Showing papers on "Value (ethics) published in 1997"

The power of product platforms : building value and cost leadership

Abstract: Drawing on in-depth case examples from Black & Decker, Hewlett-Packard, and others, this guide demonstrates how to build entire families of products from a single "platform" of common product structures, technologies, and automated product processes This guide explains how this strategy spearheads a more advanced, second-generation product platform

Strategy and the New Economics of Information

Abstract: We are in the midst of a fundamental shift in the economics of information--a shift that will precipitate changes in the structure of entire industries and in the ways companies compete. This shift is made possible by the widespread adoption of Internet technologies, but it is less about technology than about the fact that a new behavior is reaching critical mass. Millions of people are communicating at home and at work in an explosion of connectivity that threatens to undermine the established value chains for businesses in many sectors of the economy. What will happen, for instance, to dominant retailers such as Toys "R" Us and Home Depot when a search through the Internet gives consumers more choice than any store? What will be the point of cultivating a long-standing supplier relationship with General Electric when it posts its purchasing requirements on an Internet bulletin board and entertains bids from anybody inclined to respond? The authors present a conceptual framework for approaching such questions--for understanding the relationship of information to the physical components of the value chain and how the Internet's ability to separate the two will lead to the reconfiguration of the value proposition in many industries. In any business where the physical value chain has been compromised for the sake of delivering information, there will be an opportunity to create a separate information business and a need to streamline the physical one. Executives must mentally deconstruct their businesses to see the real value of what they have. If they don't, the authors warn, someone else will.

Community and consumption

Abstract: Encapsulates the debate on the topics of confusion in consumption and the return of community. Starting with an ethnosociological analysis structuring the passage from modernity to postmodernity around the metamorphosis of the social link, aims at clarifying and explaining the different levels of the postmodern confusion in consumption. Modernity entered history as a progressive force promising to liberate humankind from everyday obligations and traditional bonds. As a consequence, modern consumption emphasized essentially the utilitarian value (“use value”) of products and services. Postmodernity, on the contrary, can be said to crown not the triumph of individualism, but the beginning of its end with the emergence of a reverse movement of a desperate search for community. With the neo‐tribalism distinguishing postmodernity, everyday life seems to mark out the importance of a forgotten element: the social link. Consequently, postmodern consumption appears to emphasize the “linking value” of products and services. Concludes with an exploration of the implications of postmodernity for rethinking marketing with the integration of the linking value concept.

Preserving the Information Content of Species: Genetic Diversity, Phylogeny, and Conservation Worth

Abstract: ▪ Abstract A variety of phylogenetic measures have been proposed to quantify distinctiveness, often held to mark species of high conservation worth. However, distinctiveness of species and their numbers have different implications for conservation policy, depending on whether moral, esthetic, or utilitarian reasons are accepted as justifying conservation. The utilitarian position values species according to increasing numbers, and as they are more, as opposed to less, distinctive. The view is taken that conservation should seek to maximize the preserved information of the planet's biota, best expressed in terms of genetic information held in genes and not in portions of the genome of uncertain or no function. Gene number is thus an important component of assessing conservation value. Phylogenetic measures are better indicators of conservation worth than species richness, and measures using branch-lengths are better than procedures relying solely on topology. Distance measures estimating the differences be...

Dewey and Eros: Wisdom and Desire in the Art of Teaching

Abstract: Plato's Symposium - eros, the beautiful and the good feminist reflections on the expansive self - sympathy, care and community play-doh, poetry and "ethereal things" the aesthetic background of inquiry and the teachable moment the education of eros - critical and creative value appraisal teaching and the logic of moral audience epilogue.

