Going Beyond Intuitions: Reclaiming the Philosophy in Business Ethics

Business ethics texts often have sections on ethical theory, but typically little or no discussion of foundational philosophical concepts like cause, personhood, or responsibility. Here I use the Love Canal case as an example of how discussion could be enriched by reference to issues such as these. I advocate that we foster deliberation about these kinds of core metaphysical issues as well as ethical theory in case analysis, and believe that doing so would move students from intuitive gainsaying to a richer and more subtle examination of cases.     

Teaching Finance Ethics

This article seeks to promote the study of ethics in the finance curriculum by providing an organizing framework of ethical issues in finance, a discussion of theoretical approaches to these issues, a listing of the main ethical problems in finance, and suggestions about resources and materials.     

Social Responsibility and the Marketing Educator: A Focus on Stakeholders, Ethical Theories, and Related Codes of Ethics

This paper is a commentary on the discussion document by M. Joseph Sirgy (1996) which attempts to develop a marketing educator code of ethics. The authors center their discussion around the concepts of "Social responsibilities in relation to certain publics" and "Social responsibilities in relation to certain actions", as presented in the Sirgy paper, "Certain Publics" issues and "Certain Actions" issues are both examined in light of each of the stakeholder groups, as well as in terms of several ethical theories. Finally, the proposed Academy of Marketing Science marketing educator code of ethics is compared to the ethics codes of other marketing organizations.     

A Case-based Reasoning Approach for Supporting Facilitation in Online Discussions

Group Decision and Negotiation - In online discussion platforms, participants gather to discuss the effective approaches to solve the common issues they face. To facilitate these discussions...     

美国次级抵押贷款证券化过程中的激励问题探析

由于信息不对称,资产证券化在分散信贷风险的同时,也可能通过激励机制的扭曲不断积累金融风险。本文以美国次贷市场为例,对证券化过程中出现的各种激励问题进行深入分析。吸取美国次贷危机的教训,中国在推进资产证券化时,应加强制度建设,抑制经济行为人的逆向选择和道德风险。     

Age Discrimination in Layoffs: Factors of Injustice

ABSTRACT. This paper considers two sets ethical obligations owed by a firm and its management to stockholders and employees with respect to layoffs. Literature and research from ethics and agency are used to frame ethical issues that pertain to age discrimination in layoffs. An actual court case provides an example for focus, analysis, and discussion. Points of discussion include management's obligations to employees and factors of injustice related to prejudice against age.     

Emergence and Development of a University Curriculum for Corporate Environmental Responsibility

American firms are increasingly under demands, made by government and the public, to be more socially responsible with respect to environmental issues. As environmental and safety concerns have increased, a greater need for individuals with training in environmental responsibility has emerged. This need must be filled by educational institutions. The report concludes with a discussion of issues faced by business school curricula, in particular international business and marketing courses, to foster environmental concern among future graduates.     

Are Ethical Consumers Happy? Effects of Ethical Consumers' Motivations Based on Empathy Versus Self-orientation on Their Happiness

Some business schools have come under considerable criticism for what observers see as their complicit involvement in the corporate scandals and financial crises of the last 15 years. Much of the discussion about changes that schools might undertake has been focused on curriculum issues. However, revisiting the curriculum does not get at the root cause of the problem. Instead, it might create a new challenge: the risk of decoupling the discussion of the curriculum from broader issues of institutional purpose. In this article, we argue that the most pressing need facing business schools is not to teach new courses to be responsive to social demands and stay relevant. Instead, it is to revisit their basic mission—the principles and beliefs on which they were founded—and then to re-evaluate their curriculum design choices in this light. We contrast the Spartan and Athenian educational paradigms as a way of shedding light on the nature of a coherent response.     

Developing a Learning Community Approach to Business Ethics Education

In this paper we discuss a project, still in progress, that moves away from a traditional lecture based educational pedagogy. We present a team taught approach to ethics teaching that embraces a progressive philosophy of education and is focused on the development of a discussion based learning community. We describe our primary pedagogical tools of case discussion and the development of student expert role assignments as a locus, and how they relate to the learning community, course content and course objectives. Finally, we provide our preliminary review of outcomes and emerging issues.     

The market orientation-performance link: the role of service reliability

International alliances in retailing are a fairly new phenomenon. A range of relationships is being formed between retailers in order to take advantage of new opportunities and to counter the threats created by the internationalisation of retailing. This paper proposes a taxonomy of the range of alliances being formed between and among retailers, giving evidence from the UK retail sector to support the taxonomy. A comprehensive identification of UK retailer presence in international alliances is presented, along with a discussion on the potential advantages that accrue from membership of an alliance. We conclude by highlighting further issues for discussion.     

Integrating Ethics Content into the Core Business Curriculum: Do Core Teaching Materials Do the Job?

