Professor Juha Näsi: A Professional and Personal Tribute

An important factor that leads governments to engage in public service contracts with nonprofit organizations is the belief that they share similar ethical and value orientations that will allow governments to reduce monitoring costs. However the notion of the existence of similarities in ethical climate has not been systematically examined. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ethical climate in government and nonprofit sectors and to determine the extent to which similarities (and differences) exist in ethical climate dimensions. Using survey data and structural equation modeling technique, the factor structure equivalence and measurement invariance of the ethical climate in the two sectors are tested. Results indicate that while there is a significant overlap in shared perception of ethical climate dimensions, there are also key differences between the two sectors. The outcome of this research provides important preliminary insights for public policy makers in government to better understand the implications of using the nonprofit sector for service delivery.     

What Makes a Business Ethicist? A Reflection on the Transition from Applied Philosophy to Critical Thinking

Using a sample of 21,030 US firm-year observations that represents more than 3000 individual firms over the 1998–2012 period, we investigate the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and investment efficiency. We provide strong and robust evidence that high CSR involvement decreases investment inefficiency and consequently increases investment efficiency. This result is consistent with our expectations that high CSR firms enjoy low information asymmetry and high stakeholder solidarity (stakeholder theory). Moreover, our findings suggest that CSR components that are directly related to firms’ primary stakeholders (e.g. employee relations, product characteristics, environment, and diversity) are more relevant in reducing investment inefficiency compared with those related to secondary stakeholders (e.g. human rights and community involvement). Finally, additional results show that the effect of CSR on investment efficiency is more pronounced during the subprime crisis. Taken together, our results highlight the important role that CSR plays in shaping firms’ investment behaviour and efficiency.     

Firm–Employee Relationships from a Social Responsibility Perspective: Developments from Communist Thinking to Market Ideology in Romania. A Mass Media Story

Firm–employee relationships are dependent on the wider societal context and on the role business plays in society. Changes in institutional arrangements in society affect the perceived responsibilities of firms to their personnel. In this study, we examine mass media discussions about firm–employee relationships from a social responsibility perspective via a longitudinal study in Romanian society. Our analysis indicates how the expected responsibilities of firms towards employees have altered with the changing role of firms in society since the early 1990s. These transformations correspond to the ideological developments, from communist to market-based thinking, which have taken place in post-communist Eastern Europe. More specifically, our study shows how the diminishing expectations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are linked in mass media to increasingly important talk of human resource management (HRM). HRM is a modern business approach believed to address personnel needs and organisational objectives simultaneously. The congruency of goals in HRM may mistakenly lead to the conclusion that organisations are inherently responsible toward their personnel. We argue that this may not necessarily be the case. HRM, matching well the new free-market ideology in post-communist Eastern Europe, was eagerly embraced in that it defined firm–personnel relationships. In this study, we question whether this was an adequate theoretical perspective for Romanian firms to adopt as it lacks sufficient ethical grounding. We also call for a higher awareness concerning the role of mass media in the management literature, since its current role in constructing the ‘rightness’ and ‘wrongness’ in firm–personnel relationships is hardly considered.     

Analyzing the Essence of Stakeholder Relationships: What do we Need in Addition to Power,Legitimacy, and Urgency?

This article contributes to the body of stakeholder literature by providing an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of stakeholder relationships as a part of change in value creation. The article presents an argument that the stakeholder salience model as a tool for analyzing stakeholder relationships is not sufficient for understanding business value creation. In the recent stakeholder literature, understanding business value creation has become an important theme. Through an analysis of an empirical case, the article shows how the three stakeholder relationship attributes, legitimacy, power and urgency help to reveal the definitive stakeholders and to capture dynamics of stakeholder relations. However, in the case of strategic change, where the value creation of a firm is in transition, a more profound understanding of stakeholder relationships is needed. As a result of our empirical analysis, six characteristics of stakeholder relationships were identified. To conclude, the question of who and what really counts should be replaced by the question of how value is created in stakeholder relationships.     

