Sustaining Inter-organizational Relationships Across Institutional Logics and Power Asymmetries: The Case of Fair Trade

This paper explores an empirical puzzle, namely, how inter-organizational relationships can be sustained between organizations that draw upon distinctive—and potentially conflicting—institutional logics under conditions of power asymmetry. This research analyses cases of these relationships and suggests some key conditions underlying them. Examining relationships between ‘Fair Trade’ organizations and corporate retailers, a series of contingent factors behind the dynamic persistence of such relationships are proposed, namely: the presence of pre-existing ‘hybrid logics’; the use of boundary-spanning discourses; joint tolerance of conflict; and co-creation of common rules. These four elements are supported by a fifth mediating factor, i.e. the presence and use of a Fair Trade certification system in the collaboration. The latter appears as a central vehicle facilitating cross-logic relationships—it can be seen as a ‘boundary object’ embodying a series of narratives and discourses that are open to multiple interpretations corresponding to the dominant institutional logics of each partner organization.     

Twenty-five years (1992–2016) of the International Business Review: A bibliometric overview

The International Business Review (IBR) is a leading international academic journal in the field of International Business (IB). Such leadership is reflected in the large number of publications that grow year after year and particularly in the large number of citations received from other journals of high academic prestige. The aim of this study is to conduct a bibliometric overview of the leading trends regarding the journal’s publications and citations since its creation in 1992 until 2016. The work identifies the authors, universities, and countries that publish the most in IBR by mainly using the Scopus database though eventually complemented with Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection. It also analyzes the most cited papers and articles of the journal. Besides, the study graphically maps the bibliographic material by using the visualization of similarities (VOS) viewer software. In order to do so, the work uses co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and co-occurrence of author keywords. The results show the prominent European profile of the journal where contributors from European universities and countries are the most productive ones in the journal. Particularly, British and Scandinavian universities obtain the most remarkable results. However, mostly scholars from North America, but also from Oceania and East Asia are increasingly and regularly publishing in the journal. In addition, IBR is very well connected to other leading journals in the field, such as the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) and the Journal of World Business (JWB), as well as with other top management journals, thus demonstrating its core position in IB research conducted worldwide.     

Government monitored codes of practice in Ireland

This paper is divided into four parts. It begins with an analysis of the problems inherent in Irish codes of practice. Two major problems are identified: (a) no provision is made for the payment of compensation to consumers who suffer losses as a result of infringements of the codes; (b) the drafters of the codes have a tendency to understate the precise effect of certain legal provisions. The paper then proceeds to an assessment of the advantages of Irish codes of practice. One of their main advantages is that they are more flexible and speedier than the redress procedures provided by law. Another is that the codes are often so far in advance of the law that it is anticipated they will channel its development. The paper also addresses itself to whether the enforcement and monitoring mechanisms enshrined in some of the codes are effective. It concludes by recommending that (a) the terms of the codes which understate the precise effect of legal provisions should be reworded, and (b) all or part of the fines payable by code violators should be channelled to consumers who have suffered losses stemming from the infringements.

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Staatlich überwachte Verhaltenskodices in Irland

