Modified vendettas as a method of punishing corporations

Methods of punishing corporations have changed from self-regulation to economic sanctions by government as corporations have evolved from small groups of entrepreneurs to multinational entities. It is proposed that the next stage in the evolution of punishment methods is modified vendettas, or organized attempts by non-government groups to influence corporations through the application of economic and non-economic sanctions. This paper develops the concept of modified vendettas as a complement to government-initiated economic sanctions. The effectiveness of modified vendettas is analyzed through two case examples. As with any punishment method, however, the usefulness of a modified vendetta depends not only on its effectiveness but also on how well it meets society's needs to monitor and check corporate activity while preserving corporations' rights to operate. To resolve this issue, modified vendettas are assessed using a philosophical framework incorporating both retributive and utilitarian principles. It is found that modified vendettas extend society's ability to control corporate behavior while corporations have legal and public relations means to protect themselves from frivolous use of the technique. Did you ever expect a corporation to have a conscience, when it has no soul to be damned, and no body to be kicked? (Baron Thurlow)     

Roles of Social Capital in Venture Creation: Key Dimensions and Research Implications*

This study was built upon Nahapiet and Ghoshal's three dimensions of social capital—structural, relational, and cognitive. It addresses three research questions: (1) Are there significant differences in social capital between nascent entrepreneurs and the general public (control group)? (2) Are there significant differences in social capital between technology and nontechnology nascent entrepreneurs? (3) How do the three dimensions of social capital interact among themselves across different sample groups? These questions were examined by using the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics data set. Results suggest that there are no significant differences in various dimensions of social capital between nascent entrepreneurs and the general public. What differentiates the two groups is not the amount of social capital but the patterns of association among its different dimensions. Additionally, the authors found that technology‐based nascent entrepreneurs tend to have a higher degree of relational capital than their nontechnology counterparts. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

The effects of two kinds of corporate publicity on customer-brand relationship

In the recent marketplace, corporate brands are exposed to a variety of corporate publicity, which may elicit unexpected consumer responses and requires more academic attention. This study explores how two kinds of corporate publicity (ability-related vs. social responsibility-related) influence customer-brand relationship. We propose that both kinds of publicity influence customer-brand relationship strength through brand trust and brand affect. In addition, the interaction pattern between the two kinds of publicity is further examined. Two competing hypotheses predicting divergent patterns of the interaction effect are proposed. A 2×2 between-subject experiment is conducted in the context of fast food service industry. Results show that, after controlling the existing customer-brand relationship, social responsibility-related publicity has significant influence on the strength of customer-brand relationship, while ability-related publicity has no such effect, given the fact that consumers probably have developed well-established perceptions on the focal company’s ability. Furthermore, the specific interaction pattern between the two kinds of publicity is consistent with the prediction based on fairness heuristic theory. In addition, brand trust and brand affect play mediating roles in the mechanism through which corporate publicity influences customer-brand relationship.     

Gratitudes and latitudes in M.B.A. attitudes: Customer orientation and theBusiness Week poll

A re-examination of the data on customer satisfaction with business schools reported byBusiness Week addresses questions concerning the manner in which student evaluations and recruiter assessment are weighted to determine results for the graduate and corporate polls, as well as how the latter two scores are combined to obtain the overall ranking. Further, as a measure of student satisfaction, the graduate poll holds considerable interest in its own right. Accordingly, an explanatory model based on various objective and quasi-objective measures is developed to account for the student evaluations. It is argued that — after taking account of the available predictors — the errors in this model (unexplained variance or residual terms) represent graduate gratitudes bestowed upon the various schools. It appears that these measures of student appreciation vary with certain geographical characteristics. In other words, the gratitudes expressed in MBA attitudes depend in part on variations in geographic populations, longitudes, and latitudes.The author thanks George Day, Don Lehmann, David Reibstein, and Alex Simonson for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. He also gratefully acknowledges the support of the Columbia Business School's Faculty Research Fund.     