Advancing marketing strategy in the marketing discipline and beyond: from promise,to neglect,to prominence,to fragment (to promise?)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to advance the field of strategic marketing within the marketing discipline, which will in turn, the author argues, contribute to enhancing the discipline’s impact beyond the narrow confines of its own journals. Towards this goal, certain aspects of the history of marketing strategy need to be reviewed. However, though this article draws extensively on historical sources, it is not a history of marketing strategy. Rather, this article uses historical materials and arguments concerning the four ‘Eras’ of marketing thought to advance five major claims: the area of strategic marketing (1) had significant promise when the marketing academic discipline was founded in Era I (1900–1920), (2) was neglected in Era II (1920–1950), (3) rose to prominence in Era III (1950–1980), (4) has become a ‘fragment’ in Era IV (1980–present) and (5) has prospects that are both promising and problematic in the future ‘Era V’. Finally, a tentative prognosis for strategic marketing and the marketing discipline is suggested.     

New Approaches to Evaluating the Performance of Corporate–Community Partnerships: A Case Study from the Minerals Sector

A continuing challenge for researchers and practitioners alike is the lack of data on the effectiveness of corporate–community investment programmes. The focus of this article is on the minerals industry, where companies currently face the challenge of matching corporate drivers for strategic partnership with community needs for programmes that contribute to local and regional sustainability. While many global mining companies advocate a strategic approach to partnerships, there is no evidence currently available that suggests companies are monitoring these partnerships to see if they do, in fact, represent ‘strategic’ investments. This article argues that applying the management concept of ‘investment performance’ to corporate–community partnerships requires questioning traditional evaluation methods that focus on the results of programmes or activities. We adopt a case study approach to introduce an evaluation framework that considers performance from both corporate and community perspectives and that conceptualises partnership performance as comprising four aspects: (1) the contribution of the partnership to the overall portfolio of a company’s community investment programmes, (2) the appropriateness of the partnership model, (3) the effectiveness of the partnering relationship and (4) the ability of the partners to achieve programme goals. The application of this evaluation framework to an established corporate–community partnership programme provided some useful insights as to how partnership performance can be improved.     

Partnerships that go places: How to successfully market products from vendor partners at retail stores from the vendors’ perspective

This study constructed a model using multiple attribute decision making (MADM) to evaluate the successful marketing of products from vendor partners at an on-campus training store. We used the 5Ps of marketing (people, product, price, promotion, and place) as the research framework and applied the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) to calculate the weight of each evaluation criterion. A gap analysis was performed on each evaluation criterion, using the modified VlseKriterijumska Optimizcija I Kaompromisno Resenje (modified VIKOR) to identify the important factors that students at an on-campus training store should prioritize for improvement when formulating marketing strategies from vendor partners. The results indicatae that when collaborating with the on-campus training store, vendor partners placed the greatest emphasis on promotion and the least on people. The results indicatae that when collaborating with the on-campus training store, vendor partners placed the greatest emphasis on promotion and the least on people. The evaluation dimensions were ranked according to their weights in descending order as follows: promotion(0.279), product(0.239), price(0.179), place(0.157), and people(0.143). Based on the overall weights of all evaluation criteria featured in present study, vendor partners placed the top five greatest emphasis on product quality and safety assurance(0.088), social media marketing(0.078), price promotion activities(0.071), product uniqueness(0.069), as well as brand advertising and promotion(0.066). The current research provides practical and appropriate strategies for planning successfully product marketing strategies from vendor partners, and further helping vendor partners increase product exposure and attract consumers to purchase their products at the on-campus training store. The findings may help vendor partners increase and improve product exposure and attract consumers to purchase their products.     

‘She possessed her own fortune’: Women investors from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century

There is a growing literature on the history of investment in Britain. However, the role played by women as investors has been almost wholly ignored. This paper argues that women were an important class of stock market investors and produces empirical evidence, most notably share registers, to show that women engaged in a number of different types of investment, and were important in both public and private companies as long-term holders of securities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The article concludes by suggesting the impact of these findings on our understanding of women's financial position and of their role in corporate governance.     

