Increasing Corporate Social Responsibility Through an Employee-centered Approach

As the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) literature has developed, it appears that a dominant paradigm has emerged. Both scholars who study CSR and those who write about its organizational application have largely converged on CSR as an organizational strategy issue. Viewing CSR as a matter of top-level strategy unwittingly links it to a particular conceptualization of organizational change—a top-down perspective. We suggest that the dominance of this traditional view of organizational change is limiting the study of CSR. Thus, we seek to increase awareness of an alternative model, one that complements the strategic view. Specifically, we describe a model of CSR organizational change that suggests two things. First we assert that significant change can be initiated at lower organizational levels as well as from the top. And second, we suggest that the change can be accomplished in small steps and involve only a portion of the organization, as opposed to an overarching organizational strategy. We present our employee-centered approach to CSR change as an addition to the traditional top-down view.     

Consensus Among Economists—An Update

In this article, the authors explore consensus among economists on specific propositions based on a fall 2011 survey of American Economic Association members. Results are based on 568 responses and provide evidence of changes in opinion over time by including propositions from earlier studies in 2000 (Fuller and Geide-Stevenson 2003) and 1992 (Alston, Kearl, and Vaughan 1992). Propositions focus on microeconomics, macroeconomics, distributional and international topics, as well as pedagogy. Results indicate a movement toward an overall higher level of consensus, mainly because of a drop in the incidence of no consensus. Especially in the area of distributional propositions, economists display an increased concern with income inequality and potential effects on growth. In the area of macroeconomics, current opinions are more similar to those of the 1992 survey than the 2000 survey.     

Corporate cash holdings and political connections

We examine the relation between corporate liquidity and political connections measured via lobbying expenditures. This is an interesting question as many of the motives for holding cash should be diminished by political connections. Results indicate a significant and inverse relation between cash levels and lobby expenses and that the marginal value of cash decreases with lobbying. Taken together, these findings suggest firms react optimally to the reduced benefits of cash linked to political connections and that the market recognizes the weakened benefits of cash. Overall, our research shows another way political connections can shape corporate policy.     

Small enterprises as complex adaptive systems: a methodological question?

Complexity science constitutes an emerging post-positivist interdisciplinary field of investigation of dynamical systems in the natural and physical worlds. The central concept of complexity is that interactions between parts of open systems create novel, unpredictable patterns, and that while the history of the system is relevant in understanding its dynamic, the isolation of individual parts of the system (analysis) does not reveal the casual mechanisms in the system. It is suggested that complexity science can inform our methodologies for investigating the social sciences. The paper explores whether complexity science offers ways of theory building that can take account of pluralistic or interdisciplinary research in enterprise dynamics. The authors offer a model of six theorized ontological layers, derived from the canon of research literature within a small enterprise domain, with boundaries at each end. It is suggested that dynamical concepts of agency (adaption, evolution, fitness, interdependence) coupled with the theory of evolutionary autopoietic structures generate a plausible field for the study of enterprise dynamics. A focus on ontological and experimental adequacy is necessary to develop theory within this framework. An appropriate methodology involves iterations between experimental forms of scientific analysis and the grounding of emergent or evolving theories.     

‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’: moral entrepreneurship,or the fine art of recycling evil into good

Moral entrepreneurship is the fine art of recycling evil into good by taking advantage of situations given or constructed as crises. It should be seen as the ultimate generalisation of the entrepreneurial spirit, whose peculiar excesses have always sat uneasily with homo oeconomicus as the constrained utility maximiser, an image that itself has come to be universalised. A task of this essay is to reconcile the two images in terms of what by the end I call ‘superutilitarianism’, which draws on the lore of both superheroes and utilitarianism. After briefly surveying the careers of three exemplars of the moral entrepreneur (Robert McNamara, George Soros and Jeffrey Sachs), I explore the motives of moral entrepreneurs in terms of their standing debt to society for having already caused unnecessary harm but which also now equips him with the skill set needed to do significant good. Such a mindset involves imagining oneself a vehicle of divine will, which would be a scary proposition had it not been long presumed by Christians touched by Calvin. In conclusion, I argue that moral entrepreneurship looks most palatable – and perhaps even attractive – if the world is ‘reversible’, in the sense that every crisis, however clumsily handled by the moral entrepreneur, causes people to distinguish more clearly the necessary from contingent features of their existence. This leads them to reconceptualise past damages as new opportunities to assert what really matters; hence, a ‘superutilitarian’ ethic that treats all suffering as less cost than investment in a greater sense of the good.     

The secularization of science and a new deal for science policy

The secularization of science, by analogy with the separation of Church and state, would divest all science funding from the state, except where it bears directly on matters of public policy. I argue for an intensification of this tendency, which is already occurring across the Euro-American world. I then explore the policy implications in some detail, including historical precedents in New Deal attitudes toward the role of science in public policy. I begin by reviewing the secularization of Christendom, which turns out to be intimately tied with the social ascendency of the natural sciences. I then explore more recent conditions that contribute to the secularization of science itself, during which I claim that the Cold War's scaling up of state support for scientific research should be regarded as a historical aberration that we are currently getting over. However, I still reserve a very strong role for the state in the public distribution of already existing knowledge, the primary vehicle for which will remain the university.     

Price Dynamics in U.S. Grain and Freight Markets

This paper studies the spatial price linkages in U.S. grain and transportation markets using cointegration analysis and algorithms of inductive causation on directed acyclic graphs. Transport costs and prices from alternative transportation modes are considered to provide a relatively comprehensive view of the interaction between grain and freight markets over time. Dynamic relationship among corn prices in selected U.S. markets and freight rates, extending from January 1990 to December 2002, are explored. Results suggest the Mississippi Gulf (lower Mississippi River port area) is the most dominant corn market among evaluated export and domestic markets. Also, grain barge rates on the upper Mississippi/Illinois Rivers influence domestic corn markets in contemporaneous time. In the longer‐run, significant dynamic relationships among prices in domestic and export corn markets and freight rates are observed; perturbations in transportation rates affect the variation in corn prices considerably. Le présent article examine les relations d'arbitrage spatial entre les prix pour les marchés des céréales et du transport aux États‐Unis à l'aide d'une analyse de cointégration et d'algorithmes utilisant la notion de causalité inductive sur des graphiques acycliques orientés. Les coûts et les prix de divers modes de transport sont examinés afin de fournir un tableau assez complet de l'interaction entre le marché des céréales et le marché du fret au fil du temps. Nous avons exploré la relation dynamique entre les prix du maïs sur des marchés états‐uniens sélectionnés et les taux de fret, entre janvier 1990 et décembre 2002. Les résultats indiquent que le golfe du Mississippi (zone portuaire du Mississippi inférieur) est le marché de maïs le plus important parmi les marchés intérieurs et extérieurs évalués. Les frais de transport des céréales par barge sur le cours supérieur du Mississippi et la rivière Illinois influencent les marchés intérieurs du maïs à l'heure actuelle. À long terme, des liens dynamiques importants entre les prix sur les marchés du maïs intérieur et extérieurs et les frais de transport sont observés. Des changements de frais de transport affectent considérablement la variation des prix du maïs.     

Can Nature Drive Economic Growth?

The conditions that lead to successful economic development are diverse and place sensitive. Recent research supports the notion that there is a correlation between the presence of natural amenities and rural economic development. This case explores the situation of a rural county that is faced with constrained development options as a result of a significant federal footprint on the county's land area. The actions of the federal agencies managing the resources impact the economic vitality of the region. Two issues currently under review challenge the county to think critically about its potential for using nature as an economic development tool.