bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Methods Matter: Changes in Industrial Relations Research and their Implications
Authors: Whitfield Keith , Strauss George
Published: March 2003

An analysis of leading industrial relations journals suggests that there have been substantial changes in IR research, particularly a shift from inductive, qualitative and policy‐oriented research to deductive, quantitative and discipline‐oriented research. This is seen to reflect a change in the pressures under which IR research is conducted and the increased availability of computer technology and extensive IR data sets. Important differences remain in research methodology among countries, with US‐based journals being the most quantitative and deductive.
A Multi‐disciplinary Identification of Issues Associated with ‘Contracting’ in Market‐oriented Health Service Reforms
Authors: Burgoyne J. G. , Brown D. H. , Hindle A. , Mumford M. J.
Published: March 2003

Multi‐disciplinary perspectives from operational research, management information systems, purposeful activity systems, accounting and finance, transaction‐cost economics and organization learning are discussed in relation to `contracting' in the NHS following the recent reforms, applied within the general framework of soft‐systems methodology. These are then used to frame questions for collecting information about contracting practices and issues. The data so collected suggest that the issues and activities associated with contracting can be grouped into five interacting categories of: strategy formation, making enabling arrangements, operational management of contracted activities, identifying and relating to stakeholders, and carrying forward organizational learning from experience. Each of the disciplinary perspectives attributes significance to specific forms in these five activities.

The possibility of some multi‐disciplinary linking of theoretical perspectives is demonstrated. Information and purposeful systems are central to this, being on the one hand created by social processes which define relevant information and corporate alignments of purpose, and on the other hand patterns of activity that can be evaluated in terms of contribution to these purposes, with properties of greater or lesser inhibition of innovation to improve purpose achievement. As a case study of an attempt at inter‐disciplinary research, it demonstrates that interdisciplinary linkage can be made, though certain epistemological issues are skated over in the process. On the basis of the case study, some of the richness and insight of the different perspectives is lost in the process. The critical debate about the neutrality of soft‐systems methodology is commented on in the light of the study.
Safety Culture: The Prediction of Commitment to Safety in the Manufacturing Industry
Authors: Cox Sue , Tomás José M. , Cheyne Alistair , Oliver Amparo
Published: March 2003

This paper reports one aspect of a large‐scale study of safety culture in 13 companies operating in the manufacturing sector in the UK. The study is based on data collected from three different domains of measurement relevant to the description of safety culture: workplace assessments, a survey of employee attitudes to safety – including questionnaire and interview data – and company accident records. The data described in this paper concern the prediction of perceived commitment to safety from employees' attitudes to safety as reported in a self‐administered questionnaire. Commitment to safety was used as a marker of the strength of the organization's safety culture. The data showed that employees' attitudes to safety could be modelled in terms of three factors: management actions for safety, the quality of safety training and their personal actions for safety. Their attitudes with regards to management actions for safety showed the strongest relationship to commitment to safety. These attitudes also predicted those regarding the quality of safety training and personal actions for safety. Interestingly, the latter were not related to appraisals of commitment to safety.
Unwritten Law in Hobbesian Political Thought
Authors: Cromartie Alan
Published: March 2003

In Hobbesian terminology, ‘unwritten laws' are natural laws enforced within a polity, by a non-sovereign judge, without some previous public promulgation. This article discusses the idea in the light of successive Hobbesian accounts of ‘law’ and ‘obligation'. Between De Cive and Leviathan, Hobbes dropped the idea that natural law is strictly speaking law, but he continued to believe unwritten laws must form a part of any legal system. He was unable to explain how such a law could claim a legal status. His loyalty to the notion, in spite of all the trouble that it caused, is a sign of his belief that moral knowledge is readily accessible to all.
Capitalist Models and Social Democracy: The Case of New Labour
Authors: Coates David
Published: March 2003

Some of the more critical readings of the adequacy and effectiveness of New Labour in power have been developed by scholars willing to link arguments about the trajectory of Labour politics to wider arguments about the character of the contemporary global economy and the space within it for the construction and development of distinctive capitalist models. Mark Wickham-Jones and Colin Hay in particular have made that linkage in a series of important writings on the contemporary Labour party. Their arguments are here subjected to critical review, and set against a third position on New Labour and global capitalism: one informed by the writings of Ralph Miliband on British Labour and by the arguments of Leo Panitch and Greg Albo on the limits of the ‘progressive competitiveness' strategies associated with ‘Third Way’ social democratic governments.
A Simple Extension of the Dasgupta–Maskin Theorem, with an Application
Authors: Gilli Mario
Published: March 2003

