim of this paper is to explain growth performance in Portugal in the last decades (1965-2006) through a multi-equation system with cumulative growth characteristics. The model uses a demand-orientated approach to determine the main relationships, which explain growth through a virtuous cycle. The idea is to identify the driving forces of growth with causal linkages and feedback tendencies that enable the process to be self-sustained. We estimate the multi-equation growth model by 3SLS to capture more efficiently the interrelations between the main growth forces and to control for the endogeneity of the regressors. Our evidence shows that the proposed model can successfully explain the Portuguese growth performance, highlighting the importance of export competitiveness as the key factor in this process. The cumulative growth process was interrupted at some points mainly due to the incapacity to transfer productivity gains into domestic prices and to make the economy more competitive. We also show that capital accumulation does not affect productivity growth, and domestic prices do not improve export competitiveness. These are the main drawbacks of the Portuguese economy that could explain the failure to achieve higher growth rates in the period 1965-2006.