Ethical Entrepreneurship and Fair Trade

Due to several recent scandals, Business Ethics is now firmly embraced. Whereas in the 1980s and early 1990s there were serious doubts expressed about combining ethics and business, the link now seems to have become self-evident. Fundamental questions about the tensions between business and ethics however continue to receive little attention. In this paper, based upon a debate concerning the Fair Trade company, the strains between business and ethics are analyzed. The article shows how several great thinkers have already considered this tension. Three ways to conceptualize the tension between business and ethics have been distinguished, and these are outlined in the paper. In one approach, ethical entrepreneurship, value tensions are perceived as a source for entrepreneurship. However, this approach presupposes pluralistic ethics. Thinking only in terms of black and white is seen as blocking the ability to adequately handle the tension between business and ethics. Opting for ‘‘ethical entrepreneurship’’, as by Fair Trade, has fundamental and important consequences for the company’s communication policy.     

Value relevance of voluntary disclosure in the annual report

This paper examines whether the level of voluntary disclosure affects the association between current returns and future earnings. Economic theory suggests that firms might find it advantageous to provide additional pieces of information (i.e. voluntary disclosure) to investors and analysts. Our results indicate that more voluntary disclosure does not improve the association between current returns and future earnings (i.e. current returns do not reflect more future earnings news). This finding raises the question of whether voluntary information in the annual report contains value‐relevant information about future earnings or if investors are simply not capable of incorporating voluntary information in the firm value estimates.     

Problem‐formulation and problem‐solving in self‐organized communities: How modes of communication shape project behaviors in the free open‐source software community

Research summary: Building on the problem‐solving perspective, we study behaviors related to projects and the communication‐based antecedents of such behaviors in the free open‐source software (FOSS) community. We examine two kinds of problem/project‐behaviors: Individuals can set up projects around the formulation of new problems or join existing projects and define and/or work on subproblems within an existing problem. The choice between these two behaviors is influenced by the mode of communication. A communication mode with little a priori structure is the best mode for communicating about new problems (i.e., formulating a problem); empirically, it is associated with project launching behaviors. In contrast, more structured communication fits subproblems better and is related to project joining behaviors. Our hypotheses derive support from data from the FOSS community. Managerial summary: We study how the way in which individuals communicate influence the project‐behaviors they engage in. We find that relatively unstructured communication is associated with the setting up new projects, while communication that is structured around an artifact is associated with joining projects. Our findings hold implications for understanding how management may influence project behaviors and problem‐solving: Firms that need to concentrate on more incremental problem‐solving efforts (e.g., because a sufficient number of attractive problems have already been defined) should create environments in which interaction is undertaken mainly via artifacts. On the other hand, if firms seek to generate new problems (e.g., new strategic opportunities), they should create environments in which open‐ended, verbal conversation is relatively more important than artifact‐based communication. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

从消费税的设置目的谈我国消费税改革

我国现行的消费税是1994年税改设置的税种，设置目的是为调节产品结构、引导消费方向、保证国家收入。经过十多年的经济发展，我国的现行消费税制在一些方面已经与其设置目的不相符，这就要求我们对现行的消费税制进行改革，更好的发挥消费税的特殊调节作用。     

Categorical and continuous non-discretionary variables in data envelopment analysis: a comparison of two single-stage models

Non-discretionary or environmental variables are regarded as important in the evaluation of efficiency in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), but there is no consensus on the correct treatment of these variables. This paper compares the performance of the standard BCC model as a base case with two single-stage models: the Banker and Morey (1986a) model, which incorporates continuous environmental variables and the Banker and Morey (1986b) model, which incorporates categorical environmental variables. Simulation analyses are conducted using a shifted Cobb-Douglas function, with one output, one non-discretionary input, and two discretionary inputs. The production function is constructed to separate environmental impact from managerial inefficiency, while providing measures of both for comparative purposes. Tests are performed to evaluate the accuracy of each model. The distribution of the inputs, the sample size and the number of categories for the categorical model are varied in the simulations to determine their impact on the performance of each model. The results show that the Banker and Morey models should be used in preference to the standard BCC model when the environmental impact is moderate to high. Both the continuous and categorical models perform equally well but the latter may be better suited to some applications with larger sample sizes. Even when the environmental impact is slight, the use of a simple two-way split of the sample data can produce significantly better results under the Categorical model in comparison to the BCC model.     

VALUE-ADDED TAX IN A BORDERLESS SA-BLNS REGION

Market integration and the abolition of border controls increase the mobility of consumers and cross‐border shopping. This makes it difficult to maintain a destination‐based VAT. Because of differences in the size of countries, governments of different sizes may engage in inefficient tax competition. Such externalities result in a call for tax coordination and a review of VAT regimes most suitable to a globalised world. One of the ultimate objectives of an African Union is a single market. This paper introduces the potential VAT policy implications of further economic integration within Southern Africa as a prelude to an African Economic Community, drawing on the experience of the EU in particular. When the critical factors that may impact on VAT policy are viewed together with SACU's long history of customs cooperation, a form of clearing‐house regime seems appropriate. However, this may not be politically appropriate, thus clearing the way for a more conventional approach, such as the transitional EU‐VAT regime.