A polymorphism associated with entrepreneurship: evidence from dopamine receptor candidate genes

The tendency to be an entrepreneur may be influenced by genetic variation. Sensation seeking is more common among entrepreneurs than among the general population. Twin studies show that the tendency to be an entrepreneur is heritable and that common genes influence both sensation seeking and entrepreneurial tendency (Nicolaou et al. Manag Sci 54:167–179, 2008a; Strateg Entrep J 2:7–21, 2008b). Since dopamine receptor genes have been associated with novelty seeking/sensation seeking (Benjamin et al. Nat Genet 12:81–84, 1996; Ebstein et al. Nat Genet 12:78–80, 1996; Noblett and Coccaro Curr Psychiatry Rep 7:73–80, 2005), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been reported to occur at greater rates among entrepreneurs, we examined the association between five dopamine receptor genes and four ADHD-associated genes, with the tendency to be an entrepreneur in a sample of 1,335 individuals from the UK. We found a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs1486011) of the DRD3 gene on chromosome 3 to be significantly associated with the tendency to be an entrepreneur. This result is the first evidence of the association of a specific gene with entrepreneurship. Further studies are needed to replicate this association.     

Insights Regarding the Applicability of the Defining Issues Test to Advance Ethics Research with Accounting Students: A Meta-analytic Review

Numerous researchers have investigated accounting students’ levels of moral reasoning, ethical choice and judgment employing the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and using its P score as an indicator of moral reasoning. Not surprisingly, a number of DIT studies report conflicting results. Moreover, despite widespread use of the DIT, there is concern that it may not adequately measure all facets of ethical judgment (cf. Bailey et al., Behav Res Account 22(2):1–26, 2010). Thus, we endeavor to provide insight not only into the contradictory results but also about the applicability of the DIT for studying accounting students. To do so, we collect published and unpublished DIT studies employing accounting students as subjects and use meta-analysis to aggregate findings across these studies to quantify their results, examining commonly employed variables. We show significant relationships between P scores and some variables (length of professional experience, choice of major, political ideology, gender, GPA and education level) but not others (age). Further, our findings demonstrate that the DIT provides added insights when exploring questions of ethical choice, and ethics instruction, particularly when the instruction is embedded in an accounting course. Finally, we find that the level of DIT P scores reported in the studies relates to whether the study was published. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research.     

Gendered reading of the body in the bed

Abstract

This study contributes to studies on domestic material culture and gender. In studying object–person relations, prior scholars have given priority to materialising the ‘object’, paying less attention to the material aspects of the ‘person’. To redress this gap, we draw on recent feminist materialist and affective turns and conceptualise the object–person relation as inherently gendered, embodied and affective. We develop this conceptualisation by analysing the way in which the gendered body interacts with the bed – a domestic material object that is fruitful for a gender analysis. As a result, we offer an extended view of the gendered body that interacts with the material world: one that is biological and cultural, sleeping and waking, and has the capacity to affect and be affected. Our study thereby contributes to gender studies in marketing and consumer research by taking a step forward in materialising both the object and the body.     

About the authors

Calls for the banning of tobacco advertising rely heavily on the belief that advertising contributes towards children starting or continuing the habit. A number of research studies which claim to demonstrate this connection have been reviewed. Some of these studies have been extensively quoted in anti-smoking literature. This paper is based on a detailed review.

The review found that the studies tended to show a degree of correlation between awareness/approval of advertising and propensity to smoke, but failed to establish a causal link, relying instead on emotive language to convey the impression of cause and effect. From evidence quoted in the studies themselves, it can be demonstrated that, even if advertising can lead children to smoke (which can neither be proved nor disproved), it is likely to be an influence of only minor importance, and much less relevant than other factors such as family environment and peer pressure.

There is no evidence in any of the studies to suggest that, if advertising were banned, it would make the least difference to the propensity of children to smoke. The major weakness of the studies reviewed is that they pay virtually no attention to the more important question of what, in fact, motivates the minority of children who start to smoke. It is hard to resist the conclusion that advertising is selected for attack mainly because it is a relatively easy target.     

