The timing of final charitable bequest decisions

• Understanding the timing of final charitable bequest decisions permits nonprofits to co‐ordinate their marketing efforts to correspond with donor decision‐making. Using probate data from Australia and longitudinal survey data from the USA, this paper seeks to identify the timing of decisions that resulted in realized charitable bequests. We find evidence that charitable transfers result mostly from decisions that occur during the last 5 years of life and at the oldest ages. Charitable plans made earlier in life are often discarded.

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Intersection of Law and Ethics – at 600 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA: Is it Ethical to Assert a Legal Technicality to Avoid Liability for a Debt Created by Fraud?

A considerable literature exists regard-ing the moral obligation to keep one's promises. Several authors have focused on the exceptional circumstances which may or should excuse this moral duty. Less frequently discussed is the question of how this general moral obligation and its possible exceptions play out in the context of negotiable written promises to pay money, i.e., so-called "commercial paper."This paper focuses on the application of the legal rules governing commercial paper, and on the ethical implications involved in the application of those rules. More specifically, it asks whether the assertion of the technical doctrine known as "holder in due course," and the denial of that status in some cases, promotes ethical behavior in the marketplace. By examining the circumstances of one case, involving a substantial investment and a large bank, I hope to shed some light on how the legal and ethical rules do in fact "intersect."     

Acting More Generously than the Law Requires: The Issue of Employee Layoffs in halakhah

In this paper, the issue of plant closings is analyzed from the perspective of halakhah (the Written Law of Judaism). Two levels of analysis in halakhah must be differentiated: the legal (enforced by courts) and the moral (not enforced by law, but rather framed in terms of duty to God). There is no legal mandate to keep an unprofitable plant open, but there are a number of moral imprecations (particularly "acting more generously than the law requires") that might influence an employer's decision making. Using analogical reasoning to infer moral and/or legal obligations may be a fruitful means for businesspeople to analyze business situations in terms of ethical implications.     

Understanding communal and individual customer experiences in group-oriented event tourism: an activity theory perspective

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study, grounded in activity theory, is to empirically investigate the communal and individual mechanisms that simultaneously shape the customer experience in group-oriented event tourism. Based on a survey of 389 respondents with group travel experience to major events, the results confirm the research model, suggesting that the customer-experience construct constitutes a multidimensional structure comprising second-order components reflecting individual and communal experiences, with each containing first-order constructs. The results further confirm that the customer-experience construct predicts post-consumption evaluations of perceived value and satisfaction. Limitations of the study are outlined, and implications for research and managerial practice for the creation of customer experiences that are valuable and satisfying for group-travel consumers to events are discussed.     

Corporate Demography and Empirical Industrial Organization: A Critical Appraisal

The emerging field of corporate demography views corporations and industries in a similar way to human or animal individuals and groups. In spite of a surprisingly large overlap of subject matter with economics, corporate demography is not well-known by, nor easily accessible to economists. An extremely useful recent book, The Demography of Corporations and Industries, by Glenn R. Carroll and Michael T. Hannan (2000) should change that. This review essay critically examines corporate demography from an economic viewpoint. The very different view of competition in corporate demography gets particular attention.     

Using Bibliometrics to Measure Firm Knowledge: An Analysis of the US Pharmaceutical Industry

A recent literature review highlighted the knowledge-based view as an important current theory in the strategic management area. The current paper utilizes that theory as the context for employing bibliometrics to uncover the publishing and patenting citation patterns in a group of twelve US pharmaceutical companies over a 13-year period. Our initial findings suggest that firms self-cite a great deal, and that they rely heavily on public science. In addition, we found that Merck and Co. is the most frequently cited company in both the science and technology areas, though somewhat less so in technology. The managerial implications, particularly from a knowledge perspective, are discussed as well as some suggestions for future research.     

MARKETS FOR ORGANS: THE QUESTION OF SUPPLY

Organ transplantation holds the potential to substantially restore the health of many otherwise terminally ill patients. That potential, however, is currently being denied full realization by a chronic and severe shortage of cadaveric organs that are made available for this use. In recent years, medical practitioners, social scientists, and others have debated the virtues of allowing markets for cadaveric organs to form as a way to end the current shortage. In this debate, market opponents have argued, inter alia, that (1) organ collections may fall with payment of positive prices and (2) the price required to equilibrate organ supply and demand would be high. On the other hand, proponents of organ markets have argued that financial inducements could save many lives and that the equilibrium price is likely to be low. While dozens of papers have been published debating this issue, to date no one has provided any empirical evidence to resolve these important questions of supply. This paper provides preliminary evidence suggesting that potential donors would be relatively responsive to financial inducements and, accordingly, that the price required to eliminate the current shortage of organs is surprisingly low. (JEL 118, L50)     

Modeling regional electric power markets and market power

This paper develops a nonlinear, mathematical programming model for estimating production decisions in an open access, regional power market. Our approach allows one to estimate competitive power market equilibrium prices, which in turn offers empirical conclusions about marginal generation facilities, transmission interconnection congestion, and most importantly, load pockets and market power. Sensitivity analyses are conducted by subjecting the model to changes in production costs, peak hour demand, power imports, and transmission interconnection price assumptions. We then consider the issue of a firm's ability to exercise market power and the implications it may have on regional equilibrium power prices. The Louisiana power market is used as a case study for our work. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using 'hard' and 'soft' technologies for global new product development

This paper reports on a study of the use of 'hard' and 'soft' technologies as tools for managing global new product teams. 'Hard' technologies consist of electronic mail, teleconferencing, fax, video conferencing, and other electronic means of facilitating communication. 'Soft' technologies, on the other hand, reflect managerial behaviors that are necessary to deal with the social and behavioral aspects of global new product development. Our study suggests that:
The frequency of use of hard technologies is greater for higher versus lower performing global teams.
The set of hard technologies perceived to be important is different for higher versus lower performing global teams.
How well soft technologies are used is greater for higher performing global teams.
Soft technologies are seen as more important than hard technologies.
Implications of these findings for managers and future research are discussed.