Justifications and Questions in Detecting Deception

Truth-tellers and deceivers use justifications to bolster their credibility, but given their different motivations, truth-tellers and deceivers may use justifications differently. Participants were assigned the role of allocator or recipient in an ultimatum game. Allocators received money based on their performance on a task and made an offer. Recipients did not have information about allocator’s task performance or amount the allocator received, and therefore, allocators could deceive. Liars provided more plausible details to support their offer by stating the structure of their task; this strategy backfired and led to more detection of lies. Truth-tellers were more likely to disclose advantageous information about their endowment of money in their justifications, and this reduced suspicion in their offers. Deceivers used more wrap-up questions to end the interaction; this did not help reduce partner suspicion. Asking questions in general did not improve detection accuracy.     

The supply-side of environmental sustainability and export performance: The role of knowledge integration and international buyer involvement

Most of previous studies seek to understand buyer perspectives in green supply chain relationships and devote inadequate attention to the strategic role of upstream suppliers. Drawing on a market-oriented approach to sustainability, this paper examines the enabling factors and processes that underpin how export suppliers from emerging economies leverage their strategic intent to develop knowledge integration capacity for achieving improved export performance. The results from a sample of Chinese exporters show that the relational capacity of knowledge integration mediates the performance impact of market-oriented environmental sustainability, and such a mediating process of leaning is further enhanced by international buyer involvement. We reveal that relationship efforts should be directed at developing integrative capacity involving key partners for implementing proactive environmental strategy in international business-to-business (B2B) markets. This study contributes to the research of supply chain sustainability in a global context.     

Secret information acquisition in Cournot markets

Summary. Two-stage game models of information acquisition in stochastic oligopolies require the assumption that firms observe the precision of information chosen by their competitors before determining quantities. This paper analyzes secret information acquisition as a one-stage game. Relative to the two-stage game firms are shown to acquire less information. Policy implications based on the two-stage game yield, therefore, too high taxes or too low subsidies for research activities. For the case of heterogeneous duopoly we briefly discuss comparative statics results. Received: August 9, 1999; revised version: May 31, 2000     

Introducing Practical Wisdom in Business Schools

This article echoes those voices that demand new approaches and ‹senses’ for management education and business programs. Much of the article is focused on showing that the polemic about the educative model of business schools has moral and epistemological foundations and opens up the debate over the type of knowledge that practitioners need to possess in order to manage organizations, and how this knowledge can be taught in management programs. The article attempts to highlight the moral dimension of management through a reinterpretation of the Aristotelian concept of practical wisdom. I defend the ideas that management is never morally neutral and that Aristotelian practical wisdom allows the recovery of moral considerations in management practice. I analyze the impact and implications that the introduction of practical wisdom in business schools entails for the conception and objectives of management education. This view reconfigures management education in terms of attention to values, virtues and context. Therefore, management programmes should prepare students to critically evaluate what they hear and to make decisions coherent with their values and virtues. In the final section, I reflect on the pedagogical implications of this approach. I point out that an integrated model of ethics and practical wisdom promotes education of cognition and education of affect as well. I provide an example to illustrate my perspective and to support my conclusions.     

Corporations as Political Actors – A Report on the First Swiss Master Class in Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper presents a report on the first Swiss Master Class in Corporate Social Responsibility, which was held between the 8th and 9th December 2006 at HEC Lausanne in Switzerland. The first section of the report introduces the topic of the master class – ?Corporations as Political Actors – Facing the Postnational Challenge’ – as well as the concept of the master class. The second section gives an overview of papers written by nine young scholars that were selected to present their research. The brief summary of each paper also includes a summary of comments from the masters, practitioners, and NGO representatives at the event. The third section brings in the perspectives of one master and one NGO representative on the discussed issues. The final section offers a brief wrap-up of the discussed topics and outlines ways to structure future conceptual and empirical research.     

Effects of brand-related and market signals on franchisees’ entrepreneurial decisions: a multi-country panel data analysis

This paper analyses the influence of market and brand-related signals on franchisees’ decisions when choosing a franchise brand with which to open an outlet for the first time. Panel data methodology was used to analyse a sample of 1277 chains operating in Spain, Mexico and Peru between 2004 and 2013. The results show that market signals prevail over brand-related signals. Within brand-related signals, franchisees first seek information relating to the brand’s sector and then seek information relating to the brand’s value. Franchisors should match the content of the signals they send to the market to the true characteristics of the franchise. Franchisors should also endeavour to ensure the country where they operate has general and franchise-specific legislation that fosters business activity by both franchisor and franchisee. The use of institutional quality as a signal in a multi-country study represents a significant contribution to the literature on franchising.

     

The effect of board of directors on R&D intensity: board tenure and multiple directorships

Taking a combination between agency theory and resource dependence theory, we point out that directors' capital may have an effect on R&D strategies. A sample of both high-tech and low-tech industries for the period 2007–2011 is used. The results indicate that, regardless of the type of industry and the specific expertise on R&D intensive companies, board members with multiple directorships influence R&D corporate strategies. The resources acquired by directors through their experience and connections positively influence R&D intensity, but only if directors can carry out their monitoring activity adequately. This evidence implies a step forward in the understanding of the role of board of directors in corporate strategy, thus having significant implications for academics, companies and regulators, which are both theoretical and practical.     

The sustainability of the commons: giving and receiving

This paper analyzes the use of a cost-free reward mechanism in the exploitation of a common property resource. We implement an experimental study involving a two-stages game where agents first decide resource appropriation and then have the opportunity to distribute cost-free bestowals. We observe that subjects link the two activities in such a way that appropriation determines the distribution of bestowals which in turn contributes maintaining low appropriation levels, thus avoiding the destruction of the common resource. Not all the potential bestowals are distributed, however.