The impact of perceived ethical intensity on audit-quality-threatening behaviours

Although there has been significant interest among researchers in audit-quality-threatening behaviours (QTBs), the decision process through which staff auditors engage in those behaviours has received relatively little attention. It seems likely that the ethical intensity of the behaviours perceived by auditors may play an important role in that process; to date, this has not been tested. This study examines the mediating role of perceived ethical intensity in the relationship between perceived ethical culture of the firm and the auditors' ethical evaluation of, and intention to engage in, three different forms of QTBs. A multi-item measure of ethical intensity is developed and the findings provide the first empirical evidence of a direct relationship between perceived ethical intensity and ethical decision-making regarding QTBs. Moreover, the findings show that perceived ethical intensity fully mediates the relationship between perceived ethical culture and ethical decision-making. Implications of the findings for accounting firms and for researchers are discussed and areas for future research on the mediating role of perceived ethical intensity are suggested in the paper.     

The Relationship between Earnings,Funds Flows and Cash Flows: Evidence for the UK

Recent UK information content studies have provided evidence of a significant relationship between earnings and share prices, as in the US, but have also identified an apparent lack of information content for operating cash flow, which is in marked contrast to findings from US research. This paper provides direct evidence on the relationship between earnings, funds flows and cash flows in the UK during the period 1965–84, using tests of association and predictive tests based on a research methodology applied by Bowen, Burgstahler and Daley (1986) to US data. The results provide UK evidence on the contemporaneous and predictive relationships between measures of earnings, funds flows and cash flows which are generally consistent with the US findings of Bowen et al. and which do not support the view that earnings in the UK are superior to cash flows as predictors of future cash flows.     

Existence of equilibrium in the Helpman–Krugman model of international trade with imperfect competition

Helpman and Krugman (Market structure and foreign trade. Increasing returns, imperfect competition, and the international economy. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1985) provide a synthesis of the traditional factor proportions theory of international trade and the theory of international trade due to the exploitation of scale economies in imperfectly competitive markets. They derive illuminating results about trade patterns and gains from trade, among other things, leaving unanswered the question of existence of equilibrium, however. The central significance of their characterization of properties of free trade equilibria with inter-industry and intra-industry trade calls for an analysis of existence of equilibrium. This is the object of the present paper. We prove the existence of equilibrium for the integrated multi-sector multi-factor Helpman–Krugman economy without national borders. Well-known conditions ensure that the world economy under free trade reproduces this equilibrium and thus establishes existence of a free trade equilibrium. Since an equilibrium of the integrated economy is not necessarily unique, the same holds true for a free trade equilibrium.     

Strategy Review for Central and Eastern Europe: Strategic Responses of Foreign Multinational Corporations to the Recent Economic and Financial Crisis

The economies of Central and Eastern Europe were hit particularly badly by the global financial and economic crisis of 2008–2009. This raises the question of whether the severe economic downturn had any effect on the strategic orientation of foreign multinational corporations operating in Central and Eastern Europe. The purpose of the study is to contribute to the discussion of the effects of the recent crisis on strategies of multinational corporations. The crisis brought the successful economic catching-up process of the reforming countries over the previous decade to an abrupt halt, shattering the image of Central and Eastern Europe as a growth region. Multinational firms are now in the process of reviewing their original internationalization strategies for the region. The author argues that the business model that guided the expansion into Central and Eastern Europe still remains valid.     

Customer orientation,engagement, and developing positive emotional labor

Frontline employees must deal on a daily basis with emotionally demanding customer interactions. Such interactions, when coupled with organizational directives to focus upon exemplary customer service, can prompt employees to express feelings and emotions that are not genuine. Such ‘surface acting' has been found to create stress in frontline personnel, but an understanding of how this negative aspect of emotional labor may be minimized is lacking in the services literature. How a frontline employee's individual attributes might interact with a service work context to build deep, as opposed to surface, acting is the current focus. Applying job demands–resources theory, this study investigates how a frontline employee's customer orientation helps to develop positive work engagement, even in the face of contextual demands. Engagement is then linked positively to the beneficial behavior of deep acting which, in contrast to surface acting, has been identified as a less stressful form of emotional labor.     

