A Four-Country Study of the Associations Between Bribery and Unethical Actions

The purpose of this research is to extend prior research testing the premise that small deviations from ethical behavior lead to even larger deviations from ethical behavior. This study examines the association between a person’s willingness to bribe a police officer to avoid being issued a speeding ticket with their views on inappropriate behavior of corporate executives. Our sample of 528 participants comes from Colombia (90), Ecuador (70), South Africa (131) and the United States (237). As part of our data gathering, we controlled for social desirability response bias in the responses of the students who participated in our study. Our data indicate significant differences between the views of the students from Colombia, Ecuador, and South Africa when compared to the views of the students from the United States. The analysis indicates that, for all four dilemmas, the most significant variable was the belief about how ethical it was to pay a bribe to avoid a traffic ticket. In addition, in three of our four dilemmas, Paulhus’ Impression Management Subscale, which measures social desirability response bias, was the second most significant variable. Finally, in three of the four dilemmas, the students from Colombia, Ecuador and South Africa thought the actions described in the dilemmas were less ethical than the students from the United States.

Beyond plain vanilla: Modeling joint product assortment and pricing decisions

This paper investigates empirically the product assortment strategies of oligopolistic firms. We develop a framework that integrates product choice and price competition in a differentiated product market. The present model significantly improves upon the reduced-form profit functions typically used in the entry and location choice literature, because the variable profits that enter the product-choice decision are derived from a structural model of demand and price competition. Given the heterogeneity in consumers’ product valuations and responses to price changes, this is a critical element in the analysis of product assortment decisions. Relative to the literature on structural demand models, our results show that incorporating endogenous product choice is essential for policy simulations and may entail very different conclusions from settings where product assortment choices are held fixed.

Entrepreneurial networks: A Triple Helix approach for brokering human and social capital

Through utilising currently available Internet technologies, academic and governmental organisations can provide seedling companies in their incubators with additional competitive advantage through efficient access to markets, partners, knowledge and services both locally and globally. This paper proposes a Triple Helix approach for brokering social and human capital based on the skills brokerage business model. The skills brokerage business model is primarily suited for individuals and firms operating in localised settings. However, by using information and communication technologies, it is also possible to apply the model internationally for firms that need strategic partnerships in countries or regions other than their own. Coupled with the Triple Helix of university–government–industry interactions, it can propel innovation and the commercialisation of it beyond traditional boundaries of geography, such as the region and nation state. The paper also presents an Internet-based service that could be used to facilitate the brokerage process among the firms and people with relevant expertise and resources, and it discusses the implications this would have for a number of stakeholders, such as entrepreneurs, established businesses, service providers and business support organisations. This is still an emerging area and several themes for future research will be highlighted.     

The Constitution and liberty1

The present drive for piecemeal constitutional change in Britain is ‘unprecedented in a thousand years of history’. Many of the proposed changes are ‘superfluous and irresponsible’. The one change which could be justified - removing the anti-Catholic provisions of the Act of Settlement - is not on the agenda. We should try to retain the foundations of the Constitution on which liberties rest.     

Emerging competency methods for the future

Competency‐based applications have gained a foothold in HR practice worldwide; however, changes in the business environment and the structure of work itself are challenging the value of traditional competency methods in achieving strategic organizational benefits. The key question facing HR executives and practitioners today is how to leverage existing competency practices to greatly increase the impact of competency development on business results. The authors identify five emerging trends in the evolution of competency methods, identify the implications for HR practice, and propose several new directions for the application of competency methods to improve organizational learning and business performance. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Analytics in empirical/archival financial accounting research

In this article, we describe various analytics in empirical/archival financial accounting research. We focus the discussion on research questions that are central to accounting research, analytics used to test hypotheses, and evidence. We also describe voice and text analysis, which is generating interesting new datasets and hypothesis tests, offering promising potential for future studies. Our study seeks to (1) inform business professionals about state-of-the-art analytics in accounting research and (2) trigger academics to pursue creative new research opportunities.     

Corporate Identity,Ethics and Reputation in Supplier–Buyer Relationships

Multi-national corporations (MNCs) have been criticised for not behaving ethically in some situations, which could have a negative effect on their reputation. This study examines the ethics of a large MNC in its relationship with its suppliers. A brief literature review of corporate identity, business ethics and buyer–supplier relationships is undertaken. The views and perceptions of the buying staff and the suppliers to a large South African MNC are obtained and discussed. The results indicate that this MNC has a good corporate reputation among both its suppliers (an important stakeholder) and its own buying department. The existence and implementation of formal codes of ethics was found to be a necessary, but not sufficient condition for good ethical practice. Candid relationships with suppliers emerged as a second and important factor. Ethical perceptions of buyers by suppliers are driven by the management of corporate identity, through the elements of ethical standards and candid relationships. We present a model of corporate identity/reputation in Buyer–Supplier Relationships. Michael Bendixen is a Professor of Research Methodology and Statistics at the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business at Nova Southeastern University, Florida. His research interests include business ethics, governance and culture. His articles have appeared in the European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Business Studies and Journal of Marketing Management amongst others. Russell Abratt is a Professor of Marketing at the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business at Nova Southeastern University, Florida. His research interests include corporate identity management and business ethics. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business and Psychology, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, Industrial Marketing Management, and Business Horizons amongst others.     

DIFFUSION MODELS FOR EXCHANGE RATES IN A TARGET ZONE

We present two analytically tractable diffusion models for an exchange rate in a target zone. One model generalizes a model proposed by De Jong, Drost, and Werker (2001) to allow asymmetry between the currencies which is often an important feature of data. Estimation of the model parameters by the method of Kessler and Sørensen (1999) using eigenfunctions of the generator is investigated and shown to give well-behaved estimators that are easy to calculate. The method is well suited to the models because the eigenfunctions are known so that explicit estimating functions are obtained, and because the state space is a finite interval, for which it is known that the method can be made arbitrarily efficient by including sufficiently many eigenfunctions. The model fits data on exchange rates in the European Monetary System well. In particular, the asymmetry parameter is significantly different from zero for three out of four currencies. An alternative diffusion model is presented with similarly nice properties, but with different dynamics that allow constant volatility near the boundaries of the target zone. No-arbitrage pricing of derivative assets is considered, and the effect of realignments is briefly discussed.     

Die Privatisierung öffentlicher Wohnungen

Seit 1997 wurden rund 700 000 Wohnungen aus ?ffentlicher Hand privatisiert. Welche Auswirkungen hat diese Ma?nahme auf den Wohnungsmarkt? Ist es aus sozialpolitischen Gründen notwendig, dass Wohnungen in ?ffentlichem Besitz verbleiben? Kann die sozialpolitische Komponente auch mithilfe von Belegungsrechten gel?st werden? Dr. Michael Voigtl?nder, 32, ist Leiter der Forschungsstelle Immobilien?konomik am Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft in K?ln.     

Why sales reps should welcome information technology: Measuring the impact of CRM-based IT on sales effectiveness

This study seeks to answer the following question: Can sales representatives enhance their performance through their acceptance of information technology (IT) tools? Using data collected from two companies, we show that despite uncertain results and the frequent resistance among salespeople to IT interventions, IT acceptance indeed has a positive effect on sales performance. This occurs because salespeople using IT expand their knowledge and, in turn, gain improved targeting abilities, enhanced presentation skills, and increased call productivity. Thus, sales representatives have a strong incentive to accept IT because doing so is likely to sharpen their own job performance.