Reviewing the Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility: New Evidence and Analysis

This study complements previous empirical research on the business case for corporate social responsibility (CSR) by employing hitherto unused data on corporate social performance (CSP) and proposing statistical analyses to account for bi-directional causality between social and financial performance. By allowing for differences in the importance of single components of CSP between industries, the data in this study overcome certain limitations of the databases used in earlier studies. The econometrics employed offer a rigorous way of addressing the problem of endogeneity due to simultaneous causality. Although the study’s results provide no evidence that there is a generic or universal business case for CSR, they indicate that there is a strong link between single stakeholder-related issues of CSR and financial performance. However, the analysis does not establish causality within these relationships.     

Ethical Consumerism: A View From the Food Industry in Morocco

Both consumers and firms are now more concerned about ethics as a way to make business transactions a win–win deal. As consumers ensure profitability to businesses, they expect fair practices and honest behaviors toward society. The study reported here attempts to investigate Moroccans’ perceptions and attitudes toward ethical consumerism of food. Consumers’ willingness to buy those products and their motives for such purchases as well as factors preventing ethical purchases is investigated. Besides price, which drives most their decision to buy a food or not, Moroccans are driven by ethical claims such as “healthy,” “no fat,” “pasteurized,” etc. It was shown that consumers trust information on the labels of products besides information provided by consumer authorities. In relation to ethical aspects, Moroccans are mostly concerned about the environment and religion. Older men with high income are shown to be a good target for the ethical food market.     

Attaining Legitimacy in Temporary Business: The Case of New Entrepreneurs in the Television Industry

This work seeks to identify behavioral processes that new entrepreneurs can adopt to construct legitimacy in frequently changing temporary business environments. Focusing on independent television content production in the UK, the study finds that new entrepreneurs exploit the varying roles that their projects can play and then sequence these in order to tailor the legitimacy they need to build their business. This research draws on a 5‐year inductive study of 81 projects won by entrepreneurs of five new independent television production companies.     

城市生活垃圾的解耦分析——来自空间计量模型的新证据

文章旨在从垃圾产生源头考察经济活动与城市生活垃圾产生量的动态关系，以此判定解耦状态。基于2004—2016年中国31个省级行政区的面板数据，运用空间杜宾模型对城市人均生活垃圾产生量与居民消费水平进行解耦分析。纳入空间因素后，城市人均生活垃圾产生量与城镇居民消费水平之间的“倒N形”曲线关系更加显著和稳健，并呈现出相对解耦，但尚未达到绝对解耦。更为重要的是，考虑空间因素之后，城市人均生活垃圾产生量的预测峰值将会推迟到来。在未来30年里，城市人均生活垃圾产生量还将持续增加，如何提升资源使用效率，实现经济发展与生活垃圾产生量的绝对解耦将是政策当局必须充分考虑的重大议题。     

新生态体系下的新消费、新业态、新模式

在新冠肺炎疫情防控常态化、“双循环”新发展格局加快形成的态势下,亟待发挥新消费引领作用,形成新供给新动力。消费是经济循环的终点,也是新的起点,发展壮大新型消费,以消费升级推进智慧流通新模式、新业态,以现代流通创新激发新的消费增长点,不断释放消费增长潜力,具有推进经济高效循环的作用。新消费既是消费的新引擎、新动力,也是国民经济循环的重要引领力量。疫情影响下,数字化零售、在线服务、直播电商等线上消费快速发展,我国消费市场及业态、模式面临新的变化。消费呈现出从功能型消费向享受型消费转变、从商品消费向非商品消费转变的趋势,消费者更追求优质消费体验、愿意为美好生活埋单。线下商业逻辑从坪效导向、品牌导向日益向消费者体验导向转化,线上商业进入数字化消费的3.0阶段,产业互联网蓬勃兴起,通过跨界与融合,新零售体系不断创新。我们应主动把握消费升级趋势和发展规律,构建“新消费、新业态、新模式”的消费新生态体系,形成强大的国内市场,推进“双循环”新发展格局加快形成。     

Some Empirical Evidence of Chinese Accounting System and Business Management Practices from an Ethical Perspective

