Ethical Theory in German Business Ethics Research

This article offers an overview over the wide scope business ethics has reached in German speaking countries; works which in their majority are not yet available in English translation. The proposed concepts range from a focus on the individual manager and a focus on moral education of managers, via the procedural model of discourse ethics to pressure group ethics and business ethics from a Christian point of view. Other authors suggest an economic theory of moral behaviour, or see ethics as an assurance for decisions under uncertainty or argue for a more enlightened concept of economic rationality.     

Theory of Monetary Intelligence: Money Attitudes—Religious Values,Making Money,Making Ethical Decisions,and Making the Grade

This study explores (1) the effect of a short ethics intervention—a chapter of business ethics in a business course—on perceptions of business courses and personal values toward making money and making ethical decisions and (2) Monetary Intelligence (MI). Since attitudes predict intentions and behaviors, Monetary Intelligence, a form of social intelligence, is defined as the extent to which individuals monitor their own monetary motive, behavior, and cognition; apply the information to evaluate critical concerns and options; select strategies to achieve financial goals; and reach ultimate success and subjective well-being. I theorize that the affective (love of money motive) aspect of MI is unrelated to perceptions of “course work,” yet it is positively related to their “personal values” toward making money, but negatively related to making ethical decisions. Individuals with high MI (low affective love of money motive) have low interests in making money, but high levels of intrinsic religiosity and recall of the Ten Commandments and high interests in making ethical decisions and making the grade (objective academic performance). Based on data from multiple panels and multiple sources, this study provides the following discoveries. Contrary to expectations, there are no differences in students’ perceptions of course work and their personal values toward making money and making ethical decisions between two measures—before and after the ethics intervention. Results of this study not only provide empirical supports for the bright side of theory of Monetary Intelligence (MI, Monetary Quotient, MQ) but also reveal a new paradox—recall of the Ten Commandments (the priming effect) is positively related to making ethical decisions, but negatively related to making money. Results illustrate important theoretical, empirical, and practical implications to the literature of money attitudes, religiosity, intrinsic motivation, and business ethics.     

The regulatory challenge to branding: An interpretation of UK competition authority investigations 1950–2007

Abstract

Branding is a necessary and important business tool. This study, however, examines whether branding can constitute an anticompetitive act. While most markets and firms do not undertake anticompetitive actions, being identified as such can result in a wide range of negative outcomes. To explore this low-frequency yet high-risk outcome, this study assesses how branding has been perceived to be anticompetitive by the UK competition authorities. This assessment is undertaken by examination of all UK competition law regulatory decisions undertaken over the period 1950–2007 by the UK competition authorities. From this assessment, it is observed that branding can facilitate excessive pricing, requires vertical restraints, and can lead to consumer confusion; all potentially anticompetitive acts. The competition regulatory decisions focused on branding issues are demonstrably different from regulatory decisions without branding concerns and involve larger, often manufacturing, firms, which operate in more concentrated markets. It is concluded that comprehension of competition law needs to be disseminated more widely amongst marketing communities and greater reference to business and marketing theory should be made by competition law agencies to assist the comprehension of marketing techniques such as branding.     

Undue diligence?

Making big decisions is a daily task for business executives. Dan Goldstein asks if you have given much thought to how those decisions are made. It may be that the way you or your company reach decisions is both time-consuming and wide of the mark when it should be fast and frugal.     

Book essay on “The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective”

The recent economic misfortune challenges the legitimacy of business leadership and those presented as heroic, charismatic and transformational visionaries. This book contributes to the lively debate about the role of transformational leadership in business and society. Tourish parallels transformational leadership with cults; and argues that the noticeable overlaps should caution against the potential of moving organizations further along the dysfunctional cult continuum than is desirable. In addition to dissent, Tourish promotes consideration of an alternative perspective based on institutionalized feedback into the organizational decision-making process. This book sets out to prepare students of leadership to critically analyze and reflect on leadership behavior and decisions, and to warn, against trusting too much in the judgment of others and not enough in our own.     

The games retailers play

Game theory has helped to clarify and simplify a wide variety of business decisions, yet has rarely been applied in a retailing context. This article pairs three contemporary retailing issues with three well‐known strategic games in an effort to spark the imagination of the strategist and the student. The issues of trading hours, saturation and Investment in innovation are examined through the application of the Prisoner's Dilemma, Tragedy of the Common, and Boxed Pigs. Implications of the games for retail decision‐making and for management education are explored.     

What is Different about Socially Responsible Funds? A Holdings-Based Analysis

Using samples from the U.S. and Puerto Rico, we examine cross-cultural differences in cultural value dimensions, and relate these to act and rule utilitarian orientations, and ethical decision making of business professionals. Although these places share the same legal environment, culturally they are distinct. In addition to tests of between-group differences, a model in which utilitarian orientation mediates the influence of cultural values on ethical decisions was evaluated at the individual level of analysis. Results indicated national culture differences on three cultural values, but no between-group differences on utilitarian orientations and ethical decisions. Significant indirect effects were found; act utilitarian orientation mediated the effects of two values activity orientation and universalism on ethical decision making. Implications for international management practices and business ethics are discussed.     