The Ethics of Competition

Abstract: The Ethics of Competition is a book of Frank H. Knight's writings on a common theme: the problem of social control and its various implications. Knight believed in free economic institutions but was also aware that the competitive economic system could be improved. One of the central figures of neoclassical economics in the twentieth century, Knight pursued a lifelong campaign against irrationalities of nationalism, religious fanaticism, and group conflict, while conceding that these were fundamental orientations of human action that might yet frustrate his own work as an economist. While Knight vigorously defended human freedom and the liberal order, he also was sufficiently moved by the shortcomings of liberalism as to condemn it as rife with abuse. As Richard Boyd writes in the new introduction, The Ethics of Competition is nothing short of visionary. Knight foresaw virtually all of the reductionistic tendencies that have come to plague the discipline he cultivated, neoclassical economic theory. Even more impressively, Knight related these disciplinary proclivities back to themes as grand as the fate of liberal democracy and human nature. Boyd discusses Knight's belief that the human craving for simple, mechanical explanations inevitably leads to frustration rather than material satisfaction. Chapters in The Ethics of Competition include "Economic Psychology and the Value Problem," "The Limitations of Scientific Method in Economics," "Marginal Utility Economics," "Fallacies in the Interpretation of Social Cost," and "Economic Theory and Nationalism." This volume will be of essential value to economists, political theorists, philosophers, and sociologists.

The Value of Biodiversity: Markets, Society, and Ecosystems

Abstract: The value of biodiversity is discussed at different levels including market value, non- market values to humans, and the value of biodi- versity to ecosystems. The main conclusion is that, although market exchange values of environmental services may be used to justify biodiversity protec- tion measures, it must be stressed that exchange value constitutes a small portion of total biodiver- sity value. The total value of existing biodiversity is largely unknown but indications are that it is essen- tial to human existence. The various levels of biodi- versity value point to the need for a hierarchical and pluralistic methodology to determine appropri- ate policies for its preservation. (JEL Q21) I. INTRODUCTION Among ecologists, there is a general con- sensus that biodiversity1 is of critical impor- tance to the health of ecosystems and even for the long-term survival of the human species. There is also a consensus that bio- diversity is being lost at a rate which is a cause for concern.2 Economists, on the other hand, generally view biodiversity as just an- other good which is to be placed in the basket of market choices just as any other. The discussion of the specifics of biodiver- sity policy has been unsatisfactory partly because of the different meanings of the word "value" used by economists and ecolo- gists. Many ecologists fail to understand the logic of market allocation and why biologi- cal resources are used in seemingly irra- tional ways. Many economists fail to ap- preciate the narrowness of the concept of economic value as indicated by relative prices determined by market exchange. Fol- lowing Anderson (1966) and Brown (1984), the discussion below considers economic measures of value to be species of the genus assigned value which belongs to the family value. Many biologists and paleontologists be- lieve that we are at a critical point in the history of the human species, and perhaps even in the 600-million-year history of com- plex multicelled life on earth. If the paleon- tologists and biologists who study the phe- nomenon of mass extinction are correct, the current human-induced mass extinction may be of the same order of magnitude as the five other major extinction episodes which destroyed between 20 and 96 percent of existing species on the planet (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 1992; Ward 1994; Wilson 1992). We are living in a truly remarkable period in Earth's 41-billion-year history. The valua- tion decisions our species has made in the recent past and will make during the next few decades will determine the fate of life on Earth for the next tens of millions of years. It is critical to clarify the language and concepts we use to estimate the value of biodiversity, and thus policies leading to its destruction or preservation. The importance attached to the issue of biodiversity preservation necessarily in- volves ethical judgments about duty to fu- ture generations and responsibility toward the nonhuman natural world. Although in- dividuals hold a variety of conflicting beliefs about human responsibility to the natural world, this does not mean that policy choices

International Movements of the Highly Skilled

Abstract: In recent years there has been a growing recognition of the importance of international recruitment and movement of the highly skilled. Modern industries and services increasingly rely upon the acquisition, deployment and use of human expertise to add value in their operations. When this expertise is not available locally, employers frequently import it from abroad. This takes place in the context of two fundamental and interrelated processes: the development of internal labour markets by employers, on the one hand, and of the institutional framework by governments to facilitate the global interchange of skills, on the other.The principal flows of highly skilled workers today reflect the global expansion of world trade, the international expansion of trans-national corporations, and the activities of institutions such as governments and recruitment agencies. Although not straightforward, there appears for example to be a positive relationship between flows of skilled labour and ...

