What Corporate Governance Can Learn from Catholic Social Teaching

This reflection focuses on what insights Catholic Social Teaching (CST) can provide for corporate governance. I argue that the ‘standard’ agency theory is overly reductionist and insufficiently incorporates important economic limitations (such as asymmetric information, incomplete contracts, and the need for coordination) as well as human frailty. As a result, such agency theory insufficiently distinguishes firms from markets, which can easily relativize how we treat others and facilitate rationalization of unethical behavior. I then explore how three pillars of CST—human dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity—can help overcome these limitations. CST proposes a vision of the business corporation as a community of persons, working together in cooperative business relationships toward the shared purpose of contributing to human flourishing.     

Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice: Using the 1991 Federal Sentencing Guidelines as a Paradigm for Ethics Training

Although Business Ethics has become a topic of wide discussion in both academia and the corporate world, questions remain as how to present ethical issues in a manner that will effectively influence the decisions and behavior of business employees. In this paper we argue that the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (FSG) offer a unique opportunity for bridging the gap between the theory and practice of business ethics. We first explain what the FSG are and how they apply to organizations. We then show how discussions of the FSG might be used in business ethics courses in a way that is both theoretically sound and practically applicable. Finally, we show how the requirements of the FSG can be used by companies to develop effective ethical compliance programs. As such, we maintain that the FSG provide a powerful heuristic tool for the teaching and training of business ethics.     

美国联邦快递的启示

二ОО六年五月十四日至六月二十二日，经组织安排，我参加了百联培训团，赴美国中部田纳西洲孟菲斯大学进行了为期四十天的学习培训考察，先后在美国Fed EX（联邦快递）关于领导能力和经营管理理念的学习、在孟菲斯大学关于美国零售商业知识的学习，最后考察了纽约、华盛顿、拉斯维加斯和洛杉矶等城市，所见所闻，所思所想，给我们留下了许多深刻的印象。良好的教学方法和比较系统的学习内容给我们启发不小。     

What the EU Can Learn from the American Experience with Unemployment Insurance

This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing unemployment insurance dialogue and debate by providing an overview of the equivalent program in the US and identifying valuable lessons from the American experience.     

外资银行监管国际经验对我国的启示

我国已经入世,银行业将进一步扩大开放。外资银行的进入既促进了我国经济的发展,同时又不可避免地带来一些负面影响。本文分析了目前我国对外资银行监管中存在的问题,借鉴国际上的一些经验,提出了相应的建议。     

Ethics and the gender equality dilemma for U.S. multinationals

U.S. multinational enterprises must now follow the policies of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in their overseas operations, at least with respect to U.S. expatriate employees. Doing so in a culture which discourages gender equality in the workplace raises difficult issues, both practically and ethically. Vigorously importing U.S. attitudes toward gender-equality into a social culture such as Japan or Saudi Arabia may seem ethnocentric, a version of ethical imperialism. Yet adapting to host country norms risks a kind of moral relativism. This article supports the view that MNEs which promote workplace equality in a host country such as Japan, which is actively involved in the international economic and political community, is not ethical imperialism in any pejorative sense and is preferable to a moral relativism or social contract approach.We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator with certain rights — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.U.S. Declaration of Independence, 1776 All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948Don Mayer teaches Legal Environment of Business at Oakland University School of Business Administration. He received his L.L.M. in International and Comparative Law. Professor Mayer's work has appeared in the American Business Law Journal, the Midwest Law Review, and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. An article entitled Sovereign Immunities and Moral Community appears in the October 1992 issue of theBusiness Ethics Quarterly.Anita Cava teaches Business Law and Business Ethics at both the graduate and undergraduate level at the University of Miami's School of Business Administration. She received her B.A. with Distinction and her J.D., Professor Cava has published in the area of ethics in law reviews and business journals.     

Public Versus Private Sector Procurement Ethics and Strategy: What Each Sector can Learn from the Other

The government purchasing market constitutes the largest business sector in the world. While marketers would benefit from a deep understanding of both sectors, how the two sectors differ in terms of ethics and strategy largely remains unknown. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to explore differences between the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors on two critical aspects of business-to-business procurement: ethics and strategy. Using survey data from a sample of 328 procurement professionals in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, key differences are explored. Findings suggest that buyers in the for-profit sector are more likely to behave opportunistically. Conversely, the buyers’ leaders in the not-for-profit sector behave more opportunistically and are more willing to turn a blind eye to their subordinate buyers’ opportunistic behaviors. In addition, key differences in procurement strategy are unveiled suggesting that not-for-profit procurement practices have some room for improvement. Based on the findings, theoretical and managerial implications are drawn, and a future research agenda is proposed.     

