Moving purchasing & supply management beyond a cost-focused identity

Practitioners and researchers recognize that purchasing and supply management (PSM) contributes value to business performance beyond reported cost reductions, though capturing and evaluating such contributions is often challenging. The goal of this research is to understand roadblocks impeding the recognition of PSM's contributions beyond cost reduction, and suggest potential solutions to these challenges. Social identity theory offers a conceptual framework to study PSM's self-identity and how it is perceived by others in the organization. Gaining acceptance for value-added metrics is critical to move perceptions of PSM's contribution beyond cost reduction and achieve its full potential. Social identity theory is used as a lens to assess the data and develop propositions. Using a qualitative interview method, the researchers identified important roadblocks hindering PSM's attainment of a broader value-based perception. PSM's identity is closely linked to cost-savings by itself, other functions and upper management. These perceptions are further reinforced by PSM through excessive cost reporting metrics. We provide two suggested solutions for PSM to expand its recognition beyond cost savings: 1) PSM must change its narrative and associated self-identity; and 2) PSM needs to develop metrics that are meaningful across multiple areas of the business.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Perceived Importance of Ethics in Marketing Situations: A Study of Thai Businesspeople

Building on an existing framework concerning ethical intention, this research explores how Thai business people perceive the importance of ethics in various scenarios. This study investigates the relative influences of personal characteristics and the organizational environment underlying the Thai business people’s ethical perception. Corporate ethical values and idealism are shown to positively influence a Thai manager’s perceptions about the importance of ethics. While their ability to perceive the existence of an ethical problem is negatively influenced by relativism, it is positively impacted by their existing perceptions about the importance of ethics. Results also suggest positive relationships between perceived importance of ethics and perceived ethical problems with ethical intention. These results extend research in understanding the relationship between the antecedents and consequences of perceived importance of ethics within an economically growing non-Western culture.     

Corporate property rights

Corporate property rights present an interesting challenge to the liberal conception of property rights, for it is unclear that the self-respect of individuals is promoted by the existence of a system of property rights for corporations. I argue that it is difficult even to identify who the individuals are who are the owners of large corporations, and why these individuals should be given the same claims, protections and immunities as other property rights holders since the liabilities of corporate property rights holders are not the same as of those, for instance, who own their own homes. In this paper I first try to understand who it is who owns the large corporation. Secondly, I show that the limited liability of these corporate property owners makes the justification of corporate property rights quite difficult, from the classical liberal perspective. I end with a few brief remarks on changes in legal policy which would be consistent with my arguments on the nature and justification of corporate property rights. Larry May is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University. He was awarded with the Exxon Education Foundation Grant during the Summer of 1982. His most important publications are Vicarious Agency and Corporate Responsibility (Philosophical Studies 43, pp. 69–82, 1983), On Conscience (American Philosophical Quarterly 20, pp. 57–67, 1983), Professional Actions and the Liabilities of Professional Associations (Business and Professional Ethics Journal 2, pp. 1–14, Fall 1982), and Sexual Harassment (Social Theory and Practice 6, pp. 249–280, 1980).     

Optimal tariffs on exhaustible resources

We characterize the Markov perfect equilibria of two games in which oligopsonistic importers of an exhaustible resource confront competitive suppliers who have rational expectations. The games differ only in the timing of moves, or the speed with which participants can adjust their plans. The optimal tariff when sellers move first (are less flexible) differs considerably from that in which buyers move first, and sellers retain more control over intertemporal arbitrage opportunities. If the initial stock is small, buyers suffer a disadvantage from being the first-mover; this is reversed if the stock is large.     

An Experiment Testing the Determinants of Non-Compliance with Insider Trading Laws

Recent stories of corporate insiders avoiding losses and, in some cases, generating enormous personal profits as their companies crumbled have led investors to question the integrity of American business and the fairness of the United States stock markets. The SEC tries to ensure the fairness of the stock markets by making and enforcing laws against unfair practices such as insider trading. In the United States, when insiders trade stock based on non-public information, they have broken the law and betrayed the trust that has been placed in them.This study used student subjects to test the relationship between the likelihood of trading based on insider information and subjective probabilities of deterrents and motivations for insider trading. Expected gain, guilt, cynicism, and fairness of laws were the determinants that had a significant relationship with the intent to trade based on insider information. This study also found support for prospect theory with regard to insider trading. The results indicate that subjects are more likely to trade based on insider information to avoid a loss than to achieve an abnormal gain. The study also finds evidence of social desirability response bias.Additional findings of the study were that subjects did not view the determinants for themselves in a manner consistent with how they viewed those same deterrents and motivations for other people. Also, a test of the effects of gender found that certainty and social stigma were significantly higher for female respondents than for male respondents.     

The Alleged Value Neutrality of Economics: An Alternative View

This paper analyzes bank lending activities for owner-occupied housing loan extensions to minority members of Mississippi’s population. We analyze data on housing loan applications and accessibility patterns among the minority Black population relative to the majority White population groups in the State. The study looks hard at data for evidence of any patterns of discrimination toward minority housing loan applicants. And a Probit model is applied to examine the relative importance of economic variables (such as employment status, income level, and credit rating) versus noneconomic parameters (such as geographical location) in the housing loan decision making of banks toward minority borrowers. The evidence from our comparative data analysis suggests that there is a consistently high denial rates for minorities, which is not explained by financial (economic) factors. The formal test of discrimination with the Probit analysis also indicates some evidence of discrimination from, at least, the standpoint of redlining practices, albeit only with a modest predictive power.