What Is Democracy

Abstract: In this sequel to A Critique of Modernity, Alain Touraine questions the social and cultural content of democracy today. At a time when state power is being increasingly eroded by the economic might of transnational capital, what possible value can we ascribe to a democratic idea that is defined merely as a set of guarantees against the totalitarian state?If democracy is to survive in the postcommunist world, Touraine argues, it must accomplish two urgent goals: It must somehow protect the power of the nation-state at the same time as it limits that power (for only the state has sufficient means to counterbalance the global corporate wielders of money and information); and it must reconcile social diversity with social unity and individual liberty with integration.This is not merely a philosophical problem but a dilemma whose resolution will dramatically affect the immediate future of people everywhere. If we want a resolution in democracy's favor, then it is time, in Touraine's view, for us to redefine democracy in terms of active intervention rather than mere passive institution. To preserve the power and effectiveness of our states and societies, we must make visible strides?and soon?away from a politics of particularity and toward the integration and balancing of women and minorities, of immigrants, of rich and poor. If our states become too weakened, too debased by the politics of competing identities and interest groups, we will one day find ourselves without the means to protect the very values we believe we are fighting to uphold.

Signs of Recognition: Powers and Hazards of Representation in an Indonesian Society

Abstract: Webb Keane argues that by looking at representations as concrete practices we may find them to be thoroughly entangled in the tensions and hazards of social existence. This book explores the performances and transactions that lie at the heart of public events in contemporary Anakalang, on the Indonesian island of Sumba. Weaving together sharply observed narrative, close analysis of poetic speech and valuable objects, and far-reaching theoretical discussion, Signs of Recognition explores the risks endemic in representational practices. An awareness of risk is embedded in the very forms of ritual speech and exchange. The possibilities for failure and slippage reveal people's mutual vulnerabilities and give words and things part of their power. Keane shows how the dilemmas posed by the effort to use and control language and objects are implicated with general problems of power, authority, and agency. He persuades us to look differently at ideas of voice and value. Integrating the analysis of words and things, this book contributes to a wide range of fields, including linguistic anthropology, cultural studies, social theory, and the studies of material culture, art, and political economy.

Cultural Conflict in American Politics: Religious Traditionalism, Postmaterialism, and U.S. Political Behavior

Abstract: Recent trends indicate that American politics is becoming more "cultural" or "value-based." However, the leading account of cultural conflict in advanced industrial democracies-Ronald Inglehart's theory of Postmaterialism-has received relatively little attention from students of American politics The present paper argues that cultural orientations have come to exert a substantial influence on American political life; however the cultural divisions relevant for contemporary American politics are those between religious traditionalists and those rejecting traditional religiosity rather than divisions between Postmaterialists and Materialists Using the 1980 through 1992 National Election Studies, we test the relative influence of our measure of religious traditionalism and Inglehart's value typology on the political orientations of the American populace. The analysis shows that cultural orientations significantly influence American political behavior However, the impact of these divisions is almost always mo...

Do campaign donations alter how a politician votes? or, do donors support candidates who value the same things that they do?*

Abstract: Despite all the work on how campaign donations influence a politician's behavior, the nagging question of whether contributions alter how the politician votes or whether these contributions constitute support for like‐minded individuals remains unresolved. By combining the campaign contributions literature with the work on politicians intrinsically valuing policy outcomes, we offer a simple test that examines how politicians' voting patterns change when they retire and no longer face the threat of lost campaign contributions. If contributions are causing individual politicians to vote differently, there should be systematic changes in voting behavior when future contributions are eliminated. In contrast, if contributors donate to candidates who intrinsically value the same policies, there should be no changes in how a politician votes during the last period.

