Resolving ethical conflicts at workthrough cooperative goals and constructive controversy in the People's Republic of China

The idea of constructive controversy and the theory of cooperation and competition together suggest the type of interaction that promotes satisfactory resolution of ethical conflicts and the conditions under which this occurs. A sample of 101 Chinese mainland employees described and rated a critical incident of an ethical conflict at work. Structural equation analyses indicated that when the employees had goals that were cooperatively related with those of other stakeholders in the conflict, rather than competitive or independent goals, this facilitated constructive controversy, i.e., open-minded discussion, which, in turn, led to effective outcomes in terms of substantive ethical impact and interactional justice. Results also indicated that high levels of moral intensity strengthened competitive goals and rendered constructive controversy less likely. Implications are that organizations should make it clear to members that conflict avoidance and moral muteness are inappropriate responses to ethically unsound practices and policies, that it is important to detect ethically questionable behaviours or policies at an early stage, and that wherever possible these should be discussed promptly, before an uncomfortably high level of moral intensity is reached. Constructive controversy is suggested as a process through which corporate codes of conduct may be developed.     

Financial strategy: Planning and managing the corporate leverage position

Among the important elements of a company's strategic plan is its decision about the degree of financial leverage it elects to imbed in its capital structure. A simple operational framework that can assist in framing that decision, which concentrates on the likelihood of being unable to meet fixed financial charges, is presented. The model is tested empirically, and support for its potential usefulness in the financial planning process is found.     

Distribution performance and power sources

Performance is the primary concern of industrial channel members; yet, marketing researchers have focused their attention, not on performance, but on other aspects of channel relations: power, control, and conflict. This study investigates performance and the sources of the power-performance relationship in an industrial distribution channel.     

The Determinants of REIT Institutional Ownership: Tests of the CAPM

This study examines the determinants of institutional investment demand for REIT common stock. We estimate the demand function for financial institutions using the mean return and CAPM risk measures (beta and standard error) for REIT stocks. The objective is to determine whether institutional investment decisions are influenced by CAPM model attributes. In addition, we examine the predicatability of REIT institutional ownership based on the factors in our model. We employ conventional OLS forecasting techniques, as well as two neural network models in order to deal with possible nonlinearities in the relationships.