Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

An Analysis Of The Public Participation Processes Employed For An Urban Greenway Project, Maeve O'Connell

Articles

The purpose of this study is to examine the public participation mechanisms employed for a proposed new infrastructure project. Public participation is a core characteristic of a contemporary democratic society as policy makers are increasingly encouraged to engage with citizens for learning and legitimacy. Participation is a loose concept with many forms and interpretations. This study explores the key characteristics of public participation formats, challenges to and the criteria for success. This analysis is then applied to the proposed local infrastructure consultation process. An additional survey is designed and its role in the public participation process is assessed. The processes …

Disclosure Procedure, Andrew K. Jennings

Faculty Articles

Securities disclosure is a human process. Each year, public companies collectively spend over fifteen million hours producing disclosures that undergird an equities market with tens of trillions in market capitalization. The procedures they follow in doing so affect whether their disclosures contain misstatements or omissions—errors that can cause trading losses for investors, and litigation for issuers. Yet despite the importance of the disclosures that firms produce, the literature says little about how they do it, including whether they are spending too much, too little, or just enough on their disclosure procedures. To fill that gap, this Article uses original surveys …

Corporate Foreign Policy In War, Kishanthi Parella

Scholarly Articles

On February 24, 2022, Russian troops invaded Ukraine. Over a year later, the war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and led to the displacement of millions. In Spring 2023, both Ukrainian and Russian forces prepared new offensives, while the United States committed to providing Ukraine with military tanks—a move that Russian officials had previously warned would constitute direct involvement in the war. While countries debated how to respond, we also witnessed the privatization of foreign policy as hundreds of companies around the world similarly sought to assist Ukraine or punish Russia using the tools of national foreign policy—humanitarian …

The Public’S Companies, Andrew K. Jennings

Faculty Articles

This Essay uses a series of survey studies to consider how public understandings of public and private companies map into urgent debates over the role of the corporation in American society. Does a social-media company, for example, owe it to its users to follow the free-speech principles embodied in the First Amendment? May corporate managers pursue environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) policies that could reduce short-term or long-term profits? How should companies respond to political pushback against their approaches to free expression or ESG?

The studies’ results are consistent with understandings that both public and private companies have greater public …

Doing Well By Doing Good: Analyzing The Dynamics And Effectiveness Of Corporate Engagement, Gillian Meyers

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sustainable investing and corporate climate action have grown exponentially in the last decade, generating a simultaneous need for customers, investors, and policymakers to determine when companies are genuinely achieving positive impact related to environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors. As a result, investors are increasingly employing ESG engagement, which typically takes the form of direct communication with holdings to determine and positively shape their impacts on their stakeholders. In this paper, I explore the reasoning for conducting ESG engagement and refute arguments against it. I fill an existing research gap by analyzing the benefits of ESG engagement to both …

An Ethical Discussion About The Responsibility For Protection Of Minors In The Digital Environment: A State-Of-The-Art Review, Charles Alves De Castro, Aiden Carthy, Isobel Oreilly Dr

Articles

Many ethical questions have been raised regarding the use of social media and the internet, mainly related to the protection of young people in the digital environment. In order to critically address the research question "who is responsible for ethically protecting minors in the digital environment?", this paper will review the main literature available to understand the role of parents, the government, and companies in protecting young people within the digital environment. We employed a holistic process that covers a state-of-the-art review and desk research. The article is divided into four sessions; (1) Government Policies from the European Union (EU) …

Understanding Organizational And Socio-Cultural Contexts: A Communicative Constitutive Approach To Social License To Operate Among Top Hong Kong Companies, Angela K. Y. Mak, Suwichit (Sean) Chaidaroon, Alessandro Poroli, Pang, A.

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Embracing a constitutive view of communication, this study explores how organizations in Hong Kong make sense of and negotiate their corporate societal commitment. It does that by examining how the considered organizations construct their engagement in society and talk of their aspirations on identified society-oriented doings by cultural discourse analysis. Findings show that the studied Hong Kong companies constructed their engagement by communicationally relating to other societal actors, establishing we-ness in community engagement actions, incorporating elements of the local cultures (languages and places) and in their reasoning and disclosing emotion-rich considerations. Aspirations were instead presented through a constant reference to …

