Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

Export Controls: A Contemporary History, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides highlights of my recently published book Export Controls: A Contemporary History. Describes the roles played by multiple U.S. Government agencies and congressional oversight committees in this policymaking arena including the Commerce, Defense, State, and Treasury Departments. It also reviews the roles played by international government organizations such as the Missile Technology Control Regime, export oriented businesses, and research intensive universities.

The Role Of Power In Organizational Corruption: An Empirical Study, David Jancsics, István Jávor

Publications and Research

This article concerns the extent to which corrupt behavior is dependent on the organizational power structure and the resources available for illegal exchange. This qualitative study is based on 42 in-depth interviews with organizational actors in different organizations in Hungary. Four core themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews: (a) isolated corruption at the bottom, (b) the middle level’s own corruption, (c) “technicization” when middle-level professionals and expert groups are used to legalize the corruption of the dominant coalition, and (d) “turning-off controls” when organizational elites intentionally deactivate internal and external controls to avoid detection.

Contrasting Perspectives On China's Rare Earths Policies: Reframing The Debate Through A Stakeholder Lens, Leslie Hayes-Labruto, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx, Mark Workman, Nilay Shah

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article critically compares China's rare earth policy with perspectives upheld in the rest of the world (ROW). We introduce rare earth elements and their importance for energy and present how China and the ROW are framing the policy debate. We find strongly dissonant views with regards to motives for foreign direct investment, China's two-tiered pricing structure and its questionable innovation potential. Using the metaphor of "China Inc.", we compare the Chinese government to a socially responsible corporation that aims to balance the needs of its internal stakeholders with the demands from a resource-dependent world. We find that China's internal …

Corporate Social Responsibility – An Idealistic Goal Or A Reality?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Despite widespread discussion on CSR, there continues to be much disagreement around what constitutes CSR, and how to define it. In addition, the term is often used interchangeably with notions such as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, triple-bottom line, sustainability, creating shared value, and in some cases, corporate ethics and governance. However, all of these ideas point in the same direction: a sharp escalation in the social roles corporations are expected to play today.

Stepping Up To The Plate, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Rajesh Chakraborti talks about how CSR is embedded in everything that Reliance does, in an attempt to limit poverty in India.

General Principles For The Welfare Of Animals In Production Systems: The Underlying Science And Its Application, David Fraser, Ian J.H. Duncan, Sandra A. Edwards, Temple Grandin, Neville G. Gregory, Vincent Guyonnet, Paul H. Hemsworth, Stella M. Huertas, Juliana M. Huzzey, David J. Mellor, Joy A. Mench, Marek Špinka, H. Rebecca Whay

Farm Animal Welfare Collection

In 2012, the World Organisation for Animal Health adopted 10 ‘General Principles for the Welfare of Animals in Livestock Production Systems’ to guide the development of animal welfare standards. The General Principles draw on half a century of scientific research relevant to animal welfare: (1) how genetic selection affects animal health, behaviour and temperament; (2) how the environment influences injuries and the transmission of diseases and parasites; (3) how the environment affects resting, movement and the performance of natural behaviour; (4) the management of groups to minimize conflict and allow positive social contact; (5) the effects of air quality, temperature …

Sustainability And Profitability, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

The best way to encourage sustainable business practices is to think of it as a brand enhancer ...

Nonhuman Animal Rights, Alternative Food Systems, And The Non-Profit Industrial Complex, Corey Lee Wrenn

Farm Animal Welfare Collection

No abstract provided.

Political Connection And Firm Value, James S. Ang, David K. Ding, Tiong Yang Thong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study the effect of political connection (PC) on company value in an environment where low PC is due to better institutions and not confounded by favorable social/cultural factors. We find that in Singapore, the only country that fits this description, PC in general adds little to the value of a company. However, in industries that are subject to more stringent government regulations, PC appears to be somewhat important. Robustness checks show that alternative PC variables give rise to similar results, and the addition of control variables do not drastically change the findings. Politically connected firms have higher managerial ownership …

Upstream Corporate Social Responsibility: The Evolution From Contract Responsibility To Full Producer Responsibility, Judith Schrempf-Stirling, Guido Palazzo

