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The Virtual University: Is It A Panacea
Or A Pandora’s Box?
Dr. Z. S.
Demirdjian, California State University, Long Beach, CA
ABSTRACT
Peter
Drucker, the visionary dean of modern management experts, declared that in
several decades “The big university campuses will be relics and the residential
university is destined to yield to the virtual university.” Increasingly, the
virtual university system is being packaged as a panacea. Could it be that the
virtual university may prove to be the Pandora’s box in a society where
individuals mostly lead isolated life away from parents and extended families?
This study first explores the benefits of graduating from the virtual
university from both an economic and convenience perspective. Then the
researcher evaluates its possible detriments against concepts drawn from social
psychology. The fundamental question is whether there is enough evidence that
students of online education systems might somehow run the risks of
“dehumanization,” endure possible setbacks due to “deficient group experiences,”
and be affected by “deprivation dwarfism” in their development toward maturity.
With the advent of the personal computer, which ushered in the Internet, there
seems to be a revolution in performing both ordinary and extraordinary tasks.
One area which has been lately receiving a great deal of attention is the online
education. While almost all new ideas and innovations attract controversy,
cybereducation has had its lion’s share of hotly debated arguments in recent
years. Hardly a day passes without seeing a periodical that had published a pro
or a con position article on this raging controversy (Johnstone 2001). Peter
Drucker, the visionary guru of modern management thought, predicted that in
several decades “The big university campuses will be relics and the residential
university is destined to yield to the virtual university.” (Macchiette and Roy
2001). At the turn of the millennium, over 1 million students were enrolled in
classes and this number is anticipated to double within a couple of years.
Some prestigious institutions of higher learning are hopping on the bandwagon of
online education, reminiscent of a bunch of pariahs in a feeding frenzy. John
Chambers (CEO of Cisco Systems), one of the guests of Lesly Stahl on “60
Minutes” (Sunday, February 18, 2001) have expressed a resounding opinion by
saying that “Even Harvard, Yale, and Stanford have to change.
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Cross-Cultural Differences in Styles of Negotiation Between North Americans
(U.S.) and Chinese
ABSTRACT
Increasing
interdependency of world economies and globalization of enterprises
characterizes business in the 21st century. Successful negotiation in
this environment requires special attention to cultural differences. This study
investigated the question, “Is there a difference in the preference for
negotiation styles of subjects based on their culture, the type of conflict
situation, and/or the individualism vs. collectivism of their beliefs?” A total
of 100 MBA students from medium-sized U.S. and Taiwanese universities comprised
the sample. Culture was either Taiwan or American. The conflict situation was
either a business or close-friend scenario; and individualism ranged from low or
high. The research design involved a multivariate comparison of negotiation
style preference based on combinations of three dichotomous independent
variables. A composite questionnaire was used to measure the five negotiation
style preferences (accommodation, collaboration, withdrawal, competition, and
consultation), as dependent variables, and the five demographic variables
(gender, marital status, job status, ethnicity, and age) Results tested for
alpha < 0.05 indicated that: a) culture differentiated a preference for
withdrawal and consultation, b) scenario differentiated a preference for
accommodation, collaboration, withdrawal, and competition, c) individualism
differentiated a preference for competition, and d) culture combined with
individualism differentiated a preference for consultation. All other
combinations of independent variables and other negotiation style preferences
were not significantly different. These results will be of special interest to
U.S. companies doing business in Taiwan and vice versa. Recommendations for
further research include replication of this study with a larger sample and /or
a more demographically diverse Taiwanese group of respondents or a more
homogeneous group of U.S. respondents.
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Internet Integration of
Finance Courses
ABSTRACT
This paper
focuses on experiences of a finance faculty in an attempt to use Web-based
instructional material to enhance student performance in his classes. The
discussion highlights the experiences gained in designing and operating course
web pages. The pedagogical issues and teaching methodology relating to student
participation, satisfaction and the consequences of decisions regarding the
above issues are analyzed. Costs and benefits of Internet course integration
are also discussed. Lessons drawn from the above experiences and strategies for
future success are explored. The fast pace of development of content on Internet
and corresponding increase in access to internet-based material has altered the
technological environment of higher education. There are two extreme approaches
to dealing with this change in the technological forces that affect higher
education. On one extreme, there are those who envision the future dominance of
a non-traditional distant learning mode of delivery based on Internet ("the
Internet-university approach"). According to this view Internet will
replace the campus, exclusively serving as a medium for delivering courses, as a
virtual classroom, and as a place for interaction between professors and
students (or students with each other). On the other extreme, there are those
educators who view the Internet as a library of material that would affect
education in a way similar to a traditional physical library. This view
predicts that Internet does not change the educational environment to such a
degree that a finance professor, an accounting, or any other professor (except
perhaps one teaching information systems) has to fundamentally change her
teaching technique.
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An
Examination of Money Laundering Prevention in the U.S.
Dr.
Turan Senguder, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
ABSTRACT
The main issue with money
laundering activities is that no taxes are paid to the government from those
illegal financial gains. Most of the time banks are used to make this type of
illicit financial gain legitimate because banks do not properly maintain
concentration accounts and do not identify beneficial owners of offshore
accounts. Therefore, new laws are needed to close loopholes.
Highly publicized cases involving money
laundering demonstrate the importance of federal supervision and bank vigilance
in money laundering areas. While it is impossible to identify every transaction
at an institution that is potentially illegal or involves illegally obtained
money, financial institutions must take reasonable measures to identify such
transactions in order to ensure their own safe and sound operations and their
reputations.
Therefore, in
October of 1970, Congress enacted the statute commonly known as the Bank Secrecy
Act, or BSA. The BSA authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to require banks
to report cash transactions over $10,000 to the Department of the Treasury. In
addition, the BSA requires domestically set up financial institutions to keep
records that are determined to have a high degree of usefulness in criminal,
tax, and regulatory matters and to implement programs and compliance procedures
to counter money laundering (Schuck & Matthew, 1996). The BSA is a vital
component of the United States’s anti-money laundering efforts. The statute and
its implementing regulations work because of the necessary cooperation between
the Government and financial institutions. It would be almost impossible to
construct an effective system for detecting money laundering and preventing
criminals from using the financial system without cooperation from financial
institutions.
