The Importance of gender Across Cultures in Ethical Decision-making

Business ethics attracts increasing attention from business practitioners and academic researchers. Concerns over fraudulent behavior keep attentionfocused on ethics in businesses. The accounting profession pays particularattention to matters of ethical judgment. The profession has adopted a strictcode of conduct and many states require the passage of an ethics exam to gaincertification. The more that is understood about the relationship of gender and ethics, the better chance of education and training programs will bedesigned to improve ethical awareness and sensitivity. Prior studies have found that personal characteristics are an important aspect of cultural norms.This study analyzes the responses of students from eight different countries toquestions on their probable actions to an ethical dilemma.     

A ‘socialist’ economy in a capitalist world

Contending views about the ‘threats’ and ‘opportunities’ relating to China’s economic rise reflect the complex and, for many, confusing role of the state in China’s reform and development process. This in turn relates to a marked difference between China’s official perception of ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ and alternative views regarding the nature of its emerging capitalist system. This glaring gap in perceptions is problematic in an increasingly globalised world, complicating debates about what China should and will do to rebalance its domestic economy how other nations should and will react to the recent surge in Chinese investment overseas. This paper reflects on these debates in the context of China’s multifaceted and ever-evolving economic system.     

Social networks and electronic commerce in China∗

Communications technologies that make up the emerging global information infrastructure have the power to regulate online behavior. Social networks in Chinese society have survived the growth of formal legal institutions and liberalization of China's economy, but it is not clear whether they can survive the regulatory pressures created by global information technology networks. The spread of electronic commerce technologies in China may strengthen legal institutions and open local markets to international competition, but is likely to be resisted by all the same interests that resist those changes in other contexts. The Chinese response to the spread of electronic commerce might take several forms: assimilation; marginalization; or localization of new forms of commercial activity that rely on new technologies.     

DETERMINANTS OF SCHOOL ENROLMENT AND EDUCATION ATTAINMENT: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM KENYA1

This paper investigates the determinants of demand for schooling in Kenya. Probit and ordered probit methods are used to model enrolment and attainment respectively. The results show that child characteristics, parental education and other household characteristics, quality and cost of schooling are important determinants of demand for education services in Kenya. The results further show that girls would be more affected by policy changes than boys. The findings call for targeting in efforts to boost and sustain demand for schooling in Kenya. The study recommends immediate policy interventions focusing on improving quality of education and poverty alleviation.     

Linking Ethics and Risk Management in Taxation: Evidence from an Exploratory Study in Ireland and the UK

Ethical dilemmas involving tax issues were identified by members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as posing the most difficult ethical problem for them (Finn et al., Journal of Business Ethics 7(8), pp. 607–609, 1988). The KPMG tax shelter fraud case proves that the tax profession has not gone untainted in the age of numerous accounting and corporate scandals, such as the Enron débacle (Sikka and Hampton, Accounting Forum 29(3), 325–343, 2005). High-profile scandals serve to highlight the problems caused by differences in ethical judgement among accountants and tax practitioners and the issue of ethics has been brought publicly to the forefront of the profession. Nevertheless, the nature and dimension of ethical issues in tax practice have been largely unexplored (Erard, Journal of Public Economics 52(2), 163–197, 1993; Marshall et al., Journal of Business Ethics 17(12), 1265–1279, 1998; Frecknall Hughes, Unpublished PhD Thesis, The University of Leeds, 2002). This research aims to contribute to the debate on ethics in tax practice by reporting interview data on tax practitioners’ perceptions of ethics in the jurisdictions of Ireland and the United Kingdom and exploring the link or equation of ethics with risk management.     

RECENT FINANCIAL AND ACCOUNTABILITY CHANGES IN GENERAL PRACTICE: AN UNHEALTHY INTRUSION INTO MEDICAL AUTONOMY?

Recently General Medical Practice has been inundated with a range of financial and accountability changes. These imposed changes have been welcomed with considerable resentment by General Practitioners (GPs hereafter). This paper explores some of the key historical and contextual reasons for this resentment. The conclusion is that it is traceable to firstly, the nature of these reforms, which are seen as irrelevant at best or, at worst, run counter to the values and concerns of GPs, and secondly, and related to this, to the perceived inappropriate intrusion into medical autonomy by a Government whose forbears were previously enabling such freedom.