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.     

Determinants of the European Commission’s State Aid Decisions

We study whether the European Commission’s State aid decisions are in line with the goals of the State Aid Action Plan (2005–2009). Next, we explore the determinants of these decisions using data for 2007 on 600 cases. We find by means of logit and probit regressions that authorization is more likely when notification took place recently. Furthermore, ad hoc aid measures have a higher risk to end up in a negative decision, whereas schemes are more positively evaluated. Being in the objective category of firms or sectors in difficulties can reduce the probability of a positive outcome. Our results indicate that most of the Commission decisions are, on average, in line with the Action Plan.     

Analysis of Influences of the Information Media in Rural Areas

The channel of information in the rural marketare not well developed. Enterprises should payadequate attention to this fact when opening therural market.Peasants' Consumption Habits are SimilarA survey targeting 20 thousand of ruralfamilies in 14 provinces has been jointlyconducted by a research committee from theChina rural appliance market. The committeeconsists of experts and scholars from theresearch and development center of the StateCouncil, the China National information Center,the …     

Ethical Decision Making in the Public Accounting Profession: An Extension of Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior

The purpose of this study is to expand our understanding of the factors that influence ethical behavioral intentions of public accountants. Recent scandals have dominated the news and have caused legislators, regulators and the public to question the role of the accounting profession. Legislative changes have brought about major structural changes in the profession and continued scrutiny will surely lead to further changes. Thus, developing an understanding of the personal and contextual factors that influence ethical decisions is critical. An extension of the theory of planned behavior [Ajzen, I.: 1985, Action Control-From Cognition to Behavior (Springer, Heidelberg)], the model used in this study examined the influence of personal, social and organizational factors on ethical intentions. Specifically, the individual level model tested direct effects of attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, moral sensitivity and ethical climate. Professionals from five accounting firms completed a survey that measured responses to ethical dilemmas related to the public accounting domain. To minimize the potential impact of common method bias, the survey instrument was administered in two phases. Hypotheses were evaluated using a structural modeling technique, partial least squares. Results show strong support for a direct relationship between attitudes and ethical intentions. The proposed direct effect of subjective norms was not supported. However, a significant relationship between subjective norms and attitudes was found. Professionals’ attitudes towards ethical issues clearly influence intentions. Moreover, this study illustrates the potential influence of social factors in attitude formation. Future research should explore the factors in the public accounting domain that most strongly influence attitude formation. This study suggests that the theory of reasoned action offers a useful framework for exploring these issues.     

Making codes of ethics ‘real’

This article outlines a training activity that can enable both business and governmental professionals to translate the principles in a code of ethics to a specific list of company-related behaviors ranging from highly ethical to highly unethical. It also explores how this list can become a concrete model to follow in making ethical decisions. The article begins with a discussion as to what will improve ethical decision making in business and government. This leads us to explore the factors that can most easily lead to improvement, namely a comprehensive code of conduct and employee training. From there we look at the Critical Incident Technique as a training strategy that has the potential for identifying those behaviors that distinguish really outstanding behaviors from those that go by the book, and can be used to encourage more independent thinking and to set expectations for future decisions. If employees are given the skills and examples that will enable them to make better decisions, they can apply them to any situation.Peter Dean has 20 years experience in business and academic arenas designing, implementing and evaluating programs in communication skills, leadership, team building, interpersonal ethics, decision making, train-the-trainer and organizational change. Peter conducts courses on applied ethics at Penn State University.     

‘Do versus Buy’ Decisions in the Demand for Knowledge Intensive Business Services

The search for the maximum use of scale and agglomeration economies and the need to operate firms in the most flexible way have provided a strong impulse for companies to increase their use of external intermediate services. Because of their strategic role, the use of business services that are intensive both in labour qualification and in technological requirements is key for these policies. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the patterns followed by companies in the two relevant decisions on this issue: firstly, whether to use knowledge intensive business services or not and, secondly, whether (and to what extent) to buy these services from another firm or to provide them inside the organisation. In both cases, we intend to identify the factors that affect the ‘do versus buy’ decision with respect to total KIBS as well as particular categories. A specific feature in our study is that it focuses on the behaviour of firms working in a region without a well-developed supply of KIBS. Applying discrete response models to the data obtained in a survey elaborated by the authors, the most relevant variables for the use of KIBS are satisfaction with previous outsourcing experiences and location of the firm in a large urban centre, but they do not affect their external provision. The size of the firm, its export orientation and its technological complexity have opposite effects on use and outsourcing.     

‘Checkout’: The Analysis of Oligopolistic Behaviour in the UK Grocery Retail Market

Industrial economics is particularly concerned with the relationships between market concentration, market behaviour, pricing and market performance. When, in June 1977, Tesco launched its ‘Operation Checkout’ so began one of the most intensely competitive periods of retailing history. Checkout, which was a wide price-cutting campaign backed up by extensive advertising, provides an ideal opportunity to examine the rivalry of leading grocery companies. This paper examines the events leading up to Checkout, during the initial campaign and after; it examines the possible causes of Checkout and whether it was successful. The paper asks whether the behaviour of firms surrounding Tesco can be considered to be oligopolistic and, if so, what this may mean for the future.     

