The Cost of Ethical Compromise: An Overview of Current and Historical Research and Business Practices

2016 ◽  
pp. 19-48
Author(s):  
Tandy Gold
Keyword(s):  
Historical Research ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
The Cost

The impact of transaction costs and institutional pressure on supplier environmental practices

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 353-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy L. Tate ◽  
Lisa M. Ellram ◽  
Kevin J. Dooley
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Transaction Costs ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Institutional Pressures ◽  
Environmental Practices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Environmental Practice ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – Suppliers play a more significant role in the environmental footprint of supply chains than most final manufacturers. The purpose of this paper is to apply transaction costs and institutional theory to help understand why the more conservative, or reactive suppliers may or may not be likely to adopt environmental practices. Design/methodology/approach – This research builds on a prior conceptual paper and uses the results of a survey to test whether transaction costs and institutional theory can provide insight into supplier's adoption of environmental practices. Findings – This research finds that perceived transaction costs affect supplier cooperation in adopting environmental practices. Suppliers are more likely to adopt an environmental practice if information-seeking costs are low or the cost of adoption is considered necessary to maintain the relationship. Data did not support the hypotheses concerning institutional pressures. Originality/value – There is much research in the area of proactive adoption of environmental business practices. This research looks specifically at what influences the adoption of environmental business practices by suppliers that are more reactive or hesitant to be leaders in this area.

Historical Dimensions of the “Cost Disease” in US Higher Education, 1870s–2010s

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-55
Author(s):  
Bruce A. Kimball ◽  
Jeremy B. Luke
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
National Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Productivity Cost ◽  
Cost Disease ◽  
Personal Services ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cost

Among explanations for the escalating cost of higher education in the United States, two economic theories predominate: the revenue theory of cost and cost disease theory. Since its formulation in the 1960s, distinguished economists have concluded that cost disease theory has convincingly been proven to explain cost escalation in higher education. This article examines three historical dimensions of the cost disease in higher education from the 1870s to the 2010s. First, we explain how the scholarship on the cost disease in higher education has developed over the past 50 years. Second, we concurrently analyze the historical data and the reasoning presented by economists in support of the view that cost disease theory explains cost escalation in higher education. This analysis concludes that the scholarship over the last 50 years provides little validation for that explanation. Finally, we present historical research on cost trends in US higher education from 1875 to 1930. This formative period in US higher education witnessed enormous growth in the national economy. Due to the growth in productivity, cost disease theory would expect costs in higher education, a personal services industry, to rise sharply relative both to costs generally and to the national income. But this historical research reveals that the per capita cost of higher education grew very slowly over this period. These findings consist with our analysis of cost disease scholarship. We therefore conclude that there is little validation that cost disease theory explains cost escalation in US higher education from the 1870s to the 2010s, though it may explain some periods within that span.

TIMBER TRADE ORGANIZATIONS IN SHANGHAI: INSTITUTIONS, ENFORCEMENT, AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION, 1880–1930

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-170
Author(s):  
Meng Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Contract Enforcement ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Court System ◽  
Chambers Of Commerce ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Timber Trade ◽  
Reputation Mechanisms ◽  
The Cost

This study focuses on the mechanisms of contract enforcement and dispute resolution in the trade of timber in Shanghai from the 1880s to the 1930s. It shows that merchant guilds, chambers of commerce, and the court system constituted complementary institutions of contract enforcement. Timber trade guilds relied on reputation mechanisms and information sharing to maintain intra-group solidarity and monitor outside trading partners. Horizontal communications among timber guilds in different localities further enhanced their capability to respond promptly to cross-regional cases. When disputes escalated beyond the scope of a single merchant guild, chambers of commerce (after 1904) and the court system became involved. Vertical communications among these organizations strengthened the continuity from informal norms of business practices to guild regulations, and thence to adjudications in court. Whereas the typical story, drawn from European history, was one of transition toward more formal institutions, this case study shows that formal and informal institutions could complement each other and that they existed along a continuum rather than in separated spheres. The convergence of the expected outcomes as a result of resorting to different platforms of dispute resolution reinforced the consistency and credibility of the cost of defaulting.

The Medieval Pilgrimage Business

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 601-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian R. Bell ◽  
Richard S. Dale
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Brand Management ◽  
Business Management ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Competitive Market ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Unpublished Work ◽  
Modern Business ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Middle Ages

Although medieval pilgrimage has been the subject of extensive historical research, the economic and financial dimension has been somewhat neglected. This paper is an attempt to provide a synthesis of published and unpublished work on pilgrimage, focusing on the business management and promotional aspects of pilgrimage shrines. From the literature reviewed, it is clear that many ‘modern’ business practices were being widely used by pilgrimage centers throughout Europe in the middle ages. Examples can be found of active brand management and promotional techniques adopted by shrines operating within a highly competitive market for pilgrimage services.

scholarly journals Business Professionals’ Attitudes toward Sustainable Business Practices

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Otto H. Chang ◽  
Michael D. Slaubaugh
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Business Professionals ◽  
Sustainable Business ◽  
Midwest United States ◽  
Business Executives ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
New Business ◽  
The Cost

