A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Endorsement of Ethical Leadership

The western-based leadership and ethics literatures were reviewed to identify the key characteristics that conceptually define what it means to be an ethical leader. Data from the Global Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (GLOBE) project were then used to analyze the degree to which four aspects of ethical leadership – Character/Integrity, Altruism, Collective Motivation, and Encouragement – were endorsed as important for effective leadership across cultures. First, using multi-group confirmatory factor analyses measurement equivalence of the ethical leadership scales was found, which provides indication that the four dimensions have similar meaning across cultures. Then, using analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests each of the four dimensions were found to be universally endorsed as important for effective leadership. However, cultures also varied significantly in the degree of endorsement for each dimension. In the increasingly global business environment, these findings have implications for organizations implementing ethics programs across cultures and preparing leaders for expatriate assignments. Christian J. Resick is Assistant Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Florida International University. His research is aimed at understanding how people interact with and influence various aspects of their work environments, including cultures, climates, leaders, and teammates along with the implications for various aspects of organizational behavior. A particular focus of Christian’s work examines ethical leadership and the critical linkages between leadership and organizational ethics. He received his Ph.D. from Wayne State University. Paul J. Hanges is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland and the head of the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program in the department. He is an affiliate of the Cognitive Psychology program and the R. H. Smith School of Business. Paul’s research focuses on three topics (a) social cognition, leadership, and cross-cultural issues; (b) personnel selection, test fairness, and racial/gender discrimination; and (c) research methodology. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Psychology and The Leadership Quarterly and is a fellow of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Association. Marcus W. Dickson is Associate Professor of I/O Psychology at Wayne State University in Detroit. His research generally focuses on issues of leadership and culture (both organizational and societal), and the interaction of those constructs. He is a former Co-Principal Investigator of the GLOBE Project, and his work has appeared in Journal of Applied Psychology, Applied Psychology: An International Review, and The Leadership Quarterly, among others. Jacqueline K. Mitchelson is a doctoral candidate in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Wayne State University. Her current research areas are leadership, organizational culture, individual differences and work-family conflict.     

Product resource–capability complementarity,integration mechanisms,and first product advantage

The current study extends work on resource-based theory (RBT) by exploring resource—capability complementarity in a new context—that of new technology ventures' (NTVs) first product (FP) commercialization in India. This study examines the influence of marketing and technology resource–capability complementarity on FP positional advantages (differentiation and cost-efficiency) and their influence on first product performance (FPP). Furthermore, this study incorporates the influence of supplier integration (SI) mechanisms (in terms of knowledge sharing and co-commercialization) in the process of FP commercialization. The findings suggest that asset complementarities have a positive relation with FP positional advantages, in that both differentiation and cost-efficiency enhance an NTV's FPP, and that SI moderates the relationships between both marketing and technology R–C complementarity and FP positional advantages.     

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.     

Experiments on strategic choices and markets

Much of experimental research in marketing has focused on individual choices. Yet in many contexts, the outcomes of one’s choices depend on the choices of others. Furthermore, the results obtained in individual decision making context may not be applicable to these strategic choices. In this paper, we discuss three avenues for further advancing our understanding of strategic choices. First, there is a need to develop theories about how people learn to play strategic games. Second, there is an opportunity to enrich standard economic models of strategic behavior by allowing for different types of bounded rationality and by relaxing assumptions about utility formulation. These new models can help us to more accurately predict strategic choices. Finally, future research can improve marketing practice by designing better mechanisms and validating them using experiments.     

Ethics and Budget Allocation Decisions of Municipal Budget Officers

The purpose of this study is to extend research which has looked at moral judgment. Specifically, the study examines the impact of moral judgment on the budget allocations made by government budget officers. Additionally, and as a result of previous research findings, the study looks at the relationship between political ideology, gender, age, profession and moral judgment.Results support prior research which has found an association between political ideology and moral judgment, and between gender and moral judgment.There was no indication that the level of moral judgment among accountants is different from that of other individuals serving as budget officers, or that age is significantly related to moral judgment. Additionally, the study finds that an individual's level of moral judgment has less of an impact on the individual's actions than does political ideology. Study results contribute to an understanding of the relationship of moral judgment to accounting, and the relationship of moral judgment to behavior. The study also adds to research into the relationship of political ideology and moral judgment.     

