Ethical reasoning in business‐to‐business negotiations: evidence from relationships in the chemical industry in Germany

This article explores managers’ ethical reasoning for behaviors in price negotiations using evidence from 15 in‐depth interviews conducted with sales and purchasing representatives in the chemical industry in Germany. Applying transaction cost economics, we find that negotiators in commoditized market‐like exchanges either refer to deontological norms such as not to lie, or they neglect a role for ethics, arguing that distributive negotiation is per se opportunistic. In contrast, exchanges of products with higher asset specificity lead to stronger informational integration which is supported with teleological justifications. Some negotiators use teleological justification to build business on trust rather than on economic safeguards as their firm norms would require. For negotiators, our results suggest considering institutional context and adjusting ethical reasoning to the negotiation situation. Firms need to recognize and find ways to address the potential conflicts of their internal norms with their frontline managers’ attempts to act in the firms’ best economic and ethical interests.     

The influence of the JDR 3rd Fund on “business and society”: Incorporating corporate social responsibility in the business curriculum

The ideal of corporate social responsibility as a management orientation and as a field of study in business schools was given support by John D. Rockefeller 3rd (JDR 3). He attempted to promote this concept in the Committee on Economic Development and in certain business schools. This attempt was not very effective in academe, due partly to a lack of understanding about how universities function. As a result, an adequate academic infrastructure was slow to develop.Karen Paul is Professor of Business Environment at Florida International University and was a Research Associate in the Program on Non-Profit Organizations, Yale University when this study was accomplished. She has published widely in the field of business and society and business ethics.Peter Dobkin Hall is Research Scientist in the Program on Non-Profit Organizations, Yale University. Hall's published work includesThe Organization of American Culture, 1700–1900, Inventing the Nonprofit Sector and other Essays on Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Nonprofit Organizations, and (with George Marcus)Lives in Trust: The Fortunes of Dynastic Families in Late Twentieth Century America.     

Business ethics and business education: A report from a regional state university

My central point is that the recent wave of interest in business ethics is an opportunity to review the whole enterprise of undergraduate business education. Business ethics, taught as if the students, faculty, curriculum and organization of the business school were important parts of the subject matter, is a way both to affirm the seriousness of ethical inquiry and to build an increased sense of collegial responsibility for the overall curriculum students are asked to undertake. Barry Castro is Professor of Management and Assistant Dean at the Seidman School of Business at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. His papers have been published in the American Economic Review, The Journal of Political Economy, The Harvard Educational Review, Change, and Soundings.     

Business ethics and social responsibility in finance instruction: An abdication of responsibility

The shareholder wealth maximization objective for corporate management can be a very effective tool for decision making. However, it can also be used to rationalize the commission of unethical or socially irresponsible actions. Overemphasis on the SWM objective by some companies can lead to dangerous or disastrous consequences for consumers, employees, or the general population. Even so, issues of business ethics and social responsibility (BE-SR) are almost totally ignored in corporate finance textbooks. If the typical coverage of corporate finance courses is represented by these textbooks, then financial educators are abdicating their responsibility to help prepare future corporate managers to recognize and deal with BE-SR issues effectively.Delvin D. Hawley earned his Ph.D and MBA in Finance and B.S. in Psychology at Michigan State University. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Finance at The University of Mississippi in Oxford. Teaching areas include Corporate Finance and Investments. Research interests include bond market efficiency and artificial neural network applications in finance.     

Making sense of corporate social responsibility in international business: experiences from Shell

International business organizations are regularly addressed on their corporate social responsibility (CSR). As illustrated in this paper, it is not yet clear exactly what CSR means to organizations and how to deal with it. In this paper, the authors explore how a sensemaking approach helps to understand the business challenges of CSR within an organizational context. The theories of Karl Weick are applied to the experiences of CSR in Royal Dutch Shell. The authors argue that the key to CSR in international business organizations is to engage stakeholders and start a process of joint sensemaking. Three main competencies are crucial in this: the competency to engage stakeholders through listening and understanding; the creation of an organizational language so that CSR makes sense to members of the organization; and recognizing the momentum of taking action.     