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Employee Retention: Approaches for Achieving Performance Objectives
Dr. Jean
Gordon, Barry University, FL
Dr. Bill
Lowe, Fire Department, GA
ABSTRACT
As
business enters the dawn of the new millennium, it has become more complex than
at any other point in the history of mankind. In today’s fast paced world of
International Business, impossible deadlines, increased costs and high stress
levels, more and more corporations find themselves in the position of
confronting their biggest challenges yet. There are three questions worried
managers ask about their organizations collective futures: Has a new competitor
entered the marketplace? Has a new technology found its way onto the market
without us knowing about it? What is the fear that shakes today’s corporations
to their foundations?
In simple terms, the threat is coming from within the organizations themselves.
The threat most feared by executives has begun to rear its ugly head on the
corporate landscape – Employees are leaving corporations in record numbers and
loyalty seems to be a thing of the past. The challenge for corporations in the
21st Century is their ability to recruit and then retain their most
valuable resource – employees. Imagine if you will, that it is Monday morning
and you are sitting in your office enjoying that first cup of coffee
contemplating what your day will be like. Everything is going well: your phone
messages are clear, there is nobody waiting at your door telling you that they
need this or the world will end, and your inbox is actually empty. You can
start the week out fresh. You then decide to turn on your computer and check
your email. Big mistake! It has finally happened to you and the only thing you
can do is stare at the blinking cursor. One of the brightest stars in your
corporate galaxy has just emailed you a resignation notice. You get your
thoughts together and try to develop an action plan to keep the employee, but
alas all of your efforts will be in vain – you are too late before you begin.
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Validation of the Healthy Work Organizations Model
Dr. James
Browne, University of Southern Colorado, Pueblo, CO
ABSTRACT
This article
extends the research on work-related stress and employee well-being previously
published under the rubric of organizational health by validating the Healthy
Work Organizations (HWO) model proposed by researchers at the National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The HWOs model links three
dimensions of organizational characteristics (i.e., management practices,
organizational climate, and organizational values) to indicators of
organizational health at both the level of the organization and individual
employee. This research meaningfully extends prior empirical work on the HWOs
model (Sauter, Lim and Murphy, 1996; Lim and Murphy, 1997) by validating
construct measures of the model's three dimensions of organizational
characteristics and examining the influence of these characteristics on
organizational health for three occupational groupings of employees (i.e.,
maintenance/production, technical/administrative, and managerial/professional).
The ability of the HWOs model to link characteristics of healthy organizations
with organizational-level and individual-level outcomes is supported and
implications for primary stress-prevention strategies are discussed.
The impact of the industrial work
environment on worker health and safety has been recognized since the advent of
the industrial revolution. During much of this century occupational accidents
and disease were attributed to unsafe work practices, poorly engineered tools
and machines, and unhealthy working environments resulting from workplace
toxins.
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Corporate Put Strategy
ABSTRACT
This paper shows that when corporate insiders have information regarding the
value of the firm that cannot otherwise be credibly communicated to the market,
a corporate put strategy serves as an effective mechanism for conveying that
information. In particular writing corporate put options on a firm’s stock
emerges as a better strategy that corporate stock repurchases for a firm that
has considerable net present value positive projects. When corporate insiders
have proprietary information about the prospects and future revenues of the firm
that the market participants do not know about, they often strive to mitigate
this information asymmetry between insiders and the investors by disclosing
earnings, cost and revenue details, and other relevant information. However,
when information cannot be credibly conveyed or if the proprietary information,
once disclosed could cause the firm losses due to misuse by competitors,
regulators, labor unions, and other claimants to a firm’s assets, then the firm
may use a costly signal to credibly convey this information to the market. For
example, a firm with good prospects may issue large amount of debt that requires
fixed and regularly scheduled payments of interest and principal. Due to
bankruptcy costs, this signal cannot be falsely conveyed. That is, by this
description only a costly signal is effective.
Alternatively, a firm that has good news that it have not been able to
successfully convey to the market may choose to purchase its own shares. This
way, once the underlying uncertainty is resolved and the expected high earnings
that the insiders asymmetrically knew about are realized then, the firm will
stand to gain on the capital appreciation of the shares that it had purchased.
In 1995, the Microsoft corporation came up with an innovative alternative to
buying its own shares in the open market, when it had inside information about
its earnings that it was not able to convey to the market. It wrote put options
on its own shares.
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Cross-Cultural Issues in Internet Marketing
Dr. Robert G. Tian, Erskine College, SC
Dr. Charles Emery, Lander University, SC
ABSTRACT
The development
of Internet has generated strong impacts on marketing world widely; at the same
time the Internet together with many other factors fastens the process of the
globalization. To be aware of and sensitive to the cultural differences is a
major premise for the success in the world marketplace. This would apply to both
traditional marketing and the new electronic based Internet marketing.
This paper is an
examination of "borderless" on line markets where marketers are able to do the
business without boundaries but cross-culturally.
It discusses and
analyzes several key cross-cultural issues in the Internet marketing imperative
from an anthropological perspective. By examining the social-cultural functions
in the interactive marketing process the authors tend to construct a
cross-cultural approach to Internet marketing. It is undeniable that any types
of advancement of technology have generated certain effects on marketing; they
provide great potential benefits to the marketers while create series problems.
The communication superhighway or the Internet, apart from reshaping the
business environment, is providing opportunities and challenges to marketers. As
Bandiwadekar (2001) notices, exporters, importers, international brokers and
others can exploit the many advantages the Internet offers to sell effectively
at a very low cost. The Internet not only makes it easier to obtain quality
secondary and primary marketing information as well as providing value to
existing products or services; also it helps developing marketing channels and
strategies. In fact, the Internet today is considered an increasingly important
factor of the marketing mix. It was claimed that the advent of the Internet is
the most exciting marketing innovation in history. Accordingly a new marketing
area, the Internet Marketing, becomes a hot topic for professionals both in
academics and in practices (Paajanen & Allington 1999).
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Political-Economy Considerations when
Doing Business in Emerging Economies
Dr. Jaime Ortiz,
Florida Atlantic University, FL
ABSTRACT
There are basically two government policy instruments that shape business
strategy during the corporate expansion in emerging economies. However,
political considerations determine, ultimately, the effectiveness of government
intervention in translating their impacts into sustainable corporate revenues.