The Impacts Of Ethical Philosophy On The Corporate Hypocrisy Perception And Communication Intentions Toward Csr, Kyujin Shim, Jeong-Nam Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study investigates how perceptions of corporate hypocrisy from the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities connect the public’s ethical philosophy to subsequent positive/negative opinion-sharing intention. With special attention to deontology and consequentialism in normative ethics of philosophy, the current study empirically tests a theoretical model of perceived corporate hypocrisy with two causal antecedents (i.e., individual moral philosophy of deontology and consequentialism), and the mediating role of corporate hypocrisy between such antecedents and the publics’ subsequent communication intention (i.e., positive and negative opinion-sharing intentions) toward a firm. Results indicate significant mediation effects of corporate hypocrisy between personal ethical orientations and the …

Us Lawmakers Are Taking A Massive Swipe At Big Tech. If It Lands, The Impact Will Be Felt Globally, Katharine Kemp

Perspectives@SMU

Five antitrust laws proposed in the US aim to aggressively rein in the market power of “big tech” companies and change the way they do business, writes UNSW Sydney's Katharine Kemp

Iso 14000 Publication: A Bibliometric Analysis (2011-2020), Ilham M.Said

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study explain about ISO 14000 itself is an international standard that discusses environmental management systems in general. This study aims to visually map publications in the field of ISO 14000 at the global level indexed by Scopus using Bibliometric analysis. This research utilizes the analysis features on the Scopus website and visualizes the bibliometric network using VOSviewer. The research data used is to use indicators in the form of keywords related to ISO 14000 in the Scopus database with the results obtained as many as 136 academic documents that have been published from 2011 to 2020 at the global …

Uri And Its Students: A Contract For The Provision Of A Safe Environment, Danielle Joan Beatrice

Senior Honors Projects

DANIELLE BEATRICE (English; Philosophy; Business) URI and Its Students: A Contract for the Provision of a Safe Environment

Sponsor: Judith Swift (Communication Studies, Coastal Institute)

When students begin to attend college, they expect to be consumed with busy schedules, heavy workloads, and an exciting social life. Students do not anticipate being in dangerous situations. However, this does not mean that such situations do not occur. Therefore, it is essential to teach students to be active participants in educating themselves and their peers regarding prevention and response to emergency situations. My Honors Project aims to increase the awareness of safety-related issues …

The Importance Of Business Ethics As A Project Management Professional (Pmp®), James Burrows

Senior Honors Theses

The Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification is the most industry-recognized certification due to the rigorous requirements and credibility of the Project Management Institute (PMI), (Alexander, 2020). PMI requires members and certification holders to abide by the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, which prioritizes four main value areas: responsibility, respect, fairness, and honesty (Project Management Institute, 2006). The following research and analysis aim to define each value area by connecting project management methodologies and ethical business dilemmas through each value area’s accompanying subsections.

Independent Study: Understanding The Pharmaceutical Industry, Julie Nelsen, J. Nelsen, Erika Wallace

Business Administration Faculty Scholarship

An undergraduate Healthcare Sales student wanted to understand the pharmaceutical (pharma) industry better to determine if the industry was a good fit. She approached her professor to gain support for an independent study to understand better the history and challenges of selling in the pharma industry. Once completed, the pair recognized this information's value and collaborated in editing the document to share these findings to provide this entry-level salesperson's guide to understanding the pharma industry. Six semi-structured interviews of pharma professionals showed three primary areas of knowledge and ethics required of the entry-level pharma industry salesperson. These suggestions are for …

A Cultural Diversity Management Framework For Enhancing The Performance Of Architectural Design Firms In Egypt, Ayman Ahmed Ezzat Othman, Nadine Ibrahim Fouda

Architectural Engineering

Purpose – This paper aims to develop a cultural diversity management (CDM) framework to enhance the performance of architecture design firms (ADFs) in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach – A research methodology consisting of literature review, case studies and survey questionnaire was designed to achieve the abovementioned aim. First, literature review was used to investigate the concepts of globalization, international construction, diversity, diversity management (DM) and organizational performance. Second, four case studies were presented and analyzed. The first two cases explored the role of CDM towards enhancing the performance of ADFs, while the last two cases showed initiatives carried out by NGOs to …

Public Relations Education In Singapore: Educating The Next Generation Of Practitioners On Ethics, Eugene Yong Sheng Woon, Augustine Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines if PR education adequately prepares students for the workplace, particularly in the practice of ethics in the context of Singapore, which has been described as one of “Asia’s economic tigers” (BBC, 2018). This study, thus, aims to first, elucidate the state of PR education specifically in relation to how PR ethics is taught in Singapore. Second, it examines how ethics education prepares students for the workplace in Singapore. Data comes from examining the syllabi of 14 universities in Singapore, both local and international, and interviews with 20 academics and practitioners. Findings suggest there are varying degrees in …