Critical Events in the Ethics of U.S. Corporation History

The history of corporations in the United States (U.S.) is much older than the country, as it must be understood in the context of the history of peoples of Europe who eventually dominated the North American continent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These European settlers came, in part, to achieve economic prosperity for themselves and, in many cases, for early forerunners of the modern corporation. These business organizations had predecessors in Europe millennia earlier as ancient Romans had developed a functional and successful form of corporation for the purpose of conducting commerce in the Roman Empire. In the decades that followed the founding of the U.S. in 1776, corporations evolved from rare, small, closely controlled business organizations with a multitude of restrictions to very large, very powerful modern institutions that enjoy many of the legal rights of humans. With this evolution came ethical issues, as (1) the ethical distance was altered between corporate decision-makers and those affected by those decisions, and (2) many of the legal rights of individual humans were extended, through litigation, to corporations. This article explains the historical development of the U.S. corporation and identifies 20 Critical Events in the Ethics of Corporation History (CEECH). An understanding of these historical events may facilitate comprehension of many of the current ethical issues associated with a legal organizational form that profoundly affects business and society.     

人民币升值能否减少美中贸易逆差

美中持续的贸易逆差使人民币遭受了巨大的升值压力。1985年至2009年月度数据的计量结果表明,美中贸易逆差与人民币汇率之间不存在长期稳定的协整关系,但2005年7月汇改之后两者之间的协整关系开始出现,格兰杰因果关系检验的结果表明,中美贸易差额会引起人民币兑美元汇率的变化,但人民币汇率的变化却不会引起中美贸易差额的变化,因此人民币汇率仍然并非导致中美贸易差额的真正原因。除此之外,对美中商品分类贸易顺差和逆差的进一步分析显示,造成美中贸易逆差的真正原因是中国在劳动密集型和资源易耗性产业上所发挥的比较优势,而美国在土地密集型等产业上的顺差则表明美国可以通过发挥其在土地及高新技术等产业上的比较优势来缩减美中贸易逆差。     

Questioning Organizational Legitimacy: The Case of U.S. Expatriates

It has been estimated that U.S. companies with global business operations can reduce their U.S. tax bill by up to 10 percentage points if they reincorporate in a zero or low tax offshore jurisdiction. But this activity, at a time of national crisis following the September 11 terrorists' attacks and recent spate of corporate scandals, has received a less than sympathetic response from the U.S. media, ordinary taxpayers, shareholders and politicians as concerns are raised about the reduction of the tax base and the lack of oversight and regulation in offshore centres. Offshore reincorporation has been condemned as immoral, unconscionable, dishonest and unpatriotic, accusations that cast doubt on the legitimacy of the companies concerned. In question is their right to conduct business in the U.S. and in particular, their right to still be viewed as American. Their legitimacy once bestowed so readily by the company's shareholders is now being questioned not only by shareholders but also the media, politicians, government regulators, pension funds and labour unions. Expatriate companies have been slow to respond to questions of their legitimacy, viewing their offshore move as a financial decision needing only the consent of their shareholders. However, times have changed and corporate legitimacy is now in the hands of all the company's stakeholders. Companies will need to explicitly consider the determinants of their legitimacy and the implications of the implied social contract under which they operate, to remain relevant in the days ahead.     

What matters in a price negotiation: Evidence from the U.S. auto retailing industry

While there is a great deal of theoretical and experimental literature on what factors affect bargaining outcomes, there is little empirical work based on data from real markets. In this paper we analyze negotiations for new cars, a $340 billion industry in the United States in 2010. Our results suggest that search costs, incomplete information, and bargaining disutility have an economically significant effect in real-world negotiations: we estimate that relative to an uninformed consumer, a consumer with basic information about the seller’s reservation price and his own outside options captures 15% of the average dealer margin from selling an automobile. We also find that a buyer’s search cost and bargaining disutility have significant effects on bargaining outcomes. Finally, our results show that while search is common, there remains a substantial group of consumers who do not engage in any of the search behaviors we measure. We hypothesize that these buyers are not aware of how easy and effective certain activities in improving negotiation outcomes can be.     

经济危机中,我们收获了什么

<正>零点研究咨询集团6月8日发布的《2009’零点城市生活调查报告》指出:经济危机之中,普通公众不经意的生活方式改变之中,其实蕴含着很多积极正面的信息。经济危机带给我们的不仅仅是     

利益集团能主导美国的制造业回归吗

文章在国际贸易政治经济学的理论框架下考察利益集团是否能主导美国制造业回归的问题。以100个参议员为样本,运用完全信息极大似然法(FIML)进行模型估计与分析,定量考察两个美国制造业回归法案(S. Amdt. 523和S. Amdt. 817)投票结果背后蕴含的深层次驱动因素。实证结果显示,不同利益集团政治捐资对制造业回归法案投票的影响是不同的,美国劳工组织的政治捐资显著影响了议员的投票行为,但商业集团和意识形态组织并未对投票结果发挥显著作用。另外,议员的个人特征在一定程度上影响了政治捐资情况,但不影响投票结果。选区经济社会特征对议员投票结果没有显著影响。未来中国需要持续关注美国制造业回归的最新进展并正确评估对中国经济的影响,与美国重要利益集团保持沟通协调,以减少对我国相关产业的负面影响。     

