A Critique of the Empirical Methods of Integrative Social Contracts Theory

Integrative social contracts theory (ISCT) uses empirical methods to develop guidelines for international business ethics. This article criticizes ISCT in terms of the way people actually think about contracts and agreements around the globe. Differences in orientations to communications context, moral reasoning, and institutional and structural conditions make the identification of authentic norms, hypernorms, and relevant communities problematic. The difficulties of the empirical methods suggest recourse to more traditional theoretical approaches for the identification of hypernorms as well as a stronger test for the compatibility of authentic norms with hypernorms.     

Codes of Ethics in Hong Kong: Their Adoption and Impact in the Run up to the 1997 Transition of Sovereignty to China

Following a government campaign run by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in 1994, many Hong Kong companies and trade associations adopted written codes of conduct. The research study reported here examines how and why companies responded, and assesses the impact of code adoption on the moral climate of code adopters. The research involved (a) initial questionnaire surveys to which 184 organisations replied, (b) longitudinal questionnaire-based assessments of moral ethos and conduct in a focal sample of 17 code adopting companies, (c) interviews with 33 managers in the focal companies examining the adoption and impact of the codes, and (d) content analysis of 41 company codes of conduct, including those of most focal companies, plus the ICAC model code.While a mixture of prudential and altruistic reasons were given for code adoption, content analysis suggested that the prime motive was corporate self-defence. The prevailing themes were bribery, conflict of interest, insider information, gambling, moonlighting, accuracy of records and misuse of corporate assets. Wider social responsibility tended to be neglected. Companies appeared to have imposed their codes top-down, emphasising disciplinary procedures rather than ethics training, and appointing neither ethics counsellors nor ombuds-people. The longitudinal study over a seven month period suggested that while moral ethos may have declined, overall standards of perceived conduct had not changed.     

Comparative Ethical Report Card: A Study of Australian and Canadian Manager's Perceptions of International Marketing Ethics Problems

This research study sought to identify and categorize international marketing ethical problems that confront business managers in Australia and Canada. The study focused on ten major ethical problems developed from previous exploratory research. Managers from both countries indicate that the most frequently cited ethical problem is "gifts/ favors/entertainment" and the most important ethical problem is "large-scale bribery". However, there exist significant differences in terms of rankings and mean values of frequency and importance ratings for other ethical problems.     

Decision neuroscience and consumer decision making

This article proposes that neuroscience can shape future theory and models in consumer decision making and suggests ways that neuroscience methods can be used in decision-making research. The article argues that neuroscience facilitates better theory development and empirical testing by considering the physiological context and the role of constructs such as hunger, stress, and social influence on consumer choice and preferences. Neuroscience can also provide new explanations for different sources of heterogeneity within and across populations, suggest novel hypotheses with respect to choices and underlying mechanisms that accord with an understanding of biology, and allow for the use of neural data to make better predictions about consumer behavior. The article suggests that despite some challenges associated with incorporating neuroscience into research on consumer decision processes, the use of neuroscience paradigms will produce a deeper understanding of decision making that can lead to the development of more effective decision aids and interventions.     

The Information Content of Model‐Free Implied Volatility

This study examines the information content of model‐free implied volatility (MFIV) estimates with respect to the options and futures markets in Hong Kong. In this study, the volatility forecasting performance of MFIV is compared, using different prediction horizons, to IV estimates based on Black's futures option pricing model (BIV) and time‐series forecasts based on historical volatility (TS‐HV). The results show that the BIV prediction is unbiased for different horizon forecasts. MFIV outperforms TS‐HV forecasts and, most importantly, BIV subsumes the information content of both MFIV and TS‐HV forecasts. The results are largely maintained for next‐day forecasts but the forecasting quality of the two IV measures declines as expiration day approaches. The information contents of MFIV and TS‐HV forecasts are complementary. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 32:792‐806, 2012     

Interpersonal Relationship,Service Quality,Seller Expertise: How Important Are They to Adolescent Consumers?

Drawing upon social capital theory and psychosocial development theory, this paper argues that a true buyer–seller relationship is a key determinant of favorable consumer behaviors for adolescent consumers of hairstylist services. Other important determinants include quality of the service delivery process (i.e., service quality as measured by the five SERVQUAL factors) and quality of the core service (in this case, the hairstylist's expertise). A survey of 350 adolescent consumers confirms these predictions. It shows that a true interpersonal relationship negatively moderates the positive effects of service quality on consumer satisfaction with, and overall assessment of the hairstylist. This negative moderating effect is labeled resource substitution benefit and the argument made that this is the fourth social capital benefit. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Natural Resource Scarcity Typology: Theoretical Foundations and Strategic Implications for Supply Chain Management

World population growth and increased consumption stemming from economic leveling are leading to scarcity of a number of natural resources on a global scale. Scarcity of critical natural resources such as oil, water, food, and precious metals has the potential to greatly impact commercial activity as the twenty‐first century progresses. The challenge of continuing to provide needed goods and services in the face of these constraints falls to supply chain managers, who are ultimately responsible for delivering utility to customers. Unfortunately, there has been almost no research focused on supply chain strategies aimed at mitigating natural resource scarcity’s (NRS) potential effects. The current research positions NRS as a supply chain risk and proposes an NRS typology based on key resource attributes. Supply chain mitigation strategies to counter each resource status are offered, with an overall objective of improving supply chain performance. The study recommends future research aimed at further developing theory and methods for countering NRS based on resource, systems and behavioral theories. In addition, this study has critical implications for practitioners faced with the growing threat of NRS in their supply chains.     

ROBUST BOUNDS FOR FORWARD START OPTIONS

We consider the problem of finding a model‐free upper bound on the price of a forward start straddle with payoff . The bound depends on the prices of vanilla call and put options with maturities T₁ and T₂ , but does not rely on any modeling assumptions concerning the dynamics of the underlying. The bound can be enforced by a super‐replicating strategy involving puts, calls, and a forward transaction. We find an upper bound, and a model which is consistent with T₁ and T₂ vanilla option prices for which the model‐based price of the straddle is equal to the upper bound. This proves that the bound is best possible. For lognormal marginals we show that the upper bound is at most 30% higher than the Black–Scholes price. The problem can be recast as finding the solution to a Skorokhod embedding problem with nontrivial initial law so as to maximize .     

The liability of closeness: Business relatedness and foreign subsidiary performance

It is widely accepted that business relatedness, defined as the extent to which a foreign subsidiary is related to its parent's core business, has a positive effect on subsidiary performance. With a sample of 165 Japanese subsidiaries located in China, however, we found that modestly related subsidiaries, on average, outperformed both unrelated and closely related subsidiaries, and that closely related subsidiaries performed poorly especially when the parent had a heavy majority ownership in the subsidiary and the subsidiary was at its early stage of operating in the host market. Our results indicate that being too closely related to the parent could be potentially detrimental, suggesting a liability of closeness.