This paper generalizes the classical existence results for games with discontinuous payoffs, developed by Dasgupta and Maskin in 1986. This new existence result is then applied to a simple duopoly model with quantity precommitment and Bertrand competition.
Organizational Form Outside the Principal–agent Paradigm
Authors: Borland Jeff , Eichberger Jurgen
Published: March 2003

This paper provides a review of theories of hierarchies in organizations where the rationale for hierarchical organization derives from agents’ limited capacities for acquiring and communicating information. In these circumstances, hierarchical organization of agents may serve to reduce the amount of time necessary for completion of production tasks, or to improve the quality of information for decision‐making on how to undertake production tasks. An informal discussion of theories of hierarchy is provided as well as a formal presentation of key models and results. Limitations of existing approaches are considered.
Second‐Best Pollution Taxes: an Analytical Framework and Some New Results
Authors: Fuest Clemens , Huber Bernd
Published: March 2003

This paper compares the second‐best optimal tax on polluting consumption goods with the Pigovian tax, which would internalize marginal environmental damage at a second‐best optimum. It is shown that the relationship between the optimal tax on polluting consumption and the Pigovian tax is determined by the substitutability between labour and polluting consumption or clean and polluting consumption, depending on whether a wage tax system or a commodity tax system is being considered. The key factor determining the relationship between the two taxes is gross substitutability between the two taxed goods. As long as there is gross substitutability, the optimal dirt tax exceeds the Pigovian tax. The opposite can occur if and only if the two goods are gross complements.
Corporate Social Responsibility: A Complementary Perspective of Community and Corporate Leaders
Authors: Boehm Amnon
Published: March 2003

Research studies on Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) often focus on revealing corporate leaders’ attitudes toward various issues of CSR. The position of the present paper is that to understand CSR, we must grasp the collaborative perspective of CSR, and discern the attitudes of community leaders as well as corporate leaders. To this end, the study compares attitudes of community leaders with those of corporate leaders in three localities in Israel. The study examines various issues of CSR, highlighting the benefits to both community and corporation of reciprocal relations. Results from t‐tests confirmed significant differences between the groups. Some important implications for CSR particularly in terms of collaboration between community and corporation are discussed.
Focus: Information Ethics
Authors: Rogerson Simon
Published: March 2003

“The overall goal of information ethics is to integrate information technology and human values in such a way that IT advances and protects human values rather than doing damage to them” (Simon Rogerson). We are pleased to present in this issue five papers from a recent European conference on information ethics edited and introduced by Simon Rogerson, Director of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University, England.

We are also pleased to announce a major new feature of the Review, entitled Business Ethics on the Internet, which will be contributed from time to time by members of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University. This will provide regular up‐to‐date information and comment on the resources which are becoming increasingly available on the Internet relating to the study of business ethics and the practice of ethical business. It will be launched in our July issue in an article entitled “Business Ethics on the Internet”.
Business Ethics on the Internet
Authors: Fairweather N. Ben , Hopewell Derrol
Published: March 2003

The Internet is becoming increasingly indispensable as a valuable and vast resource of information, and not least of information about Business Ethics, with endless email lists providing the possibility of informed global discussions and a multitude of websites offering the latest available knowledge in the field. This article, intended to be the first in a regular series, aims to provide a practical introduction to accessing business ethics sites on the Internet, and reviews four major websites offering information on business ethics. The authors are members of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH, England

(email: ccs.ccsr@dmu.ac.uk) (website: http://www.ccsr.cms.dmu.ac.uk)
The 1996 ICC Report on Extortion And Bribery in International Business Transactions
Authors: Argandoña Antonia
Published: March 2003

Extortion and bribery are regularly identified as well–nigh insoluble ethical problems for business, especially on an international scale, yet there are many initiatives being steadily pursued to combat them. One of the most impressive is the work of the International Chamber of Commerce, which published an important Report on the subject in 1977, the first such document prepared by the business community. Now that Report has undergone an in‐depth revision which was published last year and is the subject of this study. Professor Argandoña is Secretary General of IESE [the International Graduate School of Management of the University of Navarre], Av. Pearson 21, E–Barcelona, Spain (email: argandona@iese.es), and an Associate Editor of this Review. The article is a revised version of the presentation made to the Nineth EBEN Annual Conference held in Frankfurt in September last year.
Extortion Japanese Style
Authors: Haida Tina
Published: March 2003

The emerging influence wielded on Japanese businesses by the sokaiya, or extortioners, raises issues not just of bribery but more fundamentally of corporate governance and transparency in the conduct of business. “If it were true that the Japanese companies in question were otherwise conducting their businesses in perfectly ethical ways, then sokaiya would not have any leverage”. The author has completed the first year of her MBA at London Business School after previously working with the Japanese Delegation to the OECD.
UK Clothing Retailers Squeezing Suppliers
Authors: Lewthwaite‐Page Alice G.
Published: March 2003