China is moving from a centralized to a market economy to bring about efficiency in its economy and to form a business partnership with the West. With its reform adopting an open-door policy, there may be a need to assure its partners in the western world that appropriate steps would be taken to develop and foster a business culture with which the western countries and the Chinese businesses can work. The present study attempted to find whether there has been a change in business ethical culture, accounting system and practice in the Chinese business between 1978 and the present, and the degree of similarity in the Chinese ethics and guidelines compared to Western ethics and guidelines. The result of the study has been analyzed from an institutional perspective to explore institutional change. The result showed that there is general growing support of Chinese management toward change in business ethical culture and practice. It was observed that there was not much similarity in the documents used for ethical guidance and control with those of the West. The findings of the paper are expected to be relevant to international investors and executives interested in investing or working in China.     

Testing Implications of Spatial Economics Models: Some Evidence from Food Retailing

Under certain conditions, spatial economics models predict an increase in product price after entry of new competitors in a market area. However, a review of spatial economics models suggests new competitors should cause lower prices in urbanized markets, although the effect is dependent on distance between the existing and new firms. An empirical analysis of entry in a local retail food market supports this hypothesis for food products but not nonfood products.     

Business Ethical Values in China and the U.S.

The research presented in this paper focuses on business ethical values inChina, a country in which the process of institutional transformation has left cultural values in a state of flux. A survey was conducted in China and the U.S. by using five business scenarios. Survey results show similarities between the Chinese and American decision choices for three out of five scenarios. However, the results reveal significant differences in rationales, even forsimilar decisions. The implications of similarities and differences between the U.S. and Chinese samples are discussed.     

The Ethical Mutual Fund Performance Debate: New Evidence from Canada

Although the academic interest in ethical mutual fund performance has developed steadily, the evidence to date is mainly sample-specific. To tackle this critique, new research should extend to unexplored countries. Using this as a motivation, we examine the performance and risk sensitivities of Canadian ethical mutual funds vis-à-vis their conventional peers. In order to overcome the methodological deficiencies most prior papers suffered from, we use performance measurement approaches in the spirit of Carhart (1997, Journal of Finance 52(1): 57–82) and Ferson and Schadt (1996, Journal of Finance 51(2): 425–461). In doing so, we investigate the aggregated performance and investment style of ethical and conventional mutual funds and allow for time variation in the funds’ systematic risk. Our␣Canadian evidence supports the conjecture that any␣performance differential between ethical mutual funds and their conventional peers is statistically insignificant.      

Ethical Aspects in Nordic Business Mergers: The Case of Electro-Business

Postmerger integration is a highly challenging and demanding task. Its success depends not only on economic factors but also on the organisational members' feelings and their personal contribution to the new entity. Mergers are usually made for the sake of profitability in the first place, whereas less attention is paid to employees in such situations. This article describes various ethical observations made in our study on corporate mergers in the Nordic Electro-business industry. We examine how the organisational change was experienced by personnel, what kinds of ethical reflections surfaced in different phases of the process, and what conclusions might be drawn from them. The main focus is on the ethical meanings that emerged in our interviewees' stories spontaneously, without the topic of ethics having been separately brought up in the interview situation. The organisational members: we interviewed 35 electro-business employees who were either transferred from Vattenfall's contracting unit to the acquiring company or were already working there at the time of the merger. These persons were interviewed twice: first in 2001, the year of the initial merger, and again in 2005, 4 years from the start of the process and 1 year from the final ownership change. The merger process seemed to lead to decreased responsibility among the organisational members, which highlights the discrepancy between genuine ethical thinking and executive talk. Our study also revealed a dramatic shift in the moral attitudes of the managers who fell from power in the turmoil of organisational change. This moral dimension is evident in their sharply critical argumentation against the new operating model and new corporate management, as well as in their eventual indifference and non-commitment to the organisation. The ethical meanings of 'the good life' and a happy work community slowly disintegrated and were replaced by a longing for the earlier communality and sense of togetherness in their old organisation. This meant that 'the good life' would have to be sought elsewhere.     

