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.     

A Commentary on “Undergraduate Education: The Implications of Cross-Functional Relationships in Business Marketing–The Skills of High-Performing Managers”

ABSTRACT

This commentary reinforces the importance and need for developing the student's knowledge, abilities, and understanding of what is required to collaborate with the firm's internal and external constituencies, in the context of B2B marketing environment. It is an important goal to be achieved in the B2B marketing course. The new era of business marketing is built around achieving “collaborative advantage” with the new breed of customers who demand relatively more complex product and services arrangements as well as nature of relationships from their vendors. Today's customers also expect intellectual input and consultative selling approaches from group of diverse and independent marketing entities, whom they expect to work together to meet their requirements. The firm's success or failure in the market place may indeed be predicated on their ability to achieve this “collaborative advantage”. The commentary also expands the authors' suggestions in the areas of course pedagogy and design for building the student's know-how and capability for practicing the art-of-collaboration.     

Business accomplishments,gender and entrepreneurial self-image

Drawing on Bem's psychological theory of self-perception, this paper presents and tests a model that examines the impact of business accomplishments and gender on entrepreneurial self-image and explores the definition of entrepreneurship according to Vesper's entrepreneurial typology. Regression techniques are used to identify those business accomplishments that university alumni associate with self-perceptions of entrepreneurship. Experience as a small business person (founding, running, and/or owning a small business) most clearly predicts entrepreneurial self-image. Results also support predictions of both direct and indirect effects of gender as well as direct effects of education and business degree. Results of a separate expert panel study are used to rank business accomplishments according to degree of entrepreneurship. Results of both studies reveal stark contrasts in the implied definition of entrepreneurship between entrepreneurship experts (academic and practitioner alike) and the general business community (as represented by the alumni). This raises questions about the meaning of the term “entrepreneurship”, what the word “entrepreneur”, in particular, conveys to the general public, and the implications for practice and future research.     

“There is no time for rest”: Gendered CSR,sustainable development and the unpaid care work governance gap

Unpaid care work, including child care, elder care, and housework, is unremunerated work essential to human survival and flourishing. Worldwide, women disproportionally carry out this work, impacting upon their ability to engage in other activities, such as education, employment, or leisure. Despite a growing number of businesses engaging in “gendered CSR,” in the form of women's empowerment projects, attention to unpaid care work remains little discussed in the literature, despite its importance to sustainable development. Applying Diane Elson's feminist economic framework for alleviating unpaid care work inequality to a case study of gendered CSR in Ghana, I find that at present unpaid care work is (a) unrecognised in business’ CSR, (b) may be both reduced or exacerbated by CSR efforts, and (c) remains conceptualised as relevant only to the private sphere, therefore, missing a unique opportunity for business to contribute to gender equality and sustainable development. Connecting unpaid care work and business responsibility contributes to a more expansive understanding of what CSR may be.     

In Search of a New Logic for Marketing—Foundations of Contemporary Theory,by Christian Gronroos

ABSTRACT

Collaborative skills that promote cross-functional dynamics, boundary spanning, and inter-firm cooperation are essential to every marketing manager. Most courses in the business curricula do not address the development of relational skills and competencies that support the ability to cooperate and reconcile diverse interests and objectives as needed in real world practice. I propose that we revise the fundamentals of our educational models to support the development of collaborative, cooperative and relational competencies in our business graduates. A “values” driven perspective is a must. It entails understanding, examining, reflecting, externalizing, discovering, accepting and challenging about our past experiences and beliefs as we refresh our perspective about things, people, situations, and options. New dimensions a business curricula that sustains a “values” driven perspective must include are: (1) Design curriculum from a systems thinking perspective, (2) Develop leadership potential and management capabilities, (3) Nurture and rehearse the use of different types of intelligences, (4) Foster deep approaches to learning when validating educational goals and academic achievement, and (5) Incorporate value driven decision-making and a sense of spirituality.     

