董事会成员“零度容忍”文化胜于合规

目前,国外很多董事会都采用了“零度容忍”（Zero Tolerance）政策作为公司的一种伦理文化。所谓“零度容忍”政策,其实质是一种“一刀切”的强制规定,用以对违规行为施加处罚,旨在消除不希望发生的行为。“零度容忍”政策禁止在位当权者视情况变通地实施惩罚,要求其一定要按照事先规定的处罚措施办事,而不管处分对象是否出现了过失,或其实是情有可原的,也不会考虑处分对象过去的表现。     

Financial inclusion and food insecurity: Examining linkages and potential pathways

Considering the worsening levels of food insecurity globally, studies exploring the link between financial inclusion and food insecurity have become imperative. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the effect of financial inclusion on food insecurity using a multidimensional index of financial inclusion and a food insecurity construct obtained from the Food Insecurity Experience Scale. Based on data extracted from the seventh round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey, our preferred endogeneity-corrected results indicate that improvements in financial inclusion is associated with a reduction in food insecurity. This finding is consistent across different conceptualisations of food insecurity, alternative weighting schemes and cut-offs for the financial inclusion index and different quasi-experimental methods. Financial inclusion is mainly effective in reducing food insecurity in male-headed and rural-located households. Our findings reveal that entrepreneurship is an important pathway through which financial inclusion influences food insecurity.     

Incentives and job redesign: the case of the personal selling function

Changes in the internal and the external environment of organizations are causing many of them to redesign individual jobs as team functions. Sales organizations, in particular, are responding to increased selling costs by redesigning the selling function to include a support person. The basic idea here is to let the support person perform important but relatively low‐skilled tasks, such as lead generation, so that the salesperson's valuable time is freed up to perform important and relatively high‐skilled tasks, such as product promotion. However, this trend gives rise to several interesting questions. Specifically, we ask: How are the incentives offered to the salesperson affected by the introduction of the support person? To what extent will the support person be utilized? And, how will the job be conducted under the new design? We find that the level of incentives and job redesign are related, albeit in a complex manner. We also find that the firm will not always fully utilize the support person, nor will the salesperson always fully delegate the low‐skilled task to him. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unintended hedging in ambiguity experiments

We describe an ambiguity hedging problem in Ellsberg experiments, where combinations of individually ambiguous bets eliminate aggregate ambiguity, and which may yield incorrect classifications of ambiguity averse subjects. We propose a new classification consistent with this hedging possibility.     

Fair trade new product development

Recently, there has been a significant increase in the market for fair trade products. However, there is a discrepancy between the stated purchase intention of consumers and their actual purchase behaviour with respect to fair trade. This article takes an operational and strategic view of this issue and argues that one significant reason for this lies in the limited range of fair trade products currently available. Next, a strategic framework for fair trade new product development is presented and explored. Finally, key operational criteria for fair trade product selection are discussed using a case study example to support the conclusions.     

The role of customer loyalty as a brand extension purchase predictor

The paper explores the relationship between customer loyalty to the retail brand and the purchase of non-traditional products and services (NTPS) offered by grocery retailers with their private label (i.e. over-the-counter products, photo printing, mobile communication services and travel booking). Customer loyalty to the retail brand is measured through its behavioral and attitudinal components. A survey was conducted administering a questionnaire to 480 retail customers in two stores belonging to different retail grocers. A binary logistic regression was then applied using the buying of at least one NTPS as the dependent variable (1 = buy; 0 = no buy) and behavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty as independent variables. Results show that attitudinal loyalty plays a significant role as buying predictor, but this depends on the NTPS offered. Theoretical and managerial implications are derived.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Value of Multinational Companies: Lessons from a Sub-Saharan African Environment

ABSTRACT

The issue of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an approach for businesses to independently take actions that lead to better levels of societal development as well as higher value creation for the business, particularly in developing countries has gained much advocacy. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between CSR and business value of multinational companies (MNCs) in sub-Saharan Africa. The study adopted quantitative research methodology and using multiple regression analysis, findings show that CSR can positively and significantly predict business values in the multinational subsidiaries. These values include direct (economic value) and indirect (human capital value and reputational business value). This paper therefore contributes to a novel CSR index from the perspective of business value and sustainability of MNCs in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) environment. Thus, the paper recommends MNCs operating in Africa to enhance their social investment through their CSR strategy with the aim that CSR must not be regarded as a cost center, but an investment instrument that can accrue various dividends.     

Life satisfaction and self-employment: a matching approach

Despite lower incomes, the self-employed consistently report higher satisfaction with their jobs. But are self-employed individuals also happier, more satisfied with their lives as a whole? High job satisfaction might cause them to neglect other important domains of life, such that the fulfilling job crowds out other pleasures, leaving the individual on the whole not happier than others. Moreover, self-employment is often chosen to escape unemployment, not for the associated autonomy that seems to account for the high job satisfaction. We apply matching estimators that allow us to better take into account the above-mentioned considerations and construct an appropriate control group (in terms of balanced covariates). Using the BHPS dataset that comprises a large nationally representative sample of the British populace, we find that individuals who move from regular employment into self-employment experience an increase in life satisfaction (up to 2 years later), while individuals moving from unemployment to self-employment are not more satisfied than their counterparts moving from unemployment to regular employment. We argue that these groups correspond to “opportunity” and “necessity” entrepreneurship, respectively. These findings are robust with regard to different measures of subjective well-being as well as choice of matching variables, and also robustness exercises involving “simulated confounders”.