Zusammenfassung Der im Jahre 1978 erlassene irische Consumer Information Act sieht die Einrichtung einer Behörde für Verbraucherangelegenheiten vor, der neben Uberwachungsaufgaben im Bereich der Werbung mit den Anbietern Verhaltenskodices (codes of standards, codes of practice) aushandeln soll. Inzwischen existieren einige solcher Kodices, insbesondere im Bereich von Werbung und des Versandhandels. Zwei weitere Kodices sind noch im Entwurfsstadium, nämlich für Isoliermaterialien und für Pauschalreisen.Der Beitrag weist auf zwei Hauptprobleme der irischen Kodices hin: sie enthalten keinerlei Vorschriften über Ersatzleistungen zugunsten von geschädigten Verbrauchern im Falle von Verstößen; die Verfasser der Kodices tendieren dazu, die präzisen gesetzlichen Verpflichtungen nur ungenau darzustellen.Weiterhin wird eine differenzierte Beurteilung der bislang vorliegenden irischen Kodices versucht. Einer ihrer Hauptvorteile besteht in ihrer Flexibilität. Verfahren können dadurch schneller erledigt werden als es nach den gesetzlichen Einrichtungen der Fall ist. Ein weiterer Vorteil besteht darin, daß sie der Entwicklung des Rechts so weit voraus sind, daß sie vermutlich seine weitere Entwicklung bestimmen werden. Die Mechanismen zur Durchsetzung und Überwachung sind nur z. T. wirksam; es fehlt an einer wirksamen Erfolgskontrolle. Außerdem fehlen Schieds- und Schlichtungsverfahren, anders als in den entsprechenden englisches Codes of Practice.Der Beitrag schließt mit zwei rechtspolitischen Vorschlägen: Bestimmungen in den Kodices, die den präzisen Inhalt gesetzlicher Verpflichtungen nur ungenau wiedergeben, sollten neu gefaßt werden; die gesamten oder wenigstens ein Teil der Geldbußen, die bei Verstößen gegen Verpflichtungen aus Kodices fällig sind, sollten an geschädigte Verbraucher als Ersatzleistung ausgekehrt werden.

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Alex Schuster is a Lecturer in Law at Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.     

Business experience and start-up size: Buying more lottery tickets next time around?

This paper explores the determinants of start-up size by focusing on a cohort of 6,247 businesses that started trading in 2004, using a unique dataset on customer records at Barclays Bank. Quantile regressions show that prior business experience is significantly related with start-up size, as are a number of other variables such as age, education and bank account activity. Quantile treatment effects (QTE) estimates show similar results, with the effect of business experience on (log) start-up size being roughly constant across the quantiles. Prior personal business experience leads to an increase in expected start-up size of about 50 %. Instrumental variable QTE estimates are even higher, although there are concerns about the validity of the instrument.     

When collective action and tenure allocations collide: Outcomes from community forests in Quintana Roo,Mexico and Petén,Guatemala

Based on a comparative case study of four community forestry enterprises in Guatemala and Mexico, we examine the relationship between user group characteristics and state allocation of tenure bundles. Using Schlager and Ostrom's four levels of tenure bundles and collective action theory, we illustrate how tenure bundles and collective action costs interact to either promote or create disincentives for conservation and communal economic benefits. We suggest that in communities with high costs for collective action, a tenure bundle that includes management, withdrawal and exclusion rights yet omits alienation rights may be optimal for community forestry. We also demonstrate how unclear allocation of rights can result in local interpretations of land rights that do support collective action.     

The value components of contract farming in contemporary capitalism

Contract farming (CF) has generally been understood as, essentially, a market institution—by both (approving) “mainstream” and (critical) “radical” perspectives. Analyses of relations of production have, meanwhile, tended towards a problematic “peasantist” frame, where contracts undermine farmer “autonomy” in processes of “flexible” corporate agro‐industrial restructuring. This paper argues that a materialist analysis of CF from within capital–labour relations offers a stronger conceptual foundation for re‐synthesizing questions of market‐power. It first argues that radical notions of “peasant subsumation” conceptually mirror Marx's “formal subsumption of capital” but underplay dynamics of “real subsumption” accompanying capitalism's wider development. Drawing on the “petty commodity production” concept, it then argues that CF's “flexibility” rests in its differential content. CF's fungibility to contradictory movements of “integration” and “dispersion” enables it to emphasize different methods of surplus appropriation under shifting conditions; each corresponding to a different dominant social tendency. On the one hand, conditions of market expansion inspire integration for relative surplus appropriation through raised productivity, and CF tends to act as a “tool of proletarianization” in the wider centralization of capital. On the other, conditions of contraction motivate the dispersal of unvalorized capital, prompting efforts to raise absolute surplus appropriation, and CF tends to act as a “tool of differentiation” to concentrate agricultural capital.     