<p>Maintaining the sustainability of our planet is an important issue as it affects the wellbeing of future generations. Businesses can potentially play an instrumental role in addressing global warming and maintaining the ecological equilibrium of nature. Attitudes held by business executives and professionals regarding sustainable business practices can help determine the outcome of this battle. A survey instrument was administered to 166 business professionals in the Midwest United States to assess these attitudes. In general, we found that the surveyed business professionals have positive attitudes toward sustainable business practices. These attitudes were correlated with utilitarianism ethics and new business opportunities hypothesis, but not with the cost factor or a belief in a free market economy. Several background variables were found to explain the variation of the subjects’ overall attitudes toward sustainability: age, religious affiliation, political affiliation, and education.</p>

scholarly journals Human locomotion on snow: determinants of economy and speed of skiing across the ages

2005 ◽  
Vol 272 (1572) ◽  
pp. 1561-1569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Formenti ◽  
Luca P Ardigò ◽  
Alberto E Minetti
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Cost ◽  
Human Locomotion ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Metabolic Energy ◽  
Metabolic Power ◽  
Cost Of Transport ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Relationship

We explore here the evolution of skiing locomotion in the last few thousand years by investigating how humans adapted to move effectively in lands where a cover of snow, for several months every year, prevented them from travelling as on dry ground. Following historical research, we identified the sets of skis corresponding to the ‘milestones’ of skiing evolution in terms of ingenuity and technology, built replicas of them and measured the metabolic energy associated to their use in a climate-controlled ski tunnel. Six sets of skis were tested, covering a span from 542 AD to date. Our results show that: (i) the history of skiing is associated with a progressive decrease in the metabolic cost of transport, (ii) it is possible today to travel at twice the speed of ancient times using the same amount of metabolic power and (iii) the cost of transport is speed-independent for each ski model, as during running. By combining this finding with the relationship between time of exhaustion and the sustainable fraction of metabolic power, a prediction of the maximum skiing speed according to the distance travelled is provided for all past epochs, including two legendary historical journeys (1206 and 1520 AD) on snow. Our research shows that the performances in races originating from them (Birkebeiner and Vasaloppet) and those of other modern competitions (skating versus classical techniques) are well predicted by the evolution of skiing economy. Mechanical determinants of the measured progression in economy are also discussed in the paper.

The IBM-PC in electron microscopy

1996 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 612-613
Author(s):  
James F. Mancuso
Keyword(s):  
Head Start ◽  
Image Acquisition ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Financial Applications ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Instrument Control ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Training And Support ◽  
Control Image ◽  
Ibm Pc

IBM PC compatible computers are widely used in microscopy for applications ranging from control to image acquisition and analysis. The choice of IBM-PC based systems over competing computer platforms can be based on technical merit alone or on a number of factors relating to economics, availability of peripherals, management dictum, or simple personal preference.IBM-PC got a strong “head start” by first dominating clerical, document processing and financial applications. The use of these computers spilled into the laboratory where the DOS based IBM-PC replaced mini-computers. Compared to minicomputer, the PC provided a more for cost-effective platform for applications in numerical analysis, engineering and design, instrument control, image acquisition and image processing. In addition, the sitewide use of a common PC platform could reduce the cost of training and support services relative to cases where many different computer platforms were used. This could be especially true for the microscopists who must use computers in both the laboratory and the office.

New Feasible Concepts of Aberration Correction for Realizing High-Resolution Electron Microscopes

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 202-203
Author(s):  
H. Rose
Keyword(s):  
Spherical Aberration ◽  
Wave Length ◽  
Electron Wave ◽  
Optical Lens ◽  
Resolution Electron ◽  
Rotationally Symmetric ◽  
Electron Microscopes ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Imaging Performance ◽  
Acceleration Voltage

The imaging performance of the light optical lens systems has reached such a degree of perfection that nowadays numerical apertures of about 1 can be utilized. Compared to this state of development the objective lenses of electron microscopes are rather poor allowing at most usable apertures somewhat smaller than 10-2 . This severe shortcoming is due to the unavoidable axial chromatic and spherical aberration of rotationally symmetric electron lenses employed so far in all electron microscopes.The resolution of such electron microscopes can only be improved by increasing the accelerating voltage which shortens the electron wave length. Unfortunately, this procedure is rather ineffective because the achievable gain in resolution is only proportional to λ1/4 for a fixed magnetic field strength determined by the magnetic saturation of the pole pieces. Moreover, increasing the acceleration voltage results in deleterious knock-on processes and in extreme difficulties to stabilize the high voltage. Last not least the cost increase exponentially with voltage.

An application: the cost of clinic care by undergraduate dental students and its relationship to clinic fees

1994 ◽  
Vol 58 (11) ◽  
pp. 832-835 ◽  
Author(s):  
ES Solomon ◽  
TK Hasegawa ◽  
JD Shulman ◽  
PO Walker
Keyword(s):  
Dental Students ◽  
The Cost
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