Globalization and Its Challenges for Business and Business Ethics in the Twenty‐first Century

The global expansion of free enterprise has been underway for some time, and the challenges for global companies are well‐known. Companies often operate in economically blighted communities and in corrupt environments without a rule of law. At the same time Western‐based global corporations are under increasing public pressure to take on responsibilities to these communities that are often beyond their expertise or economic purview. For example, at the 2008 Davos meetings Bill Gates proposed the idea of “creative capitalism, challenging business to ‘meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits’...” In what follows I shall argue that while there have been many successful global ventures, the Gates’ challenge requires academics and managerial leaders to rethink their mind sets and expand their thinking about what we mean by globalization, poverty, and the multiple dimensions of free enterprise.     

A pathway towards true sustainability: A recognition foundation of sustainable supply chain management

Sustainable supply chain management has developed at an exponential rate into a distinct research field, but its progress towards sustainability is rather modest, and a coherent theoretical foundation for guiding companies towards a stronger integration of sustainability into their operations and supply chains is still missing. This article outlines how the tradition of critical management studies could foster higher levels of sustainable business and sustainable supply chains. We argue that the underlying instrumental logic of contemporary corporate engagement with sustainability, driven by stakeholder pressures, is a key obstacle when aiming for ‘truly’ sustainable supply chains. Referring to a recognition perspective may dissolve the reified pursuit of profit-seeking and other merely economic performance targets to recall the genuine—and in its essence truly radical—claim that the concept of sustainable development is inherently a normative one imposed on all of us. Recognition may lead the way for companies to adopt a caring stance for people and the surrounding environment and to respond to the legitimate expectations of all groups in society while conceiving themselves as an integral part of such a society. We conclude by discussing how far the theoretical perspective of recognition is enrooted in the European tradition of institutionalised business–society relationships and therefore could be seen as a rediscovery of a genuinely European way of making business and managing supply chains.     

Crafting business models for conflicting goals: Lessons from creative service firms

The business model construct has become attractive to both managers and academics. It reflects how the most important organization's strategic and tactical choices regarding the allocation of resources interact in order to create and capture value. Yet with the growing entrepreneurial complexity, managers often end up pursuing conflicting and even paradoxical strategic goals, thus rendering the business modelling processes more complex, too. Well-known examples are profit versus social value, stakeholder versus company interests, exploration versus exploitation and environmental sustainability versus economic returns. The academic business model literature so far has provided limited insights on how to implement business models beyond a single goal and focused mainly on the initial strategic choice of a business model, ignoring that such salient tensions are often persistent and resurface within the business practice. In this study we leverage paradox theory to investigate how managers of creative firms make tactical choices to accommodate (not solve) salient tensions within their business models, focusing on the domains like services provided, choice of clients, networking and resourcing practices, revenue models and new venture creation. Based on qualitative case study research, we found four integrating and three differentiating decision-making tactics that managers deploy to create both economic and creative value through their business models. Adding to the business model theory, we show how business models are crafted in managerial practices by making tactical decisions to solve conflicts and paradoxes. The results equally enrich the paradox literature by providing for tactical-level approaches toward working through the paradox.     

Making the Business School More 'Critical': Reflexive Critique Based on Phronesis as a Foundation for Impact

This paper explores how the business school can become more critical by advancing the notion of reflexive critique . Drawing on diverse literatures propounding a critical perspective, this paper integrates the various interpretations of 'what it is to be critical' and proposes phronesis as a foundation for responding to and extending the relevance and rigour debate by articulating what it means for business schools to have a critical impact on management practice. A phronetic analysis of management education provides an innovative lens for understanding the power of critique in engaging academics and business practitioners in the co-creation of knowledge. This is illustrated by distilling the main insights from the experience of introducing an innovative course entitled 'Critical Thinking' offered to MBA students over a five-year period. The paper discusses the importance of critique in the business curriculum and explains the rationale for introducing the course and its objectives, as well as the learning and teaching techniques employed. The analysis considers how reflexive critique can be a platform for integrating a critical analysis of management informed by management research and academic thinking in relation to business practitioners' practical experiences of managing. The paper concludes with a review of the main lessons learned and the implications for future initiatives intended to foster engagement of theory and practice and the collaboration of academics and business practitioners.     