Contrasting the Behavioural Business Ethics Approach and the Institutional Economic Approach to Business Ethics: Insights From the Study of Quaker Employers

The article suggests that in a modern context, where value pluralism is a prevailing and possibly, even ethically desirable interaction condition, institutional economics provides a more viable business ethics than behavioural business ethics, such as Kantianism or religious ethics. The article explains how the institutional economic approach to business ethics analyses morality with regard to an interaction process, and favours non-behavioural, situational intervention with incentive structures and with capital exchange. The article argues that this approach may have to be prioritised over behavioural business ethics, which tends to analyse morality at the level of the individual and favours behavioural intervention with the individual’s value, norm and belief system, e.g. through ethical pedagogy, communicative techniques, etc. Quaker ethics is taken as an example of behavioural ethics. The article concludes that through the conceptual grounding of behavioural ethics in the economic approach, theoretical and practical limitations of behavioural ethics, as encountered in a modern context, can be relaxed. Probably only then can behavioural ethics still contribute to raising moral standards in interactions amongst the members (stakeholders) of a single firm, and equally, amongst (the stakeholders of) different firms. Dr. Sigmund Wagner-Tsukamoto is researcher in business ethics, organisational economics and economic issues that concern the Old Testament. He is placed at the School of Management of the University of Leicester, UK. He holds two doctorates, one in social studies from the University of Oxford, UK, and one in economic studies from the Catholic University of Eichstaett, Germany. He has widely published on green consumerism and institutional economic issues that concern organization theory, business ethics theory and an economic interpretation of the Old Testament. His publications include the books Understanding Green Consumer Behaviour (Routledge, 2003) and Human Nature and Organization Theory (Edward Elgar, 2003).     

How does religion discipline the consumer subject? Negotiating the paradoxical tension between consumer desire and the social order

ABSTRACT

In this article, we revisit Russell Belk, Guliz Ger and Soren Askegaard’s study on consumer desire. We do so in an effort to further advance the extant understanding of desire in consumer research. Specifically, informed by Lacanian psychoanalytic thought and sharing much affinity with Foucault’s central argument in The History of Sexuality, we consider how the institution of religion functions as a disciplining force by which to mediate the (potential) conflict between human desire and the social order. For the purposes of this article, we focus our analytical gaze on how consumption practices have the disciplinary effect of regulating desire. That is to say, we illuminate how religion (and religious ideology) dictates certain consumption practices, which ultimately perform to ensure that the pursuit of desire does not contravene the pre-existing social order that structures society and organises social relating. To animate our theoretical claims, we draw on a qualitative study of the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic sub-culture originating in South Asia. This article builds on extant sociological and anthropological studies that have captured the nexus between religion and the workings of the marketplace. However, unlike past studies, the question posited at the crux of this article concerns desire and, particularly, how desire becomes subjected to the discourses pertaining to religiously prescribed consumption practices.     

Strategically Rethinking the Executive MBA International Business Experience

SUMMARY

During the past few years, Executive MBA (EMBA) programs at U.S. universities have expanded both in number and in content. As part of this expansion, an international experience has become an integral part of many of these programs. In most instances, the international experience has been a course planned and organized from a convenience perspective. This research proposes a more rigorous strategic planning model for EMBA program directors to consider in order to enhance the learning experience for participating students. Using a case example, it delineates between international field studies and international residencies, develops propositions, and offers an application of the proposed planning model.     

Exploring the animosity domain and the role of affect in a cross-national context

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of animosity theory in three areas; construct domain, the mediating role of affect and model testing.Design/methodology/approachExploratory and empirical research is carried out in two countries in order to explore the domain and to test the factor structure and the hypotheses through confirmatory analysis.FindingsWe find animosity is a four-dimensional construct which impacts buying behavior through affect.Originality/valueThe research extends the domain of the animosity construct to a four-dimensional structure rather than the two-dimensional structure used in most previous studies. It is the first study to empirically test an extended animosity domain and investigate the mediating role of affective emotional responses between animosity and buying intentions.     

