A relativistic approach to moral judgment in individuals: Review and reinterpretation

In Ethics Position Theory, relativism is the degree to which people believe that universal moral rules should not always be applied unwaveringly. Researchers often predict that highly relativistic individuals are characterized by questionable ethics given their ostensible self‐interested “anything goes” approach. Corroborating evidence for such predictions, however, remains elusive. This paper suggested that high relativists are perhaps not unethical, and reviewed four decades of relevant literature in order to clarify the meaning and implications of the relativism construct. The portrait of relativism that emerged is often contrary to prevalent expectations. Relativistic individuals seem tolerant of ambiguity, open to experience, non‐authoritarian, accepting of others with different backgrounds and lifestyles, and troubled by injustice. No persuasive evidence of questionable ethics is available. These findings have profound implications for managerial practice and suggest that highly relativistic employees may be among the most valuable. Future research grounded in an understanding of what relativism is rather than what it should be has the potential to allow a deeper understanding of this important construct to emerge. We also explore possible reasons why an inaccurate narrative about relativistic orientations may have emerged and persisted among both researchers and people generally.     

Post-disaster consumption: analysis from the 2011 Christchurch earthquake

This unique study provides information to logistics managers, retailers and governments about how consumer behaviour is modified following a large-scale disaster in a developed nation. Scanner data of purchases made in Christchurch supermarkets before and after the 2011 earthquake was used to identify immediate and short-term changes in consumer behaviour. In the immediate aftermath, consumers purchase increased levels of utilitarian products necessary for survival (e.g. water and non-perishable foods), but there is no evidence of increased consumption of hedonic or potentially harmful products. However, higher consumption of hedonic and harmful products does occur in the weeks after the disaster.     

A Content Analysis of Corporate Blogs to Identify Communications Strategies,Objectives and Dimensions of Credibility

The purpose of this study is to examine corporate blogs to understand how they reflect communications objectives and strategies and represent dimensions of corporate credibility. Emergent themes and frameworks of corporate credibility provided the theoretical framework for this study. A content analysis of corporate blogs was conducted in a multi-stage process, two researchers coded 534 blog posts from 41 corporate blogs. The findings indicate a broad range of communication messages with the majority pertaining to the corporation itself followed by product-related strategies. Corporate blogs afford organizations the opportunity to interact directly with their audiences. Determining topics should be dependent upon the objectives that the organization has for the corporation and its blog. This study sheds light on the dimensions of corporate credibility that may be appropriate for organizations to consider in their online communications and promotion.     

Resilience and response of wine supply chains to disaster: the Christchurch earthquake sequence

ABSTRACT

The study of resilience for organisations and their extended supply chains has become an important field given the increase of supply chain disruptions. The 2010 and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes provide an opportunity to examine the resilience of supply chains to a disaster; the specific context of this study is the product category of wine. Theoretically, we use a three phase model of disaster resilience; readiness, response and recovery, to frame our study of the wine supply chain. We adopt a case study method to examine five members of the wine distribution channel, as a subsector of the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, from the wholesale sector to retail. We identify key factors of supply chain resilience: building performance, distributed networks of locations and IT, owned assets, critical infrastructure and adaptable work force. We report on the actions taken and what can mitigate future risk and enhance resilience in FMCG supply chains.     

The Impact of Health Care Reform on Capital Acquisition for Hospitals

In this paper, the response of the market for hospital stocks to the episode of the Medicare Prospective Payment System (PPS) legislation and its resulting impact on the ability of hospitals to generate capital for expansion and growth are addressed. The response to PPS legislation is evaluated by examining stock returns of publicly traded hospital companies using both traditional event study analysis and intervention analysis. The paper focuses on the effect of PPS over time and uses qualitative data to support the empirical evidence. Before and after its passage, the market reacted negatively to PPS legislation. This result supports qualitative evidence showing that hospitals' capital positions were impaired. When profit margins fell, bond ratings went down, while borrowing costs increased; the rate of hospital bond defaults went up and capital improvements were delayed.     

Limited Entrepreneurial Attention and Economic Development

Economic development depends on the allocation of entrepreneurial resources to efforts to discover new profit opportunities. Limited entrepreneurial attention is allocated between maintaining current activities and starting new activities. This paper addresses the problem of allocating limited entrepreneurial attention in a variety of contexts. The issues that are addressed are product improvement and new product development; the choice of career as an innovative entrepreneur, a managerial entrepreneur or a salaried employee; the venture capitalist's attention to current and new ventures and funds; the writing of internal contracts and market contracts and the supervising of current employees and hiring additional employees.     

The Influence of Large Stake Family Control on Performance: Is It Agency or Entrenchment?

Agency theory posits that the greater degree of control by those with decision-making authority, the greater the overall organizational performance. Conversely, entrenchment theory implies that at extremely high levels of inside control by those with decision authority, organizational performance decreases. Using a nationwide sample of 2,631 privately held and publically traded family businesses, we examined if the relationship of percent family ownership is an agency or entrenchment relationship and found the latter. Specifically, there was a statistically significant negative relationship between percent of family control and sales growth as well as a strong inverse relationship between percent of family controlling the top management team and all measures of financial performance.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Growth Cycle Theory of Small Firm Financing

This paper empirically tests the financial growth cycle model for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which postulates that as firms become larger, older, and more informationally transparent, their financing options become more attractive. We add to the literature by providing one of the first empirical tests of the model using a large, cross-sectional data set. Our results partially support the financial growth cycle model. Specifically, our results show larger firms, as measured by total number of employees, are more likely to use public equity funding or long-term debt as opposed to insider funding.