Misleading strategies can be adopted by local subsidiaries when price policies
and publicly funded technical innovations are assumed exogenous to the
policy-decision making process and are treated independently from the political
factors that affect them. Consequently, this article provides a theoretical
framework for a better understanding of the business performance in emerging
markets as a result of collective action exerted by two competing interest
groups.
Governments intervene in the private sector in a variety of ways and with
differing intensities accross countries (Egelhoff, 1988). In emerging
economies the pattern of government involvement in private corporate activities
ranges from strong price subsidization to heavy income taxation (Havrylyshyn and
van Rooden (2000). Government intervention results in various allocative and
distributive effects that have stimulated discussion about the determinants of
policy decisions. Several studies have attempted to analyze the political and
institutional factors that influence institutional decision-making formation.
Among these studies, Burnetti and Weber (1997) and Scott (1995) develop an
analytical framework to explain and forecast institutional behavior. Their
framework is mainly based on the view that economic markets can not be viewed as
separable from the political markets and that pure transfers among interest
groups do not exist.
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Using Genetic Algorithms For Multicriterion Resource Allocation Problems In
Fuzzy Settings
Dr. Probir
Roy, Henry W. Bloch School of Business, University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO
Dr. Rishi Roy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
ABSTRACT
The establishment of common, shared goals and efficient allocation of resources
are among the most important issues associated with the implementation and
administration of resource allocation programs. Oftentimes such programs are
multicriterion in nature and articulated in fuzzy terms. For example criterion 1
is more important than criterion 2 and so on. Unfortunately, even the best of
normative plans requires a formal process for selecting the 'best' possible
course of action in the face of multiple goals and objectives that may be
inherently incompatible. In this paper, we suggest that Genetic Algorithms (GA
s) provide a very efficient way to solve such problems. This process is a
multi-criterion decision-making mechanism based on finding a 'satisficing'
solution using simulation and ' front-end processing'. Once
the senior executives, in an organization, have identified the normative goals,
scarce resources have to be efficiently allocated in order to attain these
goals. Such resource allocation processes are generally characterized as
follows: Initially there exists a set of inputs to the team planning the
resource allocation. These inputs are derived from both external and internal
stimuli and institutional databases. The external inputs usually represent
requirements or goals, which are either explicitly or implicitly imposed on the
allocation process by external forces; for example, governmental regulations;
market demand (quality, quantity and timing) etc.
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Litigation
Contingencies: What Auditors Need To Know, What Lawyers Are Willing
To Provide
and What Gets Reported
Dr. Jeffry
R. Haber, Hagan School of Business, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY
ABSTRACT
The financial statements serve a variety of purposes for a multitude of users.
Some uses are retrospective, while others infer the future. No matter the use
or user, the statements are only as good as the information they contain. Some
of the information is factual, having already happened. Some of the information
is based on estimates. For most of these estimates, there is a substantial
amount of history and experience on which to base the estimate. The financial
statements serve a variety of purposes for a multitude of users. Some uses are
retrospective, while others infer the future. No matter the use or user, the
statements are only as good as the information they contain. Some of the
information is factual, having already happened. Some of the information is
based on estimates. For most of these estimates, there is a substantial amount
of history and experience on which to base the estimate. Contingencies present
an extremely complex area. Not only is there a question as to amount, but also
to the very existence. By definition, the realization of contingencies is based
on the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a future event. This is typically not
known at the financial statement date. The literature provides that the
accounting treatment for loss contingencies is based on the probability of
negative outcome. For some contingent losses, this information is available
based on past experience. For litigation contingencies, each lawsuit has its
own facts and circumstances.
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Foreign Market Entry
Strategies in the Formerly Socialist Countries: A Case Study
Dr. Esin
Can Mutlu, Yýldýz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
ABSTRACT
Transition economy is a term used to designate the economic situation of
countries who have just got out of a closed economic system trying to adapt to
market economy. The transition process, especially in Eastern European countries
and the former Soviet Union, have started in the period between 1989-1991 and 26
countries of the region have experienced problems in common, i.e. social and
economic problems such as rapid increase in the inflation and unemployment
rates, and the inequalities in income distribution. The disintegration of the
Soviet Union has marked the beginning of this process, namely the transformation
to the market economy. Hence, in the countries of the region mentioned above
this transformation is characterized by transition economies. The transition to
the market economy resulted in foreign investment flow in these countries.
Although they constitute a risky environment, these turbulent markets may be
preferred by international firms, because they offer a virgin market where
internationals can realize their investments according to their specific
strategies. Business strategies have become increasingly important for managers
in the so-called “transition economies”. Business strategy refers to the
process of identifying long-term objectives of a firm, as well as finding and
making use of the resources necessary to attain these objectives. International
firms’ business strategies are very varied, since they ought to recognize and
incorporate into their strategies the cultural, political and economic
differences that each host country presents. As to the transition economies,
international firms employ a variety of strategies, ranging from the formation
of alliances and joint ventures to the acquisition of local firms. Offering a
new battleground for international competition, transition economies, due to
their unstable, uncertain conditions, require some change in the way
international firms
enter new markets.
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International Equity Relationship and Global Trade
Interdependency
Dr. M. T. Vaziri, California State University, San Bernardino, CA
ABSTRACT
International Trade and global capital flow now account for more than
quarter of the US GDP. With an increase in the number and business lines of
trans.-national corporations and the continual move towards a global economy, it
is important to understand the relationships between trade interdependency among
nations and their equity markets. When two or more countries have high trade
interdependency, they make themselves more vulnerable economically and
financially to the trade and monetary policy of others. Generally, when the
ratio of the export-import of the two countries is closed to each other and
significantly larger than the combined size of two counties GDP’s, any increase
in the ratio increase the level of the intra-industry trade. Such increase also
signifies close trade interdependency between two countries with comparable
developmental stages. Such increase in intra-industry trade will provide
opportunity not only for direct investment, but also manifest the benefits of
portfolio investment for the purpose of asset diversification. Many money
managers such as ones in Morgan Stanley Capital International have emphasized
the diversification through investing in these trade dependency markets to
reduce the variance of the portfolio of domestic stocks without reducing the
expected return. Many mutual fund managers even suggest that most investors
should have money in foreign markets with an equity portfolio made up of 20 to
25 percent of non-U.S. stocks which will add return and lower overall risks. The
new millennium will accentuation the sentiment that, the highest performing
stocks are generally found outside of the United States. An important aspect to
remember is the reason that international diversification works so well is the
economies of some countries are out of synch with each other providing a higher
return for less risk.