Management Faculty Publications

The debate about the appropriate standards for upstream corporate social responsibility (CSR) of multinational corporations (MNCs) has been on the public and academic agenda for some three decades. The debate originally focused narrowly on “contract responsibility” of MNCs for monitoring of upstream contractors for “sweatshop” working conditions violating employee rights. The authors argue that the MNC upstream responsibility debate has shifted qualitatively over time to “full producer responsibility” involving an expansion from “contract responsibility” in three distinct dimensions. First, there is an expansion of scope from working conditions to human rights and social and environmental impacts broadly defined. Second, there …

Moulding The Nascent Corporate Social Responsibility Agenda In Singapore: Of Pragmatism, Soft Regulation, And The Economic Imperative, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper seeks to examine the putative growth of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Singapore. A key impetus for the nascent CSR movement in twenty-first century Singapore is the economic imperative. As a trade-dependent industrializing economy, the economic development drive coupled with the need for international expansion has made it necessary for Singapore businesses to be cognizant of the growing CSR movement in the western, industrialized world. The government supports the CSR endeavour with an instrumental bent, where CSR ideas and concepts are adapted, incorporated, and promoted in various sectors of the economy. This paper assesses the state’s active encouragement …

The Effects Of Leader Behavior On Follower Ethical Behavior: Examining The Mediating Roles Of Ethical Efficacy And Moral Disengagement, Noel Palmer

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recent ethical scandals in organizations are often cited when pointing to leaders as the culprits who foster corruption in their organization; however, little empirical work examines the individual processes through which leaders may influence follower ethical decision-making and behavior. Drawing from principles of social cognitive theory and self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1986, 1997), moral self-regulatory capacities are presented as a means by which leaders may influence followers. Specifically, I hypothesize that leader influence on follower (un)ethical behavior is mediated through follower ethical efficacy beliefs and moral disengagement processes. I also suggest that ethical efficacy interacts with ethical leadership to influence behavior. …

Bankruptcy And Economic Recovery, Thomas H. Jackson, David A. Skeel Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

To measure economic growth or recovery, one traditionally looks to metrics such as the unemployment rate and the growth in GDP. And in terms of figuring out institutional policies that will stimulate economic growth, the focus most often is on policies that encourage investment, entrepreneurial enterprises, and reward risk-taking with appropriate returns. Bankruptcy academics that we are, we tend to add our own area of expertise to this stable— with the firm belief that thinking critically about bankruptcy policy is an important element of any set of institutions designed to speed economic recovery. In this paper, written for a book …

Has Government Tax Policy In Greece Led To A Large Shadow Economy?, Nils Thompson

Honors Projects in Economics

This capstone investigates the impact that tax policy has on the shadow economy in Greece. Greece has one of the largest shadow economies in the world and the largest in the European Union, with tax evasion being one of the main drivers. While previous research has provided measures of the shadow economy, none matches the shadow economy estimations with policies, laws, and agencies enacted by the government, specifically over the period in time of 1990-2012. This study contributes to the literature by connecting the policies implemented by the government with the size of the shadow economy in Greece, along with …

Female Career Progression & Maternity Leave: An Irish Exploration, Collette O'Connor, Angela Wright

Dept. of Organisation & Professional Development Publications

The persistent existence of the 'gender pay gap' in organisations, and the lack of females at executive level position in Ireland due to motherhood is the context for this paper. In particular, this study seeks to investigate why women's careers are impacted by childbearing. The study investigates if there is a correlation between taking maternity leave, and women's career progression in the work place. The increasing length of maternity leave benefits and flexible work arrangements results in elongated absence of females from the workplace. This leads to stereotypical role emergence by both men and women. Women take on the main …

Slavery Is Bad For Business: Analyzing The Impact Of Slavery On National Economies, Monti Narayan Datta, Kevin Bales

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article, using a novel dataset, demonstrates that slavery is empirically bad for business. Building upon the work of Robert Smith, the authors analysis examines the relationship between the prevalence of slavery in a country (in terms of the proportion of the population enslaved) and several economic measures (the United Nations Human Development Index, growth domestic product in terms of purchasing power parity, access to financial services, and the Gini coefficient). In each instance, controlling for alternative explanations, greater levels of slavery are associated with a decline in economic growth and human development. The findings imply that beyond the morality …