Making Sense of Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper provides preliminary insights into the process of sense-making and developing meaning with regard to corporate social responsibility (CSR) within 18 Dutch companies. It is based upon a research project carried out within the framework of the Dutch National Research Programme on CSR. The paper questions how change agents promoting CSR within these companies made sense of the meaning of CSR. How did they use language (and other instruments) to stimulate and underpin the contextual essence of CSR? Why did they do that in this particular way? What were the consequences of this approach for shaping the process of CSR in their company? Did their efforts contribute to a new way of thinking and acting or was it merely putting old wine in new barrels? A preliminary conclusion is that change agents use above all linguistic artefacts (words and notions) and carry out practical projects while constructing meaning. Still, the meaning of meaning itself remains highly intangible, situational and personality related.     

Social class and consumption: employers as a special case

During the last few years it has become popular to argue that the impact of social class on personal consumption and other aspects of social behaviour is declining. This paper has two basic objectives. The first objective is to ascertain the extent of variation in consumption patterns between socio-economic groups, independent of income and type of household. As a number of studies of the class structure show, the long-term decline trend in self-employment outside of agriculture was halted or even reversed in many developed countries in the mid-1970s. However, despite evidence for the ‘new rise’ of the self-employed, and perhaps for reasons connected to the way social science has traditionally viewed it, little research has been conducted so far into the life styles and attitudes of this important group. Consequently, the second objective of this article is to analyse and compare the consumption pattern of the self-employed with that of employees — especially where income levels are the same. The results of this analysis, based on the Finnish household survey, indicate the effect of the socio-economic group is stronger than that of the income group and that the consumption pattern of the self-employed does not diverge greatly from that of the ‘well-off employee group. Nonetheless, the information on the detailed expenditure groups also reveals some interesting differences.     

Forecast errors before and during the Great Moderation

This paper investigates the change in private sector and Federal Reserve forecasts before and during the Great Moderation. We view the Great Moderation as a natural experiment. Using forecasts produced by the Survey of Professional Forecasters and the Federal Reserve (Greenbook forecasts) we investigate three questions: (1) How large was the decline in forecast errors? (2) Did forecast accuracy improve relative to the decline in volatility of growth and inflation? (3) Did forecasters respond to the Great Moderation? We find that the absolute median error as well as the cross-sectional volatility of forecast errors decreased significantly. Forecasters appeared to have narrowed the dispersion of their forecasts in response to the Great Moderation. Forecast accuracy did not improve relative to the reduction in the volatility of the economy.     

Ethics,Moral Development,and Accountants-in-Training

This research investigates how ethical stages of development, locus of control, age, and gender separately and jointly affect ethical decision-making. Senior- and graduate-level university accounting students are used to examine the link between moral development and ethical responses. Four accounting-environment vignettes are used in the survey. Two of the vignettes are more closely linked to the Code of Professional Conduct; the other two vignettes describe ethical dilemmas that are less code-driven. The expectation is that moral development, as measured by the Defining Issues Test (DIT), will indicate a link to expected responses on the vignette items not specifically covered by the Code.Because an individual's locus of control (LOC) may also be expected to have an impact on ethical decision-making, a LOC variable is examined. Based on a review of the LOC and ethics studies, the expectation is that internal LOC respondents would respond more ethically. Much of the ethical research has also included an examination of gender and age differences. However, the results have indicated conflicting evidence. This research also examines the gender and age issues within the senior-graduate student accounting context.Results indicate that gender is insignificant in the analysis. The LOC variable is significant on one of the vignettes. Additionally, the DIT P score is significant in another of the vignette decisions. Possible reasons for the results are discussed.     

The roots of stress-death and juvenile delinquency in Japan: Disciplinary ambivalence and perceived locus of control

Japan is ordinarily thought of as a country noted for its lack of violent crime and the general safety of its citizens. But there is now widespread incidence, almost an epidemic, of bullying (ijime), student violence against other students, and against teachers, juvenile delinquency, violence in the home, and a growing rate of absenteeism and youth suicide for reasons related to the larger problem. Another issue, which has heretofore not been connected to the anti-social behavior of Japanese youth, iskaroushi, usually translated as “sudden death from overwork,” and it is my contention that they share the same roots: the failure to learn self-control, and the perception that the locus of control is external. It is the tentative thesis of this essay that, on the one hand, Japanese society in general places too much emphasis onexternal locus of control (rules, regulations, authority figures), and that, on the other hand, individual parents — through such things as over-indulgence — do not teach their children sufficientself-(internal) control. In this essay I present the concept of perceived locus of control as it relates to various aspects of personality and development, and therefore to the problems of anti-social behavior and the meaning of work.     

