The Limits of Generosity: Lessons on Ethics,Economy, and Reciprocity in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

This paper interrogates the relation between reciprocity and ethics as it concerns participation in the world of work and organizations. Tracing discussions of business and organizational ethics that concern themselves, respectively, with the ethics of self-interest, the ethics of reciprocity, and the ethics of generosity, we explore the possibility of ethical relations with those who are seen as radically different, and who are divested of anything worth exchanging. To address this we provide a reading of Franz Kafka’s famous novella The Metamorphosis and relate to it as a means to extend our understanding of business and organizational ethics. This story, we demonstrate, yields insight into the unbearable demands of ethics as they relate to reciprocity and generosity. On this basis, we draw conclusions concerning the mutually constitutive ethical limitations of reciprocity and generosity as ethical touchstones for organizational life while simultaneously accepting the seemingly insurmountable difficulties of exceeding those limits. In such a condition, we argue, ethics is not best served by adopting idealistic or moralizing positions regarding generosity but rather by working in the indissoluble tensions between self and other.     

Why franchise companies expand overseas

Business format franchising is becoming an increasingly international activity. From 1971 to 1985, U.S. franchisors added foreign outlets at a rate of 17% per year, almost twice as fast as they added domestic outlets (Aydin and Kacker 1990). As a result, by 1990 more than 350 U.S. companies had more than 32,000 franchised outlets overseas. By 2000, 60% of all franchisors in the United States are expected to have outlets overseas (Hoffman and Preble 1993).This study examines the 815 largest U.S. franchisors to understand what capabilities encourage them to expand overseas. It finds that the key capability that predicts the intent to expand overseas is superior capability to reduce franchisee opportunism. Franchisors who seek foreign franchisees have developed a greater capability to bond against and monitor potential franchisee opportunism. The data show that these differences are consistent across all industries in which franchising takes place.The results of this study indicate that foreign entrepreneurs can identify the American franchisors most likely to expand overseas by looking at their pricing structure and their monitoring capabilities. The easy identification of characteristics from which to find American franchisors will help to reduce the search costs of potential foreign franchisees. This reduction in search costs will make the establishment of international franchise relationships less expensive.This study also provides guidance to franchisors interested in expanding overseas. The results show how franchisors can structure their franchise relationships to reduce potential franchisee opportunism. This ability to reduce franchisee opportunism will make it easier for franchisors to enter high-growth foreign markets using the franchising business mode.This study also has implications for researchers. It suggests that international business research examine further the mechanisms by which firms make contractual modes of international business work. Whereas many firms may internalize international market transactions under conditions likely to lead to market failure, the large number of franchisors who use franchising as an international expansion mode despite conditions of market failure suggests that more attention be paid to mechanisms that companies can use to reduce the probability of failure of international contractual transactions. By helping to explain how franchisors monitor foreign franchisees or bond them against opportunistic behavior, this study suggests that the international business literature develop a more complex understanding of the workings of international business transactions than the simple choice of internalization or contractual entry modes.     

Public companies as social institutions

Many UK public companies invest considerable resources in charitable donations and community involvement. Using semi‐structured interviews with public company officers, the author sought to investigate the motivations behind this activity. Was it undertaken because of an expectation of commercial benefit, out of a sense of obligation, or for other reasons? It appeared that public companies were increasingly anxious to make connections between corporate activity in the community and business activities. Public companies linked with local communities clearly felt a sense of connection with them. Corporate officers were constantly dealing with the management of reputation, which was seen as a valuable business asset, and community links made this task easier.     

房地产企业推行全面预算管理的办法

全面预算管理是全员、全过程、全方位的企业预算管理;房地产企业推行全面预算管理,可以实现企业发展战略目标、整合企业资源、提高经济效益的目的.     

Epistemic Virtues in Business

This paper applies emerging research on epistemic virtues to business ethics. Inspired by recent work on epistemic virtues in philosophy, I develop a view in which epistemic virtues contribute to the acquisition of knowledge that is instrumentally valuable in the realisation of particular ends, business ends in particular. I propose a conception of inquiry according to which epistemic actions involve investigation, belief adoption and justification, and relate this to the traditional ‘justified true belief’ analysis of knowledge. I defend the view that epistemic virtues enable and/or motivate people to perform epistemic actions. An examination of the key epistemic virtues of love of knowledge, epistemic courage, temperance, justice, generosity and humility provides some initial evidence suggesting that the way epistemic virtues enable or motivate is by countering a number of biases that have been uncovered by behavioural economics, and also indicates ways in which the instrumental epistemic value view is superior to other approaches to epistemic virtue offered in the literature.     

