An Experiential Approach for Teaching Business Ethics

Despite the recognition in the business literature of the need to include ethics in all business courses, ethics is still given at best a perfunctory treatment by many instructors. This paper presents two pedagogical methodologies that the authors have used with success for teaching ethics to undergraduate business students. The approaches described in this paper are founded on the belief that in order to raise students' consciousness about ethical issues, students must be challenged to experience conscious ethical conflicts and to incorporate their own values into solving ethical problems. The power of working through ethical conflicts lies in its ability to force such a confrontation and, through it, to achieve enhanced self understanding.     

Imports and domestic entry: an empirical study

The objectives of this study are twofold: (a) to investigate the influence of imports on domestic entrants and to see whether indeed imports have a deterring effect on potential entrants; and (b) to determine whether the common finding of a weakly negative, or even nonnegative, impact of imports on domestic firms' profitability can be attributed to imports' inhibiting effect on potential entrants. A reduction or removal of the threat of domestic entry enables existing firms to raise prices, therefore, this effect may partly counter the procompetitive, price reducing effect of imports on domestic oligopolistic markets.     

German unification: What have we learned from multi-country models?

This study reviews early simulations of the effects of German unification using three different rational expectations multi-country models. Despite significant differences in their structures and in the implementations of the unification shock, the models delivered a number of common results that proved reasonably accurate guides to the direction and magnitude of the effects of unification on key macroeconomic variables. Unification was expected to give rise to an increase in German aggregate demand that would put upward pressure on output, inflation, and the exchange rate, and downward pressure on the current account balance. The model simulations also highlighted contractionary effects of high German interest rates on EMS countries.     

Reflexivity,business cycles,and the new economy

Conclusion Markets are not efficient as that term is currently used in academic finance. Rather, markets are reflexive in that market behavior and the fundamentals reflect each other via a two-way, interactive feedback loop. Free markets remain reflexive unless market participants close the feedback loop, which they can do, and have done, to justify and perpetuate a boom. Practical finance theory was clear on the market behavior boom-bust cycles generate, but it was silent regarding the cause of such cycles. Austrian business cycle theory, on the other hand, provides a clear theoretical explanation of the cause and effects of business cycles. By utilizing both theories in a unified manner it is possible to track each stage of a business cycle, which was demonstrated in an analysis of the recent new economy business cycle. Such an approach could be enormously beneficial to both academicians and practitioners during the next business cycle. A Second Vice President of the General Star Management Company, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. The opinions expressed in this paper are mine, and do not necessarily represent the views of General Star Management Company or Berkshire Hathaway.     

Discussion of “Separating Winners from Losers among Low Book-to-Market Stocks using Financial Statement Analysis”

The conference paper by Mohanram (2005) provides evidence on the success of contextual financial statement analysis in the low book-to-market (i.e., glamour) stock setting. The economic benefits of the strategy are concentrated in the identification of glamour firms that will ultimately underperform the market. In contrast to traditional accounting-based anomalies, Mohanram’s growth-based trading strategy is stronger among large, heavily followed firms, suggesting that the mechanism behind the mispricing of glamour firms is different than the traditional information environment and dissemination arguments found in other settings. Despite the robustness of the reported results, the strategy faces implementation constraints due to (1) the relative costs associated with gathering industry-adjusted data and (2) the frictions and costs associated with capitalizing on expected price declines over a long horizon. Finally, the relative benefits of contextual analysis need to be assessed against the predictive benefits accruing to traditional financial statement analysis-based investment techniques.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

A review of selected recent advances in technological forecasting

During the past decade, there have been some significant developments in technological forecasting methodology. This paper describes developments in environmental scanning, models, scenarios, Delphi, extrapolation, probabilistic forecasts, technology measurement and some chaos-like behavior in technological data. Some of these developments are refinements of earlier methodology, such as using computerized data mining (DM) for environmental scanning, which extends the power of earlier methods. Other methodology developments, such as the use of cellular automata and object-oriented simulation, represent new approaches to basic forecasting methods. Probabilistic forecasts were developed only within the past decade, but now appear ready for practical use. Other developments include the wide use of some methods, such as the massive national Delphi studies carried out in Japan, Korea, Germany and India. Other new developments include empirical tests of various trend extrapolation methods, to assist the forecaster in selecting the appropriate trend model for a specific case. Each of these developments is discussed in detail.     

DECENTRALIZATION, ACCOUNTING CONTROLS AND PERFORMANCE OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS: A NEW ZEALAND EMPIRICAL STUDY

This paper reports the results of a study which was conducted in five departments of the New Zealand Government and investigated the relationships between (a) decentralization and the use of accounting control systems, (b) the use of accounting control systems and district office performance, and (c) the decentralization and district ofice performance. The performance was assessed using the managers' perception of their district office (unit's) performance. Data for the study were collected from 59 district office managers using a structured questionnaire. The results indicate that an increased decentralization is associated with a greater managerial use of accounting control systems which, in turn, is associated with improved district office performance.     

The resource-based view within the conversation of strategic management

The resource-based approach is an emerging framework that has stimulated discussion between scholars from three research perspectives. First, the resource-based theory incorporates traditional strategy insights concerning a firm's distinctive competencies and heterogeneous capabilities. The resource-based approach also provides value-added theoretical propositions that are testable within the diversification strategy literature. Second, the resource-based view fits comfortably within the organizational economics paradigm. Third, the resource-based view is complementary to industrial organization research. The resource-based view provides a framework for increasing dialogue between scholars from these important research areas within the conversation of strategic management. Resource-based studies that give simultaneous attention to each of these research programs are suggested.