Ethnic Marketing Ethics

Culture plays an important role in defining ethics standards because dissimilar cultures socialize their people differently, according to what is acceptable behaviour. The potential significance of ethnic groups for marketing justifies inquiry into the moral judgments, standards, and rules of conduct exercised in marketing decisions and situations arising from decisions whether or not to focus on individual ethnic groups within an economy. Identifying and targeting ethnic groups for marketing purposes are tasks fraught with many ethical difficulties. In a multicultural society consisting of a dominant group and many diverse, minority groups defined by ethnicity, these problems can be expected to increase substantially. Consequently, marketers may include minority ethnic consumers in their mainstream marketing programs. In itself, this has ethical consequences. Alternatively, if marketers seek to target individual minority ethnic groups within the same economy a further set of ethical consequences needs to be considered. This paper reviews the concepts of ethnicity and ethnic groups and their relevance for marketing strategy within an economy where there is a dominant group and also significant minority ethnic groups. The ethical consequences for minority communities arising from the use of non-ethnic, mainstream marketing programs are examined. An alternative approach, ethnic marketing, is also examined and its ethical consequences in terms of other groups within the one country appraised. The ethical dilemma and tradeoffs facing marketers within advanced, culturally diverse countries are then considered.     

Understanding evolutionary processes in non-manufacturing industries: Empirical insights from the shakeout in pharmaceutical wholesaling

Although the empirical pattern of industry shakeout has been documented for many manufacturing industries, we know little about the processes by which market structure evolves in non-manufacturing service industries. This paper establishes detailed empirical observations about the consolidation of a single non-manufacturing industry, the wholesale distribution of pharmaceuticals. These observations are used to explore differences between manufacturing and wholesaling in both the patterns and explanations for consolidation and analyze the explanatory power of theories that link consolidation to technological change. The analysis demonstrates that theories developed to explain consolidation in new manufacturing industries have varying degrees of applicability to the consolidation of drug wholesaling. The observed patterns of exit, innovation, and growth suggest important modifications to evolutionary theories of market structure.     

企业员工沉默行为研究述评及启示

当员工有能力改进当前企业绩效时,却对企业中存在的潜在问题保留了相关观点,这种现象被称为员工沉默。虽然员工沉默有助于减少管理信息泛滥,使得组织关系更为融洽。但同时其给企业和个人带来了很多负面影响,应引起广泛关注。     

The value relevance of disclosure: Evidence from the emerging capital market of Egypt

This study examines the value of voluntary and mandatory disclosure in a market that applies International Accounting Standards (IAS) with limited penalties for non compliance. The lack of enforcement creates an element of choice in the level of mandatory disclosure by companies. Using panel-data analysis, our empirical results show that, after controlling for factors such as asset size and profitability, mandatory disclosure has a highly significant but negative relationship with firm value. This result, although puzzling from a traditional perspective, is consistent with the predictions of analytical accounting models, which emphasize the complex interplay of factors determining disclosure effects. Our results also show that voluntary disclosure has a positive but insignificant association with firm value. This lack of statistical significance supports the view that there is a complex interplay of different factors determining the relationship between disclosure and firm value.     

Intended or Unintended Consequences? Resource Erosion in New Zealand's Government Departments

Internationally, a feature of public sector reforms over the last twenty years is the characterisation of negative effects as unintended consequences, yet the reform programme continues as before (Humphrey et al., 1993 and 1998). This article reports the findings from an investigation of ostensibly unintended consequences of New Zealand's public sector financial management system: resource erosion in government departments which both escapes parliamentary scrutiny and damages departments' capability to perform even core functions (State Services Commission, 1998a; and Controller and Auditor–General, 1999). The findings suggest that these effects might not be unintended. The system's structures and processes, including designed–in resource erosion processes and a surreptitious approach, are highly consistent with those advocated to facilitate privatisation.     

Market Consequences of Earnings Management in Response to Security Regulations in China*

Under the 1996‐98 security regulations in China, the accounting rate of return on equity (ROE) has to be greater than 10 percent for three "consecutive" years for a firm to qualify for stock rights offers. Despite declining economic conditions during this period, the percentage of firms reporting ROE between 10 and 11 percent is about "three" times that for 1994‐95. This unique regulatory environment provides a natural experimental setting for the empirical assessment of earnings‐management behavior and its consequences. This study examines whether listed Chinese firms manage earnings to meet regulatory benchmarks and whether regulators and investors consider the quality of earnings in their respective regulatory and investment decisions. On the basis of a sample of listed Chinese firms from 1996 to 1998, we observe that managers execute transactions involving below‐the‐line items and use income‐increasing accounting accruals to meet regulatory ROE targets for stock rights offerings. The firms that apply for, but fail to receive, regulatory approval manage earnings more significantly than do firms that receive approval and pair‐matched control firms. Our market study also suggests that investors differentiate the quality of earnings and put less value on earnings suspected of a greater degree of management. Overall, our results imply that the regulatory bodies and investors to some extent make rational adjustments for the quality of earnings.     

组织变革情境下的员工应对策略研究——内涵、维度、前因与结果

当变革的推动者把目光集中于战略蓝图、组织发展和技术支持时,那些变革承受者们的反应很容易被忽略。而无论是在管理学还是心理学研究的文献中,组织变革都被一致认为是会对组织员工产生重大压力的事件,因此员工的压力应对（coping）被认为是组织变革研究的新视角。文章首先对应对内涵和维度的理论阐述进行回顾,在此基础上对变革情境下员工应对策略选择的前因和结果进行归纳总结,最后从理论和实践问题两方面出发,着重探讨了目前研究的不足及未来研究的方向。     

浅论会计稳健性

会计稳健性是衡量会计信息质量的重要指标之一,对会计实务具有深远的影响。会计稳健性根据性质的差异可分为条件稳健性和非条件稳健性。税收、契约、法律诉讼、会计准则等是影响会计稳健性的主要因素。采用会计稳健性,可提高企业的盈利能力,有效地减少过度投资或投资不足的情况,并对企业约束投资支出和提高投资效率有一定的积极作用。在会计实务中,应根据自身实际情况运用稳健性原则,从而提高会计信息的准确性,促进企业的持续稳定发展。     

关联并购具有信息传递效应吗?——基于企业社会资本的视角

关联并购是否具有信息传递效应是一个全新的话题。基于社会资本的理论框架,从社会网络和信任机制两个维度讨论了关联方之间传递信息的优势,前者增加信息来源的广度,后者增加信息传递的深度。并进一步讨论了关联并购传递信息的具体机制。研究发现,在信息不对称程度较高的并购样本中,关联并购与企业绩效正相关,在信息不对称程度较低的样本中,两者不存在显著相关性,间接验证了关联并购中的信息传递效应;关联并购主要通过创造先验信息和信息交流两种机制实现信息传递,但并不能额外地创造专业信息。文章还补充证实了如果控股股东的共享收益而非私人收益占上风,关联并购的信息传递效应会更显著。