An Examination of Learning Preferences of U.S. and International Students

Learning styles and preferences are often discussed topics in educational psychology, but are less prevalent in business education. International students are another understudied segment of business education. This article reviews literature regarding learning styles and preferences and examines whether U.S. and international students have different learning preferences using the visual-aural-read/write-kinesthetic (VARK) model. The findings indicate a large percentage of both populations have multimodal learning preferences. For the students who have one preferred learning mode, differences do exist between international and U.S. students.     

Spatial organization of firms: the decision to split production and administration

A firm's production activities are often supported by nonproduction activities, such as administrative units including headquarters, which process information both within and between firms. Firms may physically separate such administrative units from their production activities and create stand‐alone central administrative offices (CAOs). However, activities in multiple locations may cause internal communication costs. What types of firms are more likely to separate such functions? If firms separate administration and production, where do they locate CAOs? This paper examines firms' spatial organization using microlevel data from the US Census Bureau.     

Multinational Enterprise Subsidiaries and their CSR: A Conceptual Framework of the Management of CSR in Smaller Emerging Economies

There is a lack of theoretical consensus on how multinational enterprises (MNEs) should implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) to build legitimacy, particularly those operating in the smaller Asian emerging market context, where current growth in the global economy is being felt more acutely than elsewhere. This paper argues for theoretical integration of business ethics (BE) and international business (IB) research to address this concern. Hence, we explore the management of CSR strategies by MNE subsidiaries with specific interest on their proactive adoption of strategic CSR to obtain legitimacy in a foreign host country. Drawing on the recent CSR literature and related theories, including stakeholder theory and institutional theory, propositions and a conceptual framework are developed and presented. The framework integrates BE and IB concepts on the different dimensions of CSR and provides a theoretical derived explanation of the process for strategic adoption of global through to more local CSR strategies by MNE subsidiaries to build legitimacy in an emerging market context. In addition, the framework provides valuable insights into the adoption of different ethical approaches or CSR strategies based on the level of ethical pressure in a host country and the degree of CSR ingrainedness in the parent company.     

Bridging what we know: The effect of cognitive distance on knowledge-intensive business services produced offshore

The rise of offshoring of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), causing a physical separation between clients and service providers in co-created services, is a major trend in practice but challenges existing theories. International business literature has addressed many types of distance that may affect (service) offshoring, such as cultural or geographic distance. However, limited emphasis has been placed on the implications of differing cognitions of individuals that produce a cognitive distance (CD). We address this gap and ask how increased CD through offshoring affects KIBS production processes. This conceptual paper focuses on how CD interacts with the modularity of different process stages in service production and what effect CD has on repeated production processes. In order to do so we first predict what stages of KIBS production processes can be offshored and what implications offshoring has on these services. We contribute to literature by deepening the understanding of CD and providing a process perspective on KIBS offshoring that looks at modularity within services, rather than firms as bundles of modular production, and on the impact repeated production processes have on service characteristics.     

Technological risk and small probabilities

Many scientists, businessmen, and government regulators believe that the criteria for acceptable societal risk are too stringent. Those who subscribe to this belief often accept the view which I call the probability-threshold position. Proponents of this stance maintain that society ought to ignore very small risks, i.e., those causing an average annual probability of fatality of less than 10^–6.After examining the three major views in the risk-evaluation debate, viz., the probability-threshold position, the zero-risk position, and the weighted-risk position, I focus on the arguments for the first of these views, since it is the position which currently undergirds most public policy (especially in the U.S.) regarding acceptable risk. After analyzing Arrow's argument from decision theory, Comar's and Gibson's argument from ontology, and Starr's and Whipple's argument from epistemology, I conclude that these defenses of the probability-threshold position err in a variety of ways. Most commonly, they fail because they tacitly accept the assumption that magnitude of probability, alone, provides a sufficient condition for judging the acceptability of a given risk. In the light of these errors, I suggest that it might be more desirable for risk assessors, decision theorists, and policymakers to weight various risk-cost-benefit parameters according to alternative ethical criteria, rather than to evaluate risks solely in terms of mathematical considerations. Kristin Shrader-Frechette is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Florida. Previously she was Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has held an NSF Scholar's Award in History and Philosophy of Science, a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and an NSF Fellowship. She is the author of four books: Nuclear Power & Public Policy; Environmental Ethics; Science Policy, Ethics and Economic Methodology and Risk Analysis & Scientific Method. She also has published about 50 articles on philosophy of physics, philosophy of economics, and technology assessment and public policy.     

Does Domestic Intimate Partner Aggression Affect Career Outcomes? The Role of Perceived Organizational Support

Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, we developed and tested a moderated mediation model linking domestic intimate partner aggression (IPA) to job performance and career advancement. Our model posits that the indirect relationship between IPA and career advancement via in‐role performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) is moderated by perceived organizational support (POS). Overall, multisource and multiwave data obtained from two independent samples of employed women from the Philippines supported our predictions. Specifically, results suggest that: (1) IPA was negatively associated with supervisor‐rated in‐role performance and OCBs; (2) there was a stronger negative relationship between IPA and in‐role performance and OCBs for employees with low as opposed to those with high levels of POS; and (3) the conditional indirect effects of IPA in predicting supervisor‐rated promotability and actual promotion via in‐role performance and OCBs were stronger under conditions of low as opposed to high POS. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Sport within Muslim organizations in Norway: ethnic segregated activities as arena for integration

During recent years, there has been a growing focus within sports research on ethnic minorities and their involvement in sports. In UK, studies show that Muslim organisations offering sports activities to their members are a common phenomenon. The establishment of sports clubs by minority groups has been met with scepticism from governmental bodies because it is perceived as a ‘segregated’ activity that does not contribute to integration. However, in Norway, no research has been conducted on the output of these establishments, something this paper hopes to redress in part. The paper reports on a research project which aimed to examine the role of Muslim organisations in Norway in the development of social capital and integration through sport. The theoretical approach to the study of integration has Putnam’s concept and understanding of social capital as point of departure. The study is based on interviews with representatives of seven Muslim organisations (mosques) in Oslo as well as participant observation at two arrangements. The sports activities offered by the mosques are first and foremost used by the mosques as a tool to recruit and gather Muslim youth. The study reveals the integration aspect of the work conducted by the Muslim organisations. It is argued that the Muslim organisations’ idea of supporting youth to become ‘Norwegian Muslim’ is built on an ‘anti-racism multiculturalism’ discourse which rejects assimilation. A key aspect of this discourse is that minorities turn a negative difference ascribed by the majority into a positive identity to be proud of. As such, the work emphasises the possibility of being both Muslim and well-integrated into Norwegian society. Hence, the article argues for an integration perspective that recognises the integration work being carried out by minority organisations, even though this work, in terms of social networks, has more of a bonding character.     

US Multinationals and Workers' Rights Globally

History shows that legislation can make firms respect their workers’ rights and refrain from victimising them. Given the scale of disregard for workers’ rights around the globe and the absence of a global legislature, should the US step in to protect workforces globally, at least so far as concerns American multinationals? The author is completing her MBA at London Business School and has an American background in accountancy and banking.     

Expected Idiosyncratic Volatility Measures and Expected Returns

We find that idiosyncratic volatility forecasts using information available to traders at the time of the forecast are not related to expected returns. The positive relation documented in a number of other papers only exists when forward‐looking information is incorporated into the volatility estimate. That positive relation is driven by the realized idiosyncratic volatility component that cannot be forecasted by investors. Our findings are robust to several different empirical tests, volatility forecasting models and time periods.