A Code of Ethics for Social Marketing? Bridging Procedural Ethics and Ethics-in-Practice

We consider the role of codes of ethics in social marketing, distinguishing between “procedural ethics” and “ethics-in-practice” (after Guillemin & Gillam, 2004). We review foundations for “procedural ethics”—formal systems for ethical oversight—including moral and political philosophy, existing codes of ethics, and previous proposals for codes of ethics for social marketing. We then discuss “ethics-in-practice,” the ethical dimensions of the small moments that comprise everyday life. We connect this idea to Aristotle’s concept of phronesis, the practical wisdom to respond in just the right way to particular situations. Supporting the ethical practice of social marketing will require both procedural ethics and ethics-in-practice, iteratively related to one another. We conclude with three tasks for the profession: (1) develop and apply norms, standards, and sanctions; (2) develop formal, procedural ethics, in a just way (e.g., codes of ethics); and (3) support social marketers to develop ethics-in-practice, or phronesis.     

Bank lending,misleading signals,and the latin american debt crisis

This article explores the microfoundations of bank and borrower behavior in the Latin American debt crisis. In the model developed, less developed countries attract loans by signaling their ability and willingness to pay. Some of the signals are “coercive” because they indicate that if income targets are not met, income will be redistributed in order to honor debt obligations. Implicit in such coercive signaling is the borrower's expectation that redistribution will not damage economic productivity. A coercive signal is misleading when feedback effects on social stability and work effort—and thus on the ability to pay—are underestimated or ignored; in this case, it inaccurately predicts repayment prospects. We estimate two equations: (1) private lending to Latin borrowers as a function of our specified signals, and (2) the probability of payments problem as a function of the same set of signals. The results support our borrowing model: coercive signals do enhance lending, and at least one of these signals is misleading.     

Determinants and Effects of Cultural Context: A Review,Conceptual Model,and Propositions

Edward Hall's pioneering work on “Silent Languages” of time, space, material possessions, friendship patterns, and agreements and his conceptualization of cultures as low-context and high-context have inspired numerous research studies on international and cross-cultural marketing. Despite these widespread applications, there is no research to date that integrates the theoretical foundations and applications of Hall's work in a single study. In this context, the current research delivers on the following three goals: (a) an extensive literature review of Hall's work on cultural context is done; (b) a conceptual model is developed that depicts the determinants and effects of cultural context; and (c) 12 propositions are developed, contrasting the effect of low- versus high-context cultures on a variety of cultural themes, such as Hofstede's five cultural dimensions, mono-chronic or M-time versus polychronic or P-time orientation, and relationship building etc. International marketing implications of this research and directions for future research are discussed.     

The calling of the virtuous manager: Politics shepherded by practical wisdom

This paper extends an ongoing discussion about establishing a sharper way to conduct ethical investigations into managerial virtue. It does so by relying on Alasdair MacIntyre's moral philosophy in place of those more dominant approaches taken by scholars who make up the field of positive social science. A connection is drawn herein between a MacIntyrean “narrative approach” to investigating managerial virtue and the idea of “work as a calling.” Specifically, it will be argued that the MacIntyrean-influenced idea of “work as a calling” provides a substantive moral vision that supports an understanding of how virtuous managers ought to narrate their primary workplace motivations. Ultimately, virtuous managers fulfill a “political calling” to support and sustain (a) good work, (b) the good of individual lives, and (c) the common good of communities that their organization reaches. To do this, they must rely on the “shepherd virtue” of practical wisdom (phronesis). Practical wisdom aids virtuous managers’ thinking about achieving the ends of their “calling” as well as any necessary course-corrections that ought to be made toward the better achievement of those good and worthy ends.     

