Walking and Talking Corporate Social Responsibility: Implications of Firm Size and Organizational Cost

In this paper we address two interrelated research gaps in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) literature. The first results from a lack of understanding of different patterns of CSR engagement with respect to CSR talk (impression management and the creation of symbolic images and documentation) and CSR walk (substantive implementation of CSR policies, structures and procedures). Related to this, the second gap concerns limited knowledge about the influence of firm size on CSR engagement. We develop a conceptual model that explains differences in CSR talk versus walk based on organizational cost and firm size. This allows us to theorize the antecedents of what we call the large firm implementation gap (large firms tend to focus on communicating CSR symbolically but do less to implement it into their core structures and procedures) and vice versa the small firm communication gap (less active communication and more emphasis on implementation). Our model expands a new theoretical understanding of CSR engagement based on as yet underemphasized firm‐level antecedents of CSR, and opens up several new avenues for future, and in particular comparative, research.     

Uncertainty and the size distribution of rewards from innovation

 Previous research has shown that the distribution of profit outcomes from technological innovations is highly skew. This paper builds upon those detailed findings to ask: what stochastic processes can plausibly be inferred to have generated the observed distributions? After reviewing the evidence, this paper reports on several stochastic model simulations, including a pure Gibrat random walk with monthly changes approximating those observed for high-technology startup company stocks and a more richly specified model blending internal and external market uncertainties. The most highly specified simulations suggest that the set of profit potentials tapped by innovators is itself skew-distributed and that the number of entrants into innovation races is more likely to be independent of market size than stochastically dependent upon it.     

The perfect match: Factors that characterize the AACSB International initial accreditation host school and mentor relationship

Initial Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International accreditation involves a process of pairing mentor and host schools to provide guidance and feedback on the congruence of the host school with the accreditation standards. The mentor serves as the primary resource for assisting the host school in identifying gaps with the standards, and the development and implementation of an initial self-evaluation report to detail steps to meet the standards. Matching mentors and host schools to encourage an effective relationship over a 5-year period would seem to be critical to achieving initial accreditation. In the present study, eight factors related to matching the mentors and host schools were identified. Results revealed only two significant differences between host business schools and mentors, indicating that the process is working well. Based on the results, ways to sustain and enhance the mentor–host school relationship are discussed.     

Managerial Control and Executive Compensation

Review of Industrial Organization - This article analyzes the trajectory and causes of the explosion of American corporate CEOs’ compensation relative to that of average workers between 1958...     

A Note on Global Welfare in Pharmaceutical Patenting

This paper revisits the question of whether global welfare is higher under a uniform world‐wide system of pharmaceutical product patents or with international rules allowing low‐income nations to free‐ride on the discoveries of firms in rich nations. Key variables include the extent to which free‐riding reduces the discovery of new drugs, the rent potential of rich as compared to poor nations, the ratio of the marginal utility of income in poor as compared to rich nations, and the competitive environment within which R&D decisions are made. Global welfare is found to be higher with free‐riding across plausible discovery impairment and income utility combinations, especially when rent‐seeking behaviour leads to an expansion of R&D outlays exhausting appropriable rents.     

Intercultural Discourse Ethics: Testing Trompenaars' and Hampden-Turner's Conclusions about Americans and the French

Are culture driven ethical conflicts apparent in the discourse of the protagonists? A multi-year, multi-cultural study of managers by Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner resulted in two conclusions relevant to business ethics. The first is that intercultural business conflicts can often be traced to a finite set of cultural differences. The second is that enough similarities exist between cultures to provide the grounds for conflict resolution. The research reported here gives credence to their study when applied to an ethical conflict viewed from French and American perspectives.     

Die Agenda — ein Konstrukt des Rezipienten?

The objective of this study is to integrate schema theory into the agenda-setting model. We examined the influence of cognitive schemas on the perception of political issues presented in the media. We used a multi-method-design to scrutinize 25 young adults’ perception of the television debates between chancellor Schröder and his challenger during the 2002 German election campaign. Before the debates took place, participants were interviewed, using a standardized questionnaire. After having watched the debates in familiar surroundings, participants were asked to reproduce the discussed issues by a non-standardized, open questionnaire. Additionally, the debates were analyzed and the issues discussed were ranked. Results indicate that recipients pay more attention to political issues already clearly anchored in their issue schemas, and remember those issues better than others. Our results underline that a further inclusion of schema theory into the agenda-setting model is necessary to better reconstruct the process of political information processing.     

A note on asset management and market risk

The textbook view on risk in asset management companies is summarized by Hull (Risk Management and Financial Institutions, p. 372, 2007): “For an asset manager the greatest risk is operational risk.” Using evidence from various panel regression models, we show that asset management revenues carry substantial market risks, a finding that challenges not only academic risk management literature on the predominance of operative risks, but also the current industry practice of not hedging market risks that are systematically built into the revenue-generation process. For asset management companies to return to an annuity model, these risks need to be managed more actively. Shareholders do not want to be exposed to market beta by investing in asset management companies; they want to participate in these companies’ alpha generation and take advantage of their fund-gathering expertise as financial intermediaries.