Judging a business by its cover: An institutional perspective on new ventures and the business plan

Business plans are widely spread among new businesses, and they are supported by various universities, governmental assistance agencies, management consultants and a wide array of literature. Business plans are often taken for granted as highly useful tools that should be frequently updated and used. This study is based on data from six companies and their environments, over five years, using several forms of data collection such as interviews, observations, and archival data. In contrast to previous studies, we found that initial conformity to business plan norms gradually and without exception lead to loose coupling. Entrepreneurs who wrote business plans never updated or rarely referred to their plans after writing them.     

Gender differences in business performance: evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners survey

This paper compares the technical efficiency of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with that of large firms and studies the factors influencing technical efficiency for Taiwan’s electronics industry. Unlike conventional studies, we use two alternative approaches to control for the influence of size effect. One is the two-stage switching regression to correct for endogenous size effect on technical efficiency and, the other is, a metafrontier production function for firms in different groups. The main results are as follows. First, the average technical efficiency for large firms is higher than that of SMEs, without considering the size effect, and lower when considering the endogenous choice on firm size. This study cannot, therefore, conclude that there is a negative size–technical efficiency relationship. It however, sheds light on the importance of size effect on the size–technical efficiency nexus. Second, the estimates on the determinants of technical efficiency show that being a subcontractor has a statistically significant positive influence on SMEs’ technical efficiency, but the effect decreases with firm size.

Trends in business thought and literature: International perspectives on managers in a dual society

New winds are blowing as the 20th century draws to a close. Globalization of markets, emerging technologies, and a green alliance are factors leading to drastic changes in the structure of business and indeed in humanity itself. Market globalization results from the shrinking of the planet under a transport and telecommunications revolution. Television has become a global mirror that reflects human society, albeit imperfectly. The image transmitted is of a multicultural, heterogeneous society with a growing gap between world socioeconomic realities. Management is and will increasingly be a critical resource for development. Considerable investment has been made in all countries of the world on the training and development of managers and emerging realities will pose unprecedented demands on management development. These new challenges include new work methods, energy constraints, ecological concerns, demographic growth, product shortages, and geo-social-political instability. A radical change can hardly be expected in management education in the short term. It is possible, however, to insert an “innovation gene” in management education institutions to provoke a lasting change process. To determine such a “gene” it is advisable to screen some of the assessments that were made recently and to propose a search for “islands of modernization” in management education and training. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Most cited business ethics publications: mapping the intellectual structure of business ethics studies in 2001–2008

This study explores the research paradigms of contemporary business ethics research in 2001–2008. With citation data from the top two business ethics journals included in the Social Sciences Citation Index, this study conducts citation and co‐citation analysis to identify the most important publications, scholars, and research themes in the business ethics area and then maps the intellectual structure of business ethics studies between 2001 and 2008. The results show that current business ethics studies cluster around four major research themes, including morality and social contract theory, ethical decision making, corporate social responsibility, and stakeholder theory. This study helps profile the invisible network of knowledge production in business ethics and provides important insights on current research paradigms of business ethics studies.     

节约型社会建设中水资源管理问题

本文针对我国面临的水资源环境严峻形势,提出了适应市场经济规律的行政管理措施、符合市场规律的经济管理措施和具有时代特征的技术管理措施.     

节约型社会建设中水资源管理问题

本文针对我国面临的水资源环境严峻形势,提出了适应市场经济规律的行政管理措施、符合市场规律的经济管理措施和具有时代特征的技术管理措施.     

Trends in international business thought and literature (supplement): The transatlantic business dialogue: Business at the negotiating table

The Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) is a novel coalition of American and European business leaders who seek to influence their respective governments on transatlantic trade and investment matters. In the past year, the TABD has emerged as a powerful voice in setting the agenda for the “transatlantic marketplace.” This article examines the TABD's origins and development, and suggests that the TABD may serve as a future model for trade and investment negotiations.     

