SULPHUR AND THE U.S. GOVERNMENT: PRICE FIGHTING IN THE 1960s*

The interaction between the domestic sulphur industry and the executive branch of the U.S. Government during the Johnson administration suggests that this important extractive industry was sensitive to governmental “moral suasion.” A narrative is provided of the relationship between the industry and the administration's economists, lawyers and departmental politicians. This narrative is followed by an appropriate least squares price model. It is shown that the administration was successful in its efforts to suppress sulphur prices during 1965-66, that is, during the early stages of the commitment of U.S. forces to combat in Southeast Asia.     

SUBJECTIVE ELEMENTS IN RAWLSIAN CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENT ON DISTRIBUTIONAL RULES

Rawls (1971) argued that individuals choosing institutions from behind the veil of ignorance would unanimously agree on institutions that maximized the imputations of the least advantaged persons in the post-choice social outcome. Critics have argued that the Rawlsian contract requires risk averse individuals. Our paper focuses on the contractual element inherent in constitutional choice when individuals have differing subjective estimates of the working properties of different institutions. We show that in genuinely Rawlsian contractual settings there may exist a general bias toward the selection of institutions that embody maximin solutions without the assumption of risk aversion.     

THE PERILS OF EXCELLENCE: BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT IN PRODUCT-DRIVEN FIRMS

Several authors have suggested that a focus on manufacturing capability and on continued process improvement may be a powerful source of competitive advantage, yet many firms appear to have encountered great difficulties in taking advantage of this insight. This paper reports on the results of five these conducted under the auspices of the MIT Leaders for Manufacturing program at the Microwave Technology Division of the Hewlett-Packard Company. We found considerable evidence that the marginal returns to process development within the division were probably considerably higher than the division's cost of capital, suggesting that process improvement probably was underfunded despite the fact that improving manufacturing capability had been identified as a key strategic priority. We found no evidence that this “underfunding” reflected either a failure to recognize the problem or an overly hierarchical or rigid organization. Rather it appeared to flow from the historical strengths of the division. A devotion to leading-edge technical solutions and to immediate customer service at almost any price had created barriers to the effective funding of process improvement that were deeply rooted in the organizational structures, information systems, and formal and informal incentive structures that had evolved to support the division's historical emphasis on excellence on product design. Our results highlight the problems that very successful product-driven companies may encounter in attempting to make continual process improvement central to their strategic mission.     

Using Exemplary Business Practices to Identify Buddhist and Confucian Ethical Value Systems1

Initially, a brief history of Buddhism and Confucianism describes for the reader a framework developed to determine right versus wrong action and to guide followers of these religions to do the right thing in social or business practice. In addition, this article uncovers exemplary business practices grounded in Buddhist and Confucian ethical values system and practiced in the global business arena and uses these discoveries to describe an application of Buddhist and Confucian ethical values systems. The result is the recognition that these ethical values systems have an honorable and moral place in global business practice.