Pygmalion effect: An issue for business education and ethics

This study reports the results of a survey designed to assess the impact of business education on the ethical beliefs of business students. The study examines the beliefs of graduate and undergraduate students about ethical behavior in educational settings. The investigation indicates that the behavior which students learn or perceive is required to succeed in business schools may run counter to the ethical sanctions of society and the business community. Michael S. Lane is Assistant Professor of Management at West Virginia University. He is the coauthor of An Integrated Approach to Curriculum Design/Redesign, Journal of Education for Business (1986), and Corporate Goals and Managerial Motivation, Mid-South Business Journal (1985).Dietrich Schaupp is Professor of Management at West Virginia University.Barbara Parsons is Assistant Professor of Commerce at Fairmont State College.     

An ecosystemic framework for business sustainability

This article introduces an ecosystemic framework to foster innovation for business sustainability. We emphasize the idea of systemic thinking in which the business operates as a system similar to a living organism. In this framework, businesses impact the environment in which they operate in a fluid, dynamic, and interdependent way. This approach contrasts with the linear approach commonly used in business and other disciplines, which tries to explain what might cause an action or reaction but ignores any feedback effect between the subsequent action and its cause. This article offers practical solutions and guidance for business leaders to incorporate complexity science into creating sustainable businesses.     

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.     

Personal values and business decisions: An exploratory investigation

Interest in subjective values and decision responses are investigated empirically, including statistically testing the predictive relationships between subjective values, other independent variables such as level and area of executive responsibility, and decision responses. John H. Barnett is Associate Professor at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire, U.S.A. He was previously a Management Consultant (Cresap, McCormick & Paget) and a Volunteer Executive (Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Papua New guinea, Philippines). He is a Certified Public Accountant and a Doctor of Divinity. His most important publications are: A Business Model of Enlightenment, Journal of Business Ethics 4 (1985), Controversy and Change in Cultural concepts, (Sierra Madre Seminary), and Down the Rose Path: A Businessman's Search for Enlightenment, in press. Marvin J. Karson is Professor of Business Statistics and James R. Carter Professor of Management at the University of New Hampshire. He was formerly Professor of Statistics at the University of Alabama. His work has been published in a number of professional journals. One of his most recent publications is: Karson, M. J. and Cheng, D. C., Estimation of Multi-Period Expected Rates of Return When Investment Relatives are Lognormally Distributed, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 3, No. 2 (1985), 140–148. He is also the author of Multivariate Statistical Methods (Iowa State University Press, 1982).     

Cross-national research and international business: An interdisciplinary path

Comparative cross-national research is among the oldest approaches of scientific inquiry in the social sciences. We investigate the foundations of published works in cross-national research (CNR) in international business (IB), sociology, and psychology with an eye on leveraging their rich traditions for future IB research. Our approach aims to contribute and address repeated calls for taking an interdisciplinary approach in IB. We examined published CNR in 106 scholarly journals and identified 817 articles with 51,738 citations in IB, 477 works with 30,017 citations in sociology, and 835 articles with 54,519 citations in psychology. We use metric multidimensional scaling to examine the co-citation data for each field and identify knowledge and approaches commonplace in sociology and psychology to propose future research paths in IB. In particular multilevel analysis, which is scarcely used in IB, offers the potential of unfolding new dimensions within the field. Based on the emergent results from our MDS solutions, we recommend multiple future paths for CNR, particularly with respect to IB relationships, market entry, and related domains.     

Networks and small business growth: An explanatory model

To date, there has been limited empirical research related to network theory. With this article, we have tried to fill this gap by testing an explanatory model of the impact of networks on small business growth. To analyze this causal relationship, the log-linear technique was used. The results suggest that networks have an influence on the growth of a small business, especially through contacts with national and international entrepreneurs.     