“Should I stay or should I go?”—Why the future of global work may be less binary: Lessons on approaches to global crises from the experiences of expatriates during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 has significantly impacted expatriates, affecting their ability to work effectively and their personal and family lives. This study explores their experiences in different phases of the pandemic, and their perspectives on the future of international living in light of such global disruption. Involving over 600 expatriates in 48 countries, the research shows shifts in motivation and priorities as a result of the crisis and reveals how family (extended and immediate) topped expatriates' concerns. The study examines if and how support systems worked and looks at coping mechanisms, skills, traits, previous experience, and attitudes which participants found useful. A common theme was “falling between two stools”—where expatriates were ineligible for support in either their home country or in their host country. Others described being “pulled in different directions” or “torn by a dilemma” with pros and cons in either choice. The study contributes to the questions about the future of global work with results of the survey revealing changing norms for expatriation and global mobility raising the possibility of more nuanced approaches to global projects and less binary options for global professionals and their families.     

Collaborative apparel consumption in the digital sharing economy: An agenda for academic inquiry

While apparel businesses leveraging the sharing economy have begun to emerge in recent years, academic research on “sharing” consumption for apparel is extremely limited. To fill this research gap, the researchers analyze current literature to present a conceptual framework that offers a durable theoretical foundation about the concept of collaborative consumption for apparel. Using a metatheory approach, the researchers develop a framework that explores how two major Internet‐supported collaborative consumption modes (utility‐based nonownership and redistributed ownership) manifest in an apparel context. Next, the researchers explore the implications of each consumption mode to understand the consumer's relationship with the product, peers, and businesses involved in these sharing schemes. A series of research propositions are also developed to stimulate discussion and future research about collaborative apparel consumption.     

Working partners: Career-committed mothers and their husbands

A sampling of more than 1,700 career-committed mothers and their husbands indicates that seven out of ten find it difficult to pursue both career and motherhood, but more than three-fourths are determined to make the combination work. Seven out of ten husbands are offering significant help, and what once was known as “women's work” is becoming shared “home work.”     

Knowledge,Skills, and Abilities for the Market Economy: An Investigation of Student Perceptions Before and After China's WTO Entry

This exploratory study conducted in the People's Republic of China sought to determine the managerial knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that are perceived as important for the Chinese market economy. Questionnaire responses were collected from 145 business students in 2001 (before China's WTO entry) and 141 business students in 2006 (after China's WTO entry). The identified set of eight managerial knowledge, skills, and abilities included: business area knowledge and skills, communication skills, creativity/adaptability, ethics, leadership, problem solving, teamwork, and work habits. For each time period examined, the mean score for “importance” of each KSA was significantly higher than the mean score for “presence.” The differences between the importance mean and the presence mean for each KSA was denoted as a “gap.” This study revealed that five of the eight KSAs had a significantly smaller gap in 2006 than in 2001. This suggests that the business education system in China is enabling the development of more effective managers for the Chinese market economy.     

Cover's universal portfolio,stochastic portfolio theory,and the numéraire portfolio

Cover's celebrated theorem states that the long‐run yield of a properly chosen “universal” portfolio is almost as good as that of the best retrospectively chosen constant rebalanced portfolio. The “universality” refers to the fact that this result is model‐free, that is, not dependent on an underlying stochastic process. We extend Cover's theorem to the setting of stochastic portfolio theory: the market portfolio is taken as the numéraire, and the rebalancing rule need not be constant anymore but may depend on the current state of the stock market. By fixing a stochastic model of the stock market this model‐free result is complemented by a comparison with the numéraire portfolio. Roughly speaking, under appropriate assumptions the asymptotic growth rate coincides for the three approaches mentioned in the title of this paper. We present results in both discrete and continuous time.     

Information Sources in Advertising History. Edited and compiled by Richard W. Pollay,ed. Westport,Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979, 330 pp

Abstract

This research examined how consumers responded to different print advertisements for a green laundry detergent. Hypotheses based on the salience literature were developed and tested in a laboratory experiment. One group considered a “green” appeal which emphasized the environmental attributes of the product. Another group considered a “non-green” appeal which emphasized the cost-saving attributes of the product. We measured each subject's involvement with the environment. Our results showed that for those highly involved with the environment, there were no significant differences in purchase intent, attitude toward the ad, and support arguments between appeals. However, for those less involved with the environment, the green appeal was significantly more persuasive than the non-green appeal in terms of the same variables.     

