Doing Real Estate Business Overseas

When we saw the amount of foreign capital currently being invested in China's real estate market, we realized that much like its foreign counterparts, China has been very active overseas as well. With encouragement from the "walking out" strategy, more and more Chinese investors have begun to focus on overseas real estate developments. There have been a variety of investments.     

Is Guanxi Ethical? A Normative Analysis of Doing Business in China

This paper extends the discussion of guanxi beyond instrumental evaluations and advances a normative assessment of guanxi. Our discussion departs from previous analyses by not merely asking, “Does guanxi work?” but rather “Should corporations use guanxi?” The analysis begins with a review of traditional guanxi definitions and the changing economic and legal environment in China, both necessary precursors to understanding the role of guanxi in Chinese business transactions. This review leads us to suggest that there are distinct types of, and uses for guanxi. We identify the potentially problematic aspects of certain forms of guanxi from a normative perspective, noting among other things, the close association of particular types of guanxi with corruption and bribery. We conclude that there are many different forms of guanxi that may have distinct impacts on economic efficiency and the well-being of ordinary Chinese citizens. Consistent with Donaldson and Dunfee (1999), we advocate a particularistic analysis of the different forms of guanxi.     

Everybody Else is Doing it,So Why Can’t We? Pluralistic Ignorance and Business Ethics Education

In light of the myriad accounting and corporate ethics scandals of the early 21st century, many corporate leaders and management scholars believe that ethics education is an essential component in business school education. Despite a voluminous body of ethics education literature, few studies have found support for the effectiveness of changing an individuals ethical standards through programmatic ethics training. To address this gap in the ethics education literature the present study examines the influence of an underlying social cognitive error, called pluralistic ignorance. We believe that if pluralistic ignorance is reduced, the result will be more effective business ethics education programs. Eighty undergraduate management students participated in this longitudinal study, and a mixed-model ANOVA revealed that the reduction of pluralistic ignorance (due to an ethics education program designed to reduce pluralistic ignorance) resulted in higher personal ethical standards over the course of a semester, when compared to a class that did not receive a formal ethics education program as part of their course. We discuss the implications of pluralistic ignorance in training business ethics and ethics education.     

Doing Business with Rights Violating Regimes Corporate Social Responsibility and Myanmar’s Military Junta

Whether to do business with rights violating regimes is one of many dilemmas faced by socially responsible corporations. In this article the difficult case of Myanmar is considered. Ruled for decades by a closed and sometimes brutal military elite, the country has long been subject to informal and formal sanctions. However, as sanctions have failed to trigger political reform, it is necessary to review the policy options. The focus here is on the contribution socially responsible corporations might make to change. The article sketches contextual features of the case, examines the recent history and present pattern of business links with Myanmar, and assesses whether current approaches can stimulate reform. Concluding that they cannot, it considers fresh possibilities for corporate engagement. The argument is that socially responsible corporations, committed to improving individual life chances through engagement with developing societies, should undertake collaborative and principled direct investment in Myanmar. The underlying strategy and problems of codification and implementation are all analyzed. To close, the article contends that, by doing business with Myanmar’s rights violating regime, multinational corporations can extend the frontiers of global corporate social responsibility. Ian Holliday is Professor of Policy Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong     

Tasty Business,Wine ＆ Beverage

Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone attracts many companies to settle down, and China International Ex-hibition and Trading Center of Wine ＆ Beverage is one of them. It is said that when the first bunch of grapes fell down on the soil,     

Doing Well While Doing Bad? CSR in Controversial Industry Sectors

In this article, we examine the empirical association between firm value and CSR engagement for firms in sinful industries, such as tobacco, gambling, and alcohol, as well as industries involved with emerging environmental, social, or ethical issues, i.e., weapon, oil, cement, and biotech. We develop and test three hypotheses, the window-dressing hypothesis, the value-enhancement hypothesis, and the value-irrelevance hypothesis. Using an extensive US sample from 1995 to 2009, we find that CSR engagement of firms in controversial industries positively affects firm value after controlling for various firm characteristics. To address the potential endogeneity problem, we further estimate a system of equations and change regression and continue to find a positive relation between CSR engagement and firm value. Our findings support the value-enhancement hypothesis and are consistent with the premise that the top management of US firms in controversial industries, in general, considers social responsibility important even though their products are harmful to human being, society, or environment.     