最初的萌芽——1840年-1911年中国品牌发展

清末民初西方的重要学科随着留学热潮被引入中国．上海以”海纳百川“之胸怀．孕育着品牌的成长。在这个过程中．公众开始在大众传播的导向下．有意识地进行消费与品牌认知。由于上海华洋共处的城市特征．接触西方商业文化后．市场对低技术产品的需求．使得上海具有形成轻工业品牌的先天优势。“杏花楼“、“双妹“等基于传统背景．结合适应时代的经营理念和宣传方式;”美华利”、”精益”等沿袭西方技术．从技术引入到自主生产。     

The role of the internet in the internationalisation of small and medium sized companies

It is now recognised that many firms are “born global’ and initiate international business from inception or shortly thereafter. They have been influenced by both globalisation and the impact of new ICT technologies. This paper examines the role of the Internet in the internationalisation of a cross national sample of small entrepreneurial firms from Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The findings are presented, including the role of the Internet in marketing, distribution, business processes and market intelligence and competitor analysis. The role of the Internet as a knowledge building tool is discussed, and areas for future research are presented.     

来自离岸公司的风险及其防范

越来越多的离岸公司出现在我们的周围,并以“外商”的身份对我国进行投资和合作。面对这些“外商”,我们似曾相识,但实际上又不很了解。他有公司的一些特点,但又与我们通常所说的公司有着许多不同。因为这些不同,许多风险便隐藏其中。对东道国及与离岸公司合作的企业来说,认清这些风险,并做好相应的防范。有重要的意义。     

Supporting innovation and venture development in established companies

Accumulated research findings call into question the ability of established corporations to develop and manage new ventures successfully. This article argues that the problem comes in large part from failing to differentiate between the requirements of administrative management—geared to managing existing activities and holding things in place to ensure continuation of already-developed activities—and the requirements of entrepreneurial management—designed to create change by developing something new. The two kinds of management are in tension and may interfere with each other, but every established organization needs both in order to get both innovation and efficiency.Innovations and new ventures have four particular characteristics that account for their special management requirements: uncertainty, knowledge-intensivity, competition with alternative courses of action, and boundary-crossing. Thus entrepreneurial management to support creation of the new puts a stress on such features as visionary leadership, “patient money,” planning flexibility, team continuity/stability, and interfunctional cooperation. But the usual requirements of administrative management in established corporations contradict these principles. Thus some companies try to set their new ventures apart from the old to avoid conflicts in management requirements. However, this this only partially solves the problem.All companies need both to manage ongoing activities and to create new ones—with the proportions of each depending on the nature of the business. They need to strike a balance between administrative and entrepreneurial management. The problem of venture development in established corporations occurs when administrative management comes to dominate and innovation is not valued sufficiently. The command system of administrative management needs to be replaced by a mutual adjustment system.High innovation companies build mutual adjustment into their design. They allow flexibility to move into an entrepreneurial mode. They are characterized by broader jobs: structures built around small business units or functionally complete project teams; cultures stressing the ability of people to contribute more over time; and easy access to the key “power tools” of information, support, and resources.A more entrepreneurial corporation minimizes hard-and-fast rules and procedures governed by a rigidly defined command structure and emphasizes instead flexibility and broadly-skilled sets of employees in flexible units that can be grouped or regrouped as changing circumstances require.Large corporations must institute deliberate programs to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, including removing the roadblocks of unnecessary administrative requirements; encouraging integration across departments and functions: changing budgeting and accounting procedures and providing internal venture capital and special project funds; discretionary time; and new business performance measures.     

How companies overcome barriers to overseas business

The choice to a company among exporting, acquiring other firms, licensing products and services, and entering into strategic alliances with other business firms is often strongly influenced by governmental policies and practices. In turn, companies’ responses to such influences have increasing feedback effects on governmental activities as public-sector decision-makers are being forced to understand that they now have to become internationally competitive in the economic policies they devise.     

完善上市公司经营者激励机制对策研究

随看上市公司队伍的不断壮大,上市公司在我国经济运行和发展中将起到不可替代的重要作用,其主动性的发挥是上市公司取得成功和积极持续稳定增长的关键因素之一.激励机制是发挥经营者主动性的制度保障,也是现代企业制度的重要内容.经营者的激励约束机制问题也一直是近年来理论界和企业界关注的热点.在分析经营者激励机制内涵和分析经营者激励的功能特性,针对我国上市公司目前经营者激励机制中存在的物质激励不健全,精神激励不充分等这些问题基础上,结合国外上市公司对经营者激励机制中有效的股票期权激励机制分析和科学的激励约束方案,对完善我国上市公司经营者激励机制提出了相应的解决对策.从物质方面,提出了长期激励的重要性,提出了股权激励与年薪制的实施;在精神方面,对以往忽视的或没有采取有效激励的个人声誉和待遇方面,提出了相应的完善措施,并通过大唐集团经营者激励机制的实践,验证了提出的对策,对大唐集团现状的创新之处与不足之处进行了总结,并提出了需要进一步研究的方向.     

Competitive advantage through service differentiation by manufacturing companies

This paper examines the relationship among the complexity of customer needs, customer centricity, innovativeness, service differentiation, and business performance within the context of companies that have made a service transition from pure goods providers to service providers. A survey of 332 manufacturing companies provides the basis for the empirical investigation. One key finding is that a strong emphasis on service differentiation can lead to a manufacturing firm's strategies for customer centricity being less sensitive to increasingly complex customer needs, which can increase a firm's payoff for customer centricity. In contrast, the payoff from innovativeness appears to be higher if the firm focuses its resources on either product or service innovation; that is, a dual focus does not work well. This paper discusses the implications of these findings for researchers and managers.     