The Idea of Natural Rights: Studies on Natural Rights, Natural Law and Church Law 1150-1625

Abstract: "...a compelling historical account of natural rights...That Tierney brings to his historical task a thorough acquaintance with major contemporary theories of moral and legal rights gives his work additional value for ethicists." - Religious Studies Review "...a tour de force of integration and learning...It is a synthesis that will become the required starting point in all future efforts to write about the history of rights." - Studia canonica

How Not to Teach Values A Critical Look at Character Education

Abstract: Teachers and schools tend to mistake good behavior for good character. What they prize is docility, suggestibility; the child who will do what he is told; or even better, the child who will do what is wanted without even having to be told. They value most in children what children least value in themselves. Small wonder that their effort to build character is such a failure; they don’t know it when they see it.

Self-determination vs. family-determination: two incommensurable principles of autonomy: a report from East Asia.

Abstract: Most contemporary bioethicists believe that Western bioethical principles, such as the principle of autonomy, are universally binding wherever bioethics is found. According to these bioethicists, these principles may be subject to culturally-conditioned further interpretations for their application in different nations or regions, but an 'abstract content' of each principle remains unchanged, which provides 'an objective basis for moral judgment and international law'. This essay intends to demonstrate that this is not the case. Taking the principle of autonomy as an example, this essay argues that there is no such shared 'abstract content' between the Western bioethical principle of autonomy and the East Asian bioethical principle of autonomy. Other things being equal, the Western principle of autonomy demands self-determination, assumes a subjective conception of the good and promotes the value of individual independence, whilst the East Asian principle of autonomy requires family-determination, presupposes an objective conception of the good and upholds the value of harmonious dependence. They differ from each other in the most general sense and basic moral requirement.

Self-Determination vs. Family-Determination: Two Incommensurable Principles of Autonomy: A Report From East Asia

Abstract: Most contemporary bioethicists believe that Western bioethical principles, such as the principle of autonomy, are universally binding wherever bioethics is found. According to these bioethicists, these principles may be subject to culturally-conditioned further interpretations for their application in different nations or regions, but an 'abstract content' of each principle remains unchanged, which provides 'an objective basis for moral judgment and international law'. This essay intends to demonstrate that this is not the case. Taking the principle of autonomy as an example, this essay argues that there is no such shared 'abstract content' between the Western bioethical principle of autonomy and the East Asian bioethical principle of autonomy. Other things being equal, the Western principle of autonomy demands self-determination, assumes a subjective conception of the good and promotes the value of individual independence, whilst the East Asian principle of autonomy requires family-determination, presupposes an objective conception of the good and upholds the value of harmonious dependence. They differ from each other in the most general sense and basic moral requirement.

Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing

Abstract: You've done the research. You know your customer's income, where he lives, what he drives. But you don't know whether he prefers Bob Dylan or Alanis Morisette. Or Pepsi, or Snapple or tap water. And you don't know why. Why, for that matter, are Baby Boomers acting nothing like their parents did in their fifth decade? Why does the 40-year-old of today have much more in common with her 20y-year-old self than with today's college student? The hidden force at work in each of these examples and many others is generational. Generational ties link widely disparate individuals of varying education, income and life stage. And let's face it, reliable data about today's three living generations can be a vital element in a marketer's arsenal -- in some instances more important than any sort of demographic information. To an astonishing degree, your generational cohort -- Mature (born 1909-1949), Boomer (born 1946-1964), or Xer (born 1965-present) -- defines who you are, what you believe and what you buy. You don't need us to tell you this; you know it instinctively. For nearly 30 years, researchers at Yankelovich Partners, the world-famous research firm, have been compiling comprehensive information about consumers -- their preferences, habits and lifestyles -- mostly for the exclusive proprietary use of Yankelovich's corporate clients. In order to prepare this remarkable book, two leading Yankelovich analysts have mined that incredibly deep data to generate an unprecedented wealth of marketing information about the three active consumer generations: Generation X, the Boomers and the Matures. "Rocking the Ages" provides marketers with the strategies they need tounderstand and target these incredibly cohesive groups, including specific data on where they live, what they earn, what they buy and what motivates them to buy. Brimming with graphs and charts -- and real-life, real-product examples of families, individuals and their buying patterns -- "Rocking the Ages" is the definitive guide to targeting your business's products and services to your ideal consumers. Founded by Dan Yankelovich in 1958, Yankelovich Partners, the nation's leading consumer research organization, has published each year since 1971 a proprietary report on consumer behavior, "The Yankelovich MONITOR, " and has also provided highly specialized custom research for corporate clients, as well as public opinion research for "Time" (for 22 years) and "Time" /CNN (since 1989). "A tour-de-force perspective on social change. Drawing upon decades of the richest source of empirical data on American consumer attitudes and habits, Smith and Clurman have created a profound anthology of the times--past, present, and future."--Michael Goldblatt, vice-president, Science and Technology, McDonald's Corporation "More than a decade of global marketing has taught us the value of culturally sensitive marketing... "Rocking the Ages" helps us discern those factors, from among the many, that will make the future we hope to succeed in."--Jim Spaeth, president, Advertisement Research Foundation

Beyond helping: do other-oriented values have broader implications in organizations?

Abstract: On the basis of H. A. Simon (1990), the value of concern for others is proposed to derive from a process whereby individuals accept social information without carefully weighing its personal consequences. This value may thus reflect a sensitivity to social information that is unrelated to helping others. In 3 studies examining individuals' reactions to performance feedback, the reactions of persons high in concern for others were less contingent than those of persons low in concern for others on the personal costs and benefits of accepting and responding to feedback. In contrast, persons low in concern for others were likely to reject feedback that did not result in valued personal outcomes. Because many models of organizational behavior maintain that individuals act on the basis of their evaluation of personal consequences, this value may relate to a wide range of organizational phenomena.

Electoral Choices and Core Value Change: The 1992 Presidential Campaign

Abstract: Theory: The recent scholarly literature on core political values has paid relatively little attention to how values change over time. Drawing on studies in social psychology that find that values are reformulated as individuals take on new identities and roles or process new political information, I argue that choosing sides during a major national election campaign provokes shifts in core political values. Furthermore, in keeping with Philip Converse's (1964) discussion of dynamic attitude constraint, value change following electoral mobilization is expected to lead to new positions regarding particular government policies. Hypotheses: Backing Bill Clinton in 1992 led citizens to become more committed to egalitarianism and less attached to moral traditionalism; the reverse is hypothesized to have occurred for supporters of George Bush. In turn, changes in levels of egalitarianism caused shifts in support for federal social welfare spending; new positions on moral traditionalism led to changes regarding abortion policy. Methods: Maximum likelihood (LISREL) measurement and structural models are estimated using a CPS panel survey of the mass public in 1990 and 1992. Results: As hypothesized, presidential preferences in 1992 led to changes in core value stands, even when measurement error and reciprocity between value positions and candidate choice were factored in. As the respondents' values changed, moreover, their positions on several concrete policy items were also significantly modified.

Irreducibly social goods and the informational basis of Amartya Sen's capability approach

Abstract: This paper argues that Sen's capability approach requires that judgements about the relative goodness of states of affairs must be based exclusively on ‘properties’ of individuals. Functionings and capabilities are seen, like utility and opulence, as objects of value which individuals have—achieved or attainable effects which are disembedded from the institutional contexts of human activity. If such contexts are intrinsically valuable for individual well-being, as some ‘communitarians’ argue, the capability approach is inappropriate for assessing social justice, societal well-being and development, and inequalities in individual well-being across cultures or in multicultural societies. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Spiritual Nature of Innovation