As major clothing suppliers are being forced by competition to cut costs, is this inevitably leading their suppliers to cut corners in working conditions, and what ethical considerations are relevant? The author is completing her MBA at London Business School and has a background in the textile industry.
Ethics and International Development
Authors: Larrison Timothy
Published: March 2003

Although much has been written about multinational behaviour in developing countries, little attention has been paid to the individuals and organisations which influence the environment within which the multinationals operate. The author argues for an absolute moral approach to macro‐economic considerations and a more relative ethical approach at the micro‐level of individual cultures. He is completing his MBA at London Business School after having spent several years working in several continents in the development industry.
Oil Companies and Human Rights
Authors: Chandler Geoffrey
Published: March 2003

The chairman of Amnesty International’s UK Business Group considers how oil companies must change their attitudes in a world which is changing faster. “Silence or inaction will be seen to provide comfort to oppression and may be adjudged complicity.” Sir Geoffrey Chandler CBE is a former senior executive of the Royal/Dutch Shell Group and architect of Shell’s first Statement of General Business Principles. This article is reprinted with permission from Oxford Energy Forum, November 1, 1997.
Business Ethics: A European Review: Change and Continuity
Authors: Collier Jane
Published: March 2003

As was announced at the beginning of this volume of Business Ethics: A European Review, the current editor is retiring from the editorship at the end of this year. It gives him great pleasure to announce that he will be succeeded as Editor of the Review by Dr Jane Collier, of the Judge Institute, Cambridge. In this invited article Dr Collier offers some reflections on how she envisages the future of the Review.
The Effectiveness Of Codes Of Conduct
Authors: Doig Alan , Wilson John
Published: March 2003

Studies of the prevalence and contents of codes of conduct in the private sector show that their use to define an ethical environment or culture, and their effective implementation, must be as part of a learning process that requires inculcation, reinforcement and measurement. Consequently, the public sector must realise it cannot look solely to formal codes to revive and sustain public sector values. Alan Doig is Professor of Public Services Management, and John Wilson is Principal Lecturer and Head of the Centre for Public Services Management, at Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University.
From promise to performance
Authors: Jones Ian , Pollitt Michael
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed in this article:

Bauman, Robert P., Jackson, Peter and Lawrence, Joanne T. From Promise to Performance: A Journey of Transformation at SmithKline Beecham
Ethics and Values
Authors: Guptara Prabhu
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed in this article:

Serageldin, Ismail and Martin‐Brown, Joan (eds) Ethics and Values: A Global Perspective
Advertising and older consumers: image and ageism
Authors: Carrigan Marylyn , Szmigin Isabelle
Published: March 2003

Despite a growing population of older people, traditional prejudices against age continue to flourish in society. The media in particular are often guilty of ageism, persistently focusing upon the ‘youth market’, and advertisers are particular offenders. By ignoring older people, or using them as caricatures, the advertising industry not only violates its ethical responsibilities to this group within the community, but also overlooks the commercial opportunity presented by the new generation of older consumers. The article presents research into UK print media which shows that older people tend not to be featured in advertisements in mainstream publications, but are prominent in advertisements in publications for the over‐fifties. The issues this raises in terms of the duty of advertisers to respect the rights of older people are discussed, along with the commercial imperative to provide more appropriate images of older people in UK advertising.
Professionalism and Values
Authors: Brakel Aat
Published: March 2003

Transnational corporations of a democratic and ethical calibre have the global reach to contribute to solving problems that they originally helped create, and are potentially better equiped than governments to make just and equitable decisions. In this article the transformation of organizations, and, as a result, of society, is seen as contingent on the way in which professionalism and values, seen as standards of a desirable and worth‐while life, contextualise each other. Corporations require adequate value maintenance and development, and a number of ‘actionable items’ are suggested through which professionalism in the context of an inner ethical ‘base’ standards can enter into the ‘bloodstream’ of a corporation and help to achieve the ‘triple bottom line’. Each of these is discussed in terms of a complementary pair of values which need to be held in tension. Items include the development of norms in a professional context, the nature of leadership, recruiting practices, and the development and role of codes of conduct.
Real‐estate agent ethics: Selected findings from two Norwegian studies
Authors: Brinkmann Johannes
Published: March 2003

