Seeing Through and Breaking Through: The Role of Perspective Taking in the Relationship Between Creativity and Moral Reasoning

Journal of Business Ethics - The recent wave of same-sex marriage legalization marks the most significant human rights progress in decades. Nevertheless, the valuation effects on corporate America...     

An Examination of Trust Dimensions across High and Low Dependence Situations

Purpose: Relationship marketing literature has provided support of a multidimensional trust construct; however, there is little consensus on its structure. This article builds on existing theory to propose and empirically test a three-dimensional trust construct including ability, integrity, and benevolence dimensions. Furthermore, the article examines this conceptualization of the construct across different relationship types as established by dependence form.

Methodology: We choose to use a scenario/survey data collection method to replicate specific relationship types for a national purchasing agent sample. This method allows us to obtain adequate sample sizes to compare the relative importance of trust dimensions using structural equation modeling.

Findings: We found empirical evidence to support a three-dimensional trust construct for use in further examination of buyer–seller relationships. In addition, we found differential importance of those dimensions across different relationship forms.

Research Implications: By providing empirical support for a multidimensional trust construct and further specifying the importance of each dimension in various relationship forms, we hope to provide a strong foundation on which to build further trust research.

Practical Implications: In examining trust among purchasing agents, we hope to provide a strong foundation for salespeople to understand how their actions impact their long-term relationships. Understanding that trust in a relationship involves more than simple integrity or completing promises should help boundary spanners develop stronger ties.

Contribution: The main contribution of the article is the concept that trust needs to be researched in ways other than simply asking “Do you trust your supplier?”     

透视流动人口:新特点、新问题与新视角

引言流动人口并不是一个全新的现象。早在20世纪80年代初,随着我国改革开放进程的加快以及原有二元社会经济结构的逐步打破,我国流动人口规模迅速增加。数据资料显示,改革开放之初的1982年,我国流动人口的总量仅为3000万人①,占人口总数的2.97%;而到2000年,流动人口规模已经发展到12107万人,占人口总数的9.55%,其中省内流动的有7865万,占流动人口的65%,跨省流动的有4242万,占流动人口的35%。由此可见,大规模、跨地区的人口流动已经成为我国社会经济转型过程中一种发展的必然趋势。进入新世纪以来,随着全球经济一体化进程的推进,中国积极参与…     

透视流动人口:新特点、新问题与新视角

引言 流动人口并不是一个全新的现象.早在20世纪80年代初,随着我国改革开放进程的加快以及原有二元社会经济结构的逐步打破,我国流动人口规模迅速增加.数据资料显示,改革开放之初的1982年,我国流动人口的总量仅为3000万人①,占人口总数的2.97%;而到2000年,流动人口规模已经发展到12107万人,占人口总数的9.55%,其中省内流动的有7865万,占流动人口的65%,跨省流动的有4242万,占流动人口的35%.由此可见,大规模、跨地区的人口流动已经成为我国社会经济转型过程中一种发展的必然趋势.     

Technological Complexity and Country-of-Origin Effects on Binational Product Evaluation: Investigation in an Emerging Market

ABSTRACT

Research into the impact of the country of origin (COO) dimensions on product perceived quality in emerging markets is limited and does not distinguish between technologically complex/simple products. This paper investigates country-of-design (COD) and country-of-manufacture (COM) effects through their two subconstructs (global country image and the perceived capacity of the country to design/manufacture products), on the perceived quality of four products varying in their level of technological complexity. Findings indicate that consumers are more sensitive to COM than COD for complex and for simple products, and that COD only affects product quality for products carrying symbolic meaning. The findings have marketing implications for binational products entering emerging markets.     

'Integration' in Communication Management: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations

The pervasive notion of 'integration' has found wide acceptance in writings across the disciplines of marketing-communications, public relations and corporate identity management but has to date not been subjected to systematic empirical research. The paper develops systematic measures and propositions in regard to 'integration' for further empirical research.     