Christ and business: A typology for Christian business ethics

H. Richard Niebuhr's typology of the relation between Christ and culture can function as a heuristic device to identify different approaches to Christian business ethics. Five types are outlined: Christ Against Business, The Christ of Business, Christ Above Business, Christ and Business in Paradox, and Christ the Transformer of Business. This typology may facilitate discussion on the relative adequacy of various theological assumptions about ethical change in business. Louke Siker received her Ph.D. in Religion and Society from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1987 (dissertation: Interpreting Corporate Cultures: Philosophical and Theological Reasons for Doing Business Ethics in a Hermeneutical Mode). She has taught Christian ethics and business ethics at Wake Forest University and Loyola Marymount University. Her research interests include methodology in business ethics. She is the author of An Unlikely Dialogue: Barth and Business Ethicists on Human Work, Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics, 1989.     

Innovation and business research in Latin America: An overview

Innovation in Latin America is a challenge for achieving development. Several Latin American countries and businesses are attempting to increase innov ation and entrepreneurship but they face substantial challenges and difficulties. Institutional, governmental and business policies and practices need to be enhanced in order to increase such innovation. Increasing business research in Latin America and university-business partnerships is probably key in such endeavor. This special issue provides some evidence regarding these challenges at the company level, industry level, and country level. This issue also includes three cases showing Latin American company experiences with financial, marketing and new product innovations and market changes.     

Graft and business in emerging economies: An ecological perspective

In this study we examine how a firm's engagement in graft in emerging economies is shaped by its organizational attributes. Building on the logic of organizational ecology, we envisage that a firm's engagement in graft is influenced by its (1) institutional structure (e.g., public ownership, foreign ownership, and government ownership), (2) market orientation (foreign vs. local market), and (3) firm capabilities (e.g., capacity utilization, product quality, and leadership quality). Using the World Bank's data, we analyzed 1782 firms in China, Brazil, Russia, Poland and South Africa, and found general support for our argument. The results suggest that a firm's engagement in graft is, at least in part, an organizational phenomenon influenced by the firm's founding conditions, required legitimization in the market, and capability conditions.     

The institutional dimension of business ethics: An agenda for reflection research and action

The current discussion of business ethics is nothing new. In fact it has been a topic of common interest to both researchers and top managers since the mid fifties; the focus adjusting to issues and problems of the times. The authors of the article list four themes they believe to be of relevance for future discussion. First, ethics as an instrument of business behavior is entering a new dimension due to negative side effects of economic activities, which are even observed on a global scale and where it is doubtful that governments can adequately manage this complex environment. From this view, ethics becomes a decisive component of efficiency and requires a new way of thinking on the development of the market system and on a new delineation of responsibilities between government and markets. Second, in the process of transformation of the East-European states it seems to be all the more important to emphasize the ethical characteristics which are part of the concept of competition — the gains to the consumer due to the plurality of search and discovery procedures, the capability to correct and absorb wrong decisions, and the specific distributional ethics. Third, business ethics as an element of the firm's “guiding vision” has to be incorporated into its corporate culture, which will foster an institutional ethic of the firm — the joint effect of individual ethics within the history of the firm coupled with time and experience. Fourth, conflicting business philosophies must be judged with reference to the process of communication of business ethics. Summing up business ethics has a micro and macro component and is related to the individual firm as well as to the structure of the economic and social order. Ethics will, however, have a limited effect if it is not accompanied by the change in goals, structures and processes.     

Ethics in business and administration: An international and historical perspective

This is a study of ethical and moral behavior, or perhaps unethical behavior, in two different societies. One society, contemporary Australia and in particular the state of Western Australia, is currently undergoing an exhaustive Royal Commission into the shenanigans of a number of well-known business men and former leading politicians who seem to have been playing fast and loose with large amounts of other peoples' money. While this was initially the major focus of the paper, a secondary focus developed based on the interest shown in acquiring an historical background by a group of business policy students. The opportunity to acquire an appreciation of historical events and in particular, the development of a sense of history seems to be lacking in the curricula of modern day business students. The secondary focus of the paper therefore illustrated that malfeasance, misfeasance and other forms of malpractice in business and administration were just as common in Greco-Roman times as today. In this context, reference has been made to a selection of the writings of some of the more well-known writers of this period. The paper ends on a nonpositive note, raising the (rhetorical) question, that if, after two thousand years people are still continuing to engage in sharp business practices whenever the occasion arises is there any point in developing and offering courses in moral behavior and business ethics?     