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Re-Defining
Accounting Concepts: A New Definition of Land
Dr. Jeffry
R. Haber, Hagan School of Business, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY
ABSTRACT
Land is
currently classified as a fixed asset. Intangible assets are those assets that
do not have physical presence, but nonetheless have value and will be benefit
multiple accounting periods. In this paper, a rationale for classifying land as
an intangible asset is presented which contrasts current accepted practice.
“Land” is described by parameters contained in a deed, not by any physical
existence. Dirt, commonly considered the “land,” can be touched, but this is
not “land.” The dirt can be removed without changing the “land.” Likewise any
other growth that is contained within the deed parameters. Classifying land as
an intangible asset would require amortization of the cost, over a period not to
exceed the defined accounting limits. In an accounting sense, land currently
comes in three flavors. There is land as the depletable asset, land as an
investment, and perhaps the most common, land as a component of plant, property
and equipment. The subject of this paper is land that is classified as
part of plant, property and equipment. Current accepted accounting is to
capitalize the cost of the land (or the assigned value when purchased with other
assets, such as buildings and improvements) and include it within the plant,
property and equipment section. Land is the one element of the plant,
property and equipment section that is not subject to depreciation, based on
long-standing practice. Consistent with the accepted practice for land
used as a building site, depreciation need not be recognized … (Paragraph 6)
The asset broadly called land illustrates the need to consider the
characteristics of individual assets in reporting depreciation.
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Task-Technology Fit:
Brick & Mortar Beware?
Dr. Nora M. Martin, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
ABSTRACT
Electronic commerce (ecommerce) takes on many forms and addresses all aspects
both internal and external to an organization utilizing information technology.
It includes but is not limited to business-to-business transactions, business to
end consumer transactions and information gathering by both businesses and
consumers. Although initially viewed as a tool to arm consumers with product
information, the Internet over the past decade has made the transition from an
information tool to a viable shopping alternative. The Internet appears to fit
the bill for these consumer-buying preferences in certain areas of the market.
The prime areas of growth for Internet purchases are in music, computer
equipment and travel (Brannback1997). Understanding the task-technology of the
Internet will prove viable for business owners in terms of analyzing their own
needs and aspirations with regards to this technology. Although the major impact
is predicted to be in business-to-business, 1.3 trillion by 2003, there is
considerable impact in business-to-consumer electronic commerce sector (Grewal,
Comer, Mehta 2001). In 1998, one third of Internet users made purchases and the
other 2/3 used the Internet to research product information (Ackerman, 1998).
Electronic commerce sales comprised $10 billion of the total sales. The
consumer has several viable channels to choose from in terms of consumer
purchases. These alternatives can be categorized as local shopping (local
retail stores), shopping out of town (out shopping), and shopping through mail,
computer or by telephone (in-home shopping (Blakney, Sekely 1994).
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An Operational Theory
Integrating: Cash Discount and Product Pricing Policies
Dr. William
Lim, The University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB
Dr.
Muhammad Rashid, The University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB
ABSTRACT
We present a
simple operational theory to integrate the firm’s product pricing decision with
its cash discount policy and argue that a firm’s price setting behavior requires
simultaneous determination of both a cash discount rate and a pre-discount
product price. We show that the cash discount elasticity affects the optimal
cash discount rate more significantly while the product price elasticity affects
the optimal product price more significantly. We then discuss several practical
implications. This paper determines simultaneously the optimal levels of the
cash discount rate in credit policy and the pre-discount product price and shows
the effects of price elasticities of demand on these optimal levels. In the
literature of credit policy, very little research exists that focuses on
integrating a firm=s credit decision with its product pricing policy. One
exception has been Rashid and Mitra (1999). Although Rashid and Mitra do show
the effect of a product market variable, namely the price elasticity of demand,
on the firm=s optimal cash discount rate, yet their model cannot be considered
an integrating attempt because the cash discount rate is the only choice
variable in their analysis as they assume the pre-discount product price to be
fixed. Integrating a firm=s credit policy with its product pricing approach is
an important area of research recognized by Kim and Atkin (1978) who state,
A..., it is conceptually incorrect to analyze credit programs in isolation of
pricing schemes.@ (p. 403) The focus on cash discount rates, product prices and
price elasticities is interesting for at least two reasons. First, Ng, Smith and
Smith (1999, pp. 1126-1127) find that discount rates are significantly lower
when firms sell to wholesalers than when they sell to retailers.
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Perceived Uncertainty: How Different Environmental Sectors Moderate
Strategy-Performance Relationships
Dr. Kamalesh Kumar, The University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI
Dr. Karen Strandholm, The University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI
ABSTRACT
Results of a survey of 159 acute care hospitals were used to test
hypotheses relating to the specific ways that the environment modifies the
strategy‑performance relationship. Results indicated that the environment
moderates the strength and not the form of the above relationship. Specific
environmental conditions that facilitated the success of a differentiation
strategy as well as a cost leadership strategy were identified. Implications for
hospital administrators are also addressed. Environments are an important consideration for
organizations, since they create both problems and opportunities. While
organizations depend on the environment for scarce and valued resources, they
often must cope with unstable, uncertain, and unpredictable events (Daft,
Sormunen, & Parks, 1988). Indeed, the logic relating environment to strategy
and, in turn, to performance is compelling Empirical demonstration of the
match between environmental characteristics and strategy and its performance
implications have unequivocally shown that the success of an organization is
incumbent on the organization's ability to align or match its strategy to its
environments (e.g.. Hambrick, 1982, Miller, 1989; Kim & Lim, 1988; McArthur &
Nystrom, 1991; Lamont, Marlin, & Hoffman, 1993; Boyd & Fulk, 1996). However,
while research results clearly demonstrate that environmental conditions
interact with strategy to affect performance, little evidence exists about the
specific ways in which various environmental dimensions relate to strategies and
performance. Empirical studies that have directly addressed this issue
(Prescott, 1986; McArthur and Nystrom, 1991) present contradictory evidence
about the precise type of moderator influence that environmental conditions have
on strategy-performance relationships. While Prescott (1986) concluded that
"environments modify the strength but not the form of relationship between
strategy variables and performance," (pp. 340), McArthur and Nystrom (1991)
found evidence that show that "environmental dimensions moderate the form of
strategy-performance relationships" (pp. 357).