Strategy implementation for the 2030 agenda: Insights from Brazilian companies

While firms' engagement with Corporate Social Responsibility has been associated with positive performance impacts, little is known about the incorporation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda into business practices. Precisely, although the literature suggests that firms are pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there are limited insights on their strategy to implement them in the context of developing countries. To address this gap, we conducted a comprehensive large-scale investigation of 2030 Agenda adoption by Brazilian companies. Accordingly, the analysis of our multicase study reveals (1) variations on the business opportunities brought by the SDGs depending on the firm position in the value chain, (2) which SDGs and target stakeholders are addressed through corporate policies and practices, (3) the different ways firms embrace the SDGs to pursue ambidexterity. Our findings clarify how firms in the developing countries interpret the institutional pressures and assemble their internal resources to respond to the SDGs challenges. Boundary conditions and policy implications are further discussed.     

Data-driven business and data privacy: Challenges and measures for product-based companies

To leverage the opportunities provided by the Internet of Things (IoT), product-based companies are exploring new data-driven business opportunities. They may miss these same opportunities, however, owing to data-privacy challenges. These challenges start with the customers of product-based companies, extend to the wider business ecosystem, and continue with the companies themselves. This article identifies 12 data-privacy challenges and introduces 12 measures to address them. These include intuitive recommendations, such as enabling cross-product consent collection, as well as less intuitive measures, such as fostering a can-do attitude in legal units, closing the gap between legal and business initiatives, or implementing a clear process for well-reasoned risk-taking. The following four principles were found to support companies in implementing these measures: (1) letting privacy and data-driven business go hand in hand, (2) putting customers first and turning their privacy preferences into opportunities, (3) aligning risk-management activities with the process of digital service development, and (4) using technology to professionalize legal processes.     

Empathy as added value in predicting donation behavior

Past behavior and socio-demographics represent traditional predictors of charitable giving. The present study examines, in a real fundraising setting, whether measures of empathy (i.e., empathic concern and personal distress) can improve these predictions. The findings confirm the relevance of traditional predictor sets and the added value of including measures of empathy. Empathic concern positively affects the donation decision. In addition, empathy negatively affects the donor's generosity toward one charity. However, for people with high empathic concern, considering only generosity toward one charity could be misleading because such people are more likely to donate to different charities. This result has implications for overall generosity. Therefore, a clear distinction between both personality traits is necessary.     

我国创业板上市公司偿债能力与资产流动性风险研究

一个公司的偿债能力反映了这个公司经营风险的大小,而经营风险又是投资者必须要考虑的因素,因此分析一个公司的偿债能力就显得十分必要了。本文主要选取了创业板市场的20家机械制造业企业,利用因子分析来计算企业的综合得分,进而评价企业的偿债能力。最后利用回归分析法分析偿债能力与企业资产流动性风险之间的关系,帮助投资者找出两者之间的一个最佳比例。     

A framework of successful organizational practices in Western multinational companies operating in Russia

Russian organizations have undergone significant changes since the 1990s. A new generation of Russian managers has come to the fore in Russia, who are eager to learn and open to Western knowledge. In turn, Western multinationals have also learned the fundamentals of doing business in Russia. How these developments are reflected in today's operations of Western multinationals in Russia remains – albeit with a few exceptions – largely unexplored in the academic literature. To address this gap, this paper explores what are the organizational practices and how do Western multinationals utilize them when striving to succeed in today's Russia. Based on two explorative case studies and 64 personal interviews with top and line managers it identifies four organizational practices, such as management training, corporate culture management, intercultural and linguistic training, and HRM practices, and two internalization mechanisms, such as boundary spanning, and reliance on local competence. The analysis elucidates important changes that have occurred in Western-Russian business relations and underscores important practical implications.     

Business policies of large and medium-sized German companies in Brazil

Intereconomics - The present article and its conclusions are based on a fundamental study of the differences in business policy displayed by German large and medium-sized companies in Brazil. The...     

Sources of competitive advantage in high performing exporting companies

The requirements for success in export market ventures are likely to differ not merely from the critical success factors in the domestic market, but also from the policies effective in the fully internationalized or global enterprise. Exporting activities are a vitally important area of international business, where the foundations for superior performance are not well understood. A recent study of export market ventures in the U.K. links superior exporting performance to the establishment of key competitive advantages, which may be traced to foundations in specific competencies (competitive skills in exporting) and capabilities (competitive resources in exporting). This simple model of the sources of superior export performance and this study's findings provide important insights for executives.     

The role of family conglomerates in emerging markets: What Western companies should know

Large, diversified, family‐owned businesses are dominant players in the economies of most emerging markets and can be excellent business partners for Western companies. This article highlights the evolutionary patterns of family conglomerates (FCs) and delineates principal drivers of their growth, expansion, and internationalization. Those aspects of FCs examined in this study include early mover advantages, foreign alliances, competitive market positioning, and diversification. Also discussed are entry‐mode considerations for Western companies contemplating doing business in the fast‐growth markets of East Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.