Showing papers on "Value (ethics) published in 2000"

Choices, Values, and Frames

Abstract: We discuss the cognitive and the psy- chophysical determinants of choice in risky and risk- less contexts. The psychophysics of value induce risk aversion in the domain of gains and risk seeking in the domain of losses. The psychophysics of chance induce overweighting of sure things and of improbable events, relative to events of moderate probability. De- cision problems can be described or framed in multiple ways that give rise to different preferences, contrary to the invariance criterion of rational choice. The pro- cess of mental accounting, in which people organize the outcomes of transactions, explains some anomalies of consumer behavior. In particular, the acceptability of an option can depend on whether a negative outcome is evaluated as a cost or as an uncompensated loss. The relation between decision values and experience values is discussed. Making decisions is like speaking prose—people do it all the time, knowingly or unknowingly. It is hardly surprising, then, that the topic of decision making is shared by many disciplines, from mathematics and statistics, through economics and political science, to sociology and psychology. The study of decisions ad- dresses both normative and descriptive questions. The normative analysis is concerned with the nature of rationality and the logic of decision making. The de- scriptive analysis, in contrast, is concerned with peo- ple's beliefs and preferences as they are, not as they should be. The tension between normative and de- scriptive considerations characterizes much of the study of judgment and choice. Analyses of decision making commonly distin- guish risky and riskless choices. The paradigmatic example of decision under risk is the acceptability of a gamble that yields monetary outcomes with specified probabilities. A typical riskless decision concerns the acceptability of a transaction in which a good or a service is exchanged for money or labor. In the first part of this article we present an analysis of the cog- nitive and psychophysical factors that determine the value of risky prospects. In the second part we extend this analysis to transactions and trades. Risky Choice Risky choices, such as whether or not to take an umbrella and whether or not to go to war, are made without advance knowledge of their consequences. Because the consequences of such actions depend on uncertain events such as the weather or the opponent's resolve, the choice of an act may be construed as the acceptance of a gamble that can yield various out- comes with different probabilities. It is therefore nat- ural that the study of decision making under risk has focused on choices between simple gambles with monetary outcomes and specified probabilities, in the hope that these simple problems will reveal basic at- titudes toward risk and value. We shall sketch an approach to risky choice that

Making a good decision: value from fit.

Abstract: The classic answer to what makes a decision good concerns outcomes. A good decision has high outcome benefits (it is worthwhile) and low outcome costs (it is worth it). I propose that, independent of outcomes or value from worth, people experience a regulatory fit when they use goal pursuit means that fit their regulatory orientation, and this regulatory fit increases the value of what they are doing. The following postulates of this value from fit proposal are examined: (a) People will be more inclined toward goal means that have higher regulatory fit, (b) people's motivation during goal pursuit will be stronger when regulatory fit is higher, (c) people's (prospective) feelings about a choice they might make will be more positive for a desirable choice and more negative for an undesirable choice when regulatory fit is higher, (d) people's (retrospective) evaluations of past decisions or goal pursuits will be more positive when regulatory fit was higher, and (e) people will assign higher value to an object that was chosen with higher regulatory fit. Studies testing each of these postulates support the value-from-fit proposal. How value from fit can enhance or diminish the value of goal pursuits and the quality of life itself is discussed.

A Rose by Any Name? The Values Construct

Abstract: Definitional inconsistency has been epidemic in values theory and research. An abbreviated review of values-related theory and research is provided, and 5 aspects of the values construct that may have contributed to this inconsistency and the resulting lack of synthesis are discussed. A proposal for the process by which value priorities influence attitudinal and behavioral decisions also is outlined. Attitudinal and behavioral decisions are shown to be traceable to personal value priorities, although the link is indirect. The importance of 4 constructs in this process is highlighted. In the past, personal value systems, social value systems, worldviews, and ideologies each may have been given the generic label values.