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North-South Gender Role Differences in Business
Dr. Joel D. Nicholson, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
Dr. Yim-Yu Wong, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
ABSTRACT
Brusiness related gender role attitudes across two South American countries
(Venezuela and Chile) and one North American country ( the U.S.A.) were examined
across a sample of 3,101 managers, professionals and upper division business
students. Dorfman and Howell's (1988) revision of Hofstede's (1980)
work-related cultural value scale was used to measure masculinity versus
femininity. High masculinity scores indicate strong gender role typing in the
work place (i.e.; there are certain jobs only men can do). High femininity
scores indicate a diminished role of gender in attitudes towards work roles.
The data indicated that males in each country held significantly different
attitudes towards the role of women in the work force. In addition, the Chilean
respondents had stronger gender role typification responses than did the U.S.
or Venezuelans. Directions for future studies are given.
Research on Latin American cultural differences continues to grow. A field once
considered a sub-specialty area of history, sociology, and political science has
grown into an interdisciplinary area of study with specialties of its own. A
booming area of research in this growing field is the study of women and
families in Latin America. Scholars have explored the history of the family in
Latin America (see for example, Balmori, Voss, and Wortman, 1984; Adler Lomnitz
and Perez-Lizaur, 1987; Saragoza, 1988; and Smith, 1984, among others.) In the
area of women's work and development, scholars have also documented the numerous
and diverse forms of women's work experiences in Latin America and have begun to
challenge long established theoretical frameworks such as modernization and
dependency theory (see for example, Beneria and Roldan, 1987; Deere and Leon,
1987; Ruiz and Tiano, 1987; Nash and Safa, 1986, among others.)
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Gender and Perception of Service Quality in the Hotel Industry
Jabulani Ndhlovu, Nova Southeastern University, Ft Lauderdale, FL
Dr. Turan Senguder, Nova Southeastern University, Ft
Lauderdale, FL
ABSTRACT
Research on gender has been attempted in various
disciplines with conflicting results. Success in the implementation of a
balanced service quality delivery program in the hotel industry needs a deeper
understanding of this subject. This study investigated the question, “Does the
perception of service quality in hotels differ by gender?” A total of 241
guests, consisting of 127 (52.7%) males and 114 (47.3%) females at three 5-star
hotels in Jamaica was studied. The research design involved collection of data
from guest of three 5-star hotel by a questionnaire method to measure customer
expectations of service quality. Demographic variables of gender, age and
education were recorded. Data analysis was done using ANOVA and t-Test. Using
an alpha <0.05 for significance, results indicated that the perception of
service quality in hotels did not differ by gender. (t=0.33; df=239; p=0.623).
This results present challenges to some hotel managers who believe that the
perception of service quality differ by gender. Recommendations for further
research include replication of this study with a larger sample. Additionally
research is needed on moods states of respondents and a critical analysis of
gender related problems affecting guests in hotels. Although some gender
differences are biologically founded, most of the stereotypic attributes and
roles linked to gender arise more from cultural design than from biological
identity (Bandura, 1986). Gender status makes a big difference and it carries
enormous significance, not only for dress and play, but for the skills
cultivated, the occupations pursued, the functions performed in family life and
the nature of one’s leisure pursuits and social relationships.
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Analytilitic Framework for Global Transfer-Pricing
Dr. Virginia Anne Taylor, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ
ABSTRACT
Multinational Enterprises can organize their cross- border transactions as
international trade, contract modes of coordination, or direct equity
investment. All three modes require transfer-pricing decisions. This study is
an interdisciplinary examination of the motivation and regulation of transfer
pricing activities. As globalization and trade liberalization trends continue
to emerge even small firms find themselves doing business in more than one tax
jurisdiction (Carter, 1998); they too must learn to navigate the international
transfer price jungle. The accounting and economics literature, government
documents and business publications are reviewed to uncover the underlying
rationale for various government regulations and multinational enterprise price
manipulation when reporting of intra-firm transactions. An analytical framework
is designed to bring order, structure, and organization to the environmental
complexity and thereby improve the effectiveness and optimality of these
decisions. Insights from the literature suggest four drivers of transfer
pricing for cross-border intra-firm transactions in goods, knowledge, and
services. When a firm forms a market closes; for better or worse resources are
henceforth allocated by the visible hand of managerial authority rather than the
invisible hand of the competitive price system. The primary advantage of a
multinational firm versus a domestic corporation lies in its flexibility to
transfer resources across boarders through a globally maximizing network. (Kogut,
1983) Transfer prices are the value assigned to intermediate goods, which move
between the divisions of a vertically integrated firm.
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Linking
Organizational Goals and Objectives to Employee Performance: A Quantitative
Perspective
Dr. Charles S. Duncan, Army Training Support Center, Ft. Eustis, VA
Dr. J. D. Selby-Lucas, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA
Dr. William Swart, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA
ABSTRACT
Training is a multi-billion dollar industry, and with the advent of the training
technology revolution, and the possibilities it provides to business,
government, as well as the academic communities, it seems important to determine
if the money invested in training by these communities is providing the expected
performance on the part of those who are trained. This paper examines training
and performance in a quantitative perspective, by discussing the linkages of
organizational goals and objectives to employee performance. Each year literally
billions of dollars are spent on training. With the recent “explosion” of
training technology, and the impact of the web on training delivery
applications, industry, academia, and the government have become increasingly
interested in the correlation between training programs, and performance
expectations as a result of successful completion of courses. The necessity to
study this relationship is heightened by the cost for training, which has now
become a multi-billion dollar business. While many in the training world have
been content with sending learners to traditional courses, consisting of
standard classroom settings, and paying the tuition, and associated per diem,
today training can be done without the necessity of leaving the work setting.
The training possibilities resultant from training technology, have become wide
and varied. The industry has gone from videotape in the 1960’s to web-based
delivery some 40 years later. Each technological change has created training
applications, and often, additional expenses. Thus, the necessity naturally
evolved to start examining training programs not only from a content
perspective, but also from a cost for performance return, view. While all may
tout the value of training, few seem equipped to determine the corporate return
on investment for the time spent learning how to do the job.