The article discusses selected findings from two Norwegian studies among real‐estate agents and real‐estate students, and their relevance for real‐estate education in professional ethics. The survey data‐set indicates that the industry morality of real‐estate agents is more peer‐group oriented, less individualistic and more intersubjective than in other comparable Norwegian industries. The qualitative material shows how respondents perceive and discuss three professional role conflict scenarios in a rule‐ or consequence‐focused pattern. The findings are followed by several suggestions relating to conflict handling approaches and professional ethics training among future and present real‐estate agents.
Engaging stakeholders in corporate accountability programmes: A cross‐sectoral analysis of UK and transnational experience
Authors: Cummings Jane
Published: March 2003

This paper explores the type of stakeholder engagement currently being undertaken by many organisations as part of social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting (SEAAR) processes. Specifically, the paper seeks to determine the extent to which current corporate practice iteratively promotes stakeholder participation in collaboratively designing accountability programmes, or whether it merely is a new term for canvassing stakeholder opinions. Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation is used as a conceptual model for positioning contemporary methods of stakeholder dialogue. The findings from interviews with representatives from twenty‐nine UK and transnational organisations actively engaged in stakeholder dialogue are presented. This paper concludes that contemporary organisations seem to be seeking to engage with stakeholders in partnerships, yet their attempts still fall short of what Arnstein called Citizen Control, the level of achievement that non‐governmental organisations would like stakeholder engagement to attain.
Responsibility in the interconnected economy
Authors: Carsten Stahl Bernd
Published: March 2003

This article seeks to establish a link between the field of business ethics and information ethics by exploring the connection between responsibility and the Internet from an economic perspective. This link finds its expression in the moral theory of Discourse Ethics as suggested by German philosophers such as Juergen Habermas and Karl‐Otto Apel. The term responsibility points in the direction of communication and therefore leads easily to discourse ethics. The economy in general and most economic practices also seem to be intimately linked to questions of responsibility. The growing spread and importance of the Internet poses new challenges and problems but also creates new possibilities for ethics as well as for the economy. Here several of these new developments are analysed and their impact on ethics as well as economy assessed. Consequences for the use and development of information technology are considered.
Commerce with a conscience: corporate control and academic investment
Authors: Huberman‐Arnold Diane , Arnold Keith
Published: March 2003

Corporations have been investing in academia to an extent that could be classified as a corporate takeover of universities. Intra‐university critics see this as an ethical problem, because of the degree of business control over university policies and decisions which accompanies the funding. University critics rarely suggest that the corporate funding be given up, returned, or even limited. What they protest against is corporate control, which they see as threatening university autonomy, and as inimical to the public good. Multi‐university conferences have been held focusing on this problem, and the most serious solution proposed thus far is to construct a relevant code of ethics regulating and limiting corporate involvement, through standards and guidelines which corporations will then have to subscribe to, in order to fund universities. However, there is a conflict of interest here. Universities have a public trust and a fiduciary duty not to compromise education. This implies a covenant not to cede power to outside interests, not to use university resources, or faculty and students, as a means to an educationally irrelevant end. Universities cannot sell out. However, it seems equally dishonest not to offer their students a well‐funded first‐rate, quality education in applied fields with current skills, maximum research opportunity, and the corporate ties that would allow them to obtain jobs. We examine three cases showing errors made by universities in ceding control to corporate investment, and draw some policy conclusions.
The UK supermarket industry: an analysis of corporate social and financial performance
Authors: Moore Geoff , Robson Andy
Published: March 2003

In a previous paper (Moore, 2001), the headline findings from a study of social and financial performance over three years of eight firms in the UK supermarket industry were reported. These were based on the derivation of a 16‐measure social performance index and a 4‐measure financial performance index. This paper discusses the formulationof the indices and then reports on: discussions with two supermarket firms concerning the overall results; inter‐relationships between individual financial performance measures; inter‐relationships between individual social performance measures; stakeholder group analysis; and inter‐relationships between turnover, age and gearing with social performance measures. The paper discusses these inter‐relationships, incorporating comments from the interviews with the two supermarket firms, and reports on both factor and cluster analysis.

The interviews lend support for Preston and O’Bannon’s (1997) Available Funding Hypothesis in both its positive and negative form. The findings show that there are individual or combinations of related measures that could be used as surrogate measures for social and financial performance, instead of deriving a full index. However, the recommendation is that a full index continues to be used until there is further corroboration of these results. The findings also provide statistically significant support for the Negative Synergy Hypothesis (Preston and O’Bannon, 1997), show a statistically significant association between pre‐tax profits (both lagged and contemporaneous) with community contributions, and show that all statistically significant associations between individual social performance measures are positive – suggesting that they are mutually reinforcing. The association of size with social performance, noted in the previous paper, is also reinforced.

