The Role and Value of Global Business Research: Perspective of a Business School Dean

The scope of this article is two-fold. First, it looks at business research in general, in various countries, as a task that the dean wants to have faculty members pursue, to attain goals such as accreditation and ranking with organizations such as the AACSB, Equis, the Financial Times, and US News & World Report. And second, it looks at international business research as part of what business schools produce and what a dean can encourage. As more academics realize the importance of international competition, and also of dealing with people from other cultures and countries, IB research is becoming more acceptable in mainstream publications as well as in specialized international business ones. Key questions discussed here include encouraging, measuring, promoting, and financing international business research.     

We Must Find the Courage to Change

The Thought‐Leader Series of five articles in the March 2014 issue of the Journal of Business Logistics made it clear that major changes are required in both Logistics and Supply Chain Management programs and indeed in business schools. The articles provided further evidence of how ill‐advised metrics in the hands of fools not only result in a misuse of financial resources but also squander “the efforts of some of the world's best minds” (Economist 2013a). We address the problems that these “Thought‐Leader” pieces reveal, briefly review the criticism of business schools, and describe how the metrics used to evaluate performance are driving the wrong behavior. We offer recommendations for change including: stop competing based on flawed ranking systems; focus on providing students with a quality cross‐functional education; encourage faculty members to conduct problem‐driven, big‐idea research that impacts management practice; and change the incentive system for faculty and administrators. Faculty members in Logistics and Supply Chain Management have a unique opportunity to make substantial contributions due to the boundary‐spanning nature of these fields and the traditional emphasis on applied research. We should not ignore these strengths. Implementing our recommendations will not be easy but we must find the courage to change.     

Emerging Economies' March Toward Globalization: From China to Muscatine

ABSTRACT

In this paper, a university business faculty-based workload model (WLM) is described. The WLM incorporates all the activities associated with university academic life and serves as a base for the management and/or change management of any of these. The WLM also provides an objective, transparent and equitable mechanism for the allocation of workload for all academics in the faculty, recognizing that there are certain activities which have strategic importance and need to be encouraged. In this paper, the strategic academic activity selected for illustration is research activity and output (within an Australian context). The WLM can be adapted to suit most other country's higher education systems. The WLM per se explicitly incorporates an element of research management which is supplemented, due to the research context adopted in this paper, by a sub-model, the Research Quantum management Model (RQMM), whose specific intent is the (change) management of research activity and its subsequent output (research quantum).     

Master's Level Education in Business Marketing: Quo Vadis?

ABSTRACT

Given the paucity of knowledge on the state of business marketing education at the master's level, we conducted an exploratory survey of instructors at selected universities in North America and Europe. We supplemented results from this survey with discussions with our colleagues who teach business marketing at the master's level, and a review of articles on master's level programs.

Through our investigations, we discovered that there is a shortage of management cases that address contemporary issues in business marketing. We learned that nearly half of survey participants do not use a textbook and that the remaining participants use a wide variety of textbooks. We observed that many instructors still teach business marketing courses from a traditional functional perspective. Instead, we believe that business marketing courses must address a host of emerging issues such as value and its assessment, business process reengineering, global marketing, working relationships and business networks, and cross-functional coordination issues, among other things.

We believe that scholars can rejuvenate the discipline by tailoring business marketing courses to the new generation of accelerated master's programs, by creating a network for sharing information on new cases and teaching materials, and by writing more relevant and timely business marketing cases. Finally, we believe that the time is right for a faculty consortium on teaching business marketing.     

The UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2001 and Retail Research Output

Knowledge creation processes in British Universities have been affected significantly by formal evaluations of research performance. The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2001 in the UK shows that retail research is based primarily in the business and management subject area and in selected institutions. There is a tension amongst institutional strategies to maximise assessment results and thus income, individual career paths, journal 'ratings' and the direction of research. The emerging focus on a North American model of research knowledge creation raises fundamental concerns covering the philosophy, methodology, techniques and topics of retail research in the UK.     

