The Influence of Spiritual Traditions on the Interplay of Subjective and Normative Interpretations of Meaningful Work

Journal of Business Ethics - This paper argues that the principles of spiritual traditions provide normative ‘standards of goodness’ within which practitioners evaluate meaningful work....     

The Reliability of Impairment Tests： The Case of Vessels

For a shipping company, the vessel is the most valuable and important asset. In most cases, the value of the vessel is the bigger part of total assets. Under International Accounting Standards （IAS） and also United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles （US GAAP） （IAS 36 and Statement of Financial Accounting Standards （SFAS） 144 respectively）, entities are required to conduct impairment tests where there is an indication of impairment of an asset. It is of high importance that the assumptions and the methodology of these tests be right, in order for the results of these tests to be valid. Always, there is the risk that the accountant manipulates the test in order to avoid any impairment losses. Our purpose is to examine the way that the results from these tests are related with market values. Also, we aim to examine under what test assumptions the results from these tests are close enough to market values of vessels.     

Leadership and motivation in the African Diaspora: The United States and Canada

This study examines the similarities and differences in the perceptions of effective leadership and motivation among the African Diaspora in the United States and Canada (LEAD). Ten focus groups with a total of 56 participants were conducted in the US and Canada. Using NVivo, results show both similarities and differences in these perceptions. The African Diaspora in both countries described an effective leader as one who is wise and knowledgeable. The African Diaspora in the US also focused on charisma and humility, while those in Canada stressed motivation and inspiration. Moreover, the US participants stated that support and nonmonetary rewards were the major motivators for leaders, whereas Canadian participants indicated task completion and monetary rewards as major motivators. Future directions and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Financial systems and economic growth in South Africa: a dynamic complementarity test

This study examines the relationship between banks, stock markets and economic growth in South Africa. The study attempts to answer one critical question: are stock markets and banks complementary to one another in the process of enhancing economic growth? The complementarity between the stock markets and banks is examined by including a set of interactive terms in a standard growth model, alongside bank development and stock market development proxies. In order to test the robustness of the results, three proxies of stock market development have been used, namely stock market capitalization, stock market traded value and stock market turnover – against the ratio of bank credit to the private sector, a proxy for bank-based financial development. The economic growth is, however, proxied by real GDP per capita. Using the ARDL-Bounds testing procedure, the study finds that the complementarity between stock market development and bank-based financial development is weak and sensitive to the proxy used to measure stock market development.     

Leadership and motivation in Africa and the African Diaspora (LEAD): Summary and Epilogue

This paper consolidates and summarizes the findings of the preceding three empirical papers in the LEAD special issue. A research framework is offered that reflects the research approach followed to date and that incorporates the Ubuntu leadership philosophy as an antecedent for explaining certain leader attributes and behaviours. The research framework also serves as a vehicle against which to examine the quantitative data resulting from the future administration of a quantitative survey in the next phase of the LEAD research project. The paper concludes with the presentation of several propositions to stimulate thinking and to serve as initial guides for future research. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Supranational grievance mechanisms and firm-level employment relations

The dynamics of regulation of employment relations in the global supply chains of multinational enterprises (MNEs), including the growth of various forms of private regulation, has attracted significant scholarly attention. However, the role of international organisations in supporting supranational institutional pathways for social contestation of business practices has been neglected. This study addresses this gap by analysing cases lodged by national and global unions through the specific instances mechanism of the OECD Guidelines for MNEs. It reveals the design and operational deficiencies of this mechanism but also points to the current and future opportunities for firm-level labour grievances and justice claims to be addressed at the supranational scale.     

Public transit and air pollution: Evidence from Canadian transit strikes

Little is known about the causal impacts of public transit on local air pollution. Exploiting variation in transit availability resulting from transit strikes in 18 Canadian cities between 1974 and 2011, this study identifies the short-run effect of public transit on air pollution. Our findings indicate that transit leads to a 3.5 part per billion increase in nitrogen oxides while having no statistically significant effect on carbon monoxide or PM_2.5. Estimates are robust to a series of specification tests and magnitudes are consistent with a calibrated simulation model. Overall, the results suggest that expanding the current configuration of public transit in North American cities is unlikely to yield improvements in local air quality.