The Science of Self-Control

Abstract: This book proposes a new science of self-control based on the principles of behavioral psychology and economics. Claiming that insight and self-knowledge are insufficient for controlling one's behavior, Howard Rachlin argues that the only way to achieve such control--and ultimately happiness--is through the development of harmonious patterns of behavior. Most personal problems with self-control arise because people have difficulty delaying immediate gratification for a better future reward. The alcoholic prefers to drink now. If she is feeling good, a drink will make her feel better. If she is feeling bad, a drink will make her feel better. The problem is that drinking will eventually make her feel worse. This sequence--the consistent choice of a highly valued particular act (such as having a drink or a smoke) that leads to a low-valued pattern of acts--is called "the primrose path." To avoid it, the author presents a strategy of "soft commitment," consisting of the development of valuable patterns of behavior that bridge over individual temptations. He also proposes, from economics, the concept of the substitutability of "positive addictions," such as social activity or exercise, for "negative addictions," such as drug abuse or overeating. Self-control may be seen as the interaction with one's own future self. Howard Rachlin shows that indeed the value of the whole--of one's whole life--is far greater than the sum of the values of its individual parts.

Value Driven Intellectual Capital: How to Convert Intangible Corporate Assets Into Market Value

Abstract: From the Publisher: Value-Driven Intellectual Capital is a corporate and financial executives' handbook to the new world of intangible assets - what they are and how to convert them into cash or strategic position. Value-Driven Intellectual Capital explains the new, boundary-expanding world of intellectual assets - where translating an innovative idea into bottom-line profits involves a tightly focused strategy with clear directives for making it happen. It is a blueprint for turning corporate knowledge, know-how, and intellectual property into a sustainable competitive weapon that will build a firm's reputation and market share." "Value-Driven Intellectual Capital is for any corporate or financial executive, merger and acquisition partner or investor who understands how much future corporate survival and success depends on the simple enduring genius of a good idea and the need to convert those ideas into corporate value.

Globalization and Postmodern Values

Abstract: As countries become more industrialized, they find no direct correlation between financial prowess and emotional well‐being. While the modern world prioritized economic‐led growth, the postmodern society will place more value on environmental protection and cultural identity.

The Possibility of Practical Reason

Abstract: 1. INTRODUCTION 2. EPISTEMIC FREEDOM 3. WELL-BEING AND TIME 4. IS MOTIVATION INTERNAL TO VALUE? 5. THE GUISE OF THE GOOD 6. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOMEONE ACTS? 7. THE STORY OF RATIONAL ACTION 8. THE POSSIBILITY OF PRACTICAL REASON 9. HOW TO SHARE AN INTENTION 10. DECIDING HOW TO DECIDE 11. ON THE AIM OF BELIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

Criteria Against Ourselves

Abstract: In the social sciences, we usually think of criteria as culture-free standards that stand apart from human subjectivity and value. The author argues in this article, however, that conflicts over which criteria to apply usually boil down to differences in values that are contingent on human choices. The demand for criteria reflects the desire to contain freedom, limit possibilities, and resist change. Ultimately, all standards of evaluation rest on a research community’s agreement to comply with their own humanly developed conventions. The author ends by considering the personal standards that he applies to works that fall under the new rubric of poetic social science. When Laurel Richardson invited me to contribute to this conversation about judging “alternative” modes of qualitative and ethnographic inquiry, I consented reluctantly. Too often, I have seen discussions about criteria deteriorate into unproductive conflicts revolving around differences in values that cannot be resolved. The word criteria itself is a term that separates modernists from postmodernists, foundationalists from antifoundationalists, empiricists from interpretivists, and scientists from artists. It is not that one side thinks judgments have to be made and the other side does not. Both agree that inevitably they make choices about what is good, what is useful, and what is not. The difference is that one side believes that “objective” methods and procedures can be applied to determine the choices we make, whereas the other side believes these choices are ultimately and inextricably tied to our values and our subjectivities. The differences of which I speak are not unreasonable, but they are unresolvable. As Richard Rorty (1982) says, these are not issues to be settled, but differences to be lived with. Until we recognize these differences as a reflection of incommensurable ways of seeing, we cannot begin to engage in meaningful conversation with each other. Thomas Kuhn (1962) observed more than 35 years ago that there is no paradigm-free way of looking. When our ways of looking are incommensurable, we can look in the same places, at the same things, and see them differently. Given each side’s belief in its own premises—its own way of seeing—and recognizing that validity depends largely