New Challenges for International Business Research: A Review of Extant Research and the Unique Contributions of John Dunning

Relative to other fields, international business is a young field of study. Tracing its origins to the mid-1950s, the field began to develop unique theories and paradigms in the 1970s and 1980s. The field has developed rich research streams since and has become firmly established as an independent field of study and important part of university curricula. John Dunning (1902–2009) is widely regarded as a father of the field, carving out unique theories from his primary field of economics and through his efforts hiring and training future prominent international business scholars. This article examines the evolution of the international business field and unique contributions of John Dunning's research to the development of extant theory. It then reviews Dunning's last contribution—his fifth and last book entitled New Challenges for International Business Research: Back to the Future.     

Customer share,value, and business success

Two books on strategies that are likely to shape business success in the twenty‐first century are reviewed. One is about a change in focus by marketers from pursuing a share of the market to going after a share of the customers' total spending money. The other is a collection of research articles by faculty at leading business schools on how entrepreneurial marketers might address the business challenges of the new millennium with effective strategies that create value for customers. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Internationalizing the business ethics curriculum: A survey

This article reports on a telephone survey of business school faculty in the United Kingdom, Asia and North America concerning efforts to internationalize the teaching of business ethics. International dimensions of business ethics are currently given only limited coverage in the business school curriculum with over half of the faculty surveyed indicating that less then 10% of their ethics teaching focuses on global issues. Teaching objectives vary widely with some faculty emphasizing a relativistic, diversity oriented perspective while others stress the universality of values. The respondents identified a great need to develop teaching materials based upon non-U.S. corporations and/or non-U.S. incidents.Christopher J. Cowton is University Lecturer in Management Studies at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Templeton College. An author on many facets of management, his previous paper in theJournal of Business Ethics was on corporate philanthropy in the United Kingdom. Current research interests include the implications of just-in-time production for accounting, and ethical (or socially responsible) investment.Thomas W. Dunfee is the Kolodny Professor of Social Responsibility at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was President of the American Business Law Association 1989–1990, served as Editor-in-Chief of theAmerican Business Law Journal 1975–1977 and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for Business Ethics. He has published articles in theAcademy of Management Review, Business Ethics Quarterly, theBusiness and Professional Ethics Journal, and theJournal of Social Philosophy in addition to a variety of business and legal journals.     

Teaching Real-World Political Economy: Simulating a WTO Negotiation

International educational experiences can provide benefits for faculty members as well as higher education institutions and their students. The opportunity to lecture and conduct research with colleagues at universities in other countries can foster the globalization or internationalization of academic teaching, the advancement of knowledge, and cooperation among institutions. Research has shown that the experience abroad helps educators to gain a more global perspective that will enhance business classes. This article will show that a Fulbright experience abroad helps faculty to lead business students to be more knowledgeable and aware of international issues and global concerns.     

Exploring the Effectiveness of Business Gifts: Replication and Extension

Abstract

This investigation replicates Beltramini's (1992) study of the effectiveness of business gifts, and extends the research to include actual marketplace sales response. A company's customers'perceived satisfaction and intention to continue repurchasing are surveyed both before and after being sent a more expensive gift, a less expensive gift, or no gift at all, and customers'actual sales are longitudinally tracked. The results indicate business gift-giving represents an effective part of a marketer's overall marketing communications strategy, and both limitations and implications are discussed.     

