Multiple dimensions of mediation within transnational advertising production: cultural intermediaries as shapers of emerging cultural capital

The paper re-conceptualizes cultural intermediaries as shapers of “emerging cultural capital” (Prieur, A., and M. Savage. 2013. “Emerging Forms of Cultural Capital.” European Societies 15 (2): 246–267; Savage, M., F. Devine, N. Cunningham, M. Taylor, Y. Li, J. Hjellbrekke, and A. Miles. 2013. “A New Model of Social Class? Findings from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey Experiment.” Sociology 47 (2): 219–250) and re-frames their practice of signification and negotiation as informed by “multiple dimensions of mediation.” Drawing on a case study of Nike’s transnational advertising production and interviews with key actors within the context of production, the paper examines how the creative/cultural labour process cuts across global and national fields of cultural production and consumption through which popular culture and middle-brow tastes were mediated, signified and represented. In particular, a television campaign for the Japanese youth market was critically analysed to reveal how specific new tastes, lifestyles and consumption practices were legitimized as emerging forms of cultural capital. Consequently, their taste-making practices are profoundly implicated in symbolic struggles and cultural changes emerging within/from the increasingly “globalizing” field of cultural production.     

Towards a Meta Ethics of Culture – Halfway to a Theory of Metanorms

This article deals with cross-cultural ethics. It discusses the grid-group model and is ethical implications. We try to show how cross-cultural ethics remain possible under this paradigm of ethical relativism. We discuss the theory of discourse and apply it to intercultural communication. Finally we offer some rules for (an ethical) intercultural discourse, which also may be interpreted as metanorms for cross-cultural interaction.     

Ethics Codes and Sales Professionals' Perceptions of Their Organizations' Ethical Values

Most large companies and many smaller ones have adopted ethics codes, but the evidence is mixed as to whether they have a positive impact on the behavior of employees. We suggest that one way that ethics codes could contribute to ethical behavior is by influencing the perceptions that employees have about the ethical values of organizations. We examine whether a group of sales professionals in organizations with ethics codes perceive that their organizational context is more supportive of ethical behavior than sales professionals in companies without codes. After accounting for the effect of several covariates, our results indicated that sales professionals employed in organizations with codes of ethics perceived their work environments to have more positive ethical values than did other sales professionals.     

Comparing advertising effectiveness in South-American and North-American contexts: testing Hofstede's and Inglehart's cultural dimensions in the higher education sector

ABSTRACT

This research compares the effectiveness of advertising and relational marketing in two countries characterized by varying levels of both Hofstede's and Inglehart's cultural dimensions – Peru (high-power distance, high collectivism, survival and traditional values) and Canada (low-power distance, high individualism, self-expression and secular-rational values). Survey data from a high credence service sector (higher education) in both countries is used for the analysis. The results indicate that advertising and relational marketing have direct effects on choice in Peru, but do not have significant direct effects on choice in Canada. Advertising does, however, affect positively perceptual outcome measures (perceived marketing effectiveness) in Canada. Additionally, we find that advertising and relational marketing have an indirect impact on choice and perceived marketing effectiveness through the mediation of perceived informativeness and influencers in both countries. These results point to the need to account for mechanisms and mediating variables when building theoretical frameworks in cross-country studies.     

Leaders,Values, and Organizational Climate: Examining Leadership Strategies for Establishing an Organizational Climate Regarding Ethics

This paper examines the critical role that organizational leaders play in establishing a values based climate. We discuss seven mechanisms by which leaders convey the importance of ethical values to members, and establish the expectations regarding ethical conduct that become engrained in the organizations climate. We also suggest that leaders at different organizational levels rely on different mechanisms to transmit values and expectations. These mechanisms then influence members practices and expectations, further increase the salience of ethical values and result in the shared perceptions that form the organizations climate. The paper is organized in three parts. Part onebegins with a brief discussion of climates regarding ethics and the critical role of values. Part two provides discussion on the mechanisms by which leaders and members transmit values and create climates related to ethics. Part three provides a discussion of these concepts with implications for theory, research, and practice.     