Striking The Right Balance: Investor And Consumer Protection In The New Financial Marketplace: Introduction, Lisa Fairfax, Arthur E. Wilmarth Jr

All Faculty Scholarship

On March 2, 2012, The George Washington University Law School's Center for Law, Economics & Finance and The George Washington Law Review jointly hosted a symposium entitled "Striking the Right Balance: Investor and Consumer Protection in the New Financial Marketplace."' The symposium focused on two principal topics. First, participants analyzed the impact of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ("Dodd-Frank") on investors and consumers in three areas of federal regulation-securities markets, derivatives markets, and consumer financial products. Second, the symposium evaluated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 ("Sarbanes-Oxley") on its tenth anniversary and considered whether Sarbanes-Oxley's legacy might …

Agenda: What The Frack? How Your Investments Can Impact The Fracking Industry, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project, Sustainable Impact Investment Advisors

What the Frack? How Your Investments Can Impact the Fracking Industry (March 13)

Sustainable Impact Investment Advisors, a professional association of investment advisors whose practices focus on sustainable and socially responsible investing, sponsored a panel conversation on hydraulic fracking. A panel of experts, including industry representatives and grass roots opponents, discussed the pros and cons of fracking. The panel provided an overview of fracking, and food for thought about whether you choose to include this industry in your investments, or influence companies to use this technology with only the utmost care.

The Correlation Of Qualitative Behavior Assessments With Welfare Quality® Protocol Outcomes In On-Farm Welfare Assessment Of Dairy Cattle, S. N. Andreasen, F. Wemelsfelder, P. Sandøe, B. Forkman

Sentience Collection

The effort to develop methods for assessing animal welfare at farm level has grown dramatically since the end of the 1990s, culminating in the protocols developed by the European-wide project Welfare Quality® (WQ). However, these protocols are time consuming and lack transparency in how scores are aggregated into welfare outcomes. The current study investigates the potential of Qualitative Behavior Assessment (QBA), a much less time-consuming approach, to be used as a stand-alone integrative screening tool for identifying farms with compromised welfare before applying the full WQ protocol. QBA is a ‘whole-animal’ approach asking human observers to summarize animals’ expressive demeanor …

Free Markets With Caritas: A Transformational Concept Of Efficiency, Bruce D. Baker

SPU Works

The logic of caritas transforms conventional concepts of economic efficiency in a direction conducive to the health and sustainability of a market system, by distinguishing between economic activities which are additive or extractive toward the common good. The beneficent power of the market to serve human flourishing is based not in a morally tacit concept of economic efficiency as a cardinal good, but rather in a gift-bearing efficiency aligned with caritas. This thesis is explored through three business case studies: (1) patents related to pharmaceutical drug design and marketing; (2) “monetization” strategies in recent internet-based business models; and (3) …

Public-Private Regime Interactions In Global Food Safety Governance, Ching-Fu Lin

Transnational Business Governance Interactions Working Papers

In response to an apparent decline in global food safety, numerous public and private regulatory initiatives have emerged to restore public confidence. This trend has been particularly marked by the growing influence of private regulators such as multinational food companies, supermarket chains and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), who employ private standards, certification protocols, third-party auditing, and transnational contracting practices. This paper explores how the structure and processes of private food safety governance interact with traditional public governance regimes, focusing on Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGAP) as a primary example of the former. Due to the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of public regulation …

A Horrible Hundred 2013: Problem Puppy Mills In The United States, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL INFORMATION

This report is a list of some of the nation’s dog breeding kennels that are of high concern to The HSUS due to repeated problems with animal health or animal care. It is not a list of all puppy mills, nor a list of all problematic facilities. The list does not include other problematic puppy mill dealers, such as brokers and pet stores, unless the operators are also breeding dogs.