An Inquiry into the Study of Corporate Codes of Ethics

This paper takes its point of departure in an article by Stevens [Stevens, B.: 1994, Journal of Business Ethics 54, 163–171], in which she identified a lack of knowledge regarding how corporate codes of ethics are communicated and affect behavior in organizations. Taking heed of this suggested gap, we review studies on corporate codes of ethics with an empirical content, published since 1994. The conclusion of the review is that we still lack knowledge on how codes work, how they are communicated and how they are transformed inside organizations. Stevens’ plea could even be extended, arguing that the knowledge gap might be of even more significance than in the mid-1990s. Some directions for how this situation can be approached in future studies are outlined in the paper.     

The Impact of a New Retail Brand In-Store Boutique and its Perceived Fit with the Parent Retail Brand on Store Performance and Customer Spending

With data from a specialty apparel retailer, we present two studies that investigate the impact of an in-store boutique displaying merchandise of a new retail brand on overall performance of the parent stores in which the boutiques are placed, and on customer spending on merchandise offered by each of the two brands. Findings from the two studies generally support that the in-store boutique enhances three key store-level metrics: average customer transaction value per store visit; comparable sales growth from one year to the next; and customer conversion ratio. At the customer-level both studies show that average customer transaction value on merchandise offered by the new brand is negatively related to average customer transaction value on the parent brand, and vice versa. Furthermore, both studies reveal that the relationship between the perceived fit between the two brands and average customer transaction value on the parent brand increases at an increasing rate (positive main and quadratic effects of perceived fit), but that the impact of perceived fit on average customer transaction value on the in-store boutique brand increases at a deceasing rate (positive main effect, but a negative quadratic effect of perceived fit). Implications for retail practice and theory are offered.     

Understanding Influences of the Typographic Quality of Text

ABSTRACT

In an electronic-society the production of texts is increasingly enabled or mediated through ICT. Existing typographic research seems to focus on isolated, rule-formulating studies that often have little impact on typographic practice. Our proposed framework aims to overcome these problems, by providing as complete and holistic explanation as possible of influences on a typographic quality in an emerging e-society. Five field studies were conducted in various locations in Sydney in 2005. The participants photographed examples of typographic text that they considered meaningful to their experiences. These were then used in subsequent photo-elicitation interviews. The results of data analysis supported by the literature led to the formation of a framework that synthesizes the influences on the quality of typographic text perceived by the audience. These include the typographic text's form and content, its immediate context, as well as the audience's own personal background and the purpose behind their reading activity. The framework aims to be generic and apply to texts in all various forms, including in print but also text presented on computer screens for e-commerce, e-government and other Internet applications supporting the electronic-society.     

Reducing Disconnects in the Design Agency-Client Relationship

Abstract

Account turnover for smaller agencies, whether an advertising, marketing research or design agency, is a serious financial drain that absorbs disproportionate CRM and managerial energies. Using a web-based survey developed from in-depth interviews, this empirical study investigates the extent to which smaller graphic design agencies follow the classical decision-making “process” when producing a creative product (an advertisement; a new package design, etc.). The global hypothesis is that the greater the degree of adherence to the steps in the management of the ideal relationship management “process” the greater the perceived satisfaction will be with their clients. Results of the analysis partially support the hypothesis and provide valuable directions for future studies.     

Managing China's energy sector: between the market and the state

As China has now become the largest energy consumer in the world, its energy sector has understandably huge domestic and global implications. In this Special Issue, which is an interdisciplinary one, comprising a set of eight in-depth empirical studies by leading international experts in the field, we set out to examine the management of the transformation of China's conventional and renewable energy sectors, with special attention to state–business relations and their link to the market.     

Evaluating Ethical Approaches to Crisis Leadership: Insights from Unintentional Harm Research

Leading a corporation through a crisis requires rational decision making guided by an ethical approach (Snyder et al., Journal of Business Ethics, 63, 2006, 371). Three such approaches are virtue ethics (Seeger and Ulmer, Journal of Business Ethics, 31, 2001, 369), an ethic of justice, and an ethic of care (Simola, Journal of Business Ethics, 46, 2003, 351). In this article, I consider the effectiveness of these approaches for leading a corporation after a crisis. The standard I use is drawn from recent studies that examine how people tend to react to corporate unintentional harms. I conclude from these studies that an ethic of care approach is most effective for managing corporate crises when it comes to stakeholder concerns. I conclude the article with strategies for managing a crisis using an ethic of care.     

