Causal Effects of Regulatory, Organizational and Personal Factors on Ethical Sensitivity

Prior researchers have studied individual components of a theoretical decision-making model. This paper presents the results of a more complete study of the model components and presents limited support of theory. The study examines the relative importance of regulatory, organizational, and personal constructs on an individual's ethical sensitivity. Auditors from the major international accounting firms, located in two southeastern cities, are surveyed. Structural equation modeling is used to allow for the simultaneous evaluation of the three constructs of interest. The results indicate that the regulatory and organizational constructs are negatively correlated with the personal experience construct. The three constructs are not significant causal factors on ethical sensitivity. This result may be due to the manner in which ethical sensitivity is typically measured or may indicate that the complexity of the ethical decision-making process is not fully captured in the theoretical models. Thus, the models suggested in the prior literature and the results presented in prior studies of the individual components may need to be reconsidered.     

International entrepreneurship and the small business

The topic of ‘international entrepreneurship’ is becoming increasingly popular with researchers concerned with examining how international and entrepreneurial activities intersect when people in organizations engage in pro-active brokering and risk-taking behaviour in cross-border contexts. Some caution is needed in over-generalizing the meaning and significance of international entrepreneurship – especially in relation to small businesses. Not all entrepreneurial risk-taking, brokering and opportunity-seeking activities lead to internationalization (as the statistics on small business international activities indicate). This might suggest then that the only truly internationally entrepreneurial firms are those that are ‘born global’. However, their entrepreneurial activities are more ‘spatial’, concerned with what can be constructed again in relation to global markets rather than in relation to the local/regional context in which the business is located. For small firms that internationalize a few years after start-up (late starters), processes of international entrepreneurship are different. For ‘later starters’, international entrepreneurship is distinctive in that it is characterized by extending and modifying entrepreneurial understandings and practices that have been socially constructed in relation to the local and regional context in which the small firm is located.     

Evaluating food hygiene inspection schemes: ‘Scores on Doors’ in the UK

Food hygiene inspection results previously kept confidential from the public may now be released, and this gives food authorities the opportunity to publish these ratings, known as ‘Scores on Doors’, allowing consumers to make informed decisions when deciding where they will eat. The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) is supporting trials of some of these schemes, which will involve more than 60 of the 400 local authorities, some of which have yet to launch their schemes. Other food authorities are running disclosure schemes independent of the FSA pilot scheme. The FSA has commissioned an evaluation of ‘Scores on Doors’ schemes to determine which is the most effective scheme with a view to launching a consistent nationwide scheme. A survey of ‘Scores on Doors’ schemes reveals many differences in the way they operate. This includes differences in the interpretation of scores, the extent of information that is disclosed, the communication channels used to disclose information, the amount of publicity provided for businesses and the public, the publicity given to the schemes by local media, and whether businesses are scored retrospectively or scored at inspection following the launch of the scheme. The implications of these variables for a comprehensive evaluation of the schemes are explored.     

Religious identity in the workplace: A systematic review,research agenda,and practical implications

We conducted a systematic review of relevant literature to address how religious and occupational identities relate to each other in the workplace. We identified 53 relevant publications for analysis and synthesis. Studies addressed value differences associated with religion and occupation, identity tensions, unmet expectations, and the connection of religious identity to well-being and work outcomes. Key variables in the connection between religious and occupational identities included personal preferences, the fit between religious identity and job-related concerns, and the organization's policies, practices, and expectations. We highlight the personal and organizational consequences of being able to express religious identity at work and the conditions that promote high congruence between religious identity and its expression in the workplace. From these findings, we develop a research agenda and offer recommendations for management practice that focus on support for expression of religious identity at work while maintaining a broader climate of inclusion.     

The Influence of Political Regime on State-Level Disciplinary Actions of CPAs Sanctioned by the PCAOB

Journal of Business Ethics - We investigate whether enforcement is influenced by politics by comparing the severity of PCAOB sanctions of individual CPAs to the severity of related state-level...     

Preferential Trade and Welfare with Differentiated Products

We consider analytically and numerically the welfare tradeoffs inherent in a preferential trade area (PTA) with products differentiated by region of origin. For a small open economy in such a setting, welfare gains are associated with higher trade volumes within the PTA. However, welfare losses are induced by declining tariff revenues on trade with non‐member countries. We show that both effects are concave, while one is a non‐monotonic and the other a potentially non‐monotonic function of pre‐PTA partner trade shares. Therefore, the relationship between initial partner import shares and direct static welfare impacts of a PTA are theoretically ambiguous. This finding contrasts with conventional results in the homogeneous‐goods case, whereby the smaller is the pre‐agreement trade volume with a potential partner the more beneficial is a PTA.     

A threshold cointegration analysis of interest rate pass-through to UK mortgage rates

This paper empirically analyses the interest rate transmission mechanism in the United Kingdom by exploring the pass-through of the official rate to the money market rate and of the market rate to the mortgage rate. Potential asymmetries, due to financial market conditions and monetary policy, lead to the use of a nonlinear threshold error-correction model, with hypothesis tests based on nonstandard bootstrap procedures that take into account the discrete nature of changes in the official rate. The empirical results indicate the presence of substantial asymmetries in both steps of the process, with these asymmetries depending on past changes in the money market rate and whether these are motivated by official rate changes. Generalized impulse response function analysis shows that adjustments differ with regard to the sign and magnitude of interest rate changes in a way that is consistent with conditions in the interbank and mortgage markets over the recent period.     

The Sleeping Giant Awakes: Projecting Global Implications of China's Energy Consumption

China's rapid economic growth has generated a surge in energy demand that is reallocating global fuel balances. We employ a global energy computable general‐equilibrium model to analyze alternative scenarios for economic growth, Chinese currency appreciation, and oil price shocks, with a special focus on China energy markets. Imports from the Middle East, Central Asia, Russia, and Sub‐Saharan Africa are found to comprise a growing share of China's energy. Imports to China grow from 12% of world energy imports in 2010 to 17% by 2050 when over 80% of China's oil demand will be imported.