Findings in relation to the proportion of women managers and the number of women on the Board and positive associations with other social and environmental performance measures raise interesting gender issues for business ethics. Factor analysis leads to no clear conclusions but cluster does show two or three clear clusters of firms, where size would seem to be the main but not sole factor. Further areas of research are noted.
On economics and business ethics
Authors: Pitelis Christos
Published: March 2003

Economics has an impoverished view of virtuous human behaviour in general, and corporate social responsibility in particular. We claim that this is due to a particular, albeit currently dominant approach to economics. This approach focuses on the pursuit of wealth through efficient allocation of scarce resources by ‘rational’ utility‐maximizing economic agents and institutions, such as markets, firms and states, in the exclusive pursuit of ‘efficiency’. This results in an ethic‐free and often inimical approach to virtuous behaviour. However, a different approach to economics, which focuses on sustainable global resource creation and allocation, asserts virtuous responsible behaviour to be part and parcel of economic analysis and performance.
Approaches to child labour in the supply chain
Authors: Winstanley Diana , Clark Joanna , Leeson Helena
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the difficulties of dealing with child labour in the supply chain. It begins by identifying a number of the factors which make global supply chains so difficult to manage. It goes on to outline a framework of different approaches that can be taken to managing the supply chain with relation to child labour, moving from national and international regulation, through to the role of NGOs and the companies themselves. Focusing on an ‘engagement’ strategy for dealing with child labour, the paper traces a case study of Adidas‐Salomon and its attempts to implement their ‘standards of engagement’ in this area with relation to one of their supplier factories in Vietnam. The research draws on the direct involvement of one of the authors who visited the site and was able to interview staff and observe the operation in practice. Her findings are supported by wider work on the implementation of corporate approaches to human rights at a range of companies interviewed by another of the authors. The paper aims to highlight the issues needing to be addressed for companies considering the ‘involvement’ approach to child labour. It also aims to develop theory on our understanding of different approaches to corporate rights.
Achieving quality in social reporting: the role of surveys in stakeholder consultation
Authors: Jackson Charles , Bundgard Torben
Published: March 2003

More companies are publishing environmental and social reports, but concerns remain about the extent to which these reports reflect a genuine intention of businesses to make themselves accountable for their social and environmental performance or whether they are merely a way of maintaining corporate reputation in the face of external criticism. Dialogue with stakeholders lies at the heart of Corporate Social Responsibility practice. While questionnaire surveys are a main method for consulting large stakeholder groups, little has been written about how the data used in CSR reports are generated. This paper argues that the survey method can be adapted in ways to promote dialogue and hence stakeholder inclusion, without loss of technical rigour. It presents a case study of how one company conducted a large‐scale multinational employee survey and identifies key design features of the survey process that were used to enhance the quality of dialogue between the company and its employees. The purpose of stakeholder consultation and dialogue is to find mutually agreed solutions to identified issues of concern. It can only claim to be an ethical business practice if it strives to achieve this overarching purpose.
Investigating the limits of competitive intelligence gathering: is mystery shopping ethical?
Authors: Ng Kwet Shing Michelle , Spence Laura J.
Published: March 2003

In this article we take further the debate on the ethics of competitive intelligence gathering, which until now has been very limited. Drawing on empirical research from a mobile telephone company in the United Kingdom, we present the case that while mystery shopping is not the worst activity in which an organization might be involved, it is basically unethical. Mystery shopping involves deception and the obtaining of competitive information under false pretences. Common arguments are that ‘everyone is doing it’ and that the information is in the public domain. Neither of these points convincingly justifies the requirement for an employer to ask an employee to lie and deceive others on behalf of the company. The use of students and those in low power positions in the organization is a further concern.
Leadership: the Role of the Exemplar
Authors: Hunt John W. , Laing Bette
Published: March 2003

Attempts to define the qualities which make up leadership probably go back beyond the invention of writing: certainly, to the orally transmitted poetry of Homer and his peers. Yet satisfactory answers have been elusive. This article reports on a two‐year survey which attempts to refine the grounds for debate further by benchmarking the features of leadership identified in the Exemplar Model against the competencies associated with high performing managers. The survey covered 105 senior executives and the perceptions of them by over 1,000 of their colleagues.
The Architecture of Core Competence
Authors: Goddard Jules
Published: March 2003

In this article, the author first surveys the explanations given by leading writers for corporate success and then goes on to sketch a definition of what he calls “meta‐competence”: the corporate capacity for building and sustaining core competence. Delving below the popular explanations for Wal‐Mart’s success, he then uses Wal‐Mart to illustrate his argument.
Six Stakeholding Propositions
Authors: Hutton Will
Published: March 2003

