The central distinction in the theory of corporate moral personhood

Peter French has argued that conglomerate collectivities such as business corporations are moral persons and that aggregate collectivities such as lynch mobs are not. Two arguments are advanced to show that French's claim is flawed. First, the distinction between aggregates and conglomerates is, at best, a distinction of degree, not kind. Moreover, some aggregates show evidence of moral personhood. Second, French's criterion for distinguishing aggregates and conglomerates is based on inadequate grounds. Application of the criterion to specific cases requires an additional judgment of a pragmatic nature which undermines any attempt to demonstrate French's thesis that actual conglomerates are moral persons and aggregates are not. Thus, French's theory is seriously lacking both empirical basis and empirical relevance.     

The effect on stockholder wealth of product recalls and government action: The case of Toyota's accelerator pedal recall

We analyze the effect of Toyota's faulty accelerator pedal on stockholder wealth. Using the event study methodology, we show that a major recall in January of 2010 is associated with a 19% fall in the company's cumulative abnormal returns. Continued concerns that Toyota was unable to identify and adequately fix the problem prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to conduct its own investigation in March, 2010. The results of this government investigation exonerated the company and Toyota's cumulative abnormal returns rose by almost 9%. The Toyota case provides an opportunity to study a product recall with both company error and a government action that addressed concerns about the safety of the product.     

Exploring Factors Influencing the Use of Enterprise Social Networks in Multinational Professional Service Firms

ABSTRACT

Organizations are increasingly implementing enterprise social networks (ESNs) for improved communication and collaboration, as well as enhanced knowledge sharing and innovation among employees. However, the paradoxical relationship between ESN implementation and the promised benefits has been attributed to employees’ underutilization. Our research focuses on factors influencing employees’ decision to use ESN in their work role and draws on case studies of two multinational professional service firms (PSFs) based in Australia. Qualitative data were collected during ten semi-structured interviews with employees from both organizations, to determine their perceptions of ESN usage and capture the factors that influence their use behavior. The findings illustrate that the likelihood of ESN use is significantly influenced by technological, organizational, social and individual factors. A successful ESN use within an organization involves the nexus between these four factors and recommendations are made, as guidelines for organizational actors about how ESNs usage can be increased.     

Managing price risks using and local polynomial kernel forecasts

This study contributes to understanding price risk management through hedging strategies in a forecasting context. A relatively new forecasting method, nonparametric local polynomial kernel (LPK), is used to forecast prices and to generate ex ante hedge ratios. The selective multiproduct hedge based on the LPK price and hedge ratio forecasts is in general found to be better than continuous hedging, no hedging and alternative forecasting procedures. Selective multivariate hedging using the LPK is found to improve hog producer's expected returns. The findings indicate that combining hedging with forecasts, especially when using the LPK procedure, can improve price risk management.     

Intrafirm human capital externalities and selection bias

This article investigates the existence of intrafirm human capital externalities in the Spanish economy. In doing so, it focusses on two estimation issues. First, a semiparametric methodology is used to estimate externalities in a more flexible way that allows to affect all parameters in the equation. Second, two approaches to control for selection bias are designed for use in cross-section data. Our results show a higher externality effect on wages when using the semi parametric approach as compared to the standard estimation approach. Additionally, the estimations even when controlling for selection bias give evidence of externalities.     

The ownership structure of UK firms and the informativeness of accounting earnings

This paper provides evidence that in the UK, a firm's ownership structure is related to the informativeness of its accounting earnings for price. Evidence is reported that concentrated outside ownership is negatively related to the contemporaneous price-earnings association. This is interpreted as indicative of more non-accounting information being collected and disseminated for firms whose ownership includes large outside (non-managerial) blocks and a consequential loss of informativeness of contemporaneous accounting earnings. Having controlled for the information environment, we provide evidence that the overall relation between return and earnings is attenuated for firms with diffuse outside ownership. This is interpreted as evidence of the market anticipating opportunistic managerial manipulation of earnings when outside ownership is diffuse.