The Significance of Gender in Predicting the Cognitive Moral Development of Business Practitioners Using the Sociomoral Reflection Objective Measure

This study constitutes a contribution to the discussion about moral reasoning in business. Kohlberg’s (1971, in Cognitive Development and Epistemology (Academic Press, New York), 1976, in Moral Development and Behavior: Theory and Research and Social Issues (Holt, Rienhart and Winston, New York)) cognitive moral development (CMD) theory is one explanation of moral reasoning. One unresolved debate on the topic of CMD is the charge that Kohlbergian-type CMD theory is gender biased. This research puts forth the proposal that the issue may be elucidated by exposing an ambiguity in “gender” (Borna and White: 2003, Journal of Business Ethics 47, 89–99; Gentile: 1993, Psychological Science 4(2), 120–122; Unger: 1979, American Psychologist 34(11), 1085–1094). We use the Sociomoral Reflective Objective Measure (SROM) to measure CMD and the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) to measure gender as a psychosocial concept, rather than as a biological classification. The results of our study indicate that high femininity, measured as a psychosocial attribute, is associated with significantly lower Kohlbergian-type CMD scores among business practitioners. Sex moderates the effect of gender on CMD, but only indirectly. Our research also reveals that education plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between gender and moral reasoning. In addition, age has a significant direct effect on CMD scores of business practitioners. Beverly Kracher is an Associate Professor of Business Ethics & Society in the College of Business Administration at Creighton University. Her research areas include moral reasoning in business, e-commerece ethics & online trust, business ethics pedagogy, and business & the environment. Her research appears in Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly, Business & Society, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Teaching Business Ethics, Interdisciplinary Environmental Review and more. Robert P. Marble is an Associate Professor of Decision Sciences in the College of Business Administration at Creighton University. His research is in the areas of information systems implementation, artificial intelligence, and statistical modeling of business processes. He has published in such journals as the European Journal of Information Systems and Information & Management.     

Researchers,Scholars and Ivan

Over the decades, schools of higher education seem to evolve, or at least change. Colleges that in the 1970s had some moderate expectations for faculty research activity changed their names to universities, started doctoral programs, and now require faculty to produce “significant” research publications for tenure or promotions. Other schools moved from expecting minimal evidence of research to requiring publications in “major” journals. Where business faculty used to be professionally qualified by running consulting businesses, they now have to obtain doctorates and publish research work on a regular basis. Unasked is whether the proliferation of researchers and their output is desirable. In some ways, there is a potential value to have faculty doing research that isn't good enough to be published in Journal of Consumer Affairs. But to have that value, the faculty themselves must be wise enough to perceive it.     

Logistics Professional Identity: Strengthening the Discipline as Galaxies Collide

The merger of logistics, operations, supply management, and related disciplines into the broader field of supply chain management (SCM) has brought together academic fields with different professional identities and competing visions of what SCM ought to be, what students ought to be taught, and what the priorities for research and publication should be. This raises serious concerns because logistics faculty are less numerous than faculty in related fields. Logistics professional identity risks being diluted by the merger, resulting in potentially serious consequences for the future of logistics education and research. This paper explores these issues and offers suggestions to preserve logistics' professional identity, education and research in a supply chain world. We propose that logisticians expand the journals where they publish logistics research, continuing support for strengthening the Journal of Business Logistics as the “A” journal in logistics, rethink the way we train doctoral students, and work to preserve our community both inside and outside business schools.     

Secrets to success: Business skills and knowledge that students find most useful in succeeding in a capstone course simulation

This exploratory research examines students' perceptions of a capstone business simulation game by identifying (a) courses that were most useful in preparing students for the simulation and (b) interpersonal skills students found most helpful when working with teammates on the simulation. Also identified are the simulation's impact on student understanding of business disciplines and additional interpersonal skills training desired by the students. By studying these later topics, faculty members can alter their course design so that students are better prepared for their capstone course simulation. Finally, connections between the simulation participation and attitudes toward employment and career success are explored.     