The craft of business intelligence: An American view

Business is war. And in war, it is a matter of survival of the fittest. In order to survive in today's cutthroat business environment, we must be properly armed. And one of the most important arrows in the executive's quiver is accurate knowledge of competitors and their business environment. In other words, detailed knowledge of the enemy and the terrain of the battlefield. Every major country on earth recognizes the importance of intelligence and employs an intelligence agency to collect it for them. Over 2,500 years ago, the Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Frederick the Great also expressed his opinion on the importance of intelligence when he said: “It is pardonable to be defeated, but never surprised.” In today's highly competitive business world it is becoming more and more important to know your competition-know your enemy-and, particularly in the international arena, to know your battlefield. There are minefields out there, and it is imperative to be able to identify and avoid them. You can still lose, even when armed with superior forces, if the terrain is against you. 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Implementing global corporate citizenship: An integrated business framework

Recent economic, social-political, and natural disasters have all served to highlight the fragility of the global marketplace. As such, it is no longer questioned as to whether or not companies should be good corporate citizens; that is a given. Rather, concern in the 21^st century centers on how businesses can become better global corporate citizens. Unfortunately, without clear guidance regarding how this may be accomplished, global corporate citizenship will remain a fringe activity and not become a critical component of an organization's core business strategy. The integrated framework presented herein identifies key elements and tips for implementing a business-based approach to global corporate citizenship.     

An experimental assessment of alternative teaching approaches for introducing business ethics to undergraduate business students

This study employs a pretest-posttest experimental design to extend recent research pertaining to the effects of teaching business ethics material. Results on a variety of perceptual and attitudinal measures are compared across three groups of students — one which discussed the ethicality of brief business situations (the business scenario discussion approach), one which was given a more philosophically oriented lecture (the philosophical lecture approach), and a third group which received no specific lecture or discussion pertaining to business ethics. Results showed some significant differences across the three groups and demonstrated that for a single lecture, the method used to teach ethics can differentially impact ethical attitudes and perceptions. Various demographic and background variables did not moderate the relationship between the teaching method and the dependent variables, but the sex of the student was strongly associated with the ethical attitude and perception measures. Scot Burton is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Louisiana State University. His research has appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Research, and the Journal of Marketing, among others. Mark. W. Johnston is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Louisianna State University. His research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Applied Psychology, and the Journal of Business Research. Elizabeth J. Wilson is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Louisiana State University. Her research has been published in the Journal of Advertising Research and Industrial Marketing Management.     

An Intelligent Idea Categorizer for Electronic Meeting Systems

Research on group decisions and electronic meeting systems have been increasing rapidly according to the widespread of Internet technology. Although various issues have been raised in empirical research, we will try to solve an issue on idea categorizing in the group decision making process of electronic meeting systems. Idea categorizing used at existing GDSS was performed in a top-down procedure and mostly by participants' manual work. This resulted in tacking as long in idea categorizing as it does for idea generating, clustering an idea in multiple categories, and identifying almost similar redundant categories. However such methods have critical limitation in the electronic meeting systems, so we suggest an intelligent idea categorizing methodology which is a bottom-up approach. This method consists of steps to present idea using keywords, identifying keywords' affinity, computing similarity among ideas, and clustering ideas. This methodology allows participants to interact iteratively for clear manifestation of ambiguous ideas. We also developed a prototype system, IIC (intelligent idea categorizer) and evaluated its performance using the comparison experiments with other systems. IIC is not a general purposed system, but it produces a good result in a given specific domain.     

An institutional account of governance structures in early modern business history: the Coventry business (hi)story

This paper is an account of the institutional mechanisms that have influenced business history in the early to late Middle Ages in the city of Coventry. The paper discusses socio-cultural, political, religious, and historical influences on the city's major trades during the era and incorporates analysis of governance structures in the form of Coventry's famous guilds which were instrumental in shaping the trajectory of one of England's foremost cities during the chronicled era. Through this examination we seek to complement and contribute to business history literature that is increasingly intrigued by business and economic activities pre-dating the industrial and manufacturing era, thus enriching discussion about business and institutional dynamics in the pre-modern era.