Abstract: As the fundamental driver of value in business, innovation is the norm when an organization is young. Here's how to keep it alive as the organization matures. OVERVIEW: As companies mature, they generally decline in creating new value due to the failure of their internal innovation process. The aging organization comes to be dominated by operations executives, who tend to be intolerant of the different cultural needs of the variety of corporate segments needed for high-innovation productivity, particularly "the fuzzy front end." But decline is not inevitable. A study of exceptional mature companies that have maintained their innovative force shows some clear characteristics in common. The broad-based corporate cultural commitment to innovation as a way of life is particularly important in these companies in contrast to the tendency to attempt to make innovation a functional activity by delegation to RD it is an environment, a culture-almost a spiritual force-that exists in a company and drives this kind of value creation. The illustration on the next page roughly outlines the fundamentals of what I mean. On the outside, you have the world, and inside the company. I shall focus here on three phases in this overall holistic innovation process. The first phase, at the left of the illustration, is widely called the fuzzy front end. This is where idea generation takes place, where lots of things are poised for launch, and where people get excited. Although most of the ideas don't go on to the next stage because all kinds of problems and difficulties show up, a few make it through; they demonstrate feasibility, provide a satisfactory return, meet customer needs, fit the corporate strategy, and the like. In the second phase, at the center, we have the familiar gating process. At Polaroid it is called PDP, the product delivery process. Most companies have something like it. Finally, there is commercialization, the third phase on the right, which we call operations. Operations are a crucial part of the innovation process. That is where you extract the value from everything you have created at these earlier stages. Fundamentally Different Microcultures The point that I really want to make, that I think is overwhelmingly important, is that these are basically three fundamentally different microcultures within an organization. They have fundamentally different needs. And the dilemma is: How do I maintain these separate cultures, each of which has different needs, in order to optimize what it contributes, and maintain them together as an overall value delivery system? It is a deep-seated dilemma; it is almost insoluble. It requires great wisdom to hold all of this together and to keep it going, knowing that it can never be totally harmonious. Let me expand on each of these as I perceive them. First, the fuzzy front end. Its characteristics: experimental, high tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, chaotic, willingness to consider the unreasonable. Where else in corporate life can you consider the unreasonable? Where else can you set the bar really high? If you don't have a viable fuzzy front end process, where else can it happen? Basically, it can't happen anywhere else. This is an element of what is so vitally important: enjoyment of the quest, unpredictability and much individual activity. …

Perspectives in Business Ethics

Abstract: Part 1: Ethical Theories and Approaches. Chapter 1: Traditional Theories. Chapter 2: Application of Traditional Theories to Modern Business Decision Making. Chapter 3: Individual Decision Making: Lessons learned from the Foundations. Chapter 4: Critical Ethical Analysis: A Decision-Making Model. Chapter 5: Ethics, Business, and Religion: Is There a Crossroads? Chapter 6: Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility: One and the Same? Chapter 7A: Corporate Strategy and Decision Making: Actions and Repurcussions. Chapter 7B: Corporate Strategy and Decision Making: Select Topics Analyses. Chapter 7C: Corporate Strategy and Decision Making: Reputation Management. Part 2: Ethics in the Business Disciplines. Chapter 8: Ethics and Human Resources Management: The Employment Relationship. Chapter 9: Ethics and Sales/Marketing: The Value of Truth? Chapter 10: Ethics and Finance. Chapter 11: Ethics, Accounting, and the Technology of Business. Part 3: Selected Emerging Issues in Ethics. Chapter 12: Ethics in the Professional and Technical Arenas: Selected Issues. Chapter 13: Ethics and Environment. Chapter 14: Ethics in Global Business.

Values of hypercompetitive and personal development competitive individuals.