Will Hutton is one of the leading proponents of the stakeholding concept. He originally set out his ideas in an earlier book, “The State We’re In”. In this article, he summarises the arguments contained in his latest book, “The State to Come”. He discusses six stakeholding propositions: the same value systems apply in employment and other spheres of life; macroeconomic policy needs to tighten the demand for labour; a market economy needs democratic institutions that generate social capital, particularly trust; businesses function best on the basis of internal commitment and trust; “intermediate institutions” like universities need to generate social capital and provide a long‐term perspective; and systems of social insurance and distribution of risk must be fair and inclusive.
Better Decision‐Making: a Field Study
Authors: Nutt Paul
Published: March 2003

Based on a large research project in north America, this article suggests that only about half of managers’ decisions are successful, and that managers themselves are often unaware that the way that they go about making decisions is the main cause of failure. The implication is that inadequate decision‐making techniques cost billions of dollars each year in wasted time and money. The author analyses the way managers behave at different stages of the decision‐making process and identifies guidelines for best practice from the experience of the managers involved.
Corporate Governance and Directors’ Remuneration: Views from the Top
Authors: Clarke Robert N. , Conyon Martin J. , Peck Simon I.
Published: March 2003

This article summarises the views of 342 company chairmen at London‐listed companies of all sizes on issues of corporate governance and directors’ remuneration. In the wake of the Hampel Committee Report, the authors used a fax survey to canvass their views on a range of topics including accountability, business prosperity, rewarding non‐executives and relations with shareholders. The results of the survey suggest company chairmen are deeply divided on most of these important issues: the authors suggest that policy‐makers are right to stick to basic principles rather than detailed prescriptions – and to tread carefully in this minefield. Like the Hampel Committee itself, many company chairman think that the pendulum of regulatory concern may have swung too far in the direction of accountability, to the detriment of company prosperity. Nearly half also thought that increased disclosure requirements had had the effect of ratcheting up directors’ pay, rather than moderating increases. The use of external advisors and pay surveys are prevalent – universal in large companies – and the survey chronicles the way in which they are used.
The Transformation of International Telecommunications
Authors: Cave Martin , Waverman Len
Published: March 2003

This article starts by identifying the key elements of the antiquated system which has ensured that prices for international telephony have stayed high even though costs have fallen sharply. It then explains why and how that system, built on bilateral relationships between telecommunications companies (telcos) which were formerly monopolies, is now being undermined. The authors conclude that international customers of telcos can look forward to massive price cuts in the near future and that this will make it possible for world‐wide communications across disparate operations to expand even faster than before. The telcos themselves must face up to (i) rapidly falling profits from what has been a cash cow and (ii) the strategic dilemma of whether to hold out against change or to roll out new services to compete with new entrants and the new service options opened up by technological advance.
Books: Knowledge Management: in Search of the Philosophers’ Stone
Authors: Empson Laura
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this article:

T.H.Davenport, Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know

G.von Krogh, J.Roos, and D.Kleine (eds), Knowledge in Firms: Understanding, Managing and Measuring Knowledge

R.C.Huseman and J.P.Goodman, Leading with Knowledge: the Nature of Competition in the 21st Century

Various authors, Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management
Brands on the Brain: Neuro‐Images of Advertising
Authors: Ambler Tim , Ioannides Andreas , Rose Steven
Published: March 2003

Neuroscience is opening a new chapter of understanding in many fields. One such is how advertising works. For the first time we can directly ‘see’ some effects of advertisements on the brain's activity. This article reports two small‐scale experiments into the differential effects of advertising's rational and emotional components. Advertising has long been seen as providing reasons to buy, however subtle. In academic research at least, the importance of emotion has often been downplayed. The preliminary experiment reported here shows how emotional ads are more likely to be remembered. The second experiment uses brain imaging to investigate the part of the brain which responds to emotionally‐engaging (‘affective’) and reason‐engaging (‘cognitive’) advertising stimuli. These are very early days in using brain‐imaging techniques and these experiments are very exploratory. However, as the three Commentaries by Simon Broadbent, Thomas O'Guinn and Larry Percy suggest, along with other work, they may point towards a revolution in advertising research.
War and the Corporation
Authors: Orts Eric W
Published: March 2003

Recent events have confirmed human society’s commitment to building the social institutions needed for peace. It is becoming clear that these institutions will have to include business corporations.
Learning to Compete: Transforming Firms in the Face of Radical Environment Change
Authors: Suarez Fernando F , Oliva Rogelio
Published: March 2003

Over the last decade, Latin American economies and companies have witnessed substantial changes as their economies have been reformed and opened to world markets. Firms that have adapted to these changes may have useful lessons to offer to companies in other countries as they face economic transformation and expanding competition.
Where Theories of Mind Meet Magic: The Development of Children's Beliefs about Wishing
Authors: Woolley Jacqueline D. , Phelps Katrina E. , Davis Debra L. , Mandell Dorothy J.
Published: March 2003