Making Big Strides in the Middle East

China produced and sold approxi- mately 7.05 million vehicles in 2006,a number that makes it seem that Chinese auto manufacturers have never been worried about how to sell such a large number of autos.While completely satisfying the domestic market,most Chinese automakers such as Chery,Geely and Hafei,have also extended their sales networks to other developing countries.The Middle East     

It’s a Matter of Principle: The Role of Personal Values in Investment Decisions

We investigate the role of personal values in an investment decision in a controlled experimental setting. Participants were asked to choose an investment in a bond issued by a tobacco company or a bond issued by a non-tobacco company that offered an equal or sometimes lower yield. We then surveyed the participants regarding their feelings toward tobacco use to determine whether these values influenced their investment decision. Using factor analysis, we identified investment- and tobacco-related dimensions on which participants’ responses tended to load. Two of these factors, relating to the societal impact of investment decisions and the health effects of tobacco, were highly significant in determining whether participants selected a tobacco or non-tobacco related investment. More importantly, we found that when the rate of return on a tobacco-related investment exceeds the rate of return on an investment not involving tobacco by 1%, the intensity of participant concerns about the societal effects of their investment decisions was especially important in determining investment choices. This finding indicates that traditional wealth-maximization approaches, which do not consider the personal values of the investor, omit an important factor that affects investment decisions.     

Regulation and the Promotion of Audit Ethics: Analysis of the Content of the EU’s Policy

Accounting literature has commonly judged the impact of regulation on auditors’ ethical commitment by studying daily audit practice. We argue that the content of the regulations themselves is an important determinant of such an impact. This paper evaluates the capacity of the content of regulation to promote audit ethics by reference to the European Union’s (EU) audit policy. Anchored in the extant conceptual perspectives on ethics, our analysis of relevant policy documents shows that the EU’s approach to audit ethics relates most strongly to the deontological perspectives on ethics and leaves largely unexplored other means of promoting auditors’ ethical stance, such as by stimulating virtue ethics. We find that it is the EU regulators’ restricted view of the conceptual foundations of audit ethics that limits the capacity of their policy to effectively stimulate auditors’ ethical commitment. The paper also discusses the potential implications of our analysis for the design of future audit policy.     

China to Quicken the Development of Logistics from Five Respects

China's logistics was developing fast with total growth of 30% in 2004, and China will quicken the development of logistics service industry from five respects in 2005. The reporter learnt this news from China Logistics and Purchase Federation. "Suggestions on Promoting Development of China's Logistics Industry" is an important document of Chinese Government since the "several suggestions" in 2001. It offered the new opportunity for China's logistics industry's development. Chinese logistics industry will implement it as the focal point of the work.     

Making the Cream of Wines Spread Across the Whole World

Maotai-aworldfamousancienttowninGuizhou.Moutai-thecreamofwineswithaworldwidereputation.TogetherwithScottishWhiskyandFrenchBrandy,ChineseMoutaiisregardedasoneoftheworld'stop3spirits,andearlyin1915inthePanamaInternationalFair,thisspecialtyofMaotaitown,wonaGoldMedal,anunprecedentedinternationalprizeforChinesespirits.Sincethen,Moutaihasbeenawardedfourteeninternationalgoldprizesandspecialprizes,ofthem,the53%(V/V),43%(V/V)and38%(V/V)MoutaiLiquorwonthefirstPrizesintheInternationalWorldFamo…     

Dynamics of Stakeholders’ Implications in the Institutionalization of the CSR Field in France and in the United States

This study supports the idea that fields form around issues, and describes the roles of various stakeholders in the structuring, shaping, and legitimating of the emerging field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). A model of the institutional history of the CSR field is outlined, of which a key stage is the appearance of CSR rating agencies as the significant players and Institutional Entrepreneurs of the field. We show to which extent the creation and further development of CSR rating agencies, and the activism of other significant stakeholders of the field (typically portrayed as “standard setters” and “regulatory agents”), contribute to the institutionalization of CSR. With this in mind, among various stakeholders that legitimate the field of CSR, we present the efforts of global and local stakeholders such as the European Union, the United Nations, the International Organization for Standardization, and governments and their interactions. We suggest that the different paths of CSR development and institutionalization in France and in the United States depend on the nature of local and global stakeholders’ involvement in this process and their interactions.     

The Indirect Impact of Price Deals on Households’ Purchase Decisions Through the Formation of Expected Future Prices

We examine the indirect impact of price deals, which occurs through the formation of expected future prices, on households’ purchase decisions. Two competing learning processes of households’ formation of expected future deals that lead to opposite predictions are proposed. Under a deal-probability learning process, a current deal on a brand raises households’ expectations of a deal on the same brand in the immediate future, while under a deal-timing learning process, a current deal on a brand lowers households’ expectations of a deal on the same brand. We embed each learning specification within a comprehensive econometric framework that simultaneously examines three purchase decisions – incidence, brand choice and quantity – at the household level, while explicitly correcting for two sources of selectivity bias in discrete quantity outcomes. We estimate the proposed model using scanner panel data on paper towels, and find that (1) the deal-probability learning process better describes how households incorporate the deal information into the formation of future price expectations compared to the deal-timing learning process; (2) the indirect impact of price deals is greater for brand-loyals than for brand-switchers; (3) the indirect impact of price deals is greater for larger families, heavy users, less educated and less employed households, and infrequent shoppers. We also show that ignoring the indirect impact of price deals severely overstates the sales effects.     

