Business and Society

Imagine that you are starting a new business. What would it be? Why did you choose it? Why would you choose a personal enterprise over working for somebody else (or why wouldn’t you)? What rewards would you be looking for? What personal costs would you be prepared to tolerate? Would you attempt it alone, or would you look for partner(s)? What are the ways you could fund such a startup? Would it be local, or seek a wider market?

In this paper I urge the reader to reflect upon inefficiency, the important role it may play in Thai society, and the impact that it’s destruction at the hands of industrialization and globalization may have on Thailand.  I begin by examining the historical downfall of Chinese civilization and showing how inefficiency, far from being undesirable, was an integral part of the culture. I suggest that the destruction of inefficiency may have played an important role in the downfall of traditional Chinese culture and the rise of the authoritarian state.  I move on to examine the connection between efficiency and technology and the impact that efficiency may have via the technology that it forces us to adopt. Finally, drawing upon the work of Neil Postman, I pose 6 questions that should be asked about the adoption of western efficiency. I pose a few tentative answers suggesting various and far reaching destructive implications this social change could bring about. My purpose, however, is not to answer these questions peremptorily, but to bring them to the attention of the public with the hope that they will give rise to a desperately needed discussion about the social ramifications of globalization and industrialization. Far to often we have been fallen into the habit of discussing how we can bring about more industrialization without ever pausing to consider whether and to what extent we should bring about more industrialization. This paper is about the possibility that the latter, and not the former is the more pressing issue.

The emergence of innovative business models suggests that the foundational assumptions of competitive capitalism are increasingly in doubt. Business schools, however, appear to be followers rather than leaders in this historical moment of social change. While consumers and businesses are experimenting with new models of capitalism, business schools have been slow to change. What role should business schools play in this emerging new era of purpose-driven capitalism and business with purpose? We explore this question in conversation with six global experts, three in academia and three in practice, who are leading this change. The experts conclude that business must serve the needs of humanity rather than the needs of business. Business schools, therefore, need to reduce their emphasis on how to make businesses more rational and efficient and should instead focus on how businesses can help address more fundamental questions of the human condition.

Purpose This paper aims to present the outcomes from 40 one-to-one semi-structured interviews and 12 focus group sessions with company secretaries, chairmen, CEOs, chief financial officer (CFOs), senior independent director (SIDs) and NEDs, about the role of the company secretary. Design/methodology/approach Lukes’ (1974, 2005) third dimension of power is engaged in thematic analysis of this strategic leadership role and its contribution to Board effectiveness. Findings The findings identify “discretionary capacity” as being critical to effective role contribution. Research limitations/implications Whilst the inquiry included international participants, e.g. multi-national Board members and company secretaries, it was conducted within the UK. Practical implications Having a range of discretion is particularly necessary at this time, when the new governance regime is broadening its demands on the role of the company secretary to interact with wider stakeholders. Social implications B...

Innovation can be described as the application of new ideas, devices or processes which in business is most often seen as a catalyst to growth. The sources of innovation are many, however recent attention has focussed on the role of social and environmental drivers. This in turn has led to the notion of ‘responsible innovation’ which demands the consideration of ethical and social aspects during innovation processes as a means to lead not only to technological innovations which are socially acceptable but also socially desirable. Whilst the development of responsible innovation is welcome, we suggest that the concept has predominantly been applied from a technocentric perspective at the level of product and service thus maintaining the current paradigm that business’s primary role is to create economic value through profit. We argue that truly responsible innovation takes place at the level of the business model itself as a means to reconceptualise the fundamental role of business i...

The Business education and the liberal arts education most of our students receive often seem to be done in remote and separate vacuums, which can lead to a real disconnect for students.  While there is certainly a lot of work to be done in helping the humanities to better understand business value and purpose, the goal of this essay is rather to focus on how the humanities might help to humanize business—particularly, how utilitarianism, one of the great British theories, may help to humanize business.

