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.     

The Ethics of Global Supply Chains in China – Convergences of East and West

This paper addresses ethical issues surrounding global supply chains of multinational companies in developing countries. In particular, it considers the development and application of industry-wide ethical standards and codes of conduct for multinational supply chains in China. We describe and analyze the ethical norms and compliance components of such industry-wide regimes in the toy, textile, and consumer electronics industries. We argue that this development represents an positive attempt to institutionalize emergent international ethical standards and practices into this component of the Chinese economy.     

论中国宏观经济的"新三驾马车"

改革开放40多年来,中国经济一直在“唱衰”声中成长,不但没有崩溃,反而突飞猛进地成为世界第二大经济体。唱衰中国经济的很多人只是照搬西方宏观经济理论简单片面地分析和判定中国经济。而中国经济能够奇迹般地高速增长,其根本原因在于中国具有举世瞩目的产业发展能力、居于世界前列的市场消费能力和潜力无穷的科技研发能力,这三者才是决定中国宏观经济发展乃至长期可持续发展“基本面”的三大决定性因素,是决定中国宏观经济发展的“新三驾马车”。     

Factors Affecting Ethical Attitudes in Mainland China and Hong Kong

In this article, we analyzed the effect of various factors on moral judgment and ethical attitudes of working persons. It was found that the effect of various socio-demographic factors on ethical attitudes varied between the two different categories of ethical issues under study, issues which involve explicit violation of laws vis-à-vis issues which involved social concerns. Our results did not support the implication of Callahan’s hypothesis that males are more sensitive to rule-based ethical issues while women are to issues involving social concerns; it was found that females have a lower acceptability of unethical behaviors related to both categories of issues in Hong Kong, whereas gender effect was not statistically significant in Mainland China. University education also had no significant effect on ethical attitudes. Religion played an important role in affecting ethical attitudes, however, its effect varied with different types of religions; Christianity was found to be most favorable to higher ethical standards, but people of traditional Chinese religion had a higher acceptability of unethical behaviors involving social concerns compared to people with no religion. Our finding also indicated that employees in state-owned enterprises, private employees, employees in foreign-investment firms, and employers in Mainland China all had a higher acceptability of unethical law-breaking behaviors compared to workers in collectives, throwing doubt on the validity of convergence theory in Mainland China. Kit-Chun LAM is Professor in Department of Economics of the Hong Kong Baptist Universty. she is also Guest professor in the Centre for Business Ethics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in economics from Harvard University. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Labor Economics, Canadian Joural of Economics, Journal of Comparative Economics, Economica and Labour Economics. Guicheng Shi is Assistant Professor in Faculty of Management and Administration of Macau University of Science and Technology     

Suggested Management Responses to Ethical Issues Raised by Technological Change

The development of technology raises an array of ethical issues related to work. Many of these ethical issues are old issues surfacing under new guises. Technology has not changed the issues, but technology makes the issues' analysis and application more complex. This paper identifies several new ethical issues raised by technological change: computer crime, an over-reliance on computer controlled systems, bio-technical developments, degradation of quality-of-life at work and new categories of work-related injuries. These issues are discussed in the context of management responsibilities and responses. The paper offers a five-step process for the effective management of these ethical issues: Be aware of the issues, develop an ethical framework, be consistent, communicate clearly, stay alert for future developments.     

Beyond the Image of Foreign Direct Investment in China: Where ethics meets public relations

While there had still been an increasing flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into China during the 2002 downturn in FDI globally, such investments have historically been only sporadically successful. Much writing has detailed and discussed problems associated with China FDI but several costs remain dangerously overlooked. One such cost is that of micro-monitoring plants for work conditions and employee treatment in violation of local Chinese laws and possible home country ethics. Further, a more personal cost is presented – the personal cost associated with maintaining an investment in a facility that violates standards of ethical employee treatment. Background information related to these issues is presented, along with a general overview of FDI in China.     

An Exploratory Study of Chinese Accounting Students’ and Auditors’ Audit-specific Ethical Reasoning

This study uses three audit-specific ethical dilemmas to assess the level of ethical reasoning between Chinese accounting students (as proxies for new entrants to the auditing profession) and experienced auditors. A sample of U.S. accounting students is used as a base for comparison. Consistent with expectations based on particularly salient aspects of Chinese national culture, we find the Chinese students’ levels of ethical reasoning to be significantly lower than those of their U.S. counterparts in the two cases that invoked these cultural attributes. In contrast, the Chinese students’ level of ethical reasoning is slightly higher than that of the U.S. students in the third, control case. We further find that the Chinese auditors’ levels of ethical reasoning are even lower than those of the Chinese students in two cases, while not being significantly different in the third. Together, these findings suggest that cross-national differences in auditors’ ethical reasoning depend on the nature of the ethical dilemma and caution against wholesale inferences about ethical reasoning levels in China.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Ethics Position Questionnaire in the People's Republic of China

While many studies have investigated the ethical perceptions, ideologies and value systems of the Chinese, few studies have focused on mainland China, and even fewer have examined regional differences within China. This study examines the factor structure of Forsyth's (1980) Ethics Position Questionnaire in a sample of managers from the PRC. According to Forsyth, individual differences in Relativism and Idealism influence judgements of moral issues (Forsyth, 1980). In a sample of 115 managers, results show that two similar constructs to those described by Forsyth do exist in the Chinese sample. However the precise interpretation of the item groupings through a Chinese perspective, may reveal some discrete areas of difference in the labelling of these constructs. The study also finds that managers in the South of China scored significantly higher in Idealism than managers in the North. Results are presented and implications for future research are discussed.     