Industrial harm to an ecological dream

We have inherited past industrial pollution, but can business change the future and introduce sustainable solutions? This article focuses on how a small business can improve its internal barriers to environmental efficiency. Bovince Limited is working on a strategy of integrating ISO 9002, ISO 14001, EMAS, Kaizen, Investors in People systems to promote cyclic activity. We have been working on this strategy for improvement since the early 1990's, to ensure the continuous progression of our systems. The transparency of systems and strategies are seen as being of fundamental importance to business sustainability. Going beyond normal business activity and looking at how the impacts of people development and behaviorism affect strategic outcomes.Looking at these broader based concepts and their impact on day-to-day business is seen as the way forward. Bovine believe that quality of product or service cannot happen unless environmental considerations are linked into the process. Environmental systems and the reporting of them will not mean anything unless people are involved in their improvement. People will be unable to perform to their full potential unless developed.     

Natural Capitalism: Path to Sustainability?

In this article, the Lovins’² explain what is meant by Natural Capitalism, four principles that enable business to behave responsibly towards both nature and people while increasing profits, inspiring their workforce and gaining competitive advantage. It combines radically increased resource productivity; closed-loop, zero-waste, nontoxic production; a business model that rewards both; and reinvestment in natural capital. The article describes how, even today, when nature and people are typically valued at zero, protecting and restoring nature, culture and community can be far more profitable than liquidating them.     

Humanizing strategy

In this article, we apply our latest thinking on knowledge to provide insights on how to reconceptualize strategy to cope with a VUCA world, epitomized recently by COVID-19. We demonstrate that business leaders must draw on phronesis, or practical wisdom, for strategy to become more future-oriented, society-focused, dynamic, and human-centric. Using in-depth case studies, we show how companies will survive in the long run if they start with a moral purpose, and end by offering value to customers, contributing to society, living in harmony with nature, and creating a new and better future. We came up with six practices that enable business leaders to create new and better futures, citing evidences from neuroscience. We conclude that humans should be at the center of strategy, driving future-making with the help of digital-led automation. Reconceptualizing strategy based on this “inside-out” approach, the reward to the company is resilience, longevity, and sustainability.     

Must Milton Friedman Embrace Stakeholder Theory?

Milton Friedman famously stated that the only social responsibility of business is to increase its profits, a position now known as the shareholder model of business. Subsequently, the stakeholder model, associated with Edward Freeman, has been widely seen as a heuristically stronger theory of the responsibilities of the firm to the society in which it is situated. Friedman's position, nevertheless, has retained currency among many business thinkers. In this article, we argue that Friedman's economic writings assume an economy in which businesses operate under the protections of limited liability, which allows corporations to privatize their gains while externalizing their losses. By accepting limited liability, Friedman must also accept a view of business as embedded in social interdependency, which serves as the logical and moral foundation for corporate social responsibility (CSR). To achieve consistency with his economic principles, Friedman must either abandon limited liability or modify his doctrine on CSR and his related shareholder model of business.     

Data bank on the future business environment

This paper describes research undertaken using futures research methods to construct a data bank on the future business environment. It is called The Business Trends Library. It is often said that it is not possible to forecast business futures, so planning should be adapted so that we can drive blind into the future. The author disagrees with this school of thought. Most studies of business futures appear to be too narrowly based and not systematic enough. When interactions from all relevant areas can be taken into account, it is possible to narrow the uncertainty considerably about future events, and be much more specific about what will happen. Examples are shown to illustrate this.     

Wisdom principles as a meta-theoretical basis for evaluating leadership

This article responds to calls in the management and leadership literature to articulate a role for wisdom. While many talk about the role of wisdom, few people have attempted to articulate what it consists of. We suggest five principles that define wise leadership. We then position wisdom in a complex world, both within the transformational, authentic and spiritual leadership literature and the knowledge based view of organizations, and suggest how leaders should be evaluated. Finally, we suggest the need for future research directions and practical application.     