How To Be a ‘Wise’ Researcher: Learning from the Aristotelian Approach to Practical Wisdom

Journal of Business Ethics - How can you act ethically in a publication system that attempts to regulate research activity in a way that you might find, in many respects, to be unethical? In this...     

Corporate Philanthropic Disaster Response and Ownership Type: Evidence from Chinese Firms’ Response to the Sichuan Earthquake

This article examines whether the charitable giving amount and likelihood of firm response to catastrophic events relate to firms’ ownership type using a unique dataset of listed firms in China, where state ownership is still prevalent. Based on the data of Chinese firms’ response to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, we find that the extent of corporate contributions for state-owned firms following this disaster is less than that for private firms. State-owned firms are also less likely to respond in␣this disaster compared to private firms. The results also␣reveal that firm size, profitability, geography, cash resource available, and leverage affect firms’ philanthropic disaster response behavior in China.     

Exploring the relationship between employees’ CSR perceptions and intention to emigrate: Evidence from a developing country

This study contributes to the burgeoning research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the individual level of analysis, in a hitherto largely neglected developing country context. Using survey information collected from 297 employees in public and private enterprises in Kosovo, this study examines how and to what extent employees’ perceptions of their employer's CSR activities are associated with their intention to emigrate. Applying a needs-based framework, this research provides evidence that employees’ perceptions of CSR are positively related to the meaningfulness of their work and job satisfaction and negatively related to intention to emigrate. Additionally, results confirm that the association between CSR perceptions and emigration intention is mediated by the meaningfulness of work and job satisfaction. From a practical point of view, this research should encourage private and public enterprises in developing countries to enhance and extend their CSR engagement.     

Factors influencing the consumers’ behavioural intention to use online food delivery service: Empirical evidence from Taiwan

Understanding consumer preferences is crucial in helping online food delivery services (OFDS) increase operating revenue and competitiveness while achieving sustainable development. Prior studies on OFDS employed qualitative research and methods for statistical analysis, but few researchers have discussed the importance of the primary factors influencing consumers' selection and intention of OFDS from multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) perspective. Based on a consumer's perspective, the MADM techniques were utilised in this study to build an assessment model for consumers' selection of OFDS. First, to determine the relative weight of each evaluation criterion and dimension, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was utilised. Subsequently, the complex proportional assessment of alternatives (COPRAS) was utilised to analyse the feasible solutions. Lastly, the modified VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) was employed to discuss the performance gap between each evaluation dimension and criterion. The three methods helped identify the primary evaluation criteria and determine the rankings of feasible solutions and related performance gaps. The methods were used to conduct an empirical analysis of the data. Several conclusions and suggestions have been provided based on the findings. The findings are anticipated to serve as a reference for OFDS operators to learn from, allowing them to better understand consumers' demands and provide better service. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications are explored.     

Teaching note: Zobele chemical industries: the evolution of a family company from flypaper to globalization (1919–2001)

The case study of the Zobele family and Zobele Chemical Industries, their past history, and present status was published in J. Bus. Venturing doi:10.1016/S0883-9026(03)00062-4. This teaching note centers on the challenges they face in ensuring global leadership in their served market niches, while maintaining the continuity of family ownership and control. This case presents the practical implications for family enterprises in their attempts to meet the challenges of a globalized marketplace.The Zobele, located in Trento, Northern Italy, was founded in 1919 by Enrico Zobele Sr., who became famous when he invented his first “killer product” in 1930—flypaper. After the Second World War, the bombed-out factory was rebuilt by his sons, Luigi and Fulvio, who introduced new products for home hygiene and home care. The company globalized under the joint leaderships of Chief Executive Enrico Jr., son of Luigi, and Franco and Giovanni, sons of Fulvio. In 2001, Zobele Chemical Industries reported sales of US$75 million with profits of US$5.1 million. The company had 700 employees, factories in Italy, Spain, Brazil, Paraguay, India, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Malaysia with continuing expansions in Italy and China.