Reputation Matters: Building Internal Trust And Resilience With Effective Communication, Su Lin Yeo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Reputation is a crucial driver of business performance. In today’s crisis-ridden business environment, this corporate quality has never been more prized in organizations. Research has time and again demonstratedthat a favorable reputation offers long-term value for organizations. Reputation impacts everything from financial to relationships represented by public’s confidence in brand equity, human capital, earnings and future growth. Reputation-led companies have been shown to set the standard by leading the pack for other businesses to follow, and in times of a crisis, the reputation capital that they have amassed enable them to better recover from economic storms. However, unlike other business …

The Impact Of Responsible Leadership (Rl) On Responsible Employee (Re): The Mediating Role Of Sustainable Leadership (Sl), Safaa Shaaban

Business Administration

Business leaders are facing an uncertain issue regarding what extent their actions and decisions are responsible for the sustainable development supported by Responsible Employees. Although, several papers are discussing the concept of Responsible Leadership (RL) and Sustainable Leadership (SL). However, there is still an important missing element connected to these two leadership approaches which are Responsible Employee/s (RE). The purpose of this paper is to explore how Responsible Leadership and Sustainable Leadership affect Responsible Employees (RE). The study will examine the impact of two leadership approaches on RE. A sample of 250 employees and future leaders’ positions working in the …

Implicit Communication And Enforcement Of Corporate Disclosure Regulation, Ashiq Ali, Michael T. Durney, Jill E. Fisch, Hoyoun Kyung

All Faculty Scholarship

This study examines the challenge of implicit communication -- qualitative statements, tone, and non-verbal cues -- to the effectiveness of enforcing corporate disclosure regulation. We use a Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) setting, given that the SEC adopted the regulation recognizing that managers can convey non-public information privately not just through explicit quantitative disclosures but also through implicit communication. In a high-profile enforcement action, however, the court focused on a literal examination of the manager’s language rather than his positive spin to conclude that the SEC had been “too demanding” in examining the manager’s statements and that its enforcement policy …

College Of Business Dean's Report: 2019-2020, Ryan Butt

College of Business Dean’s Reports

No abstract provided.

Family Ownership And Corporate Environmental Responsibility: The Contingent Effect Of Venture Capital And Institutional Environment, Zhu Zhu, Feifei Lu

Department of Management Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

As scholars and policy makers pay more attention to the environmental impact of economic activities, more focus has been placed on the corporate environmental responsibility (CER) of family firms, which accounts for the majority of businesses in both developed and developing countries. Using a sample of 4714 private enterprises across 23 provinces in China, the current study examines the effect of family ownership on CER investment, as well as the moderating effects of venture capital investment and local institutional development. Results show that concentrated family ownership leads to lower CER spending, however, when venture capital investment comes from developed markets, …

Cambridge Analytica: The Scandal On Data Privacy, Carissa Boerboom

Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics Essay Contest

Consumers need to understand the risks and consequences of sharing their lives with the world. For data analysts, even if you can create and implement a model, should you? This research paper discusses Cambridge Analytica’s methods using predictive analytics and Facebook to influence the 2016 US Presidential Election. Through examining the firm as a whole, key people involved in the scandal, methods of data collection, and Facebook’s role, the ethical boundaries of big data, predictive analytics, and data privacy are analyzed. Three perspectives were discussed in regards to ethical disparity: Cambridge Analytica, Facebook, and the consumers. Overall, this research exposes …

Contextual Influences On Human Resources Development: Considerations And Evaluations On The Various External And Internal Factors That Shape And Influence Hrd In Organisations, Charles Alves De Castro

Articles

This article aims to briefly understand and evaluate the main external and internal factors that impact directly on human resources development area within the organisations, mainly related to multinational companies. Also, it discusses the various aspects and influences on HRD-(Human Resources Development) such as societal, organisational/local, global, that impacts on costs, environment, regulations, policies, culture, beliefs, technology and values. This research was carried out by way of a literature review. This is important to demonstrate, explain and evaluate the current existent literature about this specific theme covered in this article. Furthermore, through this review we compared previous research on HRD. …

