Virtuousness and the Common Good as a Conceptual Framework for Harmonizing the Goals of the Individual,Organizations, and the Economy

Despite the expansion of the regulatory state, we continue to witness widespread unethical practices across society. This paper addresses these challenges of ethical failure, misalignment, and dissonance by developing a conceptual framework that provides an explicit basis for understanding virtuousness and the common good directed toward the goal of eudaimonia or human flourishing. While much of the literature on virtuousness has focused on the organization, this paper uses a more comprehensive understanding that also incorporates the agent and the economy examined through their relational order. The common good provides direction for guiding behavior of all the various stakeholders and the context for understanding virtuousness, while it is through virtuousness that the common good is effectively realized. Virtuousness and the common good are therefore in effect ‘two sides of the same coin.’ This paper develops a virtuousness–common good conceptual framework which explores the basis for harmonizing the goals of the individual, organization, and the economy.     

Corporate Governance: An Ethical Perspective

This paper discusses corporate governance issues from a compliance viewpoint. It makes a distinction between legal and ethical compliance mechanisms and shows that the former has clearly proven to be inadequate as it lacks the moral firepower to restore confidence and the ability to build trust. The concepts of freedom of indifference and freedom for excellence provide a theoretical basis for explaining why legal compliance mechanisms are insufficient in dealing with fraudulent practices and may not be addressing the real and fundamental issues that inspire ethical behavior. The tendency to overemphasize legal compliance mechanisms may result in an attempt to substitute accountability for responsibility and may also result in an attempt to legislate morality which consequently leads to legal absolutism. The current environment of failures of corporate responsibility are not only failures of legal compliance, but more fundamentally failures to do the right (ethical) thing. Surendra Arjoon is an Associate Professor of Business Ethics at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad. He served as Chair, Department of Management Studies (2002–2005) and as Associate Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences (1996–2002). He is also the Vice-President of the Trinidad and Tobago Economics Association. His work has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Markets and Morality, Global Development Studies, Applied Financial Economics, and Social and Economic Studies.     

New Product Development Structures: The Effect of Customer Overload on Post-Concept Time to Market

In corporate policy statements, seminars, journal articles—even in television commercials—the message comes through loud and clear: To remain competitive, we must do a better job of listening to our customers. Through close contact with customers, designers can more accurately identify market requirements, quickly refine product specifications, and thus reduce time to market. However, too much customer input can create confusion and duplication of effort, which ultimately increases time to market. In other words, some firms run the risk of over-listening to their customers. In a study of three global players in the electronic component industry, Srikant Datar, Clark Jordan, Sunder Kekre, Surendra Rajiv, and Kannan Srinivasan explore the effects of having too much input from customers. Specifically, they examine the relationship between a company's new product development structure and the volume of customer input, which in turn can affect time to market. The high-tech, fast-cycle firms examined in this study employ two distinct new product development structures: concentrated and distributed. A concentrated structure locates all product designers in one facility. This facilitates cross-product learning among designers, but limits designers' contact with customers and process engineers. A distributed structure disperses new product development among numerous manufacturing sites, giving designers close contact with customers and process engineers. However, a distributed structure limits designers' opportunities for cross-product learning. Analysis of 220 new product efforts reveals that the distributed structure offered a time-to-market advantage as long as these firms efficiently managed the level of customer interaction. When designers received input on the product design from no more than 25 customers, the distributed structure provided shorter time to market than the concentrated structure. Beyond the 25-customer level, time-to-market performance of the distributed structure degraded quickly and at an increasing rate. In such cases, more effective management of customer interaction might allow firms employing a distributed structure to enjoy the benefits not only of customer input, but also of improved coordination between product designers and process engineers.     

The odd-ending price justification effect: the influence of price-endings on hedonic and utilitarian consumption

This paper examines how odd-ending pricing influences consumption of hedonic and utilitarian products. Four studies test the hypothesis that the discount image associated with odd-ending prices reduces anticipated guilt and provides justification for hedonic consumption – an effect the authors label the odd-ending price justification effect (OPJE). Study 1 reveals people are more likely to choose hedonic over utilitarian products when they have odd-ending prices. Study 2 finds that the effect of odd-ending prices on hedonic consumption is mediated by guilt reduction. Study 3 reveals a boundary condition for the OPJE – purchase likelihood of hedonic products increases only when monetary, not nonmonetary, guilt is reduced. Study 4 suggests the OPJE operates at an unconscious level, as consumers who are made aware of the trivial difference between odd- and round-ending prices are no longer influenced by odd-ending prices. The theoretical, practical, and research implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Structure and Growth of the Credit Union Industry in the United states: Meeting Challenges of the Market

A bstract . Credit Unions in the United States have grown significantly in recent years. This paper identifies and analyzes the unique characteristics of the credit union industry contributing to this growth. The consolidation of smaller institutions and product diversification among larger credit unions in the environment of financial deregulation in recent years has resulted in enhanced services for credit union members. The industry is expected to continue its growth in membership and assets relative to other depository intermediaries.     