Business Ethics in Brazil and the U.S.: A Comparative Investigation

In this comparative survey of 126 Brazilian and U.S. business professionals, we explore the effect of national culture on ethical decision-making within the context of business. Using Reidenbach and Robin's (1988) multi-criteria ethics instrument, we examined how these two countries' differences on Hofstede's individualism/collectivism dimension are related to the manner in which business practitioners make ethical decisions. Our results indicate that Brazilians and Americans evaluate the ethical content of actions or decisions differently when applying utilitarian criteria. By contrast, business people from both countries do not differ significantly when they use egoistic criteria in evaluating the ethical nature of business decisions.     

Regulating product safety: The informational role of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission

Those familiar with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission know that it often deals with product safety issues. Nevertheless it is not generally recognized as a safety agency. This paper undertakes a comprehensive review and analysis of the FTC's safety-related activities. It also presents a preliminary evaluation of the potential for FTC safety-related activities to improve consumer product-related safety as compared to other, more traditional, forms of safety law and regulation. It recommends that the FTC make greater use of its unfairness authority to provide safety information during the period of product use in contrast to the Commission's current focus on regulating pre-purchase information.

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Zusammenfassung Die Regulierung der Produktsicherheit: die informationelle Rolle der U.S. amerikanischenDie Federal Trade Commission ist häufig mit Fragen Wettbewerbsbehörde FTC. der Produktsicherheit befa\t. Dennoch gilt sie nicht als generelle Sicherheitsinstanz. Der Beitrag bietet einen überblick über die Aktivitäten der FTC, die Fragen der Sicherheit berühren, und analysiert dabei die Regulierung werblicher Aussagen zur Produktsicherheit, der Unterlassung von Produktinformationen zur Produktsicherheit vor dem Kauf sowie der Sicherheitsinformationen während des Gebrauchs eines Produktes. Zugleich versucht der Beitrag eine vorläufige Bewertung dieser FTC-Aktivitäten zur Verbesserung der Produktsicherheit im Vergleich zu anderen, eher traditionellen Formen der rechtlichen Regelung der Produktsicherheit. Der Autor schlägt vor, da\ sich die FTC stärker der Regulierung der Sicherheitsinformationen während der Produktverwendung widmet, statt — wie bisher — den Schwerpunkt auf die Regulierung der Information vor dem Kauf zu legen.

     

U.S.-American and German Business Ethics:An Intercultural Comparison

The differences between the "habits of the heart" in German and U.S.-American corporations can be described by analyzing the way corporations deal with norms and values within their organizations. Whereas many U.S. corporations have introduced formal business ethics programs, German companies are very reluctant to address normative questions publicly. This can be explained by the different cultural backgrounds in both countries. By defining these different "habits of the heart" underlying German and American business ethics it is possible to show the problems and questions within the intercultural management of values, but also the possible solutions.     

Applying Stories of the Environment to Business: What Business People Can Learn From the Virtues in Environmental Narratives

The use of narrative to communicate and convey particular points of view in society has increasingly become the focus of academic attention in recent years. In particular, MacIntyre. (1985, 1988, 1990, 1999) has paid attention to the role of narrative in the conflict between different traditions when developing his virtue approach to ethics. Whilst there has been continued debate about the application of virtue approaches, some arguing that it is incompatible with business, I disagree and have already argued for a form of virtue that will focus business on society’s needs rather than better business itself. Here I continue to develop the argument in two ways. First, I will explore the predominant business narrative and offer some comment on the ‘virtues’ that it promotes. However, rather than accepting this narrative, I want to challenge it with a narrative from the environmental tradition. I consider how adopting the virtues promoted by an environmental narrative it would shape business practices and challenge current business conventions. As a second step, I will focus on how we can change managers’ perceptions of business to reflect these environmentally based virtues.     

The Ethics of Organizations: A Longitudinal Study of the U.S. Working Population

The ethics of organizations has received much attention in recent years. This raises the question of whether the ethics of organizations has also improved. In 1999, 2004, and 2008, a survey was conducted of 12,196 U.S. managers and employees. The results show that the ethical culture of organizations improved in the period between 1999 and 2004. Between 2004 and 2008 unethical behavior and its consequences declined and the scope of ethics programs expanded while ethical culture showed no significant improvement during the same period. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for future research and practice.