Csr-Contingent Executive Compensation Contracts, Zhichuan Li

Business Publications

Firms have increasingly started tying their executives’ compensation to CSR-related objectives. In this paper, we attempt to understand why firms offer CSR-contingent compensation and the conditions under which such compensation improves corporate social performance. Using hand-collected data from proxy statements, we find that this emerging compensation practice varies significantly across industries and across different CSR categories. Further, well-governed firms are more likely to offer CSR-contingent compensation, and such compensation does lead to higher corporate social standing. Such firms are more likely to offer formula-based, Objective CSR-contingent compensation. However, our results suggest that non-formulaic, Subjective CSR-contingent compensation also helps improve companies’ …

Public Relations Litigation, Kishanthi Parella

Scholarly Articles

Conventional wisdom holds that lawsuits harm a corporation’s reputation. So why do corporations and other businesses litigate even when they will likely lose in the court of law and the court of public opinion? One explanation is settlement: some parties file lawsuits not to win but to force the defendant to pay out. But some business litigants defy even this explanation; they do not expect to win the lawsuit or to benefit financially from settlement. What explains their behavior?

The answer is reputation. This Article explains that certain types of litigation can improve a business litigant’s reputation in the eyes …

College Of Business Dean's Report: 2018-2019, Ryan Butt

College of Business Dean’s Reports

No abstract provided.

Capturing Regulatory Agendas?: An Empirical Study Of Industry Use Of Rulemaking Petitions, Daniel Walters

All Faculty Scholarship

A great deal of skepticism toward administrative agencies stems from the widespread perception that they excessively or even exclusively cater to business interests. From the political right comes the accusation that business interests use regulation to erect barriers to entry that protect profits and stifle competition. From the political left comes the claim that business interests use secretive interactions with agencies to erode and negate beneficial regulatory programs. Regulatory “capture” theory elevates many of these claims to the status of economic law. Despite growing skepticism about capture theory in academic circles, empirical studies of business influence and capture return ambiguous …

Business Education Of Ceo-Cfo And Annual Report Readability, Ling Tuo, Yu (Tony) Zhang, Zhenfeng Liu, Ruixue Du

Accounting Faculty Publications

Financial report readability captures the transparency and effectiveness of information communicated by firms’ executives. It’s interesting to investigate whether business knowledge, cognitive preferences, and professional ethics taught by a business education will shape the CEO/ CFO’s thinking in determining words, languages, paragraphs, and contents presented in financial reports when the self-interested CEO/CFO tends to influence the interpretation of financial information users. Using a sample of S&P 1500 CEOs and CFOs, we find that the CEO (CFO) with a business degree is associated with better (worse) readability of annual reports and the positive (negative) relation is strengthened (moderated) by internal corporate …

Communication Technologies And Interpersonal Relationships: Some Considerations From Theology, Randy Beavers, Denise Daniels, Al Erisman, Don Lee

SPU Works

While the unintended consequences and high pace of change associated with technology will change the nature and types of our interpersonal relationships, Christian theology provides a lens through which we can evaluate these changes. In this paper we outline some theological principles that undergird our understanding of what God intends for relationships, as well as ways that our relationships are either consistent or inconsistent with God's intentions in terms of healthy and unhealthy relationships. We then discuss ways in which communication technology can amplify both positive and negative aspects of relationships, providing examples from the workplace. We classify the impact …

Reflective Practice Series: Selected Instructional Models Using Synchronous Video Conferencing Software, Martin W. Sivula

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

With the vast array of resources available to instructors, one would think that instruction and teaching would yield success for all learners. Now, well into the 21^st century has much changed in the classroom? Certainly, movable desks and chairs, advanced audio and visual equipment, and a plethora of all types of technologies which might be able to enhance training and education. Over the last several decades research on individualized instruction, cognitive science, educational psychology, and multimedia instruction (to name a few) have permeated the literature on instruction. With all the research and the vast array of studies on improving …

Corporate Governance A Comparative Analysis In India And The Us, Pallak Bhandari

Honors Projects in Accounting

My senior capstone project focuses on the importance of transparency and monitoring within corporate governance, especially in India and the US. To understand corporate governance, I studied the different theories and models of corporate governance as well as sustainability reporting. This research discusses the legal and regulatory environment within India and the US, and through a comprehensive study of the regulatory bodies within the two countries, I determined the best practices of corporate governance. I conducted a comparative analysis across India and the US with focus on 13 elements: insider trading, disclosure and certification of financial statements, remuneration disclosure, code …