Questo documento mira a esplorare il rapporto tra media e sistema politico in un paese con una democrazia ancora giovane come l'Albania. Il rapporto tra media e politica ha assunto una nuova centralità nella nostra società in conseguenza dell'affermazione delle nuove tecnologie di comunicazione. L'importanza che la televisione ha assunto nella società ha profondamente modificato il modo di collegare la politica con il sistema informativo. La televisione e stato il mezzo che ha avuto un profondo effetto sulla scena politica albanese, sufficientemente per cambiare la società e la politica stessa. Pertanto, ha cambiato la società e la politica attraverso la sua capacità non solo di raggiungere milioni di cittadini e di elettori, ma anche quella di formare i pareri e le scelte di voto. Questa ricerca è stata condotta attraverso un approccio qualitativo con l'obiettivo di comprendere, attraverso l'analisi diachronica, l'evoluzione del sistema dei media in Albania e il suo impatto sul sistema politico.

Shadab Fariduddin, talks to Marylou Andrew about what’s needed to make CSR activities truly effective in Pakistan. The interview appeared in September-October 2010 issue of Aurora, a dedicated magazine for marketing and advertising in Pakistan.

For his entire life Dr. HermanSJr. soaked up every bit of knowledge that came his way, and now he is on a mission to inform entrepreneurs on how to reprogram their minds.

“The first thing you have to do is see that you have a problem. Without realizing your problem you will not improve no matter what you do.”

Dr. HermanSJr. informs us on how destructive fear can be to an entrepreneur, how knowing your mind can translate into success, and what keeps us from following through on ventures we were previously ecstatic about starting.

This episode is excellent for an entrepreneur who is stuck in a rut or for someone who simply needs a new outlook on what they do.

http://trepx.libsyn.com/57-reprograming-your-mind-with-dr-herman-sjr

This paper introduces Schumpeter’s views on the relationship between business and politics and argues that we can discern a distinct Schumpeterian perspective of business-politics relations. Schumpeter’s views about the pivotal role of entrepreneurs in economic development attracted substantial interest in economic sociology and in political economy. His views about the role of entrepreneurs in politics have so far however hardly been studied. The paper identifies the following four aspects as central to Schumpeter’s perspective of business-politics relations: (a) entrepreneurs and corporations drive economic change, (b) entrepreneurs and corporations are ineffective in defending their political interests and vulnerable to hostile movements, (c) the resulting divergence of the economic and the political impact of entrepreneurs and corporations makes capitalism socio-politically instable, and (d) the relationship of entrepreneurs and corporations to political institutions and public policies is primarily adaptive, rather than causative. The paper proposes a two-dimensional typology of business-politics relations that combines the Schumpeterian focus on adaptation with the Marxian focus on influence. These two dimensions - adaptation and influence - result in four ideal types: business-dominated social compromise, imposed social compromise, business dominance, and political confrontation. Examples from German welfare state history illustrate these four types. The paper suggests that the Schumpeterian and the Marxian perspective, while in contrast to each other, may be complementary and each perspective valid under different socio-political conditions.

Purpose This study aims to examine the three dimensions of market orientation, namely, customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-function coordination, which influence the accountability in the financial and social performance of tourism operators in large touristic cities. Design/methodology/approach In total, 95 usable questionnaires as the required data were collected from the top managers of four- and five-star hotels in Iran. Findings Partial least squares (PLS) results confirm that customer orientation and inter-function coordination influence both the financial and social performance of the hospitality sector yet reveal that competitor orientation has no significant relationship with social performance. Research limitations/implications These findings not only highlight the compatibility of PLS with various forms of statistical analyzes but also furthers the current understanding of hospitality networks in megacity economies, where literature are scarce. Practica...