The Impact of Local Ethanol Production on the Corn Basis in Ontario

This paper investigates the factors affecting the corn basis in Ontario with particular emphasis on the effect of ethanol production given the projected detrimental effect its expansion could have on the red meat sector. We estimate a location‐specific and panel vector error correction models (VECM) for seven elevators in Ontario from 2006 to 2013. We find a long‐run equilibrium relationship exists between the basis and factors affecting local supply and demand including ethanol capacity and that the direction of causality is from these factors to changes in corn price. A one‐time increase in ethanol capacity of 100 million liters is projected to increase the basis by approximately 30 cents per bushel within two years. However, the impact is insignificant for elevators located in the livestock‐intensive regions of the province. The demand for corn as livestock feed is a determinant of the local corn price for all elevators. The decline in the number of hogs and beef cattle along with the 50% increase in corn supply have resulted in the observed decline in the local corn price despite the significant increase in demand from ethanol. L'impact de la production locale d′éthanol sur le prix de base du maïs en Ontario Cet article cherche à comprendre les facteurs ayant un effet sur le prix de base du maïs en Ontario, en particulier sur les effets de la production d′éthanol étant donné les effets négatifs attendus sur le secteur de la viande rouge causés par son expansion. Nous estimons des modèles vectoriels à correction d'erreurs (MVCE) à emplacements précis et panel entre 2006 et 2013, pour 7 silos‐élévateurs en Ontario. Nous constatons une relation d′équilibre à long terme entre le prix de base et les facteurs ayant un effet sur l'offre et la demande locale incluant la capacité pour l′éthanol. Nous constatons aussi que le sens de la causalité passe de ces facteurs aux changements du prix du maïs. L'on s'attend à voir une augmentation d'environ 30 cents du prix de base du boisseau suivant l'augmentation unique de 100 millions de litres de la capacité d′éthanol. Par contre, l'impact est négligeable pour les silos‐élévateurs situés dans les régions d′élevage intensif de la province. La demande pour le maïs comme aliment pour le bétail est un facteur déterminant du prix local du maïs pour tous les silos‐élévateurs. Le déclin du porc et des bovins ainsi que l'augmentation de 50 % de l'offre de maïs ont mené à la diminution notée du prix du maïs local malgré l'augmentation significative de la demande pour l′éthanol.     

The impact of trust on business,international security and the quality of life

The theses supported in this essay are that the world is to some extent constructed by each of us, that it can and ought to be constructed in a more benign way, that such construction will require more trust than most people are currently willing to grant, and that most of us will be better off if most of us can manage to be more trusting in spite of our doubts. Alex Michalos is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Business Ethics, the Editor of Social Indicators Research and the author of 12 books and over 5 dozen articles. His five volume North American Social Report received the 1984 Canadian Secretary of State's Award for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Studies in the field of Canadian Studies. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the University of Guelph, Ontario.Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the International Conference on Social Reporting at the Science Centre of Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany, September 18–20, 1989 and at a luncheon meeting of the Centre for Ethics and Corporate Policy, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, February 1989. I would like to thank the following people for helpful comments: Deborah C. Poff, Frank M. Andrews, Bruce Headey, Wolfgang Zapf, M. Harvey Brenner, Leo Groarke, Trudy Govier, Jean Smith and Shirley Farlinger.     

Online Auction Fraud: Ethical Perspective

Internet fraud is an issue that increasingly concerns regulators, consumers, firms, and business ethics researchers. In this article, we examine one common form of internet fraud, the practice of shill bidding (when a seller in an auction enters a bid on his or her own item). The significant incidence of shill bidding on eBay (in spite of the fact that it is illegal just as it is in live auctions) exemplifies the current ineffectiveness of regulatory means as well as the lack of effective societal mechanisms to prevent online fraud. Further, the proliferation of shill bidding along with other types of internet fraud may have broader implications. If unethical behavior such as shill bidding becomes too widespread on the internet, regulators and other societal forces may deem it necessary to institute controls that will impact the entire online marketplace as well as the future development and regulation of business activities on the internet. Our results indicate that shill bidding is perpetrated on eBay significantly more often than 0.1% rate of fraud estimated by the firm. This suggests that regulators, users, and others stakeholders may become concerned enough to act. The impact of those responses on the internet of the future may affect a broad array of users beyond the unethical sellers on eBay. Alex Nikitkov is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Darlene Bay is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada