Can the Beast be Tamed?: Reflections on John McMurtry's Unequal Freedoms: The Global Market as an Ethical System

My paper responds to certain themes of Professor John McMurtry's recent book, Unequal Freedoms: The Global Market as an Ethical System. Although I am in general sympathy with McMurtry's penetrating critique of conventional market theory and practice, I find Unequal Freedoms ambivalent on the critical question of whether endorsing and enacting the life-value code McMurtry proposes would require only a mitigation of the principles and definitive activities of the competitive market system or whether significant reforms within the system would have to be deep structural ones. It is argued that the second alternative is inescapable. I defend my perspective from the point of view of a philosophical analysis of orthodox or neo-classical theory-construction about the competitive market order. In particular, I examine three fundamental principles of such modelling: the maximization of the satisfaction of self-interest, the unboundedness of consumer desire for material goods, and the distribution of monetized wealth. In order for McMurtry's "civil commons" to survive, the practice of each of these principles would need to be radically modified. However, in doing so, competitive capitalism would lose its essential identity as a socio-economic order.     

Buyer-supplier relational characteristics and joint decision making

This paper explores propositions dealing with the influence of buyer-supplier relational characteristics on their joint decision making. Specifically, the proposed conceptual framework focuses on the link between three relational constructs (trust, commitment, relationship maturity) and two types of joint decision making (strategic and tactical). Strategic decisions are those that “expand the pie” for both parties (integrative decisions), and tactical decisions are those that “divide the pie” between the two parties (distributive decisions). We propose that the effect of relational characteristics on joint decision making is likely to be moderated by the characteristics of the supplier organization (such as team orientation) and its environment (such as competitive intensity). We conclude with a brief discussion of the implications and possible extensions of the theoretical model.     

Economic consequences of animal rights programs

Readily available data are used to provide relevant decision making information on the highly subjective issue of animal rights. Two examples of alleged crowding; cattle being finished in concrete lots, and broilers in confined operations were evaluated to determine the impact on producers and consumers from increasing space per animal. It is concluded that similar policy changes, such as doubling floor space, can lead to dramatic differences in economic impact depending on the industry affected. It is shown that economic analysis can provide valuable information in estimating the tradeoffs in moral issues. James R. Simpson is Professor and Livestock Marketing Economist at the Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, U.S.A. He was formerly President and Senior Economist of InterAmerican Research Associates, and Cooperative Advisor of the Cooperative League of U.S.A. He was Scholar-in-Residence at the Rockefeller Foundation, Villa Serbelloni at Bellagio, Italy, 1979 and Visiting Research Professor at Kyoto University, Fall, 1982. His most important publications are: James R. Simpson and Don Farris, The World's Beef Business and Toward a Humanist Consensus on Ethics of International Development, in Morris Storer (ed.), Humanist Ethics. He is also author or co-author of over 100 articles in professional journals and chapters in books on livestock, international development and ethics. Bernard E. Rollin is Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the Colorado State University. His book Animal Rights and Human Morality (Prometheus Books) was selected as Outstanding Academic Book, in Choice Magazine, 1981. Other important publications by him are: Natural and Conventional Meaning: An Examination of the Distinction (Mouton, 1976); Papers published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association; Poetics; Kant-Studien; and Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.     

Operating a manufacturing plant in Indonesia

Running foreign plants is becoming more common for U.S. companies, but many executives still have reservations about dealing with developing countries and diverse cultures. This case study shows that with proper planning and a genuine sense of commitment, the result can be mutually rewarding for the U.S. company and for the overseas operation.     

Stability induced by “no-quibbling”

We demonstrate the important consequence of one particular type of voter behavior: the “differentiation” (“no-quibbling”) constraint that alternatives too similar to the alternative which they might replace will not be considered. We find that imposition of a sufficient differentiation norm leads to stable outcomes of decision making in a spatial context. We also briefly consider the potential effects of other possible constraints on feasible choices, especially as these might synergistically interact with choices based on “no-quibbling.”     

CCT applied research and the limits of consumers’ heroicisation

Abstract

The sum total of the research produced by Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) researchers has enabled a spectacular improvement in our understanding of markets and consumption. Yet, this knowledge has struggled to penetrate the business world due to a dearth of practical proposals appealing to managers looking for action-guiding toolkits. Based on a relatively small corpus of CCT-related articles published in the main applied journals with academic values, the present article traces the contours of CCT managerial knowledge revolving around the concept of cultural branding and composed of four main approaches: relationship marketing, retromarketing, tribal marketing and collaborative marketing. The article also synthesises the contributions that CCT researchers propose for each of these approaches and discusses the limits of the heroicisation of the consumers. The conclusion looks at potential research paths for the dissemination of CCT applied kind of knowledge.     

Marketing program standardization: A cross-country exploration

This study explores the antecedents and consequences of marketing program standardization in subsidiaries of multinational corporations by contrasting the case of a lead market (Japan) and of an emerging market (Turkey). The findings show that: (1) marketing program standardization is positively related to performance in Japan and Turkey; (2) centralization of nonproduct decision is negatively related to performance in both markets; (3) customer similarity is positively related to marketing program standardization in both Japan and Turkey. Whereas, in Japan, marketing program standardization has a direct, positive relationship to performance, in Turkey, in addition to such a direct effect, there is also an indirect effect at work, through centralization of nonproduct decision.     

Critical Realism as a Basis for Economic Methodology: A critique

This paper considers the claim that critical realism provides a convincing critique of mainstream economics and offers a sound methodological basis for an alternative approach. It argues that critical realism presents a tendentious definition of positivism and a characterisation of mainstream economics that is misleading, and that it misrepresents the nature and purpose of the work of Hume and modern Humean philosophers. It also argues that critical realism's bold ontological claims lack epistemological support. The paper concludes that critical realism does not provide a compelling basis for economic methodology.     

Competitive and Comparative Advantage: Towards a Unified Theory of International Trade

The field of international business/economics is largely dualistic in nature. On one hand is the economics literature which has, for two centuries, focused on the notion of comparative advantage (technology, factor proportions) while on the other is the business literature which has recently developed the concept of competitive advantage. This paper presents a reconciliation of the two based on global value chain/supply chain analysis and the concept of vertical comparative advantage. It is shown that the theory of competitive advantage's epistemological comparative advantage lies with its ‘how to’ approach to developing an advantage, while the theory of comparative advantage's epistemological comparative advantage lies with its account of ‘what is’ and that both are complementary. However, it is also argued that the failure to recognize this complementarity as well as the shortcomings of each have prevented and continue to prevent the emergence of an integrated, empirically-consistent theory of international trade – in short, prevented us from taking advantage of the gains from epistemological trade.     

The value relevance of comprehensive income under alternative presentation formats permitted by ASU 2011-05

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Under Accounting Standards Update 2011-05, firms can present comprehensive income (CI), defined as the sum of net income (NI) and other comprehensive...