The development of critical capabilities in foreign subsidiaries: disentangling the role of the subsidiary’s business network

Within business literature in general, capabilities have advanced to the prime determinant of the corporation’s economic rents. Within international business literature, it is further assumed that multinational corporations can enhance their pool of capabilities through foreign subsidiaries. Foreign subsidiaries are seen as means to assimilate new capabilities from their local, external network and integrate these capabilities into the multinational corporation. Data from more than 2000 foreign subsidiaries shows that some foreign units actually are endowed with superior capabilities which are useful for other corporate entities. It is argued that the development of critical capabilities within these subsidiaries is driven not only by internal corporate actors, but also by external actors. The analysis provides evidence that the role of different internal and external network partners for capability development varies according to the functional activity under consideration. Thus, subsidiaries benefit from various internal and external network actors in very different ways. The contribution ends with some conclusions and some avenues for future research.     

A new perspective on the effects of price promotions in Taiwan: a longitudinal study of a Chinese society

This study investigated the effects of price promotions on consumers’ brand affect. Given the inconsistent findings in previous research, it is proposed that the effects of price promotion depend on two moderator variables: brand image and consumer loyalty. For high loyalty consumers of a prestigious brand, price incentive incompatible with the brand image can hurt the brand affect. When a non‐prestigious brand is involved, brand affect is positively influenced. However, these effects are limited to high loyalty consumers only. There was no effect on low loyalty consumers. In a longitudinal study of the Taiwanese market using emails, these hypotheses were tested and supported.     

Embracing ambiguity – lessons from the study of corporate social responsibility throughout the rise and decline of the modern welfare state

In the work of Karl Polanyi, the negative effects of a self‐regulating market economy are described as being limited by societal forces such as the policies of the welfare state. With the decline of the modern welfare state since the late 1970s, social activities of business firms are increasingly regarded as an important complement to or even as a substitute for welfare state policies by a part of the literature. However, and controversially, another stream of argumentation regards these activities as being aimed at advancing the reach of market forces. To fully grasp the ambiguous nature of the social activities of business, in this paper I provide an account of affirmative as well as of critical interpretations of these activities throughout the history of modern capitalism. On this basis, the power of critique to disentangle the diverse motivations that underlie the social engagement of business is highlighted as a condition for facilitating a role of business in society that balances economic and social considerations.     

Embedding consumer culture in health and social care education – a university office's perspective

Health and social care services are changing – and this change is radical. Service user and carer involvement has been a key aspect of health and social care policy for a number of years. In terms of the National Health Service (NHS), this has been significantly strengthened by the report ‘High Quality Care for All’. The NHS will no longer be a monolith dictating what services it offers. It is beginning to take seriously the views of its consumers: the patients, service users and carers. The NHS is starting to put the patient experience at the centre of everything it does, and its regulators are asking for evidence of public and patient involvement. This process may yet prove to be one of the NHS' greatest challenges as it transforms to prioritize the consumer viewpoint. Social care, though further down the line in relation to involvement, is now responding to the relatively new personalization agenda. This paper will consider what the university sector can do to embed the consumer and service culture within the education of health and social care professionals. It looks at the challenges of involvement and required culture change, highlighting the key points to address in the early and middle stages of involvement from a university office's perspective. It includes examples of consumer involvement in teaching, assessment and the selection of students and how their input is starting to make a difference. Finally, the paper outlines what is needed in a development office to establish and support effective service user and carer involvement on health and social care courses in higher education. The article concludes by acknowledging that there is much more work that needs to be done in this field to embed the work of a development office, but that early steps have been promising.     

Multiple institutional logics in union–NGO relations: private labor regulation in the Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign

Conflicts between labor unions and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) often impede private labor regulatory attempts to protect worker rights at supplier factories. Based on a study of a failed private regulatory attempt for Swedish garment retailers, we contribute to existing research into union–NGO relations by demonstrating how conflict arises because unions and NGOs act upon different institutional logics. We also contribute to the institutional logics perspective by challenging the current emphasis on either coexistence or conflict among multiple logics, and showing the heterogeneity in how multiple logics manifest on a local level, how this could shift over time, and suggesting an empirically derived typology of manifestations of multiple logics.