The Efficacy of Using an Experiential Exercise in Teaching International usiness

A three-group experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an experiential game versus a lecture on the role of culture in international business as a teaching and learning, tool. Ten learning outcomes were defined and a survey instrument was used to obtain student responses. Pretest and posttest scores of the questionnaire for the two treatment groups and the control group were analyzed to determine the extent of student learning about the subject. Statistical analysis indicates that the game is at least as effective as a conventional lecture yet involves the students to a far greater degree in the learning process.     

Adolescents' perceptions of family communication patterns and some aspects of their consumer socialization

This study examined the effects of family communication patterns (FCP) on adolescent consumers' decision‐making styles and influence in family purchase decisions. Two underlying dimensions of FCP (concept‐orientation and socio‐orientation) were measured separately for mother–child communication and father–child communication and regressed on adolescents' use of the selected decision‐making styles and influence in purchase decisions involving durable products and nondurable products for their own use. Results show that only mother–child communication patterns have significant associations with adolescents' decision‐making styles and family purchase influence. Specifically, mothers' concept‐oriented communication was positively linked to children's use of utilitarian decision‐making styles (e.g., careful and deliberate decision making) and social/conspicuous decision‐making styles (e.g., recreational and hedonic decision making) as well as to children's influence in family purchase decisions involving both durable and nondurable products for themselves. On the other hand, mothers' socio‐oriented communication was linked positively to children's use of undesirable decision‐making styles (e.g., confusion by overchoice) and negatively to children's influence in family purchase decisions. This study also investigated the presence (or absence) of a same‐gender effect in the relationships between parent–child communication orientations and children's consumer socialization outcome. If present, a same‐gender effect would be indicated by a greater influence from the same‐sex parent's communication orientations on the adolescent's decision‐making styles and influence in family decisions relative to that of the opposite‐‐ sex parent's communication orientations. Comparisons of the two gender‐group regression results revealed no systematic pattern that suggests the presence of such an effect. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Market Segment Response Through Field Experimentation

A key assumption underlying segmentation studies is that marketing efforts have differential effects on market segments. This question was investigated in the context of a field experiment involving enlistment in the armed forces. Approximately 8000 completed questionnaires administered at various stages in the US Navy enlistment recruiting process were collected at two points in time, corresponding to a pre- and post-experimental intervention. Attitudinal data were analysed to identify meaningful segments. Differential responses of market segments to advertising and recruiter changes were found, providing direction for evaluation of, and changes in, the creative component of advertising.     

Effects of Experience-based Work Patterns in a GSS Environment

Existing group support system (GSS) research has focused on the impacts of GSSs on conventional group-work patterns. Few studies have examined the effects of different group-work patterns in a GSS environment. Specifically, we are interested in group-work patterns that vary in terms of group members' experience or ability levels. In this paper, we report on an exploratory experiment designed to compare the effects of three distinct experience-based work patterns on group decision quality, efficiency, and participant satisfaction in the case of GSS usage. There is the conventional work pattern in which persons of differing experience levels work simultaneously in a meeting. An alternative pattern consists of experienced participants working on a problem first and then passing their results on to less experienced participants. Yet another pattern reverses this sequence. Our results show that while groups in the conventional work pattern are more efficient in considering alternative solutions, groups organized in the other two experience-based work patterns can produce higher quality solutions. We observed no significant differences in participant satisfaction among the three group-work patterns. These findings suggest that a GSS can be as effective (or even more effective) with alternative group-work patterns as it is with the conventional pattern.     

Keeping Public Institutions Invested in Tobacco

Increasingly through the 1990s, tobacco control advocates questioned the practice of public institutions investing in tobacco company stocks. The questioning was framed in at least three ways. First, is it ethical to fund public expenditures with profits from a product that causes addiction and disease? Second, is it sound social policy to derive public income from a product that increases healthcare costs and reduces worker productivity? Finally, is it sound fiscal policy to invest in an historically profitable industry facing multiplying legal and regulatory challenges? While the tobacco industry preferred to restrict discussion to the fiscal question, and offered an affirmative answer, its position was weakened by depressed stock prices brought on by actions of the industry as much as by tobacco control activism. As part of a campaign to restore its credibility as an investment vehicle with public fund managers, Philip Morris (PM) commissioned a report from the influential investment managers/advisors Wilshire Associates. However, Wilshire had only recently conducted such a study for the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB), assuring the board that the value tobacco stocks added to an investment portfolio – if any – was too small to be measured. Nonetheless, within a year, Wilshire produced a report for PM which appeared to laud the investment value of tobacco and to dismiss tobacco-excluded investment alternatives. This paper examines how Wilshire produced apparently diametrically opposed reports for clients with different interests. It reveals a pattern of potential conflicts of interest among tobacco companies, financial analysis firms, investment authorities, and institutional fund managers. It demonstrates substantial violations of two generally accepted ethical principles of business consulting: veracity and transparency.     

当代大学生阅读特征与知识素养构成分析

大学阶段是大学生读书现形成并逐步稳定的关键时期,它对于大学生的心理健康、人格养成和社会适应性等都具有促进意义。通过对川内某理工高校图书馆学生借阅行为和借阅量的分析可知,大学生的信息渠道虽已日益多样化。但高校大学生读者仍然以到图书馆借阅作为利用图书馆的主要方式,同时也呈现出下降趋势。人文社会科学类图书占大学生图书总借阅量的62．87％,自然科学类图书占总借阅量的比例为38．13％,文学类图书高居图书借阅排行首位,计算机与外语类图书成为90后大学生学习利用最多的类别。这些规律对开展针对性的现代大学生思想政治工作具有重要意义。     

Development and validation of a locus of control scale for the entrepreneurship domain

Locus of control has been extensively examined in entrepreneurship research, but with mixed results. This may be due to measurement issues, such as the widespread use of Rotter??s (1966) general locus of control scale, which is not domain specific. Not surprisingly, Rotter??s scale has been shown to be multidimensional, including personal efficacy. When the first Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED I) was constructed in the late 1990s, a measure of locus of control was included. Unfortunately, this scale was also multidimensional. Thus, measurement of the construct may be problematic. Because locus of control continues to be important in organizational research, where it has been found to influence intentions, motivation, satisfaction, and performance, we examined the PSED I dataset to determine whether we could develop a more robust measure after the fact. To this end, we constructed a unidimensional locus of control scale using the sample of nascent entrepreneurs in the PSED I dataset and validated the scale using two additional samples.     

The color revolution

Our text does not intend to develop a history of French banks' Europeanisation, but instead to scrutinise the mentalities of French bankers, in order to determine whether they were confined to relationships with French business or embedded within networks of personal relations with their European colleagues. Did some French bankers follow a career more oriented\ towards international activities and were they involved in international travels? Were some bankers committed to designing European strategies and thereafter to implement them through a direct presence in those foreign countries? Did some bankers emerge as key managers of Europeanised strategies and what was their influence within their banking firms? Of course, answers will be relevant to the chronological stages, to assess, for example, whether the decline of the Haute Banque houses was unfavourable to Europeanisation, to analyse how the new joint stock banks adopted a Europeanised business model, and whether deposits banks and investment banks (banques d'affaires) reacted differently in response to Europeanised strategies and a new way of life.     

Assessing nutritional adequacy of Americans based on individual food intake patterns

The study assumes that different food patterns are the major attributes that contribute and affect the adequacy of an individual's diet and nutritional status. Analysis of dietary patterns provides a means for generalization of the diversity of diets among individuals. It also provides a basis for assessing the nutritional adequacy of such diets. The study uses individual food intake data obtained from the 1977–1978 USDA Nationwide Household Food Consumption Survey (NFCS) to classify individuals into groups of similar food consumption patterns. Nutritional profiles associated with each identified food pattern were evaluated to determine the nutritional adequacy of such diets. To analyse nutritional adequacy, the study identifies four major dietary patterns based on cluster analysis. The concepts of nutrient density and index of nutritional quality were then used to assess the adequacy of each food pattern and to identify groups of individuals that may be at risk for malnutrition and other health concerns. Furthermore, regression analyses were used to estimate the relationship between individuals' socioeconomic characteristics and selected nutrient density of their diets.