Improving the Decision Making Process in the Design Project by Capitalizing on Company’s Crucial Knowledge

In this paper, we propose a method to locate the companys crucial knowledge for improving the quality of decision making in a design project. It comprises of a preliminary survey regarding the approach that has been carried out at automotive company for identifying the crucial knowledge, aiming at choosing and justifying the necessary investment to capitalize on the knowledge. This method will then be used as basis for a dialogue between the stakeholders involved in the identification of the crucial knowledge developed and/or used in a design project.     

Responsible Leadership in Organizational Crises: An Analysis of the Effects of Public Perceptions of Selected SA Business Organizations’ Reputations

??The loss of a stable state?? (Schon 1973) in organizational transformation can both be regarded as lamentable and inevitable. Transformation causes disruption and invasions of comfort zones to those affected by it, but it is nevertheless inevitable. The article maintains that while the loss of a stable state is inevitable in the stream of change confronting organizations today, points of stability and methods of dealing with instability are attainable through responsible management. The article postulates that steps taken by responsible leadership in response to specific business crises will reduce the effects of instabilities brought about by such transformational situations and reassert a stable state more rapidly. Utilizing Weber??s ??ideal type?? model format (Morrison 2006) with a specific example of international best practice of remedial steps taken by management in reaction to a specific crisis experienced by an organization, the article uses a qualitative historical case study analysis and quantitative time series research design to investigate South African firms which had recently faced crises impinging on their current corporate reputations. Findings suggest that both the number of remedial steps taken by companies and the speed in which they are implemented in conformance with the model are negatively associated with the size of the share price falls immediately post crises. The findings also suggest that larger share price appreciations over 6-month post-crises are associated with greater perceived corporate reputations and brand strengths. Tentative conclusions and possibilities for further research are briefly discussed.     

Making the Cream of Wines Spread Across the Whole World

Maotai- a world famous ancienttown in Guizhou.Moutai- the cream of wines with aworldwide reputation.Together with Scottish Whisky andFrench Brandy, Chinese Moutai is re-garded as one of the world's top 3 spirits, and early in 1915 in the PanamaInternational Fair, this specialty ofMaotai town, won a Gold Medal, anunprecedented international prize forChinese spirits. Since then, Moutai hasbeen awarded fourteen internationalgold prizes and special prizes, of them,tne 53 %(V/V), 43 %(V/V) …     

Sequential Mergers and Antitrust Authority’s Decisions in Stackelberg Markets

This paper analyses a sequential merger formation game in a setting where: (i) firms compete à la Stackelberg; (ii) mergers may give rise to endogenous efficiency gains; and (iii) every merger has to be submitted for approval to the Antitrust Authority (AA). Two different types of AA are studied: first, we assume a myopic AA, which accepts or rejects a given merger without considering that this merger may be followed by other mergers; and, second, a forward looking AA, which anticipates the final industry structure a merger will give rise to, if approved. We conclude that these two types of AA adopt similar decisions whenever a merger would not trigger the exit of outsider firms. Their decisions are, however, shown to be very different when evaluating exit-inducing merger proposals.     

Bridging the great divide? Making sense of the human rights-CSR relationship in UK multinational companies

Human rights (HR) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are both fields of knowledge and research that have been shaped by, and examine, the role of multi-national enterprises in society. Whilst scholars have highlighted the overlapping nature of CSR and HR, our understanding of this relationship within business practice remains vague and under-researched. To explore the interface between CSR and HR, this paper presents empirical data from a qualitative study involving 22 international businesses based in the UK. Through an analysis based on sensemaking, the paper examines how and where CSR and HR overlap, contrast and shape one another, and the role that companies’ international operations has on this relationship. The findings reveal a complex and multi-layered relationship between the two, and concludes that in contrast to management theory, companies have bridged the ‘great divide’ in varying degrees most notably in their implementation strategies.     

The Effects of Compensation Structures and Monetary Rewards on Managers’ Decisions to Blow the Whistle

Recent research indicates that compensation structure can be used by firms to discourage their employees from whistleblowing. We extend the ethics literature by examining how compensation structures and financial rewards work together to influence managers’ decisions to blow the whistle. Results from an experiment indicate that compensation with restricted stock, relative to stock payments that lack restrictions, can enhance the likelihood that managers will blow the whistle when large rewards are available. However, restricted stock can also threaten the effectiveness of whistleblowing systems without the presence of large financial rewards for whistleblowing. Thus, the large potential rewards for whistleblowing enacted by the Dodd–Frank Act appear timely as firms are moving toward compensation agreements that include greater proportions of restricted stock.