Equine Welfare As A Mainstream Phenomenon, Bernard E. Rollin

Equine Husbandry and Welfare Collection

The 20th century has witnessed a bewildering array of ethical revolutions, from civil rights to environmentalism to feminism. Often ignored is the rise of massive societal concern across the world regarding animal treatment. Regulation of animal research exists in virtually all Western countries, and reform of “factory farming” is regnant in Europe and rapidly emerging in the United States. In 2012, a series of articles in The New York Times focused welfare attention squarely on the horse industry. Opponents of concern for animals often dismiss the phenomenon as rooted in emotion and extremist lack of appreciation of how unrestricted animal …

Show Me The Money!, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Governments worldwide are accumulating reserves to guard against financial turmoil. Could they be contributing to it?

Effects Of Global Competitiveness, Human Development, And Corruption On Inward Foreign Direct Investment, Tamilla Curtis, Dawna L. Rhoades, Tom Griffin

Management, Marketing and Operations - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this paper is to investigate which of Dunning's location-specific advantages of host countries, presented as composite indices for Global Competitiveness, Human Development and Corruption Perception, better predict the level of inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

A stepwise multiple regression method was applied on a sample of 129 countries, which was further divided into two subgroups: OECD members and non-OECD members. The study provides evidence that global competitiveness and the level of corruption of the host country are important determinants for inward FDI. For non-OECD countries the Human Development index appears to be an additional FDI determinant. More …

Texas Puppy Seller Investigation, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL INFORMATION

Over a five-month period in 2013, HSUS staff visited 16 pet stores and three flea markets across the state with hidden cameras to find out where they get their puppies and to check on the puppies’ conditions. HSUS staff also studied hundreds of shipping documents representing more than 1,400 puppies shipped into Texas between May 2012 and August 2013 from out of state, representing just a sampling of the thousands of puppies shipped into Texas every year for resale. Between the document research and in-person visits, investigators studied a total of 34 pet stores and flea markets. HSUS investigators found …

The Organization Of Banking And Supervision, Introduction And Overview, Clas Wihlborg

Business Faculty Articles and Research

"The focus of this Special Issue is on organizational reforms in the financial sector in the aftermath of the financial crisis 2007-2009 and the subsequent euro-zone crisis. In particular, the perception that many banks were too big and too complex to fail during the crisis, which led to very costly bailouts at tax-payers expense in several countries, has fueled a number of proposals to limit the size and the complexity of financial institutions, as well as proposals to reorganize public authorities responsible for supervision and crisis management."

Mandating Board-Shareholder Engagement?, Lisa Fairfax

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article not only argues that corporations must be encouraged to enhance the level of communication between shareholders and the board, but also maintains that the benefits of increased engagement are significant enough that we should consider developing standards for incentivizing, if not mandating, more robust board-shareholder engagement for corporations that fail to respond to such encouragement. In the last several years, shareholders not only have gained increased authority over corporate elections and governance matters, but also have demonstrated a willingness to use that authority to challenge, and even reject, management policies and practices. Shareholders also have begun to demand …

Sue On Pay: Say On Pay’S Impact On Directors’ Fiduciary Duties, Lisa Fairfax

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article advances a normative case for using say on pay litigation to enhance the state courts’ role in policing directors’ compensation decisions. Outrage over what many perceive to be excessive executive compensation has escalated dramatically in recent years. In 2010, such outrage prompted Congress to mandate say on pay—a nonbinding shareholder vote on executive compensation. In the wake of say on pay votes, some shareholders have brought suit against directors alleging that a negative vote indicates a breach of directors’ fiduciary duties. To date, the vast majority of courts have rejected these suits. This Article insists that such rejection …

The Organisational Climate Of Sustainability: A Survey, Anke Arnaud, Janet K. Tinoco, Dawna L. Rhoades

Management, Marketing and Operations - Daytona Beach

This study describes three dimensions of the climate of sustainability and the development of a survey for assessing these dimensions. The authors report the results of two studies conducted to measure the climate of sustainability dimensions of sensitivity to sustainability (six items), motivation for sustainability (six items), and responsibility for sustainability (five items). Results support that the climate of sustainability is a reliable instrument and demonstrate the convergent and discriminant validity of each survey dimension. Furthermore, results show the criterion-related validity of the climate of sustainability with respect to innovation strategy and employee attitudes including satisfaction and turnover intentions. Implications …