Cultural Values and International Differences in Business Ethics

We analyze ethical policies of firms in industrialized countries and try to find out whether culture is a factor that plays a significant role in explaining country differences. We look into the firm’s human rights policy, its governance of bribery and corruption, and the comprehensiveness, implementation and communication of its codes of ethics. We use a dataset on ethical policies of almost 2,700 firms in 24 countries. We find that there are significant differences among ethical policies of firms headquartered in different countries. When we associate these ethical policies with Hofstede’s cultural indicators, we find that individualism and uncertainty avoidance are positively associated with a firm’s ethical policies, whereas masculinity and power distance are negatively related to these policies. Bert Scholtens received his Ph.D. at the Universtiy of Amsterdam. Since 1999 he has been working at the Department of Finance of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research particularly looks into the interaction between financial institutions and corporate social responsibility. He has published in, among others, Ecological Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance, Finance Letters, Journal of Investing, Sustainable Development, and Journal of Business Ethics. Lammertjan Dam is a Ph.D. student at the Universtiy of Groningen. He expects to defend his thesis about the integration of corporate social responsibility in economic valuation in Summer 2007.     

The Impact of Ethics Education on Reporting Behavior

We examine the impact of an ethics education program on reporting behavior using two groups of students: fourth year Masters of Accounting students who just completed a newly instituted ethics education program, and fifth year students in the same program who did not receive the ethics program. In an experiment providing both the opportunity and motivation to misreport for more money, we design two social condition treatments – anonymity and public disclosure – to examine whether or to what extent ethical values are internalized by students. We find that when participants are anonymous, misreporting rates are nearly the same regardless of ethics program participation. However, when their reporting behavior is made public to the cohort, participants who completed the ethics program misreported at significantly lower rates than those who did not receive the ethics program. The results suggest that ethics education does not necessarily result in internalized ethical values, but it can impact ethical behavior.     

The effect of incentives on intrinsic motivation and employee attitudes: A multilevel study across nations and cultural clusters

In a study of employees across 29 nations and 9 of the 10 Global Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (GLOBE) cultural clusters, the association between economic and psychological incentives and intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment were examined. Self‐Determination Theory (SDT) is utilized to develop a theoretical model and then compare structural relationships across nations and cultural clusters. Results confirm the positive relationship between basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation across all nations and cultures. However there is an effect of cultural cluster on the relationships between incentives and motivation, wherein external incentives are intrinsically motivating in Southern and Confucian Asian clusters. The implications for the design of incentive systems are discussed.     

Ethics Problems and Problems with Ethics: Toward a Pro-Management Theory

The move towards having more teaching of business ethics comes in part from a tendency to view managers negatively, drawing on anti-management theories that are presently popular in business schools. This can lead to a misdiagnosis of the causes of contemporary business problems. Teaching business ethics can, however, be ineffectual and counter-productive. Education in ethical philosophy can lead managers to be indecisive, sceptical or to rationalize poor conduct. The ethics of academics become salient and lapses in them undercut their claims to authority. The philosophical viewpoint that stresses free choice runs contrary to the social science mission to reveal the causes that determine human behaviour and provide solutions to problems. Pro-management theory offers a more positive appreciation of managers, with its three components of structural functionalism, strategic functionalism and stewardship. Lex Donaldson is Professor of Management in Organizational Design in the Faculty of Business of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He has a PhD from the University of London. He is the author of seven books on organizational theory, organizational structure and management. In addition, he has written numerous articles and chapters. His articles have appeared in journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Management Studies, Organizational Dynamics, Organization Science and Organization Studies.     