Companies would not be profitable if they approached hardware procurement or
business expansion in the same way they look at training expenditures.
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The Tower: An
Experiential Simulation
Dr. Dietrich
Schaupp, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
Dr. Barbara
Parsons, Monongalia Health System, Inc., Morgantown, WV
ABSTRACT
"The Tower," a
simulation exercise, is the evolutionary end product of work done initially to
present the concepts of change, Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) and
empowerment to a group of manufacturing managers. The exercise was designed to
help implement an organizational development initiative for a major
international corporation. Over time, this exercise has evolved into a
"self-contained" demonstration of organizational change that has universal
applicability to many management and organizational functions. This
experiential activity was originally designed to provide approximately a
one-hour activity within a six to eight hour seminar, the purpose of which was
to provide an organizational simulation in which strategic and operational
decisions are made and assessed. The final product as presented here satisfies
the following purposes: To engage in a
simulation that will highlight the underlying concepts associated with CQI,
empowerment, and organizational change. To explore the dynamics of teamwork,
competition and organizational change. o highlight the importance of competition
and its energizing effect. To validate the synergistic effects associated with
teamwork and development. To be applicable in a variety of organizational
settings, cultures and leadership styles.
The "Tower" as an exercise has evolved into
a broad philosophical statement about organizational survival, individual and
organizational adaptation, and ultimately the impact of employee empowerment.
Employee empowerment serves as the foundation for the simulation and the
skeletal framework that gives body and movement to the endeavor.
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The Weighted Fair
Division Problem
Dr. Somdeb Lahiri, Indian Institute of Management and University of
Witwatersrand at Johannesburg
ABSTRACT
The exact
problem we are concerned with in this paper is of the following nature. There
are a finite number of producers each equipped with a utility function of the
standard variety, which converts an input into a producer specific output. An
allocation of the input among the producers is sought which is Pareto efficient
i.e. there is no reallocation which increases the output of one producer without
decreasing the output of any other. This, as is very widely known, corresponds
to maximizing the weighted sum of the utility functions subject to a resource
constraint. Alternatively, the weights can be interpreted as exogenously
specified prices of the separate outputs and then the problem reduces to
maximizing the aggregate revenue subject to a resource constraint. Our analysis
focuses on the relations between the optimal solutions and the price and
aggregate resource pair. Further, we also study the effect on the former of
varying the latter pair. Formal graduate education of most economists begins by
an exhaustive study of consumer choice theory. The paradigm that is generally
favored is one where given a vector of prices and income, a rational agent
equipped with a utility function, maximizes it subject to the budget constraint
that the prices and income imply. The utility function is supposed to reflect
the preferences of the consumer. An adequate analysis of the theory for our
purposes can be found in Luenberger [1995]. If the utility function is
interpreted as a rule which transforms inputs into a desirable output, the same
model of consumer choice can be used to model the behaviour of an agent who
seeks to maximize output (:or for that matter revenue at exogenously given
prices for the output he produces), subject to the cost of production not
exceeding a given investment (which is irreversible).
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Venture Capital and Entrepreneurial
Finance in China: A Case Study
ABSTRACT
In 1977, Mr. Wu was employed
as the head carpenter for a middle school in Huai Nan, a city with a population
of about one million in Anhui province of China. His monthly salary was 60 RMB
(less than $8 at today's exchange rate). He took care of the school's needs for
furniture such as desks, bookshelves and occasionally made furniture for the
teachers. The following year, Mr. Wu started his own small business.
Initially, it wasn't a brilliant product idea or a new innovation that motivated
him to switch careers from a state-employed worker to a private entrepreneur.
It was simply that Mr. Wu and his wife both were hoping for a better standard of
living for themselves. Mr. Wu set up shop on a sidewalk. He would show up with
his carpentry tools and supplies on the same corner of that sidewalk every day,
take orders for small furniture and make them on the spot. Mrs. Wu took a job
as a tailor to make sure that the family made it through these lean years. In
that time period, traditional "sidewalk" businesses were prohibited in China.
The communist government considered these businesses "bourgeois enterprises".
However, despite being illegal, Mr. Wu's business was initially too small to
attract government officials' attention. His was a tiny traditional street
workshop with a single owner operator. From the local communist party's point
of view this type of operation did not fit in the mold of typical capitalist
businesses which according to that dogma exploit workers to generate corporate
profits. Despite this, the survival of his business was by no means certain.
After all, he was there on the street without a license or an operations permit
from the authorities. Mr. Wu worked hard, producing pieces of furniture that
met his customers' expectations on quality and cost.
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Strategic Decision Making In Today’s Managed Care Environment
Dr. Jeff Ritter, President / CEO, Strategic Consulting, Inc., FL
ABSTRACT
Strategic planning in health care today has become extremely important. In
selecting health care coverage, consumers see managed care as a double-edge
sword. On the one hand, the cost of a managed care plan is much more appealing
than traditional indemnity plans. One negative impact is losing the freedom of
choice in selecting a particular provider, who many not participate in the
network. What makes this even more complicated, is when business and government
mandates or requires consumers to join a managed care plan. In this era of
market based managed health care delivery, effective communication is more
important than ever before (Root and Stableford, 1999). The article goes on to
discuss how this is even more complex with the Medicare and Medicaid
populations. Marketing refers to attempts to manage behavior by offering
reinforcing incentives and/or consequences in an environment that invites
voluntary exchange (Rothschild, 1999). The level of satisfaction is correlated
to the ability to select a plan without coercion. Marketing strategy will play
a vital role in healthcare decision-making. Marketing strategies that involve
segmenting, mass customization, and competitive pricing will come out ahead (Veit,
1999). Brand loyalty in the Medicare marketplace is what most managed care
organizations strive for. This has become extremely difficult with so many
plans leaving the Medicare market (Health Affairs, 2000) because of reduced
reimbursements from the government. One essential strategy is using
multi-channel communications that include printed materials, public service
announcements, seminars and workshops. Health plans must address long term
strategy issues such as entering and leaving certain markets. There are
economic, social, and ethical issues associated with these decisions.
