Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Rosemary Hill, How Managers Can Develop Managers Ben J. Cox, Managers as Mentors: Building Partnerships for Learning Elsa Maria Gonzalez y Gonzalez, The Origins of Cultural Differences and Their Impact on Management     

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.     

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.     

Global Perceptions of Online Advertising

ABSTRACT

The marketing of professional services is different from marketing in other areas. Indeed, several “distinctive problems” of marketing professional services have been identified. In order to obtain evidence as to whether these “problems” apply to public accounting services and if current accounting graduates understand them, two surveys were conducted of chairpersons of accounting and marketing departments at AACSB accredited schools of business. The results indicate that respondents from both groups of chairs believe that the majority of the “problems” are concerns for the public accounting profession and that current accounting graduates should understand them. However, both groups appeared neutral as to whether current accounting graduates are exposed to many of these “distinctive problems.” It is difficult for students to understand and be prepared to deal with the issues, if they have not been exposed to them.     

Business ethics: A classroom priority?

“Schools of business are being blamed for much of the unethical behavior in business today” (Harcourt, 1990: p. 17); “Ethics can and should be integrated into coursework throughout students' college careers” (Spencer and Lehman, 1990: p. 7); “... business schools have been charged with inadequate attention to ethics” (Bishop, 1992: p. 291); “The American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) encourages schools of business to incorporate business ethics throughout the curricula” (Davidet al., 1990: p. 26). These quotations indicate the concern for providing ethics education in today's business curriculums. In 1976, the AACSB urged business educators to include ethics in their course curricula, however, over 15 years later there is still concern as to whether the coverage of this topic in the business curriculum is adequate. A review of the literature indicates that professors are beginning to integrate this topic into its curriculum. But what are the techniques that work? And is the topic of ethics truly being integrated into the entire business curricula? This research assesses the integration of ethics into the business curricula today. Graduating seniors in the college of business of several universities were questioned to determine: (1) the courses in which the issue of ethics was addressed; (2) how much time was devoted to the issue by the professors; and (3) the methods employed to address the issue, and students' perceptions of their effectiveness.     

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.     

Foreign Language Training in U.S. Undergraduate IB Programs: Are We Providing Students What They Need To Be Successful?

A growing number of U.S. business schools now offer an undergraduate degree in international business (IB), for which training in a foreign language is a requirement. However, there appears to be considerable variance in the minimum requirements for foreign language training across U.S. business schools, including the provision of “business” language courses, and in what is viewed as “competence” or “fluency” in a foreign language. Similarly, business schools differ in their procedures for how the foreign language requirement is applied to foreign native speakers and/or to speakers of heritage languages. This study reports the results of an online survey that was sent to 226 schools offering a major or concentration in IB. The findings from 79 reporting schools indicate that the level of proficiency expected of foreign language learners in the IB program continues to vary widely, that few schools require a course in the business aspects of the foreign language, and that there is inconsistency in what is meant by foreign language “competence” and “fluency,” as well as in the treatment of foreign native speakers and heritage speakers of foreign languages. The results question whether students who satisfy the minimum foreign language requirements in undergraduate IB programs are adequately prepared for the professional IB world.     

Internationalization Strategies of Business Schools: How Flat Is the World?

Business school strategy has become extremely complex, especially regarding internationalization. Using different paths, experiencing failure and success, business schools have internationalized, attracting many of the international students who contributed $27 billion¹ to the US economy in 2014. Some business schools are global, training global managers, while others serve national markets. How do business schools strategize about internationalization? Can we use existing models to explain this process? Are internationalization and globalization similar? Using a comparative analysis of six case studies in the United States and Europe, we found that the engine of internationalization influences its paths and outcomes. We contribute to international business (IB) research by discussing how business schools strategize their internationalization toward uniformity or diversity under isomorphic pressures from accreditation bodies (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business [AACSB], 2011) and rankings. The so‐called Uppsala model should be extended to address three tensions: internationalization versus globalization, enacted dimensions of audiences, and respective risks of different internationalization pathways. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How Focused are the World’s Top-Rated Business Schools on Educating Women for Global Management?

Persuaded by the observed positive link between the flow of appropriately skilled and trained female talent and female presence at the upper echelons of management (Plitch, Dow Jones Newswire February 9, 2005), this study has examined current trends on women’s uptake of graduate and executive education programs in the world’s top 100 business schools and explored the extent to which these business schools promote female studentship and career advancement. It contributes by providing pioneering research insight, albeit at an exploratory level, into the emerging best practice on this important aspect of business school behavior, an area which is bound to become increasingly appreciated as more global economic actors wise up to the significant diseconomies inherent in the under-utilization of female talent, particularly in the developing world. Among the study’s main findings are that female graduate students averaged 30% in the sample business schools, a figure not achieved by a majority of the elite schools, including some of the highest ranked. Only 10% of these business schools have a specialist center for developing women business leaders, and only a third offered women-focused programs or executive education courses, including flextime options. A higher, and increasing, percentage of business schools, however, reported offering fellowships, scholarships or bursaries to prospective female students, and having affiliations with pro-women external organizations and networks that typically facilitate career-promoting on-campus events and activities. The implications of the foregoing are discussed, replete with a call on key stakeholder groups to more actively embrace the challenge of improving the supply of appropriately trained female talent, or top management prospects. Future research ideas are also suggested.     