Further insights into perceived value and consumer loyalty: A “Green” perspective

“Green consumption” is an increasingly important topic in today's society. The effect of the ecological value provided by traditionally non‐green products, such as automobiles, on their consumer's post‐purchase behavior, such as brand or model loyalty, requires further clarification. The present study provides qualitative and quantitative insights from car users on how the ecological aspect of consumption integrates into the link between perceived value and consumer loyalty intentions (value–loyalty link). In general, car usage is accompanied by perceived functional, economic, emotional, and social value. Perceived ecological value is shown to have a significant impact on these four value dimensions. The relevance of “green to have quality,” “green to save money,” “green to feel good,” and “green to be seen” in relation to loyalty intention is discussed. Results of a structural equation model and multigroup analysis provide the opportunity to derive both theoretical and applied implications. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Politicising Government Engagement with Corporate Social Responsibility: “CSR” as an Empty Signifier

Governments are widely viewed by academics and practitioners (and society more generally) as the key societal actors who are capable of compelling businesses to practice corporate social responsibility (CSR). Arguably, such government involvement could be seen as a technocratic device for encouraging ethical business behaviour. In this paper, we offer a more politicised interpretation of government engagement with CSR where “CSR” is not a desired form of business conduct but an element of discourse that governments can deploy in structuring their relationships with other social actors. We build our argument through a historical analysis of government CSR discourse in the Russian Federation. Laclau and Mouffe's (Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics, Verso Books, London, 1985) social theory of hegemony underpins our research. We find that “CSR” in the Russian government’s discourse served to legitimise its power over large businesses. Using this case, we contribute to wider academic debates by providing fresh empirical evidence that allows the development of critical evaluation tools in relation to governments’ engagement with “CSR”. We find that governments are capable of hijacking CSR for their own self-interested gain. We close the paper by reflecting on the merit of exploring the case of the Russian Federation. As a “non-core”, non-western exemplar, it provides a useful “mirror” with which to reflect on the more widely used test-bed of Western industrial democracies when scrutinising CSR. Based on our findings, we invite other scholars to adopt a more critical, politicised stance when researching the role of governments in relation to CSR in other parts of the world.

     

The Internet and Its Relationship to Buyer Behavior Theory

ABSTRACT

The Internet is the newest, most-rapidly changing and fastest-growing buying medium existing today. Its markets are increasing in number and complexity, more nearly reflecting the population in general. A valuable academic model for Internet marketers to consider when developing a business plan is an early buyer behavior model developed by Phillip Kotler, his Input-Output Model. Internet marketers should investigate outside influences on the potential buyer (Kotler's Inputs), means of reaching the prospect effectively (channels), the buyer's frame of mind (processor), and the choices available (outputs). Current “e-tail” examples are given for each of the four components in Kotler's model. Consulting companies that can assist marketers in attracting buyers have found the following techniques helpful: developing or fine tuning Internet sites, developing site-partnering strategies and online focus groups, as well as providing programs that watch prospects as they peruse a site.     

Habit,prisoner's dilemma and Americans’ welfare cost of working much more than Europeans

Europeans work much less than Americans. Some studies claim this is due to Europe's high taxes and that Europeans would gain by adopting US tax rates and work time. I argue that Americans would gain by reducing work time to Europe's level. Due to historical experience, Europe is able to internalise work‐time‐related negative externalities by enacting restrictive work‐time policies, while the United States is not, resulting in a prisoner's dilemma equilibrium and “overworking trap.” A simple model and work‐time data are used to derive the US welfare gain from reducing work time to Europe's level. Findings are as follows: (i) parameter values are consistent with experimental results on own vs. other people's income value; (ii) the welfare gain's present value is between 80 and 120% of annual welfare; and (iii) a European policy that reduces work time excessively remains beneficial if the reduction is less than twice the optimal one.