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An Examination of
Management Philosophy
Dr. Turan Senguder, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
What is your personal
management philosophy? The first job of the management is to make a business
perform well. The management takes given resources -- such as manpower, money,
machine and materials -- and orchestrates them into production to accomplish
organizational goals. When employees’ basic human needs go unsatisfied, their
psychological and physical health as well as their productivity suffers. The
participative management meets such needs. Participation in an organizational
development is likely to include problem solving, decision making and goal
setting activities. Employees may participate in any or all of the areas at any
one time. Management should share decision-making authority and responsibility
with its workers. Management should also communicate openly and candidly.
However, this approach may not work well with all employees. Some workers can
take only limited responsibility. They prefer to let others shoulder the main
burden of responsibility. Therefore, management should differentiate talents
and energies of their workers. Each worker is uniquely complex; To help workers
achieve their best performance level, management must understand each worker’s
needs. Needs are what make all of us tick. Workers are motivated to behave in
certain ways because of their need for money, security and status. Work helps
to satisfy a worker’s physical and emotional needs. Weekly paychecks, for
example, enable workers to obtain food, clothes and housing. Besides security,
workers may also seek status through promotion, a merit salary increase, the
learning of new skills, and the invention of a new product.
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Measuring Destination Attractiveness: A Proposed Framework
Dr. Sandro
Formica, ESSEC Business School, Paris, France
ABSTRACT
The driving force of the tourism industry is represented by the attractions
offered by the destination. Travelers have no reason to visit destinations that
have nothing to offer. Tourism research has demonstrated that attraction studies
are necessary in the understanding of the elements that encourage people to
travel. Achieving the goal of measuring destination attractiveness requires the
understanding of its components and their relationships. There are two ways of
examining attractiveness: by studying the attractions or by exploring the
attractiveness perceptions of those who are attracted by them. As competition
among tourism destinations increases and tourist funding decreases, it is of
vital importance to evaluate the inventory of existing attractions and the
perceptions that travelers have of those attractions. Tourism literature
provides only a limited number of studies addressing destination attractiveness.
The purpose of this study is to explore past studies on destination
attractiveness and propose a procedure for its measurement. The principles of
regional analysis, tourism planning, and tourism attraction research provide the
foundation for such evaluation. The proposed procedure is based on the
assumption that tourism is a system, which is the result of supply and demand
interaction. The tourism phenomenon consists of two essential components: an
origin and a destination (Uysal, 1998). The first is labeled as tourism demand
(representing the tourists) and the second is described as tourism supply and
includes elements such as natural resources, cultural attractions, and
historical monuments.
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Predicting Leaders and Team Leaders in Times of Great Change
Dr. Barbara E. Kovach, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
ABSTRACT
People in organizations have
been experiencing unprecedented change in the last decades, as a result of
competition from domestic and foreign settings and new technological
capabilities. As a consequence, organizations have been seeking means to
heighten their productivity. Two of the most frequently touted results of this
search are a call for leadership and more effective teams. Yet as psychologists
review the literature in the mid- to late-1990s, one after another comments on
the lack of data and/or lack of research over the preceding 30 years. We want
people who know how to cope with change, but know little about them. We want
leaders who can live in a changing field, but do not know how to shape our
selection procedures to cull these individuals from the managerial pool. We
want good teams, but know little about who is a good team member and/or a good
team leader. In response to this need and the research literature’s focus on
individual perceptions and expectations as a key to understanding peoples’
organizational behavior a set of instruments were designed two decades ago and
since tested on over 5,000 individuals. The first two instruments, and key to
the series, are the Personal Expectations Inventory (PXI, Kovach and Morris,
1980) and the Organizational Expectations Inventory (OXI, Kovach and Morris,
1980). Now, given two carefully-monitored samples of relatively similar
composition and size, one from the 1980s, and one from the 1990s, and one much
smaller sample of fast-trackers (Kovach, 1989), will an analysis of their scores
answer following questions: (1) can a critical subset of scores from the early
sample, predict the strong performers (as independently evaluated) in the second
sample? and, (2) do the results relate to perceptions of leadership and
teamwork?
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Practical-Theoretical Approach in the Application of Theory Models of
Organizational Behavior
Dr. Robert DeYoung, Saint Thomas University, Miami, FL
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses
the idea of incorporating a practical-theoretical approach to the application of
theory relevant to the instruction of organizational behavior. In an effort to
move beyond the mere traditional theoretic-based approach of instruction, the
practical-theoretical approach brings to life the concepts, allowing the student
to experience the learning within the controlled confines of academia. The paper
identifies two important components necessary to the practical-theoretical
approach: (1) The identification of a commonality among the students and (2) the
discovery of meaningfulness in the issue being discussed. Commonality refers to
something each student has in common. Meaningfulness refers to anything that is
important to each student. The organizational behavior theories used as an
example in this paper include Bandura’s Model of Organizational Behavior and E.
F. Harrison’s Rational Model of Decision Making. The Model of Organizational
Behavior is used as a foundation throughout the course to establish a clear
understanding of the behavioral dynamics that occur inside the organization. The
practical application of the theory-based Rational Model of Decision-Making
brings to life an understanding of the theory that implicitly applies to the
student. The use of the practicum supports the importance of the
practical-theoretical approach to pedagogy. In the ongoing effort to bring
innovative methodologies into the traditional classroom, one must sidestep the
mainstream, the status quo, and consider the appropriateness of practicality.
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Using Organizational Behavior Theories To
Manage Clinical Practice Guideline Implementation
Dr. Nancy Borkowski, St. Thomas University, Miami, FL
Dr. William
Allen, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, MA
ABSTRACT
By building on sociological
and organizational psychology concepts versus reinventing the wheel, healthcare
administrators can develop the right mix of management strategies to assist in
the adoption and implementation of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) into
their organizations. Physicians control approximately 80 percent of how and
where medical services are delivered. Therefore, concerns over healthcare costs
and delivering quality, efficient, and effective medical care have led to a
growing interest in the standardization of and accountability in health care
delivery by altering physicians' practice patterns through the use of clinical
practice guidelines (CPGs). It is estimated that a CPG costs an organization
between $100,000 and $500,000 to develop. As such, there is great concern as to
why CPGs have been remarkably unsuccessful in influencing physician practice
patterns (Greco & Eisenberg, 1993; Kosecoff et al., 1987; Lomas et al, 1989).