Impact of International Business Education on Ethnocentricity

Abstract

As evidenced by recent surveys of American managers, there is a serious shortage of qualified candidates on the US job market. This shortage is most evident in two specialization areas: high-technology knowledge workers and internationally competent managers. Indeed, American companies rate lack of qualified high-technology personnel as their number one reason for slower than desired business expansion. The other less glamorized, yet serious shortcoming of the American educational system is its inadequate training of cross-culturally competent workers for this truly global post-industrial era. In response to this human resources crisis, realizing that “the future economic welfare of the US will depend substantially on increasing international skills in the business community,” the United States Department of Education began an active campaign of promoting international education and research in several major American universities in the late 1980s. Since 1988, nearly 40 universities have been awarded tens of millions of dollars to engage in such activities as developing formal international business curricula, offering foreign language courses, promoting internationally-oriented research, provoking international education and research dialogues among the faculty, exchange programs between American and foreign universities for students and the faculty and similar activities. This research is a first attempt in evaluating the impact of one such program on the internationalization level of American students. It will be shown that the international education program at one major American university has successfully produced a cadre of more global and less ethnocentric workforce for American corporations.     

Customers Perception of Service Quality in Higher Education

ABSTRACT

Intense competition in the higher education sector in New Zealand has forced a number of educational institutions to examine the need for assessments of customer-perceived service quality for differentiation purposes. Research studies in this area have mainly focused on either the administrators or the faculty's perspectives and have overlooked the other customers, namely students and employers. The instruments developed based on the Importance-Performance paradigm were administered to 280 New Zealand employers and 1,000 business graduates. The results indicate that employers and students have perceptual problems with the level of service provided by tertiary institutions. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Attitudes About Corporate Social Responsibility: Business Student Predictors

Four predictors were posited to affect business student attitudes about the social responsibilities of business, also known as corporate social responsibility (CSR). Applying Forsyth’s (1980, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39, 175–184, 1992, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 461–470) personal moral philosophy model, we found that ethical idealism had a positive relationship with CSR attitudes, and ethical relativism a negative relationship. We also found materialism to be negatively related to CSR attitudes. Spirituality among business students did not significantly predict CSR attitudes. Understanding the relationship between CSR attitudes and the significant predictors has important implications for researchers and teachers in particular.     

A Global MBA for Tomorrow's Global Business Leaders

Abstract

Traditional IB programs have received mixed reviews from the corporate world. With this in mind, the Suffolk GMBA was benchmarked against the leading international business programs. The Suffolk GMBA was designed to be different and to ascertain the global environment in which business operates. A unique feature of the GMBA curriculum detailed in this article is the combination of Boston's international business locational advantage with functional integration of the many disciplines that make international business unique. Borrowing components from the fields of economics, government and politics, finance, marketing, ethics, and law, a curriculum matrix was developed identifying and sequencing the key topics to be taught. The authors also explain potential pitfalls and outline a model which can be successfully implemented in other graduate international business programs. This program is shaping the thoughts and actions of tomorrow's global business leaders through its integrative decision-making framework of global perspectives and competencies.     

The importance of morality for collective self-esteem and motivation to engage in socially responsible behavior at work among professionals in the finance industry

Public comments criticizing the honesty and trustworthiness of Professionals in Finance (PIFs) are commonly seen as a way to motivate them towards engaging in more socially responsible business practices. However, the link between public views of this professional group, the self-views of individual group members, and their motivation to engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities has not been empirically examined. In this research, we draw on Social Identity Theory (SIT) and the Behavioral Regulation Model for social evaluation (BRM) to examine how the self-views of individual group members relate to perceived characteristics of their professional group, indicating Competence and Morality. In two studies (N = 123, 191) we examined whether the self-views of high-profile and general PIFs are affected by other people's perceptions of the honesty and trustworthiness of this professional group. The results offer support for our reasoning derived from SIT and the BRM. In both studies, we first demonstrate that public concerns about the group's lack of honesty and trustworthiness impact on the moral self-views of financial professionals. Subsequently, we employ an experimental design to reveal that reinforcing moral criticism leveled at the group only reduces the motivation of individual group members to engage in CSR activities, while group-level moral affirmation enhances this motivation. The results of both studies converge to demonstrate how public critique on the moral behavior of their professional group relates to the self-views and behavioral motives of PIFs. We consider the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.