Toward a Model for International Business Ethics

This paper briefly examines the topic of business ethics and attempts to suggest a code of ethics for multinational firms. While most companies have basic policies on employee integrity, confidentiality and sexual harassment, relatively few have established policies regarding bribery, exploitive child labor, human rights violations and other issues they may encounter in the global market place (Drake, 1998). Until recently, very few companies had truly global operations. Consequently little attention was paid to the issue of ethical guidelines in a global context. Recent changes in international markets have led to an explosion of corporations with global operations, and the need for a global code of ethics has grown commensurately. In this paper we explore the issue of global business ethics and attempt to provide a framework for future discussion. We also examine some of the unique difficulties surrounding the development of any set of global business standards. Key among these difficulties is the issue of competing ethical values in home and host countries.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Perceived Importance of Ethics in Marketing Situations: A Study of Thai Businesspeople

Building on an existing framework concerning ethical intention, this research explores how Thai business people perceive the importance of ethics in various scenarios. This study investigates the relative influences of personal characteristics and the organizational environment underlying the Thai business people’s ethical perception. Corporate ethical values and idealism are shown to positively influence a Thai manager’s perceptions about the importance of ethics. While their ability to perceive the existence of an ethical problem is negatively influenced by relativism, it is positively impacted by their existing perceptions about the importance of ethics. Results also suggest positive relationships between perceived importance of ethics and perceived ethical problems with ethical intention. These results extend research in understanding the relationship between the antecedents and consequences of perceived importance of ethics within an economically growing non-Western culture.     

Attitudes of University Students toward Business Ethics: A Cross-National Investigation of Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong

With the current globalisation and complexity of today’s business environment, there are increasing concerns on the role of business ethics. Using culture and religion as the determinants, this paper presents a cross-national study of attitudes toward business ethics among three countries: Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The results of this paper have shown the attitudes toward business ethics to be significantly different among the three countries. It was also found that respondents who practised their religion tend to consider themselves more ethically minded than those who do not. Additional findings on gender have also revealed significant differences between the males and females for respondents in Singapore and Australia. Males are generally considered more ethical than females across the three countries studied. Dr. Ian Phau teaches Marketing at the Curtin University of Technology. He is an avid researcher in the area of country image and branding issues. He also edits a peer reviewed marketing journal. Garick Kea is a researcher with the Curtin University of Technology. His research interests include consumer ethnocentrism, Consumer Animosity and marketing ethics.     

Does East Meet West in Business Ethics: An Introduction to the Special Issue

This article introduces and summarizes selected papers from the first World Business Ethics Forum held in Hong Kong and Macau in November 2006, co-hosted by the Hong Kong Baptist University and by the University of Macau. Business Ethics in the East remain distinct from those in the West, but the distinctions are becoming less pronounced and the ethical traffic flows both ways. Gabriel D, Donleavy is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Macau teaching Business Ethics, Business Negotiation and Advanced Management. His work has been published in Critical Perspectives in Accounting, Corporate Governance, the Journal of Business Ethics, Advances in Applied Business Strategy, the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Long Range Planning and the Asian Review of Accounting which he co-founded. Kit-Chun Joanna LAM is Professor in Department of Economics of the Hong Kong Baptist University. She is also Guest Professor in the Centre for Business Ethics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in economics from Harvard University. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Labor Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, Economica, Journal of Comparative Economics, and Labour Economics. Simon S.M. Ho is Dean and Professor at the School of Business and Director for Corporate Governance and Financial Policy, Hong Kong Baptist University. He founded the Asia-Pacific Corporate Governance Conference and the world’s first master programme in corporate governance & directorship in 2004. He published over 40 academic refereed articles in leading journals such as Journal of Accounting, Accounting & Finance, Journal of Accounting & Public Policy, and Journal of Corporate Finance.     

The Ethics of Management Control Systems: Developing Technical and Moral Values

In this paper, we review the conventional analyses of management control systems, to conclude, first, that the illusion of control can mislead managers into believing that everything can be controlled and monitored, and, second, that no incentive system based only on extrinsic rewards can motivate individuals properly. Then, we investigate the philosophical foundations of the basic assumptions that, implicitly or explicitly, are made about the nature of the acting person. Based on personalist phenomenology, we show how the development of technical and moral values is crucial to the long-run survival of organizations. We end by offering some guidelines as to what control systems should be like in order to be compatible with the nature of human persons.     

