Exploring Incentives for the Adoption of Food Safety Controls: HACCP Implementation in the U.K. Dairy Sector

This article explores the incentives that motivate the adoption of food safety controls by businesses through a study of HACCP adoption in the U.K. dairy processing sector. The study identifies four key factors that have motivated the adoption of HACCP, namely, internal efficiency, commercial pressure, external requirements, and good practice. Respondents to the survey are clustered according to the relative importance of these factors in their adoption decision. Four clusters are identified and related to the characteristics of firms, including firm size and type of products manufactured. The results indicate that there are systematic differences in the HACCP adoption process between individual firms.     

The Commodity Terms of Trade, Unit Roots, and Nonlinear Alternatives: A Smooth Transition Approach

This article extends the recent literature on the Prebisch–Singer hypothesis of a long-run decline in the relative prices of primary commodities. Our main innovation is testing for and estimating nonlinear alternatives to a secular deterioration. Specifically, we use bootstrap procedures to test the linear unit root model against models belonging to the family of smooth transition autoregressions (STARs) for twenty-four commodities, 1900–2003. In nineteen cases we reject the linear null at usual significance levels. In sixteen cases we are able to successfully fit STAR-type models. Simulation results show there is little support for the Prebisch–Singer hypothesis.     

Whiskey: marketplace icon

Brands are potent and efficient vehicles to diffuse and reproduce ideologies. This article revisits over a decade of research on Jack Daniel’s as an iconic brand, and provides a behind the scenes look at the process of researching cultural brands. It describes whiskey as a marketplace icon that reflects particular cultural ideologies, and updates the Jack Daniel’s story in the context of the craft liquor movement. Iconic brands, cultural icons, and marketplace icons are discussed. Further distinctions between iconicity at the category, segment and brand level are made. The article is transcribed and edited from an interview with Consumption Markets & Culture editor Jonathan Schroeder in June 2015.     

Robert E. Wright. The First Wall Street: Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, & The Birth of American Finance

The First Wall Street is Robert Wright's latest installmentin his campaign to highlight financial institutions as the drivingforce in the economic and political history of the Early Republic.Wright reminds us that prior to Wall Street's ascendance inthe 1830s, Chestnut Street in Philadelphia was the nation'sfinancial center and the birthplace of some of America's mostimportant financial innovations. Wright argues that despite its physical disadvantages as a port,Philadelphia thrived because its climate of     

The Meaning of Audit Reports

This paper reports the results of a study of how the various stylised forms of audit report used in the UK are interpreted by both accountants and professional users of audited financial statements. The results indicate that both accountants and users distinguish between the various audit reports, although users found less difference than accountants. The greatest divergences of interpretation concerned the qualification relating to lack of internal control (small companies qualification) and the going concern qualification.     

Reflective Judgement: Understanding Entrepreneurship as Ethical Practice

Recently, the ethical rather than just the economic resonance of entrepreneurship has attracted attention with researchers highlighting entrepreneurship and ethics as interwoven processes of value creation and management. Recognising that traditional normative perspectives on ethics are limited in application in entrepreneurial contexts, this stream of research has theorised entrepreneurship and ethics as the pragmatic production of useful effects through the alignment of public–private values. In this article, we critique this view and use Kant’s concept of reflective judgement as discussed in his Critique of the Power of Judgement to theorise ethical entrepreneurial practice as the capacity to routinely break free from current conventions through the imaginative creation and use of self-legislating maxims. Through an analysis of the narratives of 12 entrepreneurs, we suggest there are three dimensions to reflective judgement in entrepreneurial contexts: (1) Social Performance; (2) Public Challenge and; (3) Personal Autonomy. Whilst the entrepreneurs were alive to the importance of commercial return, their narratives demonstrated further concern for, and commitment to, standards that they rationally and imaginatively felt as being appropriate. In our discussion, we integrate the findings into existing theoretical categories from entrepreneurship studies to better appreciate ethics within the context of value creation.     

Sustaining places and participatory sport tourism events

Participant-based sport events like ultramarathons are becoming increasingly popular but little is known about how they influence key stakeholders’ understandings of place and how these understandings fit into the tourism discourse on sustainability. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to gain insight into the sustainability of this type of active sport tourism event by examining the way that residents and visiting runners understand place (Grande Cache, Canada) in the context of the Canadian Death Race (CDR) ultramarathon. Interviews about place inclusive of a photo elicitation component were conducted with 15 residents and 20 visiting runners during the 2014 event. Thematic analysis resulted in the identification of four themes including: identity, dependence, physical setting, and social setting. Although they shared basic understandings of Grande Cache as a place of industry surrounded by nature, residents expressed stronger place identity than runners. Runners identified more with the activity of running but were connected to Grande Cache through place dependence and embodied experience. This discrepancy suggests that the sustainability of the CDR is at risk. Runners currently exhibit a high level of place dependence on Grande Cache, but a growing supply of race options poses a substitution threat.     