Abstract: The value systems of hypercompetitive and personal development competitive individuals were examined in a sample of university undergraduates. As expected, people higher in hypercompetitiveness and in personal development competitiveness were both more likely to endorse values related to self-contained individualism such as achievement, hedonism, and a striving for an exciting and challenging life, but only hypercompetitives endorsed the value of power and control over others. Moreover, the data indicated that people higher in personal development competitiveness were more prone to endorse values related to ensembled individualism. In particular, they strongly endorsed values associated with social concern, that is, with caring about the well-being of others and with treating them with respect and as equals, whereas hypercompetitives expressed a lack of such concern. Discussion centered on the socialization process and how it can foster the development of different competitive orientations.

The Coming Battle for Customer Information

Abstract: As consumers take control of information about themselves, companies will have to pay for it Companies have good reason to collect information about customers. It enables them to target their most valuable prospects more effectively, tailor their offerings to individual needs, improve customer satisfaction and retention, and identify opportunities for new products or services. But even as more and more managers begin to build strategies based on capturing information about their customers, a major change is under way that may undermine their efforts. We believe that consumers are going to take ownership of information about themselves and demand value in exchange for it. As a result, negotiating with consumers for information will become costly and complex. That process has already begun to unfold, but it could take several years to play out across broad segments of customers and products. It is no secret that consumers are becoming increasingly edgy about the amount and depth of information businesses collect about them. The popular press regularly chronicles the public's growing concern about privacy in an information-rich era. More specifically, people are starting to realize that the information they have divulged so freely through their daily commercial transactions, financial arrangements, and survey responses has value, and that they get very little in exchange for that value. Why? Because the balance of power currently rests with companies, not consumers. The balance could tip in favor of consumers, however, thanks to new technologies such as smart cards, World Wide Web browsers, and personal financial management software. These technologies make it possible for users to obtain much more comprehensive and accurate profiles of their own commercial activities than any individual vendor - or plausible combination of vendors - could hope to collect. Through these technologies, users will be able to choose whether to release or withhold information about themselves. Their decision will hinge, in large part, on what vendors offer them in return for the data. Consumers will probably not bargain with vendors on their own, however. We anticipate that companies we call "infomediaries" will seize the opportunity to act as custodians, agents, and brokers of customer information, marketing it to businesses on consumers' behalf while protecting their privacy at the same time. Only a handful of companies with unique brand franchises, strong relationships with their customers, or radically new strategies will be positioned to become infomediaries; but they will be the catalyst for people to begin demanding value in exchange for data about themselves. What will this shift in power mean for most other companies? In general, businesses in industries that cater to consumers, whether they are product manufacturers or service providers, will need to rethink how they obtain information about their customers and what they do with it. That is, they will need to understand what information they must collect, how they will acquire it, and how they will use it to find new customers more efficiently, improve products and services or tailor them to individual needs, and build loyalty. Those companies that do the best job of using information to provide value to customers will be positioned to gain access to more of it. Privacy isn't the issue We are witnessing the growth of a "privacy backlash" among consumers, which we believe has less to do with the desire to keep information about themselves confidential and more to do with the pragmatic assessment that the returns for the information they divulge are, simply put, unsatisfactory. Consumers increasingly recognize that they are selling their "privacy" cheaply to companies that are using it to forward corporate interests. More broadly, consumers regularly decry the invasion of their privacy by the government and the press. In these instances, too, they are outraged that those collecting the information are using it to create value only for themselves - or, in some cases, to damage the interests of the people surrendering the information. …

The value of culture : on the relationship between economics and arts

Abstract: Culture manifests itself in everything human, including the ordinary business of everyday life. Culture and art have their own value, but economic values are also constrained. Art sponsorships and subsidies suggest a value that exceeds market price. So what is the real value of culture? Unlike the usual focus on formal problems, which has 'de-cultured' and 'de-moralized' the practice of economics, this book brings together economists, philosophers, historians, political scientists and artists to try to sort out the value of culture. This is a book not only for economists and social scientists, but also for anybody actively involved in the world of the arts and culture.