The Middle Path: Using Dual-Investor Theory in Teaching Business Ethics

Graduates of business ethics courses often fail to apply what they have learned to decisions in business life because, this study finds, neither stakeholder theory nor shareholder-oriented theories seem satisfactory – less than 7% of respondents felt either view achieved the best balance between social responsibility and making a profit. Dual-Investor theory offers students a framework within which to articulate and think through the ethical dimensions of business decisions, a framework 77.8% of respondents overall and 82.1% of business students claimed they were most likely to use in making their own decisions. The paper provides three sample cases illustrating the instructional advantages of Dual-Investor theory and points out several ways instructors might use Dual-Investor theory in business ethics courses.     

The pervasive effects of family on entrepreneurship: toward a family embeddedness perspective

Families and businesses have often been treated as naturally separate institutions, whereas we argue that they are inextricably intertwined. Long-term changes in family composition and in the roles and relations of family members have produced families in North America that are growing smaller and losing many of their previous role relationships. Such transformations in the institution of the family have implications for the emergence of new business opportunities, opportunity recognition, business start-up decisions, and the resource mobilization process. We suggest that entrepreneurship scholars would benefit from a family embeddedness perspective on new venture creation.     

The BizCafe Interpretive Simulation case study to teach strategic entrepreneurship

The BizCafe Interpretive Simulation is a good resource for teaching a restaurant business start-up. The simulation replicates the real life business of running a coffee shop. Each student will assume the role of coffee shop manager, and will make all the decisions necessary to survive in a competitive environment. The decisions encompass several aspects of the restaurant business. In the start-up period, determining the hours of operation, coffee prices, and wages are among the decisions. As in real life, some of the decisions—like whether or not to buy a pastry oven—are irreversible, with ramifications that will impact revenues and costs throughout the duration of the simulation. However, coffee prices and wages can be changed, based on analysis of the competitive set. As in any business venture, this is a contest to see who can survive. In this competitive set, there will be winners and losers, based on who has made the best decisions.     

Book Reviews

The rise of graduate business schools occurred during a period of enormous growth, followed by dramatic decline in the fortunes of American business. Because so many M.B.A.-educated executives had difficulty managing their companies' response to dramatic changes in markets and technology, this study examines how business education has influenced managerial attitude and practices. Columbia and Harvard Business Schools were examined to see how, as well, their educational approaches provided managers with the skills, information and confidence to make both entrepreneurial and operational decisions. Both schools effectively prepared their graduates for operational decisions, but did not successfully provide their managers with the skills and knowledge to facilitate entrepreneurial decisions. Moreover, the study also found that American business was not actively engaged in the direction of graduate business education. Thus, the reliance of American business upon graduate business schools may have had consequences for America's business.     

Factors influencing consumers' purchase decision-making in O2O business model: Evidence from consumers' overall evaluation

Online-to-offline (O2O) has become a rapidly growing e-commerce model worldwide, but the factors influencing consumers' purchase decision-making have not been examined well. After exploring the working mechanism of the O2O model, we extract eleven indexes of consumers' overall evaluation in the O2O model with Crawlzilla and R techniques. Social network analysis (SNA) is adopted to build social networks reflecting consumers' overall evaluation in the O2O model. Based on the modified social network and the extracted subgraph, this study (N = 768) reveals consumers' overall evaluation behavior patterns in the O2O model by calculating network density, central potential, edge betweenness. The results show that shoppers overall evaluate the eleven indexes, especially perceived product quality, online product price, promotion intensity, business reputation, and product brand, which reflects the significant associations between the indexes. Among all the eleven evaluation indexes, perceived product quality, online product price, and business reputation dominate consumers’ decision-making behavior. When making purchase decisions, consumers not only overall consider online product price, perceived product quality, and business reputation but also balance perceived product quality, business reputation, and promotion intensity. Finally, we make some suggestions on marketing strategy for e-commerce companies.     

Mixed Motives and Ethical Decisions in Business

Discerning the motives that lead businesspeople to make ethical decisions in economic contexts is important, for it aids the moral evaluation of such decisions. But conventional economic theory has for too long assumed an egoist model of motivation, to which many contrast an altruist view of ethical choices. The result is to see business decision making as implying dilemmas. On the other hand, we argue, if one assumes multiple motives, economic and ethical, in ordinary business decisions, a more fruitful model of ethical motivation in such decisions emerges. In this paper multiple motives are assumed to be the norm in a world of large organizations, complex decisions and stakeholder management. An example of a technology acquisition decision, with environmental overtones is presented in illustration of this approach. A method for discerning motives, primarily in terms of behavioural efficacy is presented. On this basis a two step approach to morally evaluating mixed motives in business decisions is proposed. First, the fit of motives with substantive ethical values should be ascertained, and then the efficacy of moral motives in yielding ethical behaviour and outcomes should be determined. This approach, we conclude, offers a much more concrete model of the actual role of moral motives in business decision making. It also signals the importance of moral learning in organizations.     

