Contents of Volume 22

Volume Contents

Contents of Volume 22     

The social desirability response bias in ethics research

This study examines the impact of a social desirability response bias as a personality characteristic (self-deception and impression management) and as an item characteristic (perceived desirability of the behavior) on self-reported ethical conduct. Findings from a sample of college students revealed that self-reported ethical conduct is associated with both personality and item characteristics, with perceived desirability of behavior having the greatest influence on self-reported conduct. Implications for research in business ethics are drawn, and suggestions are offered for reducing the effects of a socially desirable response bias. Donna M. Randall is an Associate Professor in Management and Systems at Washington State University. Her research interests include organizational commitment, media coverage of elite crime, and ethical issues in management. Her publications have appeared in such journals as Decision Sciences, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Business Ethics.Maria F. Fernandes is a doctoral student in the Department of Management and Systems. Her research interests lie in the area of business ethics and equity theory. Her current research explores cognitive processes involving ethical decision making.     

The ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ in the discourses of the Central Asian states: political rhetoric of growth and academic prognostication

As official discourses throughout Central Asia reflect, China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ has become very attractive to the local regimes. They perceive it as corresponding to the urgent need to achieve social and economic growth and maintain alternatives for international cooperation. Political elites have incorporated the BRI-agenda into their rhetoric of growth and actively promote the idea of BRI’s ‘conjugation’ with local development plans. The success of the initiative, however, differs from state to state.

The BRI-related narratives of local expert communities mainly correspond to the goals set by the officials. At the same time, local experts elucidate important issues, such as BRI’s impact on national security, Chinese migration, and public discontent. These elucidations may adjust the official stand towards the BRI. The possibility of such adjustments, varying in different Central Asian states, depends in each case on the openness of a regime to scholarly prognostications.

Abbreviations: BRI - Belt and Road Initiative; CDA - Critical Discourse-Analysis; DHA - Discourse-Historical Approach; SCO - Shanghai Cooperation Organisation; EAEU - Eurasian Economic Union; TAPI -Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (pipeline)     

Portfolio performance manipulation in collateralized loan obligations

We examine the discretionary activities that CLO managers engage in to pass monthly overcollateralization (OC) tests. These tests require a CLO's loan portfolio value, scaled by the CLO notes’ principal balance, to be above a certain threshold. Using CLOs’ granular disclosures, we develop model-free estimates for discretionary loan fair valuation and transaction-based proxies for strategic loan trading. We find a positive association between these discretionary activities and the probability of avoiding an OC test violation. This association varies predictably with junior noteholders’ influence and CLO market conditions. Strategic trading—but not discretionary fair valuation—relates to worse future CLO performance.     

Thinking Outside the Block: Projected Phases of Blockchain Integration in the Accounting Industry

This paper aims to propound a thorough and circumspect analysis of the implications of blockchain technology in the accounting profession and its broader industry. The analysis begins with a summary of early developments by first movers and how they are harnessing blockchain technology to improve business practices. Concomitantly, the paper will go on to discuss how this technology will streamline accounting processes, specifically as the technology approaches critical mass. Finally, a discussion of its long‐term implications will follow through a more philosophical and conceptual dialogue. Throughout the paper, criticisms will be raised to address concerns regarding blockchain's widespread use.     

Toward a Behavioral Model of Multiple-Job-Holding Farm Families

This paper applies a multidimensional method and a structural approach to the results of research based on a field survey on the origins of pluriactivity and on the attitudes of farm families toward multiple job-holding and full-time farming. Multiple correspondence analysis makes it possible to consider jointly, from a static and dynamic point of view, several quantitative and qualitative variables concerning the family, the farm, and the socio-economic context. A typology of seven groups of farm families is established by means of cluster analysis. The typology shows that the dichotomy between pluriactive and full-time farms does not account for all of reality: a great deal of diversity exists within both groups. The major factors which explain pluriactivity and condition its performance are identified and interpreted. The implications, in term of agricultural, socio-economic and environmental policy, of the evolution of the family farms of each type are then described and analyzed. The essay concludes that future research on pluriactivity ought to pay more attention to the dynamic variables originating both within the farm families and in the socio-economic context.     

ON THE HIERARCHY OF SOME QUALITATIVE STRUCTURES IN THE VON NEUMANN AND RELATED MODELS

In this paper we collect some old and new qualitative-structural properties on the input and output matrices involved in the classical von Neumann model, properties relevant, from the formal and/or economic point of view, in the study of the equilibria of the said model. It is established the hierarchy, i.e. the relations of inclusion, partial overlapping and disjunction, among these properties, which permits to amend some current slips in the analysis of the von Neumann model (one due to von Neumann himself). The results obtained can be fitted to other production and exchange multisectorial models.