Research article: Look after they leap: illustrating the value of retrospective reports in employee turnover

The prevailing methodology for studying employee turnover is limited because it emphasizes prediction rather than understanding. This paper critiques this methodology and draws out the implications of an alternative: retrospective self-reporting, by actual leavers. Retrospective self-reporting has three main advantages. First, it allows direct assessment of actual incidents of turnover, so interventions can be informed by accounts of real events, instead of being based on inference. Second, it offers insight into the dynamic character of decisions to quit, which are often unpredictable or precipitated by sudden events. Third, it allows for assessment of the role of non-work factors. This makes a methodological contribution, allowing greater insight into the decision to quit, which is ontologically, socially and dynamically complex. It has implications for how we construe and manage turnover. The argument is illustrated by a recent study of 352 UK National Health Service nurse leavers but has wider implications for turnover in the public sector.     

The Relevance of Organization Theory to the Field of Business and Information Systems Engineering

Information and communication systems (ICS) impact their organizational environment in significant ways; hence, the design, implementation, and use of ICS are inseparably linked to fundamental issues of organizational design and behavior. Current research in the field of business and information systems engineering (BISE), however, is primarily technology- or practice-oriented and concerned with the construction and validation of prototypes, whereas little attention is paid to theoretical insights into organizational phenomena and relationships. In this paper, we argue that paying more attention to organization theory would provide valuable guidance in addressing the close links between ICS on the one hand, and organizational systems on the other. To support our argument, we refer to selected theoretical perspectives and highlight their potential relevance to the BISE field.

Effects of collaborative communication on the development of market-relating capabilities and relational performance metrics in industrial markets

Research in marketing suggests that collaborative communication is important for firms to sustain competitive advantage, especially in industrial markets. This study integrates relational and resource-based views to articulate how collaborative communication influences different relational performance metrics. Based on a survey of 167 marketing executives in Taiwan's electronics industry, empirical findings indicate that market-relating capabilities (i.e., market-linking and marketing capabilities) completely mediate the collaborative communication–financial performance relationship, while market-relating capabilities partially mediate the collaborative communication–customer-focused performance relationship. In addition, collaborative communication directly influences customer cooperation performance instead of indirectly affecting it through the development of market-relating capabilities. The results of this study provide new insights into the role of collaborative communication as well as important theoretical and managerial implications.     

Following the story: narrative mapping as a mobile method for tracking and interrogating spatial narratives

Museums and heritage tourism sites are highly curated places of memory work whose function is the assembling and ordering of space and narrative to contour visitors’ experiences of the past. Variations in such experiences within and between sites, however, necessitates a method that: (1) captures how guides, visitors, and exhibits interact within spaces when representing and performing history and (2) allows researchers to document those variations. We developed narrative mapping, a mobile and geographically sensitive form of participant observation, to enable museum scholars and professionals to systematically capture, visualize, and interpret tendencies and variations in the content, affective qualities, and spatial arrangements of museum narratives over multiple sites and across multiple tours at the same site. Two antebellum plantation museum case studies, Laura Plantation in Louisiana and Virginia’s Berkeley Plantation, demonstrate the method’s utility in documenting how stories are spatially configured and materially enlivened in order to analyze the ways enslaved persons are placed within these narratives.     

Enhancing green product and process innovation: Towards an integrative framework of knowledge acquisition and environmental investment

Despite the increasing interest in green innovation literature, little is known on how and under what conditions firms' knowledge transfer activities affect green innovation. There is lack of research that on how particular organizational capabilities are seen more useful and how it influences on green innovation performance. To address this research gap, we examine a mediation model in which we explore whether a firm's knowledge acquisition capability and investment in environmental management mediate the impact of buyer-driven knowledge transfer activities on green product innovation and green process innovation. On the basis of an analysis of a sample of 239 manufacturing firms, we find that buyer-driven knowledge activities have a greater positive impact on green product innovation than green process innovation. Investment in environmental management fully mediates the relationship between buyer-driven knowledge transfer activities and green process innovation, and knowledge acquisition capability partially mediates the relationship between buyer-driven knowledge transfer activities and green product innovation. The current study provides evidence that internal competencies and the role of buyers in knowledge transfer are critical for explaining the green product innovation and green process innovation. Our results suggest that buyer involvement pushes firms to develop resource acquisition capability to enhance green product innovation. Our results also highlight the importance of investment in environmental management for overcoming the environmental challenges in the manufacturing firms.