"As the nation's first Internet president, Obama has chided other governments not only for old-fashioned media censorship, but also for restricting access to the Internet. While the World Wide Web and social media permeate every village of the globe, many countries have thrown up roadblocks to online information. The most prominent perpetrators are China and Saudi Arabia. Other offenders include Vietnam, Russia, Iran, Thailand, Burma, Morocco, the U.A.E., and a host of African nations too numerous to mention. In this sense, their practices are only marginally more benign than the backward regime of Kim Jong Il, who simply blocks all information from North Koreans, many of whom believe they are still fighting the Korean War. But the Obama Administration should require more from those governments with whom we share strategic and economic interests, if not cultural values. Neither China nor Saudi Arabia correctly can be called democratic, but their selective censorship of online information should be as troubling as the absence of elections or political parties. As we have just witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt, plebian access to independent thought and information can compensate for a stunted civil society at an unprecedented pace. While there are no parties or democratic institutions of note in China or Saudi Arabia, there are hundreds of millions of citizens yearning to surf the web freely on their cell phones. Is not the deprivation of thought and information by those governments tantamount to physical starvation or torture? "

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate family management, financial performance and gender diversity of listed firms. Design/methodology/approach Using the India stock market as a testing ground, this paper used descriptive statistics and panel regression with random effect assumptions in the analysis of 800 firm-year observations between 2010 and 2019. Findings The findings show that an improvement in stock price returns leads to a corresponding increase in women employment. Also, the study shows that an increase in family-managed firms leads to a decrease in the number of women employed in listed firms. This paper speculates using the social role theory that family involvement may see women as the weaker vessel and with a role to concentrate on raising children and handling house affairs. The consequence is a decrease in women employment. The study also shows that the interactive variable of financial performance (return on assets and return on equity) × family-manage...

Here I will unpack Pope Francis’ little seen speech on the economy of communion, highlighting the practical differences such an approach would take by way of examples from business, including some business examples I have encountered over the last 15 years managing an EOC business renovating and renting out properties in midtown Omaha.

This is a book published by the Russell Sage Foundation in 1982.

Who has ruled New York? Has power become more concentrated—or more widely and democratically dispersed—in American cities over the past one hundred years? How did New York come to have its modern physical and institutional shape? Focusing on the period when New York City was transformed from a nineteenth-century mercantile center to a modern metropolis, David C. Hammack offers an entirely new view of the history of power and public policy in the nation's largest urban community.

Opening with a fresh and original interpretation of the metropolitan region's economic and social history between 1890 and 1910, Hammack goes on to show how various population groups used their economic, social, cultural, and political resources to shape the decisions that created the modern city. As New York grew in size and complexity, its economic and social interests were forced to compete and form alliances. No single group—not even the wealthy—was able to exercise continuing control of urban policy. Building on his account of this interplay among numerous elites, Hammack concludes with a new interpretation of the history of power in New York and other American cities between 1890 and 1950.

During implementation of the Strategy "Kazakhstan-2030" dynamic economic
development allowed the Republic of Kazakhstan increasing the average per capita
income more than twice. All the goals of the Strategy "Kazakhstan-2030" have been
achieved ahead of schedule. The aim of the new Strategy "Kazakhstan-2050" is entering
the country among the 30 most developed countries in the world by 2050. Its achievement
will require maintaining high rates of economic growth for a long time. Such basic factors
of competitiveness as natural resource endowments, favorable macroeconomic
environment and political stability have helped the Republic of Kazakhstan to succeed in
socio-economic development and attracting foreign investments today.

As the nation's first Internet president, Obama has chided other governments not only for old-fashioned media censorship, but also for restricting access to the Internet.  While the World Wide Web and social media permeate every village of the globe, many countries have thrown up roadblocks to online information.  The most prominent perpetrators are China and Saudi Arabia.  Other offenders include Vietnam, Russia, Iran, Thailand, Burma, Morocco, the U.A.E., and  a host of African nations too numerous to mention. In this sense, their practices are only marginally more benign than the backward regime of Kim Jong Il, who simply blocks all information from North Koreans, many of whom believe they are still fighting the Korean War.

But the Obama Administration should require more from those governments with whom we share strategic and economic interests, if not cultural values.  Neither China nor Saudi Arabia correctly can be called democratic, but their selective censorship of online information should be as troubling as the absence of elections or political parties.  As we have just witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt, plebian access to independent thought and information can compensate for a stunted civil society at an unprecedented pace.  While there are no parties or democratic institutions of note in China or Saudi Arabia, there are hundreds of millions of citizens yearning to surf the web freely on their cell phones.  Is not the deprivation of thought and information by those governments tantamount to physical starvation or torture?