A Joint Stakeholder Learning Process in Participatory Environmental Ethics: A Case Study

There is a growing need to study the dynamic interdependence between business and society as a reciprocal relationship which ought to be supported and not constrained by refocusing on ethical values. Instead of describing how economic institutions impact society, the new view attempts to analyze how stakeholders‘ views and concerns affect business corporations‘ strategy assessment and formation processes. These processes can be enhanced by a renewed awareness of the moral issues at stake. The case describes the Norwegian aluminium industry‘s collective effort to gain not only deeper scientific insight into their impact on the environment but also increase their understanding of their stakeholders‘ concerns. As the analysis shows the process was definitely strengthened through what the author calls the principle of participative dialogue with stakeholders. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Social Dimensions of Business Excellence

In an era of dynamic markets, globalisation, telecommunication and volatile stock markets, the board of directors of listed companies have grown familiar with the pressure of shareholders. Nowadays CEO's discus corporate responsible behaviour and sustainability more often. They feel the pressure of external stakeholders. They are aware of the increasing vulnerability of their corporate reputation, an increasing number of financial institutions start demanding social and environmental criteria — and it is more and more difficult to attract new talented people and at the same time, keeping existing employees satisfied. These developments make companies aware of the social dimensions of their organisation, their corporate identity, their role within society and their duty towards future generations.The business environment is beginning to accept that prosperity, profitability and shareholder value alone do not represent the value of the company. The companies’ ability to grow and to improve continuously is also determined by its social competences, ethical responsibility and environmental contributions. This shift of focus leads to a reorientation of the concept of business excellence. At first, quality management focused on the quality improvement of products and services, later on the processes providing these products. Quality was renamed into business excellence when corporations oriented themselves on the quality of the organisation and the chain (or network or hub) in which it operates. With the present challenges at hand, companies are beginning to focus on the quality of society while taking care of their core businesses, an objective that transcends and includes the former quality orientations.This article first introduces the European Business Excellence Model (EFQM model), which have facilitated the transformation toward an integral management approach, including openings to corporate social responsibility (CSR). We will than elaborate on the cultural context of companies engaged in CSR and social responsible investing (SRI) activities. We will end this article with an overview of CSR activities, structured according the EFQM model.     

The Sharing Economy Globalization Phenomenon: A Research Agenda

Sharing economy firms have been able to achieve global levels of success at an unprecedented pace. In this study, we focus specifically on internet-based firms that allow rent appropriation from temporary utilization of underutilized assets. By looking at these firms' main characteristics and the current dynamics revolving around their internationalization process, we develop a framework to guide future research drawing from a business ecosystems perspective. The business ecosystem approach is a promising theoretical lens to assess this phenomenon due to its more holistic view of multisided network effects and multiple stakeholders' participation that can vary across nations. We note that the sharing economy phenomenon has spurred worldwide adoption of platform businesses which, in turn, creates a great opportunity for future research to extend current theories by exploring why, when, and how these firms expand into new countries. We argue that further research on sharing economy firms and its interactions with different national ecosystem configurations can provide important insights to theory as well as relevant information to managers and policymakers.     

The Sublime Object of Desire (for Knowledge): Sexuality at Work in Business and Management Schools in England

This paper explores why and how sexuality intertwines with gender in the organizational context of academic institutions. Drawing on insights from the work of psychoanalyst post‐structuralist feminists Luce Irigaray, Hélène Cixous and Julia Kristeva, we explore the institutionalized abjection of the real and imagined (woman's) body as the root cause of her relative exclusion from knowledge (creation) and her subordinate position in it. The project is analytical as well as political: it both unravels and opposes the ways gender is superimposed on sexuality and how we as academics might collude, legitimize and perpetuate and gendered sexualized (and therefore exclusionary) ways of organizing in/of society. The findings of an empirical study of a sample of women academics in management and business schools in England are discussed in the light of the proposed theory.     

Shared Services Transformation: Conceptualization and Valuation from the Perspective of Real Options

In today's volatile global economy, where many organizations face severe pressure to downsize, the “shared services” model, in which a firm merges common functions performed by multiple units into a single service delivery organization, provides an innovative approach to make business more efficient and effective. To successfully implement shared services, firms need to strategically decide whether and how to pursue various service transformation alternatives such as simplification, standardization, consolidation, insourcing, or outsourcing. In this study, we develop the notion of real options into a unique theoretical lens for conceptualizing service organizations and their transformation in an uncertain business environment. Specifically, we view service organization as a set of strategic options that give the firm preferential access to future transformation opportunities. We create a taxonomy of these options, and introduce a decision methodology for valuing alternative shared services transformation approaches. We illustrate this methodology by applying it in a real business case to justify a global firm's decision regarding the transformation of its finance organization.     

