The combined effects of dependence and relationalism on the use of influence in marketing distribution systems

This study uses data from the automotive replacement tire industry to test the proposition that dependence and relationship structure interact to determine frequency of influence-strategy use in distribution systems. The findings support the expectation that dependence is positively associated with recommendations, information exchanges, promises, requests, legal pleas, and threats. However, increases in dealer dependence increase the use of requests, legal pleas, and threats only in systems characterized by trivial levels of relationalism.The authors would like to express their gratitude to John Burnett, Robert Dwyer, Jule Gassenheimer, and Allen Wilhite for their helpful comments on this project.     

Ethical Decision Making in Multinational Organizations: A Culture-Based Model

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between national culture and ethical decision making. Established theories of ethics and moral development are reviewed and a culture-based model of ethical decision making in organizations is derived. Although the body of knowledge in both cross-cultural management and ethics is well documented, researchers have failed to integrate the influence of cultural values into the ethical decision-making paradigm. A conceptual understanding of how managers from different nations make decisions about highly ethical issues will provide business ethics researchers with a sound theoretical foundation upon which future empirical inquiry can be based.     

Resolving Cross-cultural Ethical Conflict: An Empirical Test of a Decision Tree Model in an Educational Setting

The authors have previously developed and described a decision tree model for addressing cross-cultural ethical conflicts. The model is intended to provide an ethically sound yet pragmatic tool for decision makers facing such situations. This paper presents the results of an empirical test of the model in an educational setting with a sample of business students. Students trained to use the model demonstrated significantly more flexibility and appropriateness in their decisions on case scenarios than those who were not trained. The implications for use of the model in educational settings and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Risk arbitrage opportunities in petroleum futures spreads

This article investigates the long-term pricing relationship among crude oil, unleaded gasoline, and heating oil futures prices, and finds that these commodities futures prices are cointegrated. The study finds that the spreads between crude oil and its end products are stationary. Furthermore, this article investigates the risk arbitrage opportunities in three types of popularly traded petroleum futures spreads and finds that historically profitable risk arbitrage opportunities existed and were statistically significant. However, one cannot be certain that these opportunities still exist. The research also finds that moving averages are valid test variables for measuring spreads. Statistical and tabular constructions are used to illustrate findings. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Jrl Fut Mark 19: 931–955, 1999     

Mining, Corporate Social Responsibility and the "Community": The Case of Rio Tinto, Richards Bay Minerals and the Mbonambi

Mining companies have long had a questionable reputation for social responsibility, especially in developing countries. In recent years, mining companies operating in developing countries have come under increased pressure as opponents have placed them under greater public scrutiny. Mining companies have responded by developing global corporate social responsibility strategies as part of their larger global business strategies. In these strategies, a prominent place is given to their relationship with local communities. For business ethics, one basic issue is whether such an approach to corporate responsibility is likely to effectively address the development concerns of local communities in developing countries. This paper addresses this question by investigating how the corporate social responsibility agenda of a major minor company has been implemented by one of its subsidiaries in South Africa.     

How to identify your enemies before they destroy you

We've all heard the stories about corporate giants who ignored disruptive innovations and paid a steep price: Think what the personal computer did to Digital or Japanese economy cars did to the Big Three automakers. Big companies now spend a lot of time and money trying to make sure they don't get blindsided by their smaller, leaner counterparts. But it's not easy to distinguish genuine threats from also-rans as they emerge. Most of the nascent technologies that typically bombard executives will not amount to competitive threats and deserve to be ignored. As a result, disruptions are usually not taken seriously until they become obvious--when it's often too late. A disruptive innovation is a technology, product, or process that creeps up from below an existing business and threatens to displace it. Usually, the disrupter offers lower performance and less functionality at a much lower price. The product or process is good enough to meet some customers' needs; others welcome the disruption's simplicity. Gradually, it improves to the point where it displaces the incumbent. But, the authors argue, disruption isn't inevitable. They have developed a tool that can help companies detect potential disruptive innovations while management still has time to respond effectively. The tool's decision-making methodology harnesses the organization's collective wisdom to determine how likely it is that a particular innovation will seriously damage an incumbent's business. The methodology has two components: an analytical instrument and an organizational process. There's nothing magical about it--but it gets managers to think systematically about identifying and addressing threats to the core business. And the tool's rigorous approach can spell the difference between flailing around and acting effectively in the face of a serious competitive threat.     

Fitting strategic resources with product-market strategy: Performance implications

Resources, strategy, and performance inter-relationships are central to strategic marketing theory. Strategic resources are key inputs to product-market strategy that form the basis of superior firm performance. However, these inter-relationships are subject to ‘fit’ requirements. This article examines the hypothesis that greater fit between the strategic resources of marketing organizations and product-market strategy encourages superior financial and customer-market performance. This fit is most important to marketing organizations exhibiting either a Defender or Analyzer strategic orientation. No significant relationship is found for fit among Prospectors.     

Acceptance of Accounting Standards

When financial statements are audited, a client and auditor may disagree about an accounting disclosure. While the disclosure of such a disagreement may increase the information content of a statement it may also be socially undesirable in that it signals a difference in views about the state of the reporting enterprise. This in turn may increase agency costs and introduce uncertainty about the state of the firm. In this paper we focus on public policy implications concerning auditor-client disagreements and examine the ex ante probability that such cases will occur. We find that accounting standards that allow two accounting options may be optimal in reducing frequency of disagreements among auditors and between standard-setters and their constituencies, and possibly also between clients and their auditors. The New Zealand model of compliance with accounting standards may be preferable to that practiced in the US.     

Forbearance: An empirical analysis

Several recent articles have analyzed conditions under which allowing capital-deficient banks to continue to operate may be optimal policy. This article examines the performance of banks admitted into the FDIC's Capital Forbearance Program between 1986 and 1989 and finds that, for the majority of these banks, there was no substantial improvement in their capital ratios. We use a logit regression analysis to attempt to identify those banks whose financial condition improved with forbearance and find that banks which did improve are not clearly identifiable from pre-forbearance financial data. Instead, the banks which improved did so due to infusions of new capital, extraordinary income, and improvements in the local economies, factors which are not easily identifiable ex ante by regulators. The conclusion is that, while some grants of forbearance may result in large saving to the FDIC, in the majority of cases granting forbearance to troubled banks is unlikely to reduce the expected loss to the deposit insurer.University of HoustonUniversity of HoustonCooperative Bank of Taiwan, Taipei, Taiwan