Climate Change,Prairie Agriculture,and Prairie Economy: The New Normal

The risks and opportunities presented by climate change in the Prairie Provinces are related to the dry and variable climate—projected temperature increases that are greater than elsewhere in southern Canada; sensitivity of the water resources, ecosystems, and resource economies to seasonal and interannual variations in climate; and to large departures (e.g., drought) from normal conditions. Agriculture industry would face both positive and negative impacts. The net impacts on agriculture are not clear, as various aspects of adaptation are not well understood. Impacts would be felt on other sectors of the economy as well. A warmer climate will present new opportunities for revenue, cost savings, and recreation. Given that some uncertainties exist in our knowledge of impacts and appropriate adaptation measures, more cooperation between scientists and stakeholders would be desirable. Les risques et les avantages que présente le changement climatique dans les provinces des Prairies sont liés au climat sec et variable – augmentations de température prévues plus élevées qu’ailleurs dans le sud du Canada; sensibilité des ressources en eau, des écosystèmes et des économies fondées sur les ressources naturelles aux variations climatiques saisonnières et interannuelles; anomalies importantes (par exemple, la sécheresse) par rapport aux conditions climatiques normales. Le secteur agricole subira des répercussions positives et négatives. Les répercussions nettes sur l’agriculture ne sont pas claires, étant donné que divers aspects de l’adaptation au changement climatique ne sont pas encore bien compris. D’autres secteurs de l’économie subiront également des répercussions. Un climat plus chaud présenterait des avantages sur le plan des revenus, des économies de coûts et des loisirs. Compte tenu de notre manque de certitude concernant les répercussions et les mesures d’adaptation appropriées, une collaboration accrue entre les scientifiques et les parties intéressées serait souhaitable.     

Infrastructure Development and FDI Inflow to Developing Economies: Evidence from India

Nowadays, developing economies are becoming the preferred destination of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow. We draw insights from Dunning's eclectic paradigm to explore how FDI inflow is influenced by the quality of the physical infrastructure and human resources of the host country. We investigate various India‐specific infrastructural factors affecting FDI inflow between 1991 and 2010. Our empirical findings indicate that factors like railway transportation and road network as well as the quality of human resources played a crucial role in attracting FDI. However, air transportation or communication infrastructure is yet to play a significant role. Our study makes a modest attempt to identify areas of concern and scope for the further improvement of India's infrastructure facilities to attract foreign investment in the future. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

AN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE CANADIAN EGG MARKET

This paper analyzes the market forces - demand, supply, price and trade - operative in the Canadian egg market. Quarterly data for the period 1961–1973 (inclusive) was employed, and Three-Stage least squares procedure was applied to a 12-equation model. Eggs were found to have a very small (–.003) coefficient of direct price elasticity and a negative (–.267) coefficient of income elasticity. At supply level, lagged egg-feed price ratio had an inelastic coefficient. The model was used to forecast for 1974, and was found satisfactory.
Cette étude analyse les forces qui influencent Ie marché des œufs - la demande, l'approvisionnement, les prix et le commerce - au Canada. Les données trimestrielles couvrant la période de 1961 à 1973 (inclusif) fûrent basées sur le système du moindre carré en trois stages sur un modèle à 12 équations. II fut trouvé que les œufs donnent us très petit coefficient (– .003) d'élasticité de prix directe, ainsi qu'un coefficient négatif (–.267) d'élasticité de revenu. Au niveau d'approvisionnement, la proportion ceuf-nourriture retarded avait aussi un coefficient inelastique. Le modéle fut 'employ' pour les predictions de 1974, et fut trouvé satisfaisant.     

An empirical model of residential location and the journey-to-work in a metropolitan area

In this paper we present and estimate a single equation model designed to explain the residential location behaviour of individuals living in a multi-centered metropolitan area. We test the model for heads of households and non-heads of households separately, as well as for the total working population, in order to isolate differences in commuting behaviour between primary and secondary wage earners. The relationships are estimated from 1971 Census, cross-section data using least squares multiple regression. The data pertain to the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) and sixty-three designated zones therein.The estimation results reveal that although location-rents prove to be significant in the individual's residential location decision-making process, their effect was limited to discouraging those employed in or near the central business district (CBD) from living close to work. The existence of secondary employment centres did not have the same significant effect in bidding up location-rents. Furthermore, contrary to the standard theory, the results suggest that residential location decisions are made in response to the availability of collective residential opportunities and workers' preferences for specific residential attributes rather than by reference to the “transportation cost—housing cost” trade-off. Among the socio-economic variables, age of the worker is found to be most significant in affecting journey-to-work distance. The results provide some evidence that non-heads are, to a certain extent, more sensitive to urban structural constraints in their commuting behaviour.