The Questionable Use of Moral Development Theory in Studies of Business Ethics: Discussion and Empirical Findings

The topic of the article is how moral development theory can enlighten the understanding of ethical behaviour in business. It discusses previous research on the subject, and reports an empirical study of academics (engineers and business economists with a master degree) working in the private sector in Norway.Moral development theory is based on a long research tradition, and many researchers within business ethics have assumed the importance of moral reasoning in business environments. However, the truth of these assumptions has not been confirmed by previous empirical research.The article reports on my investigation into the relationship between moral reasoning, ethical attitudes and decision-making behaviour. The data were collected by a survey study among Norwegian engineers and business economists working in businesses (N = 449) in 1997.It has been hypothesised that strong ethical attitudes would have a restraining effect on moral reasoning. In order to test this, ethical attitudes were categorized into four issue categories. The assumption being that the four categories would explain the different restraints on moral reasoning. The statistical testing showed that there was a negative, but not significant, correlation between strong attitudes and good moral reasoning ability.It was also hypothesised that good ability in moral reasoning would tend to exhibit a smaller difference between Policy-decisions and Action-decisions. This hypothesis was based on the difference in behaviour explained in "espoused theory" and "theory in use". When making policy-decisions these can be based on espoused theory and nice "talk" because it is always possible to make exceptions to or reconsider a policy. Action-decisions, on the other hand, are very concrete because they immediately trigger an action. The statistical testing rejected my hypothesis but gave a significant converse result: Good ability in moral reasoning seems to imply less stability and more inconsistence.The article concludes with the fact that moral reasoning testing seems to explain some differences in moral reasoning among people in business but not what kind of behavioural effects these differences actually have.     

Cognitive Theory and Moral Behavior: The Contribution of F. A. Hayek to Business Ethics

This paper shows how business ethics as a concept may be approached from a cognitive viewpoint. Following F. A. Hayek's cognitive theory, I argue that moral behavior evolves and changes because of individual perception and action. Individual moral behavior becomes a moral rule when prominently displayed by members of a certain society in a specific situation. A set of moral rules eventually forms the ethical code of a society, of which business ethics codes are only a part. By focusing on the concept of "limited" or "dispersed knowledge" that underlies the cognitive approach, I show that universal ethical norms that should lead to defined outcomes cannot exist. This approach moreover shows the limits of deliberate rule-setting. Attempts to deliberately impose universal ethical rules on societies may turn out to be harmful for societal development and lead to an abuse of governmental power.     

中西方的文化差异与广告理解

文化差异不仅表现在不同的国家和民族之间,在同一个国家和民族的不同地区和不同时期也存在着差异。不同的文化对广告理解也不同。广告广泛涉及到社会的政治、经济、伦理道德、历史和宗教信仰各个方面,广告主和广告商必须熟悉一个国家和民族的文化特征,使广告符合当地消费者的文化心理。     

What do Project GLOBE's cultural dimensions reflect? An empirical perspective

There is an ongoing controversy about what Project GLOBE's cultural dimensions measure. GLOBE's work has been criticized by various authors, most recently by McCrae and associates, who view some of GLOBE's scales as unfounded national stereotypes. Further, GLOBE has disregarded the difference between personal values and prescribed norms for others. This paper validates some of GLOBE's dimensions empirically. However, at least two – humane orientation and performance orientation – do not generate convincing nomological networks.     

Cultural Meaning,Advertising, and National Culture: A Four-Country Study

Cultural meaning transfer theory and GLOBE dimensions were employed in this comparative study to examine the extent to which cultural meaning presented in advertisements reflected national cultures of the target countries. Content analysis was applied to advertisements from four countries to investigate whether the use of advertising appeals presented in these advertisements mirrored variations in cultures as described by GLOBE Society Values. Results revealed that, in line with the hypotheses, there were similarities and differences in the use of appeals, and only some of them mirrored the cultural variations. GLOBE Society Values were more likely to predict the use of appeals than GLOBE Society Practices, but not for all appeals. Advertisers can draw on national cultures for cultural meanings to be used in advertisements only to a limited extent. It may be that advertisements mold rather than mirror societal values, or that only certain cultural traits are important for advertisers.