Integrating Ethics Content into the Core Business Curriculum: Do Core Teaching Materials Do the Job?

Some business schools have integrated business ethics issues into their core functional courses rather than simply offering a separate ethics course. To accommodate such a strategy, functional faculty members usually teach ethical issues, a task for which they are rarely trained. However, learning materials are available: some core course textbooks provide additional coverage of ethics, and case studies (and accompanying teaching notes for instructors) are also available which cover ethical issues. This paper reports on an analysis of these materials. We find that a sample of the leading textbooks provides only very superficial coverage of ethical issues. Cases provide a wide range of issues suitable for class discussion, but their teaching notes in many cases provide little guidance for instructors unfamiliar with teaching ethics. Thus there remains a need for teaching resources for business faculty new to teaching ethics.     

Demystifying Chinese management: introduction

The Chinese economy has dramatically changed in its nature over the last three decades or so. It has moved from being a command economy into market socialist system over the period and has morphed from an economy dominated by state-owned enterprises to an economy with a wide range of ownership forms, both public and private. In turn, its managers, managing and management have correspondingly undergone a major ‘sea change’. This edited collection attempts to ‘demystify’ a number of these developments in Chinese management and to highlight recent research on strategic issues and challenges vis-à-vis realizing the managerial version of the so-called ‘Chinese Dream’ in a wide range of business enterprises in China and overseas.     

论吴文化对苏南本土民营企业伦理观的影响

企业作为社会经济活动的主体,不仅具有经济性,而且具有社会性与伦理性的特点。在我国,企业伦理是随着改革开放而兴起并逐渐被理论界和企业界所重视的问题。企业伦理观的形成受很多因素的影响,其中区域文化是不容忽视的重要因素。吴文化是中华优秀文化的重要组成部分,是一个区域性明显、刚柔并济的文化,根植于此的苏南本土企业受吴文化的影响,形成了重义轻利、精打细算、外柔内刚、富国利民的伦理思想。新的发展时期,需要不断完善苏南本土民营企业伦理道德体系建设,提升苏南本土民营企业建设企业伦理的自主意识,塑造苏南本土民营企业行为文化和精神文化,健全苏南本土民营企业伦理评估机制,才能不断加强苏南本土民营企业社会责任意识,进一步推动苏南社会经济的发展。     

Ethical issues in the development and application of business and management knowledge

This paper deals with four ethical issues in the development and application of business and management knowledge. The issues examined are: (1) failure to adopt or disclose knowledge with proven value that could benefit individuals, organizations, and society; (2) inappropriate implementation or incomplete disclosure of knowledge with proven potential; (3) use of knowledge for the exclusive benefit of a selected interest group even if harm is done to others; and (4) intentional falsification or misrepresentation of knowledge as something other than what it is known to be. Each of these issues are illustrated with actual case histories and are examined using frequently accepted ethical concepts.W. Jack Duncan is Professor of Management and Associate Dean at the Graduate School of Management, University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management; President of the Southern Management Association, 1984–1985; Past-President Southwest Division of the Academy of Management, 1982; and former member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Management. He has written many articles which have been published in various journals.An earlier draft of this paper was presented in the Visiting Lecturer Series at the Faculty of Management, Concordia University, Monteral, Quebec, Canada, May 1982.     

Collaborative economy,a society service? Involvement with ethics and the common good

The company at the service of today's society is reinventing itself to satisfy people's needs in a more efficient and adapted way. Globalization and digitization promote increasing interaction and new forms of economic organization such as collaborative economy. However, can it be understood that this new business model, more than others, has as its raison d'être in the search for the “common good”? A first approach suggests the presence of values related to collaboration between equals aiming at a common good. However, the possible existence of a profit motive and the labor relations framework in which certain activities are carried out have created a debate on their ethical qualification. In this context, considering 278 companies in the collaborative economy sector, the relationship between the concept of “common good” and the collaborative economy is analyzed, while examining whether these new realities have an explicit ethical intention (of search for goods for people). According to the results, it is not possible to assert that these platforms have an ethical concern, but it is observed that they are in line with the common good and implicitly contribute to the service of society.     