Ethical Theory and Business Practices: The Case of Discourse Ethics

By focusing on the reasoned debate in the discourse-ethical approach to business ethics, this paper discusses the possibilities and limitations of moral reasoning as well as applied economic and business ethics. Business ethics, it is contended, can be looked at from the standpoint of two criteria: justification and application. These criteria are used to compare three approaches: the Integrative Business Ethics, developed by Swiss philosopher Peter Ulrich, the Cultural Business Ethics of the Nuremberg School in German business ethics, and the concept of “Good Conservation” by Frederick Bird. It is argued that discourse-ethical approaches can be called upon for justifying moral principles. Improving the chances of their application, however, necessitates a good understanding of lifeworlds and culturally developed institutional settings. Bearing this in mind, further research perspectives stressing a linkage between discourse-ethical and critical approaches in social sciences are suggested.Dr. Thomas Beschorner is head of the research group “Social Learning and Sustainability” at University of Oldenburg, Germany and currently Visiting-Professor at McGill University, Montreal, Canada     

国际商务接待业的发展现状及其模式探析——以西安为例

文章通过西安会展、旅游和酒店业发展现状,明确了会展、旅游和酒店业三产业国际化和商务化的发展方向.在总结国内外三产业理论成果尤其是目前西安会展旅游和商务旅游研究成果的基础上提出了西安发展国际商务接待业要采取产业融合发展的模式,并从市场、业务和管理三个层面深入探讨了实现产业融合的路径.     

Changing Food Consumption Patterns and Their Impact on the Quick Service Restaurant Industry

Summary

During the past two decades there have been significant changes in U.S. food consumption patterns. Consumers are purchasing smaller quantities of milk, eggs, pork, and beef. They are consuming more poultry, fish, fruits and vegetables. Such trends in food demand are important since they may require corresponding changes in marketing and production strategies for the foodservice industry. This study investigates the driving forces that influence consumer food preferences and the trends in food consumption patterns, and consequently their influence on the Quick Service Restaurant industry.     

Ethical Judgments Across Cultures: A Comparison between Business Students from Malaysia and New Zealand

This study compares the attitudes to ethical dilemmas of first year business students in Malaysia and New Zealand by using a series of scenarios or vignettes. Between subject manipulations were made to the scenarios given, based on expected cultural differences suggested in the literature. In particular, Hofstede's (1980, 1983 and 1991) work was used as a framework to identify dimensions based on differences in national culture. The results indicated some differences in responses based on both nationality and ethnic origin. Differences were also found as a result of the manipulations within the scenarios. However, a lack of any interaction effects between the manipulations and both nationality and ethnic origin indicated that cultural differences did not lead to different responses to the manipulations.     

Modeling Ethical Business Culture: Development of the Ethical Business Culture Survey and Its Use to Validate the CEBC Model of Ethical Business Culture

This article reports the results of research to develop a survey instrument and its use to validate an ethical business culture construct (CEBC Model). The reported three-stage quantitative study builds on our previous qualitative work, aimed at identifying dimensions of ethical business cultures. The research resulted in a parsimonious construct, covering five dimensions of ethical business cultures, and a ten-question instrument, measuring this construct. In this article, we report results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and convergent construct validity testing, discuss the potential applications of the construct and instrument in assessment and development of ethical business cultures, and provide recommendations for industry practitioners and for further research.     

探索消费信贷新模式

个人消费信贷业务从 1996年启动至今 ,快速增长的同时 ,多方面的问题也逐渐出现 ,为了向更高层次发展 ,商业银行必须回头去思考传统运作模式中隐藏的问题 ,引入创新思路 ,以力争在集约化与规模化经营上取得更加实质性的成效。     

Time Affluence as a Path toward Personal Happiness and Ethical Business Practice: Empirical Evidence from Four Studies

Many business practices focus on maximizing material affluence, or wealth, despite the fact that a growing empirical literature casts doubt on whether money can buy happiness. We therefore propose that businesses consider the possibility of “time affluence” as an alternative model for improving employee well-being and ethical business practice. Across four studies, results consistently showed that, even after controlling for material affluence, the experience of time affluence was positively related to subjective well-being. Studies 3 and 4 further demonstrated that the experience of mindfulness and the satisfaction of psychological needs partially mediated the positive associations between time affluence and well-being. Future research directions and implications for ethical business practices are discussed.