In two studies, we probed children's beliefs about wishing. In Study 1, we gathered initial data on 50 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children's concepts of wishing and beliefs about its efficacy, with both a semistructured interview and a variety of tasks. Results revealed considerable knowledge about wishing in young children, along with an age‐related decrease in beliefs about its efficacy. Parents were not found to encourage differently the beliefs of children at different ages, nor were they found to begin actively discouraging such beliefs at any particular age. A moderate relation was found between environmental supports for wishing and children's beliefs in its efficacy. In Study 2, we continued to probe these issues and also address the nature of the broader conceptual context in which children situate their beliefs about wishing. Participants were 92 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children. Results of this study suggest that children may reconcile beliefs in the efficacy of wishing with knowledge about everyday mental‐physical relations by situating these beliefs more within their emerging beliefs about magic than within their theories of mind.
Caregiving and Developmental Factors Differentiating Young At‐Risk Urban Children Showing Resilient versus Stress‐Affected Outcomes: A Replication and Extension
Authors: Wyman Peter A. , Cowen Emory L. , Work William C. , Hoyt‐Meyers Lynne , Magnus Keith B. , Fagen Douglas B.
Published: March 2003

This study tested hypotheses from an organizational‐developmental model for childhood resilience. In this model resilience reflects a child's mastery of age‐salient objectives, in the face of substantial adversity, by drawing on internal and external resources that enhance processes of adaptation specific to each developmental stage. Interviews were conducted with parents of 122 7‐ to 9‐year‐old urban children exposed to multiple risk factors, 69 classified as resilient and 53 as maladjusted. Consistent with predictions generated by the model: (1) characteristics of a child's caregiving system and early development differentiated children with resilient and stress‐affected adaptations; and (2) variables reflecting emotionally responsive, competent parenting were direct, proximal predictors of resilient status and mediators of other caregiver resources such as education, mental health, and relational history. Identified predictors of resilient status, including competent parenting and caregiver psychosocial resources, largely replicated findings from a prior study with sociodemographically comparable 9‐ to 12‐year‐old children.
The Ontogeny of Phonological Categories and the Primacy of Lexical Learning in Linguistic Development
Authors: Beckman Mary E. , Edwards Jan
Published: March 2003

In this paper, we draw on recent developments in several areas of cognitive science that suggest that the lexicon is at the core of grammatical generalizations at several different levels of representation. Evidence comes from many sources, including recent studies on language processing in adults and on language acquisition in children. Phonological behavior is influenced very early by pattern frequency in the lexicon of the ambient language, and we propose that phonological acquisition might provide the initial bootstrapping into grammatical generalization in general. The phonological categories over which pattern frequencies are calculated, however, are neither transparently available in the audiovisual signal nor deterministically fixed by the physiological and perceptual capacities of the species. Therefore, we need several age‐appropriate models of how the lexicon can influence a child's interactions with the ambient language over the course of phonological acquisition.
Effects of Age and Delay on the Amount of Information Provided by Alleged Sex Abuse Victims in Investigative Interviews
Authors: Lamb Michael E. , Sternberg Kathleeen J. , Esplin Phillip W.
Published: March 2003

A total of 145 children of 4 to 5, 6 to 7, 8 to 9, and 10 to 12 years of age were interviewed within 3 days, 1 month, 1 to 3 months, or 5 to 14 months after allegedly experiencing a single incident of sexual abuse. The proportion of substantive investigative utterances eliciting new details from the children increased with age and decreased after delays of more than 1 month. Age (but not delay) was also associated with the length and richness of informative responses to individual investigative utterances of all types. Children were more likely to provide new details in response to option‐posing and suggestive prompts. As in previous field studies, interviewers employed few open‐ended prompts, and thus only 5% of the information obtained was elicited using free‐recall prompts.
The “Test‐Tube” Generation: Parent–Child Relationships and the Psychological Well‐Being of In Vitro Fertilization Children at Adolescence
Authors: Golombok Susan , MacCallum Fiona , Goodman Emma
Published: March 2003

The introduction of in vitro fertilization (IVF) at the end of the 20th century constituted a fundamental change in the way in which families could be created, and by the start of the new millennium an increasing number of children have been (and are being) born as a result of this procedure. This article presents findings of a longitudinal study of the first cohort of children conceived by IVF to reach adolescence. Thirty‐four IVF families, 49 adoptive families, and 38 families with a naturally conceived child were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures of parent–child relationships and children's psychological well‐being. The few differences in parent–child relationships that were identified appeared to be associated with the experience of infertility rather than with IVF per se. The IVF children were found to be functioning well and did not differ from the adoptive or naturally conceived children on any of the assessments of social or emotional adjustment.
Extended Visual Fixation and Distractibility in Children from Six to Twenty‐Four Months of Age
Authors: Richards John E. , Turner Erin D.
Published: March 2003