The catholic work ethic

In a recent Commentary in The International Executive (1992), Rüdiger Pieper complained that some, if not many of the (American) teachers in the new European business training institutes and schools knew relatively little about the cultures for which they were making management proposals. Further, the proposals themselves, based as they often were on American research, could not, he rightly felt, be directly applied to a business problem regardless of context. One could extend that observation to other business activities, including attitudes toward work. In particular, it would be useful to consider the “work ethic,” as it applies to Americans working abroad, and inquire about how it might affect international executives when they come to America.     

Use of a Parallel-Emic Research Model and Key-Word-In-Context Indexing Tool to Develop an Instructional Exercise to Promote Student Global Mindedness

ABSTRACT

Educators have long sought how to prepare students to develop a global mind set and to work under conditions of complexity and uncertainty common in many world markets. The purpose of this study was to support educators in this cause by providing them with a “hands-on” exercise readily adaptable across the business curriculum to identify how culture shapes business concepts/practices of interest. Details are presented in a step-by-step procedure based upon a recognized “parallel-emic” research model developed to study cross-cultural differences to ensure analytical rigor. A Key-Word-In-Context (KWIC) indexing tool was employed to add precision and efficiency to the search process to help students readily identify common (etic-derived) and unique factors (emic-specific) shaping business concepts/practices cross-culturally.     

Antitrust, Dynamic Competition, and Business Ethics

The American Antitrust Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, recently completed a study that concludes that competition law and policy plays little if any role in business ethics courses taught in U.S. business schools. To fill this intellectual void, this article makes a case for the development of a business ethics sub-field of antitrust ethics that is synonymous with the ethics of competitive strategy. After reviewing Paine's Five Principles of Positive Competition and Boatright's and Hendry's views on the Moral Manager Model and Moral Market Model, the need for ethical decision-making in a dynamic, innovative environment is explained through a Federal Trade Commission antitrust case involving the Dell Computer Corporation. The author argues that the contributions of Paine, Boatright, and Hendry provide an initial foundation for further research concerning the moral theories, principles, and rules pertaining to antitrust ethics, especially as it pertains to dynamic competition and "fair and competitive" executive behavior.     

The Seminal Concept of Fast Expanding Markets

The circular pathway, also called the “cradle-to-cradle” model, is more than just recycling and environmental concerns. It is about a new way of thinking how we could grow without resorting to just expending resources. Its rapid expansion, as a new norm for companies, has characteristics of a Fast Expanding Market, given its exponential growth. In this article, we examine how the circular model is pushing companies and entities to come up with disruptive technology and business models that are based on longevity, renewability, reuse, repair, upgrade, refurbishment, servitization, capacity sharing and dematerialization. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Influence of Business School’s Ethical Climate on Students’ Unethical Behavior

Business schools play an instrumental role in laying the foundations for ethical behavior and socially responsible actions in the business community. Drawing on social learning and identity theories and using data collected from undergraduate business students (n = 318), we found that ethical climate was a significant predictor of unethical behavior, such that students with positive perceptions about their business school’s ethical climate were more likely to refrain from unethical behaviors. Moreover, we found that high moral and institutional identities strengthened the effect of ethical climate on unethical behavior. In addition to novel theoretical contributions to the business ethics and socio-psychology literature, this study offers practical pathways through which business schools can nurture and instill the values and behaviors that ultimately help shape positive organizational ethics. Directions for future research are provided.     

shopper taxonomy for retail strategy development

Segmentation of shoppers has been explored by many academic researchers and business practitioners seeking to understand shopping behaviour or to develop marketing strategies for particular customer groups. Market segmentation holds the key to successful marketing strategy as it encourages understanding of the key variables that differentiate specific segments.

The shopper taxonomy determined through this study is based on a set of variables that is relevant and appropriate for shopper segmentation and reflects the key aspects important to shoppers in motivating shopping behaviour towards a specific retail location. This taxonomy extends the proposed motivational taxonomy of Westbrook and Black (1985), derived from Tauber's (1972) earlier research. Westbrook and Black defined this taxonomy through shopping motives, and identified categories of product-oriented, experiential and a combination of product and experiential shoppers. Their research findings, however, pointed to a six-cluster typology, defining department stone shopping around seven motivations aligned with evaluating options and acquiring the products, engaging in the sales process and gaining stimulation and affiliation through the retail environment.

The “apathetic”, “shopping-processed involved” and “choice optimisation” shopper segments described by Westbrook and Black align with the “have to” “experiential” and “practical” “segments found in this study in terms of their focus on the shopping activity itself and the affiliation and stimulation motives associated with the shopping activity. Other associations between shopper segments across the two studies are less clear, and may be explained through the differing purposes for which the studies were undertaken and resulting variation in the measures used to define the motivational constructs.     