当前本土私募股权基金的七大问题

私募股权基金作为中国资本市场上的新宠,正在如火如荼地发展。而本土私募股权基金因其特殊的优势更是有着广阔的发展空间。然而,我国本土私募股权基金发展至今,在构建我国多层次资本市场以及给广大中小企业提供资本支持的同时,亦暴露出了众多急需予以解决的问题。为此,客观剖析我国当前本土私募股权基金发展中存在的问题,将有助于对这一新兴领域有更为深入地了解,以期对我国本土私募股权基金的健康发展有所裨益。     

我国中餐业特许经营的问题与管理对策

特许经营是中餐业经营的新方法。这种方法极大地满足了顾客的需求 ,促进了我国中餐业的发展。可以预言 ,随着我国经济的发展 ,中餐业特许经营将成为我国 2 1世纪主要的经营方式 ,将对我国经济和社会做出巨大的贡献。目前我国中餐业特许经营出现了一些问题和困惑 ,阻碍了其快速发展 ,我们必须认真对待和解决。同时应重视整合我国中餐资源 ,加强宏观管理 ,使我国中餐业特许经营不断发展和壮大。     

Google,Human Rights,and Moral Compromise

International business faces a host of difficult moral conflicts. It is tempting to think that these conflicts can be morally resolved if we gained full knowledge of the situations, were rational enough, and were sufficiently objective. This paper explores the view that there are situations in which people in business must confront the possibility that they must compromise some of their important principles or values in order to protect other ones. One particularly interesting case that captures this kind of situation is that of Google and its operations in China. In this paper, I examine the situation Google faces as part of the larger issue of moral compromise and integrity in business. Though I look at Google, this paper is just as much about the underlying or background views Google faces that are at work in business ethics. In the process, I argue the following: First, the framework Google has used to respond to criticisms of its actions does not successfully or obviously address the important ethical issues it faces. Second, an alternative ethical account can be presented that better addresses these ethical and human rights questions. However, this different framework brings the issue of moral compromise to the fore. This is an approach filled with dangers, particularly since it is widely held that one ought never to compromise one’s moral principles. Nevertheless, I wish to propose that there may be a place for moral compromise in business under certain conditions, which I attempt to specify.     

循环经济——我国外贸可持续发展的路径选择

长期以来,我国对外贸易都是以粗放式发展道路为主:出口产品高耗能且附加值低,而某些进口资源则过度依赖国外市场。粗放式发展道路与循环经济产生了诸多矛盾,面临着很多制约因素,产生了一些负面影响。在世界各国越来越重视循环经济的国际大背景下,要实现我国对外贸易的可持续发展,发展循环经济是一条紧迫而有效的路径。本文在深刻剖析我国传统外贸增长方式与循环经济的种种矛盾以及所面临的外贸环境的基础上,提出了发展循环经济以实现我国外贸可持续发展的战略措施。     

Advertising and Knowledge Intermediaries: Managing the Ethical Challenges of Intangibles

In today's business environment, the knowledge-based society, globalisation, and information and communication technologies (ICT) have increased the role of "intangible" values of assets and resources for all industries. As a result there is an increased role for knowledge intermediaries; one of these, advertising, plays an important role in affecting consumer choice and knowledge. Ethical issues which arise for traditional purveyors of intangibility – cultural industries such as art, music, or film, spread to advertising. Building on our perspective of the measurement of intangibles we propose a new categorisation of types of goods or services, and a framework for identifying some future ethical challenges in today's global knowledge based society.     

A New Perspective on Ethics,Ecology, and Economics

This paper introduces the important concept of a biophysical perspective on economics into the business ethics literature. The biophysical perspective recognizes that ecological processes determine what can be done in an economy and how best to do it. A biophysical perspective places the economic system into a larger context of the ecologic system. This changes the perception of ethical issues by identifying a larger scope of management decisions. The paper examines the changing ethical landscape in such issues as biotechnology, planned obsolescence, productivity, and international trade. The paper also examines the shift in mindset associated with the shift in economic framework. It draws on the literature on cognitive structures and moral imagination to show this new perspective can actually raise the bar for ethical decision-making and behavior. The pattern is that the ethical behavior associated with a biophysical economic framework has a greater scope of responsibility with the benefit that the required ethical behavior leads to better long-term decision making.     

A $10 million question and other cybersecurity-related ethical dilemmas amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Cybercrime and cybersecurity are like two sides of the same coin: They are opposites but cannot exist without each other. Their mutual relation generates a myriad of ethical issues, ranging from minor to vital. The rapid development of technology will surely involve even more ethical concerns, like the infamous example of a fitness tracking company allegedly paying $10 million worth of ransom. Every cybersecurity solution, tool, or practice has to be ethical by design if it is to protect people and their rights. To identify the ethical issues that cybersecurity/cybercrime might bring about in the future, we conducted the first broad and comprehensive horizon-scanning study since the COVID-19 pandemic arose. As we began this project, nobody had the slightest idea that the coming months would bring the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the reality we had known was about to change dramatically. As it soon became apparent, the deadly coronavirus brought completely new cybersecurity/cybercrime ethical dilemmas to light, and some of the ones known before were transformed or shifted. This article presents the results of our horizon-scanning study concerning the ethical dilemmas that emerged amid the COVID-19 pandemic.