Differences in ethical perceptions between male and female managers: Myth or reality?

This study sought to identify whether or not differences exist between the ethical decisions of male and female managers; and, if they do exist, to identify the areas in which differences occurred. An additional evaluation was conducted to determine how each perceived their counterpart would respond to the same ethical decision making situations.Data were collected from 50 male managers and 50 female managers by means of a self-administered questionnaire. Distinctive demographic characteristics were noted among the segments.The results showed only one area where a significant difference existed between males and females on what they considered to be ethical. However, there were significant differences in 16 out of 17 situations when they rated the ethical behavior of their male/female counterparts, i.e., males rated females as being significantly less ethical than themselves and vice versa.Jeaneen M. Kidwell is Corporate Sales Trainer of Avon Products, Inc. Robert E. Stevens is Professor of Marketing at Northeast Louisiana University. He is the author of five books and over thirty articles have appeared in Journal of Purchasing, Journal of Retailing, Business Horizons, and Supervising Management. Art L. Bethke is Associate Professor of Management at Northeast Louisiana University. He has been awarded Senior Professional in Human Resources 1982 and 1985. His articles have been published in Supervisory Management, Personnel Administrator, and Review of Business and Economic Research.     

Growth opportunities,corporate governance and the market value of multinational joint ventures

This paper examines whether differences in investment opportunities and corporate ownership structure can explain the disparate findings of other researchers with regard to the market's price reaction to the announcement of international joint ventures. We study a sample of 320 joint ventures announced during the period 1987–92. The sample joint ventures involve at least one US partner and one or more international partners from emerging economies (former communist countries in Eastern Europe and China), as well as industrialized G7 countries. We find that international joint ventures are on average wealth creating when the foreign partner comes from an emerging economy but are wealth neutral when the partner is from an industrialized country. This finding supports the investment opportunity set hypothesis. However, we do not find support for the shareholder-management alignment hypothesis in that higher insider holdings or a greater level of outsiders on the board for the US partner will lead to joint venture investments that are more highly valued by investors, other things remaining the same. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Union recognition in Ireland: one step forward or two steps back?

In this paper a variety of union recognition procedures and their effect on union density levels in a number of countries are considered. The crucial importance of the national institutions that govern industrial relations are emphasised. While in Ireland, conditions such as social partnership and the buoyant economy of the 1990s would appear to favour union growth, the reverse has been the case. Recent legislation to establish more formal procedures for union recognition, we argue, is likely to be a dismal failure. Indeed, an unintended consequence of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2001 may be the exclusion of the union from the workplace and the legitimisation of a firm's non‐union status.     

On Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Dynamic Panel Data Models

We analyse the finite sample properties of maximum likelihood estimators for dynamic panel data models. In particular, we consider transformed maximum likelihood (TML) and random effects maximum likelihood (RML) estimation. We show that TML and RML estimators are solutions to a cubic first‐order condition in the autoregressive parameter. Furthermore, in finite samples both likelihood estimators might lead to a negative estimate of the variance of the individual‐specific effects. We consider different approaches taking into account the non‐negativity restriction for the variance. We show that these approaches may lead to a solution different from the unique global unconstrained maximum. In an extensive Monte Carlo study we find that this issue is non‐negligible for small values of T and that different approaches might lead to different finite sample properties. Furthermore, we find that the Likelihood Ratio statistic provides size control in small samples, albeit with low power due to the flatness of the log‐likelihood function. We illustrate these issues modelling US state level unemployment dynamics.     

宁逸与高雅——韩秉华的水墨世界

正韩秉华.历任香港设计师协会主席。现为中国美术家协会设计艺术委员会委员,香港康乐及文化事务处博物馆专家顾问,景德镇陶瓷学院客座教授。专业从事设计、绘画、雕塑及公共艺术创作。作品曾入选"香港当代艺术双年展"、"香港当代户外雕塑展"及"全国美展"。作品为香港艺术馆、香港市政局、香港文化博物馆、中文大学及国内外机构收藏。     

James M. Buchanan and the Political Economy of Desegregation

Were 1986 Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan's formative contributions to political economy inspired in significant part by hostility to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision? Nancy MacLean's 2017 Democracy in Chains argues that public choice economics emerged from an opportunistic alliance with Virginia's “Massive Resistance” to school integration and should thus be situated within the racially tinged tradition of southern conservatism. While Buchanan wrote very little on the economics of race, archival evidence and his published works do not support this thesis. Buchanan's work is better understood with reference to his Chicago school mentor Frank Knight and the Italian public finance tradition rather than southern conservatism. To the contrary, we suggest Buchanan believed the competitive processes generated by an educational voucher system would likely undermine rather than rescue the racially segregated status quo. Furthermore, Buchanan's associations and activities suggest that racial hierarchy was not part of his normative vision.     

古今中国文人画杂谈

中国古代文人画"文人画"顾名思义是文人所作的画,它是一种比起严格的技法和体裁更追求画外功夫的诗意创作,文人想通过这种诗意的表达来抒发他们的思想、情趣、品位和文化意蕴。中国文人画的起始众说纷纭,比较一致的意见是远在唐宋之前便已盛行,而它的鼎盛可说是在中国院体画最受追捧的唐和北宋时期。其实中国古代文人作画并不以绘画技术的精湛为目的,更没把书画当作"正事"。他们把绘画看作是一种闲情逸致,闲来挥洒情思,有时甚至觉得画得太精是一种"俗"。     

艺术登陆新加坡一道东南亚风情大菜

到达新加坡后，夹杂着雨气的潮湿空气扑面而来，比起北京的寒冷，新加坡此时的气候非常的舒服。博览会的举办地点就是现在炙手可热的城市地标之-Marina Bay Sands。位于新加坡的金融商业圈，集购物、赌场、酒店等多种服务业，是个不错的博览会举办地点。