The impact of cognitive age on Internet use of the elderly: an introduction to the public policy implications

Despite the growth of the Internet, one area that has not really been discussed is the elderly's use of the Internet. Given the rapid growth of this population as well as the potential the Internet holds for them, it is a subject worth consideration. However, seniors cannot be defined simply by their chronological age, but by their cognitive age. This paper discusses the impact of cognitive age of a national random sample of American elderly consumers on their Internet use. The results suggest that those seniors with a younger cognitive age use the Internet more than those seniors with an older cognitive age. Additionally, seniors with a younger cognitive age have more social contact off‐line (but not online) than those seniors with an older cognitive age. Finally, in terms of demographic variables, chronological age is positively associated with cognitive age and women report a younger cognitive age than men. These results suggest that for policy makers interested in increasing the participation of seniors, they can utilize the Internet to reach those who are younger in terms of cognitive age; however, they will not be able to reach all seniors in this manner and they need to utilize the Internet as a complementing media to their traditional communication sources.     

Keeping Up With the Joneses: Analyzing the Effect of Income Inequality on Consumer Borrowing

Household debt relative to disposable income increased from 60% in 1980 to 104% at the end of 2003. ‘Buying on credit’ has become so popular that an increasing number of firms generate more profit from financing than from selling their products. In this paper, we show that rising income inequality has substantially contributed to increased consumer borrowing. Income inequality affects all components of total household debt, but the impact is strongest on non-revolving debt (installment loans), which is used to finance the purchase of consumer durables. We argue and provide evidence that the income inequality effect on consumer borrowing is a result of conspicuous consumption. Rising income inequality has forced households with smaller income gains to use debt to keep up their consumption level relative to households with larger income gains.JEL Classification: D12, G29, J31, M30     

A research note on market creation in the pharmaceutical industry

When a firm launches a market-creating innovation, it launches a new product for which there are no close product substitutes. Thus, the new product causes a shift in the existing product-market structure of an industry. This paper reports on the findings of the analysis of 51 large pharmaceutical firms and their market-creating activities. The study suggests that market-creating firms have capabilities in both R&D and marketing. Furthermore, market-creating firms enjoy stronger efficiencies, manage costs better and make more profitable use of their assets.     

The influence of social capital on strategic choice: An examination of the effects of external and internal network relationships on strategic complexity

In this research we investigated the direct contributions of social capital via network involvement to the strategic complexity of firms. Specifically, we looked at three network types - trade associations, external personal networks, and internal personal networks - to assess their individual and collective effects on strategic complexity. We empirically tested the relationships in the rural telecommunications industry using a mailed survey to this population's CEOs. We obtained 203 responses (30% response rate). Using Poisson regression, we found that all three network types were positively associated with strategic complexity, which was measured as product portfolio breadth. We also discovered that initial conditions affected strategic outcomes, with larger firms and cooperative ownership associated with greater strategic complexity.     

Threats to new product manufacturability and the effects of development team integration processes

The thesis of this article is that new product manufacturability (NPM) is influenced by certain challenges inherent in new product development (NPD), and by efforts to integrate manufacturing and other functional concerns into the product design process. This research tests the direct and interacting effects of these influences via a survey of 91 completed NPD projects representing a variety of manufacturing industries. While most hypotheses were supported, the analysis also provides some surprising findings. Project complexity and increased levels of design outsourcing are associated with poorer NPM. Product newness and project acceleration are associated with better NPM. All the measured aspects of development team integration are associated with better NPM, including intense manufacturing involvement, a collaborative work environment, supplier influence on the product design, and strong management support in the project. Furthermore, certain integration variables exert moderating effects on relationships between technological uncertainty, product newness, design outsourcing, project acceleration and NPM. By exposing these relationships this research extends the theory of product development influences on manufacturability beyond a focus on engineering-oriented approaches (e.g., design-for-manufacture). The results suggest that larger managerial issues must be addressed and that more contingency-oriented research is needed to explore the benefits and limitations of development team integration processes.