Grain Business

CCPIT Grain Business Sub-Council was found in 1996,and has been continu- ous making efforts on promoting grain business international communication and exchanges,and trade in imports and exports.As China is a developing     

Cloud Computing – A Classification, Business Models, and Research Directions

Lately, a new computing paradigm has emerged: “Cloud Computing”. It seems to be promoted as heavily as the “Grid” was a few years ago, causing broad discussions on the differences between Grid and Cloud Computing. The first contribution of this paper is thus a detailed discussion about the different characteristics of Grid Computing and Cloud Computing. This technical classification allows for a well-founded discussion of the business opportunities of the Cloud Computing paradigm. To this end, this paper first presents a business model framework for Clouds. It subsequently reviews and classifies current Cloud offerings in the light of this framework. Finally, this paper discusses challenges that have to be mastered in order to make the Cloud vision come true and points to promising areas for future research.     

Predictor of Business Students’ Attitudes Toward Sustainable Business Practices

This study examined individual difference characteristics as predictors of business students’ attitudes toward sustainable business practices. Three types of predictors were considered: personal values, individualism–collectivism, and leadership styles. Data were collected from 248 business students attending a mid-sized university in western United States using self-reported questionnaires. Few gender differences were present. Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for personal demographic characteristics, indicated that business students scoring higher on Rokeach’s social value scale, collectivism, and transformational leadership also reported more positive attitudes toward sustainable business practices. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Reconsidering the International Business Capstone: Capping,Bridging, or Both?

The capstone experience has become ubiquitous in undergraduate education. Originally, it served as a terminal display of academic excellence and bridging experience between study and work; more recently, however, it has been seen in terms of academic completion and consolidation. In times of increased turbulence for new business graduates, and in an international business (IB) landscape where appreciation of sociocultural and communication skills are critical, capstone experiences can provide a valuable means of demonstrating relevant and transferable professional competencies. This article considers the origins and context of the capstone, its evolutionary history, and current potential. It uses an analysis of undergraduate dissertations of non-American students studying at an American college in the Czech Republic to explore capping, bridging, and balanced strategies.     

Domestic Business Recruitment,Efficient in Selection and Services——Interview with Miss Chen Wei, Head of Domestic Business Recruitment Group

The management and services of participating companies is very important in the whole process of Partenariat, including in the phase of business recruitment. Within the 2-day Partenariat, around 5000 rounds of face to face exclusive business talks will be arranged between over 500 host companies and over 400 visiting companies, each round is only of 25 minutes. How can we help companies improve efficiency? The following is an interview between China's Foreign Trade and Miss Chen Wei, Head of Domestic Business Recruitment Group of the Partenariat Executive Commission.     

BOC Expands Overseas Business

The Bank of China (BOC) was the fLrstin China to develop overseas financial business and launch organizations abroad. In recent years its overseas business has made significant progress. Flexible management in its overseas representative offices and branches has been improved and the scale     

Global Business Travel Service

The Global Business Travel Service, a class-1 travel service approved by the National Tourism Adminis-tration (NTA), is affiliated to the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the China Chamber of International Commerce. It mainly serves foreign and domestic organizations and associations of industry and commerce, import and export corporations, industrial     

Loyalty in Business?

Discussions of loyalty in business typically assume that employees have a prima facieduty of loyalty to their companies, one that sometimes conflicts with other duties, such as the duty to blow the whistle in response to dangerous or unethical practices. Ronald Duska, however, denies the existence of any such duty. According to Duska, one does not have an duty of loyalty to a company, even a prima facieone, because companies are not proper objects of loyalty. He bases this conclusion on two premises: first, that loyalty is appropriate only in relationships that demand self-sacrifice without expectation of reward, and second, that the employee-company relationship does not demand such sacrifice.In this paper I pose a dilemma for Duska. Briefly put: one can interpret Duska's phrase relationships that demand self-sacrifice without expectation of reward" either narrowly or broadly. If one interprets it narrowly, then Duska's first premise is false; if broadly, then his second premise is false. Either way, Duska's argument is unsound. However, after rejecting his conclusion about loyalty in business, I go on to argue that Duska is right to deny that the duty of loyalty conflicts with the duty to blow the whistle. More generally, the paper is an attempt to elucidate the proper application of loyalty in business.     

Business leaders’ personal values,organisational culture and market orientation

In a world where competitive advantages based on technology, physical assets and large advertising budgets are fungible, business leaders’ personal values as an alternative or complementary influence on decision-making and market orientation have an intuitive appeal. Research findings based on data collected from 370 business leaders of independent indigenous companies in China suggest that business leaders with different sets of personal values create and develop different types of organisational culture. Leaders with openness to change values form an adhocracy culture, while leaders expressing conservation values promote a hierarchy culture. Different organisational cultures have different influences on market orientation. The hypothesised relationships between self-enhancement leaders and market culture and between self-transcendence leaders and clan culture were not supported. Finally, the article discusses the theoretical contribution of the study, managerial implications and suggestions for future research.