A comparative study of values among Chinese and U.S. entrepreneurs: Pragmatic convergence between contrasting cultures

The People's Republic of China is the world's leading Communist power, yet it also represents the largest potential market for international investment and development. In recent years, China has actively pursued private enterprise development, passing its first Private Company Act in 1988, and subsequently encouraging entrepreneurial activities. More than a half-million new ventures in high-growth manufacturing, engineering, and infrastructural development have been independently established in China in little more than six years, and although it would be presumptuous to assume that China is racing toward a free enterprise economy, there are major changes taking place. From an entrepreneurial perspective, these changes are in sharp contrast to the nation's political ideology, and those who are pursuing new ventures constitute a vanguard of individuals at odds with a majority of society.A critical concern is whether China's entrepreneurs pose a threat to those who are entrenched in a political ideology that, by definition, is opposed to free market economics and private enterprise. As Hofstede (1980) has pointed out, characteristics of a people are defined by their prevailing value systems, and research by Bond (1991), Hofstede (1983a, 1983b), Schwartz (1992), and Triandis et al. (1986) has shown that by systematically studying human values we can gain valuable insights about patterns of behavior, motivation, and expectations of cross-cultural boundaries. Consequently, this study was developed to replicate previous value-related studies among Chinese entrepreneurs and nonentrepreneurial managers. A sample of more than 200 executives of state-owned and privately founded industrial companies provided comparable groups for comprehensive interviews. An analogous sample of U.S. entrepreneurs was selected to represent Western values. This extends several previous studies on private enterprise development in China, but, clearly, the convenient and limited sample cannot be construed as representative of a geographically and ethnically diversified country of more than 1.1 billion people. However, it does provide useful insights to differences and similarities in work-related values between Chinese entrepreneurs, managers, and U.S. entrepreneurs as exploratory research.A primary consideration of this study was to enrich the existing research concerning entrepreneurial values, and in the process, question whether Chinese entrepreneurial values are similar to those held by U.S. entrepreneurs. If so, there would be a stronger case for convergence of value systems and commensurate behavior. Similarities would also support arguments by many that entrepreneurial characteristics, such as individualism, achievement motives, and self-deterministic behavior, are universal. This is complicated, however, by a Confucian social philosophy that places little value on these attributes while underscoring the importance of collective behavior, conformist behavior, and referent group loyalty. It is further complicated by two generations of Communist doctrine that has suppressed individual initiative, commercial achievement, and social mobility. Can entrepreneurial values prevail under such adverse conditions? More specifically, can values associated with individualism and self-determination exist in a society that is collectivist and conformist? Several recent studies on entrepreneurial values suggest that apparent contradictory value sets might co-exist (Baum et al. 1993; Chow and Tsang 1994; Erez and Earley 1993; Hofstede and Bond 1988; Holt, Ralston, and Terpstra 1994). Entrepreneurial research has also questioned the concept of universal values and found that, in many instances, cultural-based values are not necessarily malleable (McGrath et al. 1992), values are often contingent on prevailing cultural antecedents (Shenkar and Von Glinow 1994), and discordant or paradoxical values exist within so-called collectivist societies, among presumed cohesive groups, and within well-defined ethnic clusters (McGrath, MacMillan, and Scheinberg 1992; Ohe, Honjo, and MacMillan 1990; Ralston et al. 1994; Triandis et al. 1988).The current study revealed patterns of value orientations among Chinese entrepreneurs, Chinese executives of state-owned or joint venture firms, and U.S. entrepreneurs that in some instances were substantially different, and in other instances quite similar. Contrasts in these patterns suggest an apparent paradox of entrepreneurship in a collectivist society like China, and in particular, a potential confrontation between Chinese entrepreneurs and nonentrepreneurial managers. The results showed that, indeed, the respondent Chinese managers and entrepreneurs differed sharply on many crucial value dimensions, and although the survey was limited to a southern industrial province, there is the possibility that China may be facing an extremely difficult transition period toward a constrained market economy with overtones of a possible ideological backlash. The results revealed many similarities between the respondent Chinese and U.S. entrepreneurs, but also several important differences steeped in Confucian social philosophy. Although there may be some convergence in values, it is more likely that Chinese entrepreneurs are simply pragmatic, and therefore selective in developing behavior that reflects values associated with achievement, independence, freedom of choice, and self-determination. If these results could be interpreted as prevalent beyond our exploratory sample, then pragmatic expectations may be driving private enterprise development in China more than cultural values, but this is difficult to verify. Whatever implications are drawn from this study must also be taken cautiously because there are indications that definitions of certain values, such as achievement or independence, may have substantially different meanings to American and Chinese entrepreneurs. Care was taken to make translations comparable during the field interviews, but Western concepts inherent in the instruments used for value research may have elicited responses or associated meanings among the Chinese that cannot be accurately interpreted.     

International bankruptcy and the spirit of comity: New U.S. law encourages cooperation among nations

While many international businesses are successful, others experience financial difficulties and file for bankruptcy. These cases pose challenges for bankruptcy courts worldwide because the assets of the debtor are located in more than one nation. How is this being handled? The trend is toward cooperation. Under the principle of comity, one nation gives effect to the laws and judicial decisions of another nation as a matter of deference and mutual respect. The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (the Act), effective October 2005, amends the bankruptcy code in several significant ways. One such amendment is Chapter 15: Ancillary and Other Cross-Border Cases. Chapter 15 not only embraces but also advances the spirit of comity.