Fluency in Commercial Breaks: The Impact of Repetition and Conceptual Priming on Brand Memory,Evaluation, and Behavioral Intentions

Although sold by television channels for high fees, the effectiveness of tandem-spots and brand exclusivity has not been investigated so far. A 2?×?2 between-subjects experiment (N?=?325) was conducted to investigate the effects of repetition (tandem-spot) and conceptual priming (competing spot) on brand memory, evaluation, and behavioral intentions toward the brand, while applying the processing fluency construct as theoretical foundation. Tandem-spots improved brand recall, but no significant effects were found concerning brand evaluation or behavioral intentions. Competing spots meanwhile acted as conceptual primes, enhancing brand memory, evaluation, and behavioral intentions. These findings partially contradict offerings and recommendations made by television channels.     

Exchange Rate Exposures and Strategies of Industrial Companies: An Empirical Study

This article investigates empirically the potential and actual exchange rate exposure strategies of industrial companies in relation to identifying and quantifying the neutral financial positions in an optimal hedging strategy. A stock market approach as a potential remedy is analyzed but found to be statistically troublesome and fundamentally flawed. Part of the diversity in actual strategies found in this article reflects different competitive environments, while another part indicates that the companies have not yet reached a systematic risk management of ongoing competitive exposures. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Ethics and HRM: Theoretical and Conceptual Analysis

Despite the ongoing consideration of the ethical nature of human resource management (HRM), little research has been conducted on how morality and ethics are represented in the discourse, activities and lived experiences of human resource (HR) professionals. In this paper, we connect the thinking and lived experiences of HR professionals to an alternative ethics, rooted in the work of Bauman (Modernity and the Holocaust, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1989; Theory, Culture and Society 7:5?C38, 1990; Postmodern Ethics, Blackwell, Oxford, 1991; Approaches to Social Enquiry, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1993; Life in Fragments, Blackwell, Oxford, 1995) and Levinas (Otherwise than Being, or, Beyond Essence, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 1998). We argue that the study of HRM and ethics should be contextualized within the discourses used, the practices and activities of HR professionals. Through the analysis of interview data from 40 predominantly Canadian HR practitioners and managers we experiment with Bauman??s notion of ??moral impulse?? to help us understand how HRM is both a product and perpetuator of moral neutralization in organizations. We suggest that HRM as it is practiced is concerned with distancing, depersonalizing, and dissembling, and acts in support of the ??moral?? requirements of business, not of people. However, we also recognize that HR practitioners and managers are often confronted with and conflicted by actions and decisions that they are required to take, therefore opening possibilities and hope for an alternative ethical HRM.     

基于复杂性科学管理熵理论的公共管理绩效评价研究

公共管理熵(PM熵)就是熵理论应用于公共管理之中,研究公共管理在发展过程中存在的公共管理无序、信息不畅、经营状况不佳,进而导致公共管理内耗、效力低下、管理成本过高、管理目标偏移或错位、人际关系方面的摩擦和冲突以及整个公共管理系统衰退等。公共管理熵是决定公共管理系统不力或失败的根本原因,要确保公共管理系统成功,就应延缓或降低"熵"增并强化"负熵"的流入。     

Dimensions and Implementation Drivers of Customer Equity Management (CEM)—Conceptual Framework,Qualitative Evidence and Preliminary Results of a Quantitative Study

SUMMARY

Customer equity has become a major marketing goal in many industries. In the existing literature on customer equity, there is a strong emphasis on measuring customer equity (or customer lifetime value), while there is a lack of research on how to manage customer equity and how to implement a systematic Customer Equity Management (CEM). In this paper, based on theoretical considerations as well as on qualitative and quantitative research applying confirmatory factor analysis, we identify three dimensions of Customer Equity Management structuring a firm's CEM activities: analytical CEM, strategic CEM and operational CEM. Further, three types of CEM implementation drivers are identified which represent determinants of the three CEM dimensions. We develop measures for both the three CEM dimensions and the three implementation drivers. These measures help companies evaluating their status regarding CEM and represent the basis for empirical studies regarding the determination and effects of CEM.     