Mistaking Statistics for Rigor in American Business School Research： Should China Follow,or Lead in a New Direction？

The heavy emphasis on statistical rigor that business schools in American universities place on research is questionable in general and, for business schools in China, is not necessarily a good strategy by which either to produce useful research or to distinguish themselves from business schools in the United States. The reasons for this pertain to, first, what statistical analysis is good for in science; second, what statistical analysis is not good for in science; third, what statistical analysis is and is not good for in business research; fourth, how a large sample size is not generalizable but a single case is; fifth, how action research, design research, and Herbert Simon＇s ＂sciences of the artificial＂ all demonstrate rigor without statistics; and finally, the historical context that explains the turn to statistics in American business schools but is irrelevant to China. The recommendation is for business schools in China not necessarily to reject statistical research, but rather, to also pursue other, equally scientific forms of research, including those recognized by Herbert Simon.     

International Marketing (14th edition), by Philip R. Cateora,Mary C. Gilly,and John I. Graham

Abstract

The trend toward internationalizing business curriculum at American colleges and universities should be incorporated as a strategy throughout the United States. The catalyst that has led most business schools to adopt a systematic acceptance of the internationalization of their curriculum was the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) 1984-1985 Standards and Guidelines for business school accreditation. Most would agree that without AACSB mandates, the transition would be slower, but inevitable, due to the focus on worldwide business issues. The global economy is rapidly evolving and the needs for competencies in international business are becoming very important to the U.S. and its economic well-being. Because of this, industry is looking for a new kind of employee, the kind that understands both the importance of international business and how to operate within it successfully. The halls of academia must respond to this pressing need by going much further than providing a sporadic array of “elective” international topics. Their response has to be synergistic with university presidents, deans and faculties fully supportive of an organizational design change that promotes a new way of thinking. The new organization is one in which there must be an international focus throughout the business school. With that synergy in place, the process of internationalizing students, the university, curriculum and faculty can move forward.     

Can social awareness be increased through business school curricula?

The study was prompted by (a) Frederick and Vogel's debate concerning future research in “business and society”, (b) such recently reported managerial excesses as golden parachutes, “greenmail”, and fraud, (c) the increasing emphasis on coursework in the area. It appears that there is a need to assess how students, our future business leaders, perceive social issues and if a “business and society” course can help them define and understand the importance of these issues. Three questions provided the focal point: (1) Which issues do students perceive as most important before and after completing the course? (2) How much importance do students place on issues? (3) Does completing a “business and society” course make a significant difference in how students perceive the importance of the issues presented? Students appeared to have already clearly defined priorities before entering the course as there was very little post-course reordering of priorities. However, they did display an increased perception of the importance of social issues. The study also indicated that a “business and society” course can contribute to an increased student awareness of the importance of social issues. Therefore, it was concluded that a “business and society” course can help students define and evaluate the importance of social issues.     

Knowledge Flows Between Advertising and Other Disciplines: A Social Exchange Perspective

Knowledge flows between advertising and other academic disciplines are examined to identify the structure of scientific knowledge, the extent of social exchange and the scientific status of the field. Bibliometric analysis is used to identify who is citing our research and who we cited. Cocitation patterns for the leading advertising journals (Journal of Advertising [JA], Journal of Advertising Research [JAR], International Journal of Advertising [IJA], Journal of Interactive Advertising [JIA], and Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising [JCIRA]) and the top 50 citing and cited journals with citation relationships from 2005 to 2014 were examined. Findings revealed that advertising is citing advertising scholarship the most, followed by marketing, consumer research, psychology, and communication. This suggests a “maturing field” where scholars look within the discipline's body of knowledge. In turn, advertising research is cited by advertising, marketing, business (general), communication, and psychology. The overall citing-to-cited ratio suggests that advertising is more a “receiver” than “provider” of knowledge to other disciplines; however, there is variation across the advertising journals. The positioning of advertising journals in the larger disciplinary framework shows close relationships to consumer research and interactive communication. The most common focus among the top-cited articles is digital media, with few articles focusing on traditional advertising. The implications of our findings for the field of advertising are discussed.     

The role of business schools in managing the incongruence between doing what is right and doing what it takes to get ahead

This paper accepts as given that business students want to get ahead. It criticizes business schools for their failure to reduce the incongruence between doing what is right and doing what it takes to get ahead. Because of this failure business school graduates carry negative ideas, attitudes and behaviors vis-à-vis social responsibility from business schools into the business world. Recommendations are made for increasing the social responsibility of business schools. Robert H. Schwartz is an Associate Professor of Management and Coordinator of the Health Care Administration Program at the University of Toledo. He is the author of Coping With Unbalanced Information About Decision Making Influence For Nurses, Hospital and Health Services Administration (Winter, 1990), and of other papers pertaining to health administration and career choice.Sami Kassem is Professor of Management at the University of Toledo.Dean Ludwig is Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Toledo.