Many previous studies have examined how personal benefits or the refusal to exert the required effort (also known as ‘enjoying the quiet life’) can lead managers to take actions that hurt their companies. The recent research by Todd Gormley of Olin and David Matsa of Kellogg focuses on an overlooked third motivation for managers acting […]
Read More… from The Unintended Consequences of Risk Averse Managers
For the past 20 years, like a herd of stampeding buffaloes, companies have been moving en masse their manufacturing to low-labour-cost countries. Despite the occasional bad publicity as working conditions in some of these countries become known, the tidal wave of offshoring seems to make financial sense: companies save money on wages, which are reflected […]
Read More… from Outsourcing Vs Reshoring: The Case for Local Manufacture
New research, focusing on accounting ethics and using a carefully controlled experiment, reveals the power of social influence on the ethical standards of managers. After seeing honest budget reporting from another manager — a peer — a manager is more likely to be honest: despite an incentive to inflate costs to secure a bigger budget, […]
Read More… from How Peers Influence Ethics: Good Eggs and Bad Apples
Corporate social responsibility and sustainable development are increasingly linked to competitive advantage and innovation. Harvard’s Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer have, in recent years, ‘reframed’ CSR as ‘shared value’, pointing to the business opportunities in ‘unmet social needs’. Meanwhile, the external pressures for responsible business — from governments and regulators and from shareholders […]
Read More… from How Well Is CSR Embedded in Business Strategy?
One way that organizations ensure that they accomplish certain objectives is through management control systems. These systems reward and promote employees according to certain criteria, in order to achieve goal congruence. According to the authors, very little research into the design of control systems that lead to goal congruence takes into account the role that […]
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