What Influences Business Academics’ Use of the Association of Business Schools (ABS) List? Evidence From a Survey of UK Academics

The development of the Association of Business Schools (ABS) list in 2007 and its rapid adoption by UK business schools has had a profound effect on the nature of business and management academics’ ways of working. Using a large‐scale survey of UK business academics, we assess the extent to which individuals use the Academic Journal Guide (AJG/ABS) list in their day‐to‐day professional activities. In particular, we explore how their perceptions of the list, the academic influence of their research, academic rank and organizational context drive the varied use. Building on prior research on the importance of univalent attitudes in predicting behaviour, we find those who have either strong positive or negative views of the list are more extensive users than those who are ambivalent. We also find that the extent of use of the AJG/ABS list is greatest among those academics who have lower academic influence, in the middle or junior ranks within business schools and in middle and low‐status universities. We explore the implications of these findings for the value of journal rankings and for the management of business schools.     

How to develop and use scenarios

Scenario analysis is an increasingly popular way to look at the future business environment. This paper provides a critical assessment of the literature on scenario analysis. It summarizes what is currently known about this approach to forecasting, and offers some guidelines regarding the construction and use of scenarios. It also offers a comparison and evaluation of many of the techniques that have been proffered to generate scenarios, suggesting which are worth while and which are not.     

The relevance and impact of business schools: In search of a holistic view

The degree to which business schools are relevant and impactful for society has been disputed. Critics that engage in the so-called ‘relevance problem’ have argued that business schools are preoccupied with academic rigour at the expense of practical relevance, resulting in a lack of societal impact. This systematic literature review synthesizes the fragmented body of knowledge pertaining to the relevance and impact of business schools. Appreciating the contributions of both research and education, this review offers a holistic view that acknowledges the multidimensional nature of business schools. Based on an analysis of 266 journal articles, we present the four main literature streams in this domain. We find limited evidence of cross-fertilisation between discussions of research and education. However, by acknowledging the contribution of applying a multidimensional lens to the study of business schools, we develop a holistic thematic framework that provides theoretical directions for the future. Using this, we demonstrate four avenues for advancing the business school literature. First, we emphasise the potential of an institutional logics perspective to viewing business schools. Second, we offer a novel proposal for understanding the bridge between research and education. Third, we emphasise the application of a value co-creation theoretical lens when considering how business schools engage with stakeholders in research and education. Finally, we propose an all-encompassing stakeholder-centric definition of relevant and impactful knowledge and advocate for this inclusive definition to conceptually bridge the fragmented discussions of research and education.     

移动互联网风向标

移动互联网已被证实是一块巨型蛋糕,但真正从中赚到钱的却少之又少,这是为什么?AppStore模式作为移动互联网门槛最低、人数最多的产业模式,目前究竟面临哪些瓶颈,让众多开发者怨声载道?资本市场对于移动互联网市场已渐渐回归理性,移动互     

Who is it That Would Make Business Schools More Critical? Critical Reflections on Critical Management Studies

We suggest in this paper that whilst exploring how to make business schools more critical we must also turn a critical and reflexive lens upon ourselves, critical management thinkers. Our endeavour is outlined here as a 'reflexive journey' in which we turn upon ourselves, academics who identify as 'critical' thinkers, the theories we use to analyse others. Our focus is upon critical management education. We use three vignettes drawn from our previous research. One is of graduands from the postgraduate programmes on which two of us teach, the second an analysis of knowledge transfer programmes in which we have participated, and the third a study of the construction of academic identities. The first study shows the academic teacher may become an internalized, judgemental gaze, the second that what we see as a critical approach may be construed by our students as another 'truth' that fails to encompass the complexities of organizations and management, and the third encourages us to ask some questions about our own positions. This causes us to ask some uncomfortable questions about our own positions as critical management scholars and the ways in which we conceptualize business schools and our colleagues who work in them.