The Evolution of Whistleblowing Studies: A Critical Review and Research Agenda

This study investigates the variations in the quality and comprehensiveness of 104 corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports published by the world’s largest financial institutions in 2012. Using a novel measure of CSR report quality, we examine the impact of certain national, legal, and firm-level factors that might explain differences in the overall quality and extent of coverage of various issues in these reports. Our findings show that legal factors and CSR environment in a firm’s country of headquarters play an important role in firms’ CSR reporting quality. Common law countries exhibit systematically higher overall CSR reporting quality than code law countries. Countries with higher CSR standards, policies, and regulations in place also produce significantly higher quality CSR reports. Firm size, on the other hand, has no major impact on the overall quality of CSR reports. In further analysis of the individual aspects of CSR disclosures, namely environment, philanthropy, bribery and corruption, and integrity assurance, we document that larger firms report at a higher quality on philanthropy and bribery and corruption. Bribery and corruption is reported at a higher quality in countries with common law tradition, high-quality legal regimes, and high CSR standards and regulations in place. We also observe higher quality integrity assurance in common law countries. CSR-minded countries and countries with low-quality legal environment also report on philanthropy at a higher quality. Finally, we offer guidelines for companies toward improving the quality of their reports, and suggestions for scholars and researchers for further avenues of research.     

影响商务专业学生进行贸易的决定因素 ——基于前南斯拉夫7 国民族成见以及 民族距离的研究

商务专业学生和经理们在面对国际商务时不仅需要一定的跨文化沟通技巧和能力,也需要清楚地意识到形成他们不同行为的各种复杂的认知过程以及偏见。计划行为理论(TPB)为分析民族成见和民族距离对国际贸易意愿的影响提供了一个可行的研究框架。TPB理论背后的态度—行为关系对教育者很重要,因为他们会培养未来的商务领袖。但是,成见(定势思维)非常微妙,它可以被激活,但却很难应用,因为这需要多种多样的行为控制。在这种情况下,没有很多经验甚至没有任何实践经验的商科学生却可以用来作为评估所谓的"纯粹的"民族成见和民族距离的标准,以及民族成见与民族距离对他们开展国际贸易的意愿的影响力,同时也可作为态度和行为之间的一个介质。本文的主要目的是测试商务专业学生对某个特定国家的民族成见和民族距离,以及这样的民族成见和民族距离是否对进行国际贸易意愿有着决定性影响。本文的研究结果显示了在国际商务环境中民族成见对意图行为起到的交互性作用,特别强调了成见激活和成见应用的区别。更强的情感信念通过民族距离与民族划分以及民族仇恨(民族主义)的联系更紧密。     

A comparison of the efficacy of chef knife-cleaning methods

Improperly cleaned and sanitized chef knives present a potential contamination risk and a source for foodborne illness. This study compared the efficacies of two cleaning methods (three-compartment manual dishwashing and sanitizer wiping) at removing food soils from contaminated chef knives. Knife-washing procedures were standardized after observing knife-cleaning behavior in a kitchen. Adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence was used to measure levels of organic soils. Results indicated that the three-compartment manual dishwashing was more effective at removing food soils from knife surfaces than the sanitizer wiping (P < .0001). This study also assessed the influence of other factors on the soil removal efficacies.     

Privatization,Foreign Acquisition and the Motives for FDI in Eastern Europe

The paper examines the motives for FDI in Eastern Europe by analysing foreign entry by acquisition facilitated by privatization programmes. Firm-level characteristics encouraging entry through their effect on expected profits, as well as industry level determinants are considered. The data are drawn from the list of the 500 largest companies in Polish manufacturing and span privatizations between 1993 and 1998. The results point to market-seeking rather than resource-seeking motives behind the location decisions of foreign investors. JEL no.  F23, L33, P31     

Planung und Unternehmenserfolg: Stylized Facts aus der empirischen Controllingforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum von 1990–2007

Zusammenfassung Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht, inwieweit die empirische Controllingforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum von 1990 bis 2007 belastbare Aussagen (“Stylized Facts”) zum Zusammenhang zwischen der Gestaltung der Planung als bedeutsamem Teil der Controllerarbeit und dem Controlling- bzw. Unternehmenserfolg erarbeitet hat. Insgesamt werden fünfzehn Studien analysiert, aus denen Stylized Facts zu Planungsintensit?t, Planungsrationalit?t, Planungsoffenheit, Planungsintegration und Planungsdauer sowie zu Opportunismus und Kompetenzgef?lle als soziale Gestaltungsfaktoren der Planung hergeleitet werden. Zum einen zeigen die Ergebnisse den Beitrag der empirischen Controllingforschung zum Verst?ndnis der Planung als Führungsteilfunktion. Zum anderen k?nnen verschiedenste Aussagen zur Gestaltung der Planung in handlungsleitender Form an die Unternehmenspraxis zurückgespielt werden.      

Gender schema and fashion consciousness

Psychologists, consumer researchers, and marketers have long measured psychological traits related to gender, especially gender schema. This study assesses various psychological gender measures, including a new one, gender consciousness, in relation to a marketing variable of interest, fashion consciousness. Results indicate that biological sex is predominant when assessing the two sexes together. However, other variables emerge as important when within-sex differences are assessed: public self-consciousness for females and private gender consciousness (a new measure) for males. Marketing implications are discussed, primarily on the basis of these within-sex differences, since fashion marketers usually target separately one or the other sex in their campaigns.     

Perceptions of business ethics: Students vs. business people

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions of business students and of business practitioners regarding ethics in business. A survey consisting of a series of brief ethical situations was completed by 537 senior business majors and 158 experienced business people. They responded to the situations, first, as they believed the typical business person would respond and, second, as they believed the ethical response would be.The results indicate that both students and business people perceived a significant gap between the ethical response to the given situations and the typical business person's response. Students were significantly more accepting than business people of questionable ethical responses, and they also had a more negative view of the ethics of business people than did the experienced business people.The male students were more accepting of questionable ethical responses and saw less difference between typical and ethical responses than did the female students. However, male and female business people appeared to think alike with regard to both typical and ethical responses.Some suggested implications included the idea that businesses need to increase their efforts to promote ethical conduct and to make ethics a well-known priority in all actions and policies. Barbara C. Cole teaches Business Education classes at Foothills Technical Institute in Searcy, Arkansas. Her research is in the areas of business ethics and cooperative learning. She has published in Journal of Education for Business.Dennie L. Smith is Professor of Education at the University of Memphis, formerly Memphis State University. His writing on creativity, teaching strategies, and simulation systems has appeared in numerous journals and books. He has been a consultant to businesses for over 15 years in the areas of organizational development and decision making.