Some business schools have integrated business ethics issues into their core functional courses rather than simply offering a separate ethics course. To accommodate such a strategy, functional faculty members usually teach ethical issues, a task for which they are rarely trained. However, learning materials are available: some core course textbooks provide additional coverage of ethics, and case studies (and accompanying teaching notes for instructors) are also available which cover ethical issues. This paper reports on an analysis of these materials. We find that a sample of the leading textbooks provides only very superficial coverage of ethical issues. Cases provide a wide range of issues suitable for class discussion, but their teaching notes in many cases provide little guidance for instructors unfamiliar with teaching ethics. Thus there remains a need for teaching resources for business faculty new to teaching ethics.     

The Goals and Merits of a Business Ethics Competency Exam

My university recently established a business ethics competency exam for graduate business students. The exam is designed to test whether students can demonstrate several abilities that are indicative of competency in business ethics. They are the abilities to “speak the language” of business ethics, identify business ethics issues, apply theories and concepts to issues, identify connections among theories and concepts as they relate to different issues, and construct and critically evaluate arguments for various positions on business ethics issues. Through this paper, I hope to begin a discussion among business ethicists about both the merits of a competency exam and what the format of such an exam should be. I attempt to do this by explaining the reasons why my institution adopted a competency exam, the goals and purposes of the exam, the format of the exam, and why I believe the exam has merit.     

Using World Café and drama to explore older people's experience of financial products and services

This paper examines a novel strategy to get older people talking about their financial needs and equity release. A questionnaire was used to identify issues which were then written into a drama on equity release products and bank accounts. This dramatic representation of the issues preceded discussion among older people at a World Café event – a format that involves a series of circulating focus groups where concepts can be discussed in depth and recorded. The drama offered an initial stimulus of alternative and opposing opinions and facilitated conversation about financial products and services which are often considered uninteresting and private. The aim was to record ideas in the discussions that would benefit the production and design of innovative financial products that would meet the needs of people over 50 years. Further, as a technique, the combination of drama, used to stimulate discussion, and the World Café format, to obtain and record consumer opinions, arguably offers innovative options to researchers in other sectors of product or service consumption.     

Enhancing Employee Voice: Are Voluntary Employer–Employee Partnerships Enough?

One of the essential ethical issues in the employment relationship is the loss of employee voice. Many of the ways employees have previously exercised voice in the employment relationship have been rendered less effective by (1) the changing nature of work, (2) employer preferences for flexibility that often work to the disadvantage of employees, and (3) changes in public policy and institutional systems that have failed to protect workers. We will begin with a discussion of how work has changed in the last 20 years in countries like Australia and the United States, and then take up the issue of employees as organizational stakeholders and the ethical duties that are owed them, with special attention given to issues of power. We will then consider whether voluntary action by employers such as social auditing is sufficient to ensure equity for employees, and conclude with a discussion of how changes in public policy might ensure greater fairness in the employment relationship by bringing employers and employees together in partnership.     

The Effects of Issue Characteristics on the Recognition of Moral Issues

The construct of moral intensity, proposed by Jones (1991), was used to predict the extent to which individuals were able to recognize moral issues. We tested for the effects of the six dimensions of moral intensity: social consensus, proximity, concentration of effect, probability of effect, temporal immediacy and magnitude of consequences. A scenario-based study, conducted among business individuals in Singapore, revealed that social consensus and magnitude of consequences influenced the recognition of moral issues. The study provided evidence for the effects of temporal immediacy. There was marginal support for the impact of proximity and probability of effect but no evidence that concentration of effect influenced recognition of moral issues. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for researchers and organisational practitioners.     

粮食钢板筒仓储粮特性与工艺设计要点

论述了我国粮食钢板筒仓的应用发展概况,分析粮食钢板筒仓的类型、制造过程和各自优缺点。介绍了钢板筒仓的结构组成、储粮特性,并从粮食钢板筒仓工艺设计方面出发,对粮食钢板筒仓工程的工艺流程设计、工艺布置、筒仓容积计算及配套设备做了较全面的探讨。最后,强调了钢板筒仓工程设计中的安全事项。     

中国入世对跨国公司进入方式的影响

中国入世后，在汽车、电子、化学工业等方面要作大幅度的关税和非关税减让。其中汽车和化学工业在入世前的关税和非关税水平比较高，外国直接投资的进入主要是满足中国内部市场。出口和直接投资方式选择理论，中国和一些发展中国家的关税、市场规模与直接投资和进口的关系。     

Partnership on Top of a Dutch Gas Pocket

Recent developments between Gasunie and Groningen illustrate the delicate issues which are raised by such company-city partnerships. The author is a scientific researcher in Ethics at Nijenrode, The Netherlands School of Business. He wishes to thank Henk Pohlmann, Head of the department of Collective Relations and Social Policy of Gasunie, for information and discussion.