Ethics and HRM: A Review and Conceptual Analysis

This paper reviews and develops the ethical analysis of human resource management (HRM). Initially, the ethical perspective of HRM is differentiated from the "mainstrea" and critical perspectives of HRM. To date, the ethical analysis of HRM has taken one of two forms: the application Kantian and utilitarian ethical theories to the gestalt of HRM, and the application of theories of justice and fairness to specific HRM practices. This paper is concerned with the former, the ethical analysis of HRM in its entirety. It shows that numerous theoretical shortcomings exist, least of which is the disregard of stakeholder theory. These deficiencies are explored and, as such, the analysis is advanced. It is argued that such ethical analysis is outside the scope of the modern corporation. A third way in which ethics may be applied to HRM is suggested. Ethical concerns are used as a basis to develop minimum standards against which HRM, in its various guises and practice, may be evaluated. Yet, even when judged by these standards, HRM is seriously lacking. This begs the question, not of whether HRM is ethical, but of whether HRM can be ethical.     

Relationship Value in Business Markets: The Construct and Its Dimensions

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the concept of relationship value has attracted increasing attention among marketing researchers and practitioners alike. Despite a growing body of literature in this area, no generally accepted conceptualization of relationship value has emerged from the marketing literature. The present paper investigates the theoretical foundations of relationship value and identifies seven underlying dimensions. It is suggested that relationship value should be conceptualized as a formative, multi-dimensional, higher-order construct. This conceptualization is tested using data from a cross-sectional survey among some 200 purchasing managers from manufacturing companies. The scale development process is presented and directions for future research are discussed.     

Organized Complexity in Human Affairs: The Tobacco Industry

How do we explain organized complexity in human affairs? The most common model explain s human organization as the outcome of rational design; order in human affairs arises from the intentions, plans, and orders of those in charge. For organizational complexity on vast scales, this model is insufficient, misleading, and potentially disastrous. An alternative model, based upon self-organization within complex systems, is developed and applied to the tobacco industry. Leaked documents and public testimony point to widespread distortion of information within the tobacco industry. The model developed herein describes such behaviors as emergent outcomes, not reducible to or sufficiently explained by individual fraud and deliberate deceit. Critics of the tobacco industry often fail to appreciate the role of self-organization in complex systems. They presume rational design. Consequently, they imply more intentional deceit, deliberate planning, and conspiracy than needed to explain the distortions that actually occurred. The tobacco industry expresses general phenomena found in many large-scale human systems. This paper describes such phenomena and examines their moral implications.     

Ethics of Resistance in Organisations: A Conceptual Proposal

This study suggests a conceptual proposal to analyse the ethics of resistance in organisations, drawing on Foucault’s practising self as a refusal and Schaffer’s ethics of freedom in opposition to the legitimacy of managerial control and the ethics of compliance. We argue that ethics is already part of such politics in the form of ethico-politics on the basis of participation in political action in organisations. Hence, the practising self as resistance in the face of the status quo of managerial power in an ongoing dialectical process with others and for others comprises our conceptual proposal as an ethics of resistance. Acknowledging dialectics as the driver of the continuous reconstruction and co-construction of politics and praxis, we propose an ethics from the bottom up with a critical and radical perspective. Our contribution is based on opening up an ethico-political space for those who are ignored or suppressed in the ethics and organisations literature.     

Financial Reforms and Corruption: Which Dimensions Matter?

This paper investigates the effects of reforms in different dimensions of the financial sector on corruption in a panel of 82 countries. It finds that several, but not all, of the policies targeted toward liberalizing financial sector reduce corruption. Specifically, entry barriers, directed credit, securities market development, and the extent of banking supervision are significantly negatively associated with corruption. The effects of reforms in different dimensions of the financial sector also depend on the quality of the governance (bad versus good governance) and whether the country is an advanced or a non‐advanced economy. Finally, a stronger democracy and better law and order are found to be associated with lower corruption.