Distractibility during extended visual fixations in children 6 months to 2 years of age was examined. A children's Sesame Street movie (Follow That Bird) was presented to children (N=40) for a minimum of 20 min while fixation was videotaped and heart rate was recorded. Distractors (computer‐generated patterns or another Sesame Street movie) were presented on an adjacent television screen. Consistent with prior research with older preschool‐age children, the latency to turn toward the distractor was a function of the length of the look occurring before distractor onset. For the period immediately before distractor onset, children had a greater sustained lowered heart rate for the trials on which they continued looking at the center television monitor than for the trials on which they looked toward the distractor. This pattern of distractibility suggests attention increases over the course of a look toward the television, and that heart rate changes reflect this increase in attention.
A Microgenetic/Cross‐Sectional Study of Matrix Completion: Comparing Short‐Term and Long‐Term Change
Authors: Siegler Robert S. , Svetina Matija
Published: March 2003

A design that included both microgenetic and cross‐sectional components was used to examine 135 Slovenian children's acquisition of matrix completion proficiency and compare microgenetic and age‐related changes on the task. The microgenetic analyses indicated that children's errors became increasingly variable shortly before they discovered the correct strategy, that the correct strategy became dominant quite quickly following its initial use, that improvements in matrix completion performance generalized to conservation, and that amount of learning correlated positively with IQ. The microgenetic/cross‐sectional comparison, which involved contrasting the changes that occurred over seven experimental sessions with the changes that occurred between ages 6 and 7 years, indicated that the two patterns of change were highly similar.
English–Thai Structure–Based Machine Translation
Authors: Sirinaovakul Booncharoen , Chancharoen Kaewchai
Published: March 2003

We propose an alternative method of machine–aided translation: Structure–Based Machine Translation (SBMT). SBMT uses language structure matching techniques to reduce complicated grammar rules and provide efficient and feasible translation results. SBMT comprises the following four features: (1) source language input sentence analysis; (2) source language sentence transformation into target language structure; (3) dictionary lookup; and (4) semantic disambiguation or word sense disambiguation (WSD) for correct output selection. SBMT has been designed and a prototype system has been implemented that generates satisfactory translations.
An Efficient Code‐Based Voxel‐Traversing Algorithm
Authors: Žalik Borut , Clapworthy Gordon , Oblonšek Črtomir
Published: March 2003

The paper considers an efficient approach to traversing a uniformly‐subdivided space pierced by a line segment. A voxel, as the basic constituent element of the uniformly subdivided space, is restricted to having the form of a cube. The algorithm works in two steps. In the first step, the so‐called Bresenham voxels are identified and, by comparing their position codes, their type of connectivity is determined. To achieve the required connectivity between neighbouring voxels, the second step of the algorithm is applied to find the missing voxels. In this way, the algorithm efficiently switches between face‐, edge‐ and vertex‐connectivity. Although the algorithm works with oating‐point precision, it is extremely computationally efficient, and tests of speed compared with the Müller, Cleary & Wyvill, Amanatides & Woo, and Zemčik algorithms are described.
Polyhedral Surface Modeling with a Diffusion System
Authors: Kuriyama Shigeru , Tachibana Keihachiro
Published: March 2003

This paper presents a method of generating polyhedral surfaces by using a diffusion system that calculates the positional and normal vectors on their vertices. The system generates smooth shapes that satisfy the minimum norm property, and can be extended to imitate the shape controls of curvature continuous surfaces with bias and tension parameters. The shape of a surface is determined by the stable state of nonlinear and local calculations between vertices, and is easily controlled by adding constraints on arbitrary vertices. Such bottom‐up calculation of surfaces enhances flexibility in the interactive design of complicated free‐form shapes.
Interactive Boundary Computation of Boolean Combinations of Sculptured Solids
Authors: Krishnan S. , Gopi M. , Manocha D. , Mine M.
Published: March 2003

We present algorithms and systems for interactive boundary computation of Boolean combinations of sculptured solids. The algorithm is applicable to all spline solids and computes an accurate boundary representation. To speed up the computation, the algorithm exploits parallelism at all stages. It has been implemented on a multi‐processor SGI and takes one second on average per boolean operation to compute the boundary of high degree primitives. The system has also been integrated with an immersive design and manipulation environment. The resulting system is able to interactively evaluate boundaries of the models, display them for model validation and place them at appropriate position using collision detection algorithms.