Managing culture and the manipulation of difference: a case study of second-generation transplant

This contribution studies the processes and tensions involved in the introduction of management techniques, largely inspired by the Japanese example, into a non-Japanese manufacturing firm in the North East of England. In treating culture as something an organization has rather than something an organization is, management were able to introduce a new approach by actively using divisions existing among workers, particularly those along the axes of age and gender and skill. While successful in the short term the changes appear as brittle in the longer term context of skill deficits and the fluctuating demand for labour within the firm.     

The average consumer, the unfair commercial practices directive, and the cognitive revolution

This article examines the merit of the test of the average consumer as a basis for judicial and regulatory action. In the first part, we describe the origin of the test, its application in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and its possible developments. In the second part, we discuss the theoretical grounds of the average consumer test (i.e., information and rationality), drawing upon the studies of cognitive psychology and behavioural economics concerning consumers’ behaviour. The result of our analysis is that we call into serious question the practical workability of the test of the average consumer, which requires consumers an overly demanding standard of rationality and information without dedicating much attention to the real functioning of consumer behaviour. The average consumer may be described as an interesting, anti-paternalistic and, to some extent, useful notion. It is, however, an overly simplistic concept with little correspondence with the real world of individual consumer behaviour and should be reinterpreted more flexibly, or even abandoned to mirror consumer behaviour more effectively.

The weight of the saddened soul: the bidirectionality between physical heaviness and sadness and its implications for sensory marketing

ABSTRACT

Heaviness is a bodily metaphor used to express sadness. Building on embodied cognition theory and metaphor theory, we argue that sadness is grounded in bodily sensation of heaviness, which has important sensory marketing implications for engaging consumer senses to affect consumer decision-making and attitude formation processes. We found support for this metaphorical link between heaviness and sadness across six studies. We showed that carrying a heavy bag saddened individuals and increased the valuation of a teddy bear. Intention to donate to a charity supporting endangered tigers increased when burdened participants watched a sad video about these animals. Conversely, sadness induced physical heaviness and increased preference for an easy-to-maintain sofa. Further, sad individuals disliked an advertisement for a sports drink that figured energy-consuming actions. Our findings inform sensory marketing practice about embedding the bodily sensation of heaviness to induce sadness in marketing communication.     

Interactivity Design as the Key to Managing Customer Relations in E-Commerce

Abstract

A number of studies have highlighted the importance of enhanced relationships with customers and users as a means of improving marketing performance. What seems to be missing is an understanding of how firms can improve online relationships. The current paper proposes that interactivity is a potentially important driver of enhanced online relationships. Although an increasing number of papers have dis cussed the notion of interactivity, there is no established construct to draw upon. A major contribution of the paper is scale development of the interactivity construct, both in terms of item generation and confirma tory factor testing. Because of the exploratory nature of the exercise, it is prudent to use student samples. The paper was able to develop a reliable and valid construct of interactivity. Moreover it was demonstrated that interactivity was a positive and significant determinant of online quality relationships in the two samples investigated.     

Place the good after the bad: effects of emotional shifts on consumer memory

Marketing research has a limited understanding about the effects arising from emotional shifts (i.e., the transition from one emotion to another) during the same advertising message. This paper sheds light on this topic through two studies. Study 1 examines whether an advertising message that features a negative-to-positive emotional shift (i.e., a shift from a negative to a positive emotion) generates greater recall of an advertised brand than an advertising message with a neutral-to-positive emotional shift (i.e., a shift from a neutral to a positive emotion) or one with no emotional shift. Study 2 examines whether an advertising message that simulates a buyer-seller encounter—with the seller reproducing a negative-to-positive emotional shift via facial expressions—generates a greater recall of the advertised content than an identical advertisement with no emotional shift. Results confirm that a negative-to-positive shift facilitates the recall of both the brand and the advertised information.