Advertising Agency-client Attitudes Towards Ethical Issues in Political Advertising

Political advertising has long been a target for criticism regarding unethical behaviour. This study looks at the attitudes of Australian advertising agency executives and politicians towards ethical issues relating to political advertising. A sample of 101 advertising agency executives and 46 federal politicians were compared and some attitudinal differences were found, which could be areas of tension in the agency-client relationship.     

The ecological handicap of the tropics

The long-forgotten subject of the ecological disadvantages of the tropics has been brought to the fore once again by the catastrophic droughts in the Sahel and in southern Africa. The naive belief that economic development is simply a matter of finding the right technology and of spreading scientific knowledge must give way to the acknowledgement that the “development threshold” of the tropical countries is very substantial and complex, and that surpassing it will be a long and wearisome business.     

Bargaining and the value of money

Search models of monetary exchange have typically relied on Nash [1950. The bargaining problem. Econometrica 18, 155-162] bargaining, or strategic games that yield an equivalent outcome, to determine the terms of trade. By considering alternative axiomatic bargaining solutions in a search model with divisible money, we show that the properties of the bargaining solutions do matter both qualitatively and quantitatively for questions of first-degree importance in monetary economics such as: (i) the efficiency of monetary equilibrium; (ii) the optimality of the Friedman rule and (iii) the welfare cost of inflation.     

QRA of chemical reaction systems: The state of the practice

This paper discusses a quantitative risk assessment (QRA) of an exothermic chemical process. Fault tree/event tree techniques were used to estimate the frequency of runaway reactions that could result in over-pressure and vessel rupture. The paper focuses on the current methodology used in performing this type of study, emphasizing analytical techniques that help avoid potential time-consuming pitfalls. The challenging problem of predicting how rare sequences of events (e.g., involving failure of several engineered control and safety systems) will develop is systematically modeled using fault trees/event trees, which makes the QRA process a unique and powerful analytical tool. The results of this study provided the guidance for selecting the most appropriate action(s) to implement from a set of various design options for improving the safety of this system. Use of QRA has enabled plant management to have confidence that they are selecting the most cost-effective safety improvement option.     

The Quest for Societal ROI in the Midst of the Perfect Storm: Can SCM Set the Standard for Twenty‐First Century Business Education?

The Academy's dual role is to discover and disseminate knowledge. For most of our tenure, we have focused on research's role in fulfilling this societal mandate. We continue that discussion here by calling for more “actionable” research—something that the supply chain discipline is particularly well positioned to do. We now extend the discussion to pedagogy. As the two epigraphs denote, society is looking for a return on its investment—even a reinvention of the university. Increased costs, poor student achievement, and disruptive technology create an environment perfect for disruption. Yet, if we do our job well, current and foreseeable technologies cannot provide the same kind of transformative education that can be cultivated through community‐engaged experiential learning. The good news: The supply chain discipline is perfectly positioned to set the standard for twenty‐first century business education.     

Public Policy Adrift: Veblen’s Blind Drift and Neoliberalism

This paper considers the factors that currently shape and direct public policy formation in the United States. The paper begins by articulating the general position of institutionalists with regard to the purpose of public policy analysis and formulation. Next, a discussion of Thorstein Veblen’s view is presented focusing on his rejection of meliorative tendencies in the economy and the meaning of his concept of blind drift as applied to the likely direction of ongoing social processes. Then, we explore a contemporary analysis of the belief in the role of meliorative trends in contemporary social and economic policy analysis and discussions by James K. Galbraith. Then, we examine Philip Mirowski’s recent analysis of the shaping of the direction of public policy debate by what he refers to as the neoliberal thought collective as a mitigating factor to the blind drift suggested by Thorstein Veblen.     

Can We Stay Ahead of the Obsolescence Curve? On Inflection Points,Proactive Preemption,and the Future of Supply Chain Management

Great companies—like great products and great nations—have always endured a four‐stage life cycle: emergence, growth, maturity, and decline. Faster clockspeeds—enabled by compressed technology cycles and accelerated by new knowledge‐sharing routines such as crowdsourcing—are shrinking life cycles. What does this mean? Entities of all kinds now find themselves in a constant race against obsolescence. We thus ask a vital question,”Can we (as a discipline) stay ahead of the obsolescence curve?” Technological and sociological inflection points promise to change the rules of engagement. For instance, 3D printing, Big Data, and drones promise to change management practice. Budget deficits, poor skill improvement, and MOOCs promise to change academe. We discuss adaptation challenges and proactive preemption as preludes to presenting various visions of the future of supply chain management.     

The SCM Knowledge Supply Chain: Integrating World Views to Advance the Discipline

Supply chain management is a discipline immersed in knowledge creation and dissemination concerning the integration of business processes across functions and among firms. Academics are the producers and distributors in this knowledge supply chain. The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) provides numerous opportunities to integrate functions and processes between academics and practitioners. The Journal of Business Logistics, the CSCMP Educators' Conference, the CSCMP Annual Global Conference, and CSCMP per se, provide the venue for linking academics to practice, bridging the gap between the two groups as part of the same universe of value creation. Being actively involved in all of these makes a researcher more complete, relevant, and rigorous.     

Supply Chain Game Changers—Mega,Nano, and Virtual Trends—And Forces That Impede Supply Chain Design (i.e., Building a Winning Team)

Strategic systems design is essential to structuring and governing a supply chain for competitive advantage. To effectively co‐create value, decision makers must manage the three rights of supply chain design: right players, right roles, and right relationships. Doing this well requires managers discern how the unwritten competitive rules are changing as well as determine firm readiness to compete. As part of this analysis, we briefly explore five emerging “game changers” that represent potential supply chain design inflection points: (1) Big Data and predictive analytics, (2) additive manufacturing, (3) autonomous vehicles, (4) materials science, and (5) borderless supply chains. We also consider four forces that impede transformation to higher levels of value co‐creation: (1) supply chain security, (2) failed change management, (3) lack of trust as a governance mechanism, and (4) poor understanding of the “luxury” nature of corporate social responsibility initiatives. How well managers address sociostructural and sociotechnical issues will determine firm survivability and success.