The primary reason cited for this lack of success has been the
disproportionately little attention paid to CPGs’ implementation relative to
their development and dissemination (Fang et al., 1996; Mittman et al., 1992).
Understandably so. Implementing a CPG guideline is far more difficult than its
development because implementation requires widespread physician behavior
changes, which is a complex undertaking (Epstein, 1991; Main et al., 1995; Sisk,
1998). The intent of this paper is to assist healthcare managers understand why
physicians are slow to apply CPGs in their medical practices by taking
well-established theories from the behavioral science literature and applying
them to current research.
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Market Orientation, Organizational Competencies and Performance:
An Empirical
Investigation of a Path-Analytic Model
Dr.
Kamalesh Kumar, The University of Michigan-Dearborn, MI
ABSTRACT
Results of a survey of
159 acute care hospitals were used to test examine the specific ways in which
market orientation of an organization contributes to the creation of
organizational competencies that contribute to superior performance. Results
indicated that market orientation makes a significant contribution to the
creation of a number of organizational competencies which in turn lead to
superior performance in the areas of cost containment and success of new
services. Implications for managers were also addressed. Recently, researchers
have shown an increasing interest in the relationship between market orientation
and organizational performance (Jaworski & Kohli, 1993; Slater and Narver, 1994;
Greenley 1995a, 1995b, Kumar, Subramanian and Yauger, 1997, 1998). Market
orientation is defined as "the organization wide generation of market
intelligence, dissemination of intelligence across departments and organization
wide responsiveness to it" (Kohli & Jaworski, 1990, p. 3). More specifically,
market orientation involves generation and dissemination of market intelligence
that is composed of information about the customers and competitors, sharing of
this information among all functions in an organization, and rapid managerial
action in response to this information. An organization that is market oriented
also possesses a strong long-term orientation to ensure that preferences of
current and potential customers are identified as also the ability of current
and potential competitors to satisfy these preferences.
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Caribbean and US Shopping Behavior:
Contrast and Convergence
Dr. J. A. F. Nicholls, Florida International University Miami, FL
Dr. Sydney Roslow, Florida International University Miami, FL
Dr. Lucette B. Comer, Purdue University, Indiana
ABSTRACT
Situational influences devolve from factors that are pertinent to a particular
time and place and specific to a potential purchase. In this study, patrons of
a mall in the United States are compared with patrons of a mall in Trinidad in
respect of demographic attributes, situational variables, and shopping
behavior. There were wide-ranging differences between the two populations in
respect to the possession of situational variables and purchase behaviors,
although the difference in demographics was limited to a single attribute.
Since all 17 situational variables exhibited significant statistical
differences, this suggest that within the United States population situational
factors are operating dissimilarly than for the population in Trinidad. In
light of these findings, alternative ways in which merchants might react to
these findings are suggested. From studies of consumer behavior, readers are
taught that individuals have needs and wants that they strive to satisfy. In an
exchange economy, people shop to acquire the goods and services which they
believe will satisfy these needs and wants. A retailer with international
operations may be interested in knowing whether there is any commonality in the
shopping behaviors of consumers in different parts of the world. This study
constitutes an initial step in exploring the question of commonality in global
shopping behavior. Consumer shopping behavior may be influenced by internal and
external factors. Thus, a basic factor is consumers= search patterns. The
extent to which individuals utilize particular forms of transportation, allocate
time to the shopping process, and consider themselves safe from crime, among
others, is investigated. Situation factors also influence shopping behavior.
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Intercultural
Perceptions of Business and Management Practices:
A German-American Learning
Experience
Dr. Josef Neuert,
Prof. Achim Opel, University of Applied Sciences Fulda, Germany
Dr.
Dietrich L. Schaupp,
West Virginia
University, Morgantown, WV
ABSTRACT
The increasing
globalization of societal and economic activities around the world has generated
much interest in and a need for joint partnerships between international
businesses and educational institutions that teach management education. Of
major interest in business today is how to structure international business
operations in order to gain competitive advantages in international markets. As
more and more companies expand into international markets, it is imperative that
managers become prepared to discharge their duties in a global context. This
paper first examines specific cultural dimensions of influence on international
management. It then describes the West Virginia University – University of
Applied Sciences Fulda joint EMBA program, which was designed to create a
greater awareness and understanding among students for intercultural management
aspects, especially within Germany and the European Union. The discussion of
this program is followed by the outline of the basic research approach of the
joint German-American learning experience. Finally, after describing the design
of the field study some major results and conclusions are presented.
Assuming that
management perspectives and practices are universal most certainly will result
in unintended consequences for international business operations. There are,
indeed, significant differences between managing an international company and a
domestic one (Fatehi, 1996).
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An Ex-Post Investigation of Interest Rate Parity in Asian Emerging Markets
Dr. Todd M. Shank,
University of Portland, Portland, OR
ABSTRACT
Divergent views exist
regarding the question of how interest rate differentials among foreign
countries relate to corresponding exchange rate differentials among those same
economies. Interest rate parity (IRP) theory suggests that if interest rates
are higher in one country than they are in another, the former country's
currency will sell at a discount in the forward market (Van Horne, 1998). In
other words, interest rate differentials and forward-spot exchange rate
differentials should offset one another. If not, opportunities for profit by
engaging in covered interest arbitrage would exist, although profits must
be sufficiently large enough to cover transactions costs and other market
frictions. Several studies over the past two decades have examined the validity
of interest rate parity in major world markets. Most of these studies have
focused on countries with established forward financial markets in foreign
currencies since these data are required to test "covered" IRP. The expectation
is that the level of informational efficiency of these major markets is higher
than other (less established) markets, making IRP more probable and
opportunities to earn economic profits from covered interest arbitrage less
likely. Moreover, financial market frictions such as the regulatory and
political barriers among established markets have decreased over this period,
further reducing arbitrage opportunities in foreign exchange markets. In
testing the validity of IRP in emerging markets where no forward markets in
currencies exists, "uncovered" IRP is used where the question is whether the
change in the actual exchange rate between two countries equals that previously
implied by the interest rate differential (Van Horne, 1998). The current
practical relevance of this issue is that many large hedge funds now in
operation seek to exploit market repricings across currencies (Marchan and
Atlas, 1994).
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The American Academy of Business
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