Perceptions of Business Ethics in a Multicultural Community: The Case of Malaysia

Leaders and managers of today's multinational corporations face a plethora of problems and issues directly attributable to the fact that they are operating in an international context. With work-sites, plants and/or customers based in another country, or even several countries, representing a vast spectrum of cultural differences, international trade and offshore operations, coupled with increased globalisation in respect to political, social and economic realities, contribute to new dilemmas that these leaders must deal with. Not the least of these being a Code of Ethics and ethical decision making.This paper examines the differences in culture between a group of managers from the United States and similar group from Croatia using Hofstede's theory of International Cultures. The study explores how these cultural dimensions may help in our understanding of the differences in reported whistleblowing. The authors then postulate four hypotheses regarding various aspects of whistleblowing. These Hypotheses were than tested using a survey administered to a sample of U.S.A. and Croatian managers. Finally, the paper discusses the findings and practical implications for contemporary managers in the international arena.     

Applying an extended theory of planned behavior to examine state-branded food product purchase behavior: The moderating effect of gender

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to use an extended model of the theory of planned behavior to investigate the antecedents which lead to consumers’ purchase of state-branded food products. Relationships among attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, health-consciousness, intention to purchase, and actual purchase were examined. In addition, the moderating role of gender on consumer purchasing was assessed. The hypothetical model was empirically tested using data collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk). Results implicated that consumers’ attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control of purchasing state-branded products significantly predicted their intention to purchase, and consumers’ intention to purchase significantly predicted their actual purchase of state-branded products. The relationship between health-consciousness and intention to purchase, however, was not found. Gender differences were found only between consumers’ perceived behavioral control of state-branded purchasing and their intention to purchase. Implications for marketers, farmers, and restaurant owners are provided.     

A mirror of history: China's bond market, 1921–42

This article provides a quantitative assessment of contemporary beliefs about historical events by econometrically identifying ‘break points’ in China's domestic bond market from 1921 to 1942. We find that these ‘break points’ usually coincided with the events highlighted by the Shanghai Newspaper—an influential daily newspaper produced during the time of the Republic of China. These events are also generally considered to be crucial by historians—for example, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the outbreak of the Second Sino‐Japanese War. However, some events to which historians attach great importance, such as the conflicts between Nationalists and Communists in the 1930s, were not reflected in the bond market and did not attract much media attention. Some events, such as the Sino‐Japanese ceasefire in Tanggu in 1933, were thought to be crucial by contemporaries, but have been downplayed by later observers.     

From Voids to Sophistication: Institutional Environment and MNC CSR Crisis in Emerging Markets

Why do multinational corporations (MNCs) frequently encounter corporate social responsibility (CSR) crises in leading emerging markets in the new century? Existing research about institutional impacts on MNC CSR has developed a void-based account about how the flawed institutional system allows misdeeds to happen. But the fact that such misdeeds have turned into increasing CSR crises in the new century along with institutional change is rarely taken into account. This paper combines studies of institutional voids, institutional entrepreneurship, and stakeholder theory to develop a concept of institutional sophistication, which refers to both the top-down maturation of the regulatory system that standardizes firm behavior and the bottom-up diversification and intensification of grassroots initiatives that redefine stakeholder membership. Based on this concept, we developed a framework to comprehensively demonstrate how both institutional voids and sophistication drive the MNC CSR crisis in leading emerging markets. Empirically, we established an original database that includes 309 publicized CSR crises encountered by major foreign MNCs in China, India, and Russia, 2000–2011. Through a content analysis, the paper reveals six common sophistication processes that drive the MNC crisis across contexts and also specifies stakeholder strategies that make these processes happen and vary by social problems and national contexts. We also discussed the value of studying corporate social irresponsible behavior in understanding the institution–MNC relationship.     

CEO Overconfidence and Long‐Term Performance Following R&D Increases

We examine the relation between Chief Executive Officer (CEO) overconfidence and significant increases in research and development (R&D) expenditures. Although prior studies reveal a significantly positive market reaction to increases in R&D expenditures in both the long and short run, we find that long‐run stock performance is positive only for firms whose CEOs are not overconfident. Our findings, which may be attributable to overinvestment and the overestimation of future cash flows, imply that R&D resulting from overconfident behavior does not provide any value to firms.     

The Finance-growth Relationship and the Level of Country Development

We examine whether dynamic impacts of banks and stock markets on economic growth are related to the level of country development. Using annual data from 15 industrial and 15 emerging countries over the period from 1976 to 2005, we find that banking development and stock market development may have distinct short-and long-run impacts on economic growth at various stages of country development. Financial development is not always a panacea for economic growth. Most importantly, our findings suggest that the fully functional tools to render stable growth for a country may depend on the level of the country’s development.     

Can Singapore maintain its competitive edge in manufacturing productivity vis-à-vis China and Malaysia?

This article investigates whether Singapore can maintain its competitive advantage in manufacturing from a labour productivity perspective vis-avis China and Malaysia, which are generally viewed as Singapore's competitors in manufacturing. We also investigate the extent to which China is closing the labour productivity gap with Singapore and Malaysia in technology-intensive segments of manufacturing. Our analysis reveals that China has the potential to develop a high labour-productivity and low-wage manufacturing sector. In terms of manufacturing labour productivity, China is moving towards convergence with Malaysia. Compared with Singapore, China's manufacturing labour productivity is still far behind, especially in key technology-intensive industries like electronics and chemicals, such that it is unlikely for China to catch up with Singapore within a decade.     

JUMPING THE CURSE: EARLY CONTRACTING WITH PRIVATE INFORMATION IN UNIVERSITY ADMISSIONS*

This article introduces a new model of early contracting. Employers who have private information about the applicant's ability worry that applicants who accept their offer are precisely those who were not offered other jobs. To avoid this winner's curse, employers anticipate the time of contracting. The model is developed in the context of university admissions, and is shown to be consistent with several stylized facts in that “market.” We show that, in contrast to received wisdom, allocative efficiency may be improved by the presence of early contracting.     

The inflation rates may accelerate after all: panel evidence from 19 OECD economies

The stationarity of inflation has many important economic implications. Most panel-based empirical studies do not handle cross-sectional dependence, which will result in power distortion. This paper applies a nonlinear IV estimator to calculate the test statistic of panel unit root (Chang in J Econom 110:261–292, 2002), which accounts for general cross-sectional correlation. Using monthly inflation rates, two statistics proposed by Im et al. (J Econom 115:53–74, 2003) reject the unit root; however, the nonlinear IV statistic accepts the unit root. That is, the ignored cross-sectional correlation may lead to over-rejection of the unit root null. In a nutshell, unlike current literature, the inflation rates may accelerate after all.