Predicting Foreign Firms’ Expansion and Divestment Intentions in Host Countries: Insights from Ghana

Foreign firms’ strategic decisions in a host country after the initial investment are important issues worth extensive academic enquiry. This issue is, however, underresearched and the scant literature that does exist is focused on developed countries, despite the increasing interests and investments by firms in developing countries. Using the case of a developing sub‐Saharan African (SSA) country (Ghana), this study attempts to close this gap in the literature, as it explores the factors that can influence foreign firms’ strategic decisions regarding expansion, downsizing, relocation and termination of their operations. The study found that host countries’ business environments play an important role in foreign firms’ subsequent strategic decisions. The study particularly found that favorable government regulations, low cost factors and good infrastructure are important in influencing foreign firms’ expansions decisions. Unfavorability of these factors within the business environment on the other hand will stimulate strategic divestment. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Assessing the Influence of Attitudes,Skills and Experience on International Marketing Investment Decision-Making: A Behavioral/Systems Approach

A lack of rigorous theories and validated research instruments have been serious impediments to the development of research models to test the relative importance of managerial attitudes, skills and experience as influences on the international marketing decision-making process and, ultimately, on levels of company performance and internationalization. The author has drawn on a wide range of organizational theories and the results of empirical studies in the international marketing, management and business spheres to devise a more eclectice, behavioral/environmental systems model to assess the importance of intra-firm and extra-firm influences on key marketing managers' international investment decisions.     

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.     

Owls,larks, or investment sharks? The role of circadian process in early-stage investment decisions

Investors in early-stage companies want to detect and select high-potential opportunities to maximize their long-term returns. However, in uncertain and risky early-stage investment contexts, company information is often opaque, and decision-making timeframes are compressed. Although there is an abundance of prior work on how investors make structured decisions based on their experience and expertise, there is a very limited understanding of how time-based factors can sway investment decisions. The circadian process is the 24-hour sequence that serves as an individual's internal timer influencing not only sleep cycles, but also attention and performance on a wide range of cognitive tasks. Understanding how the circadian process impacts early-stage investment holds implications for optimal investment decisions. We build on social cognitive theory and propose that investor-level factors (i.e., chronotypes) and environmental factors (time of the day) interact to influence the amount of information investors search for, and consequently, their investment decisions. We hypothesize and find that investors are influenced by the time of day they make early-stage investment decisions. Lark investors make better investment decisions in the morning, whereas owl investors make better decisions in the evening. Information search effort mediates this relationship.     

Religious Intensity,Evangelical Christianity,and Business Ethics: An Empirical Study

Research on the relationship between religious commitment and business ethics has produced widely varying results and made the impact of such commitment unclear. This study presents an empirical investigation based on a questionnaire survey of business managers and professionals in the United States yielding a database of 1234 respondents. Respondents evaluated the ethical acceptability of 16 business decisions. Findings varied with the way in which the religion variable was measured. Little relationship between religious commitment and ethical judgment was found when responses were compared on the basis of broad faith categories – Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, other religions, and no religion. However, respondents who indicated that religious interests were of high or moderate importance to them demonstrated a higher level of ethical judgment (less accepting of unethical decisions) than others in their evaluations. Evangelical Christians also showed a higher level of ethical judgment.     

How images and color in business plans influence venture investment screening decisions

We explore how product images and color in business plans influence venture investment screening decisions. Because images are accessible, memorable, and influential, we argue that product images in a business plan will increase the likelihood of favorable judgments during screening decisions. Moreover, because red and blue automatically affect an individual's cognition in different manners such that red elicits negative associations and blue elicits positive ones from the evaluators, we predict that the use of red in a business plan will decrease the favorability of judgments during screening decisions, while the use of blue will increase their favorability. Using a quasi-experimental field study and a series of controlled experiments, we find partial support for a positive effect of product images on favorable screening decisions and a consistent negative effect of red on favorable screening decisions.     

Revisiting the standing of international business journals in the competitive landscape

Journal rankings are contentious, proliferating and bring about a significant change to research productivity and quality assessment. In this paper, we assess the quality and impact of International Business (IB) journals in relation to each other and management and business journals more broadly. In so doing, we overcome methodological limitations of previous journal rankings by adopting a novel approach that incorporates a worldwide meta-ranking. Its key advantage is the ability to look at the standing of journals both within and between subject-areas. Comparisons between subject areas are important because centralization of resource allocation decisions within institutions has ramifications for disciplines and staff involved. Results indicate that within the IB domain, JIBS continues to top the list, JWB has solidified its position and joined the upper tier of IB journals, the space below JIBS and JWB is increasingly contested, pointing to the emergence of a multi-tier set of “core” IB journals. In the wider competitive landscape of management and business journals, IB journals perform well in the upper tier, but there is a long tail of IB journals at the lower end of our meta-ranking.