Testing the Value-Pragmatics Hypothesis in Unethical Compliance

We test conformity-related values applying the value-pragmatics hypothesis by evaluating how personal values related to compliance moderate the relationships between situational factors and unethical decisions. We examine the direct and indirect effects of the values of traditionalism, conformity, and stimulation, as they combine with the situational factors of rewards and punishments in the person–situation interaction model. We find strong support for the value-pragmatics view of ethical decision making and further build support for the person–situation interaction model.     

Business's environmental responsibility in Taiwan — Moral,legal or negotiated

This study explores both the negotiating styles and moral reasoning processes of business people and governmental officials in Taiwan, so as to provide a footing for outsiders when negotiating with Taiwanese over environmental concerns. Findings imply that Taiwanese business people and governmental officials can and will reason both at the conventional level and at the postconventional level of moral judgment. But, results of this study also indicate that Taiwanese negotiating styles do not necessarily match their levels of moral reasoning. With respect to pollution concerns, Taiwanese seem unwillingly to accept responsibility as autonomous individuals. Instead, responsibility is accepted when mandated by the law.Peihua Sheng teaches marketing and marketing research at the American College for the Applied Art, Atlanta Campus. She has taught marketing at the university level in Chinese for several years. Her research interests include business ethics, equity, and international marketing strategy.Linda Chang is a financial analyst on OTSUKA America. A native of Taiwan, she has an MBA. Her research interests are in the areas of planning and negotiation.Warren French is a professor of Marketing and the I. W. Cousins Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Georgia. His research interests include business ethics, aging, and international business. His articles have appeared in a variety of scholarly and practitioner-oriented journals.     

Design of MySuper default funds: influences and outcomes

We interview Australian fund executives about how their organisations responded to MySuper, a regulatory framework for default retirement savings funds that providers were required to have in place by the beginning of 2014. We provide an account of the influences on MySuper product design. Our analysis generates insight into how fund providers balanced their perceptions of the needs of default fund members against business considerations. Differences in member bases and organisational circumstances across funds are found to lead to considerable variation in default fund design.     

Bacon and eltis on growth,government, and welfare

In a recent book, Robert Bacon and Walter Eltis attribute Britain's relatively slow economic growth since 1961 to rapid expansion of her public sector. The article disputes both their analogy between the public sector and the physiocrats' sterile sector and their contention that wage demands increase because the marginal public expenditure is not worth the taxes it requires. The wage-tax spiral, if of empirical significance, seems likely to proceed whatever the virtues of public expenditure. This is a fault in the industrial relations system and is by no means sufficient reason to judge the public sector overgrown.     

UK wage underpayment: implications for the minimum wage

Dynamic monopsony suggests that, due to labour market frictions, workers will be paid below their productivity. This paper uses the stochastic frontier technique to estimate the degree of this underpayment for UK employees. It finds evidence of significant underpayment. The estimates are used to examine whether the predictions of dynamic monopsony are empirically accurate. No conclusive evidence against this theoretical framework is found. The paper also investigates whether payment according to productivity is a sufficient condition for the elimination of the ‘working poor’ problem. Due to the existence of an unemployment barrier, it finds that the minimum wage is not an effective anti-poverty policy.