Available Light: Anthropological Reflections on Philosophical Topics

Abstract: Whither the social sciences? It sometimes seems as if this diverse and fluid field is permanently at def com 3: defining and defending its borders, skirmishing with science, all while the tenured generals snipe at each other. These manoeuvres sometimes pass over possibly the most important question of all: what is at stake in the study of society and culture? This question is central to anthropology, characterized as it is by the self-reflexive intimacy between its philosophy and methodology. Clifford Geertz--one of the architects of the modern discipline at least since his influential 1973 book, The Interpretation of Cultures--thankfully offers a lucid, enlightening and wonderfully readable series of 11 essays, which consider the history, philosophy and future of not just anthropology but the social sciences, in a style sure to appeal to both academics and lay readers. As a title, Available Light is an apt and playful reflection on the position of the anthropologist, who can only experience what are always only partial truths in the light available at the moment of encounter. Its subtitle, Anthropological Reflections upon Philosophical Topics indicates the extent to which the vocations have moved closer not only as they share many of the same questions, but as philosophers have come to believe that the answers to those great questions of meaning--to the degree that there can be any--are to be found in the fine detail of lived life. Geertz's own empirical pursuit of the role of ideas in behaviour has lead him through Javanese religion, Balinese states and Moroccan bazaars, modernisation, Islam, kinship, law, art and ethnicity--all drawn upon in these essays. He also ruminates upon the moral anxieties of fieldwork, in chapters such as 'Thinking as a Moral Act', 'Anti Anti-Relativism'--with its stinging punchline 'if we wanted home truths, we should have stayed at home'-- and 'The Uses of Diversity', opening up issues pertinent to all intellectual pursuits. He goes on to establish the role of anthropology within broader intellectual and philosophical circles by addressing the work of Charles Taylor, Thomas Kuhn, William James and Jerome Bruner. For anyone involved or interested in the social sciences, Geertz offers a powerful sense of the importance and value of such study: 'the impact of the social sciences upon our lives will finally be determined more by what sort of moral experience they turn out to embody than by their merely technical effects or by how much money they are permitted to spend.' --Christine Buttery

Symmetric tragedies: commons and anticommons*

Abstract: An anticommons problem arises when there exist multiple rights to exclude. In a lengthy law review paper, Michael A. Heller has examined ‘‘The Tragedy of the Anticommons,’’ especially in regard to disappointing experiences with efforts to shift from socialist to market institutions in Russia. In an early footnote, Heller suggests that a formal economic model of the anticommons has not been developed. This paper responds to Heller’s challenge. We analyze the anticommons problem in which resources are inefficiently underutilized rather than overutilized, as in the familiar commons setting. The two problems are shown to be symmetrical in several respects. We present an algebraic and geometric illustration and extend the discussion to several applications. Of greater importance, we suggest that the construction is helpful in understanding the sources of major value wastage in modern regulatory bureaucracy. The navigation of the Danube is of very little use to the different states of Bavaria, Austria, and Hungary, in comparison of what it would be if any of them possessed the whole of its course till it falls into the Black Sea. (Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776), bk. 1, ch. 3)

Value of traditional foods in meeting macro- and micronutrient needs: the wild plant connection.

Abstract: The importance of edible wild plants may be traced to antiquity but systematic studies are recent. Anthropologists, botanists, ecologists, food scientists, geographers, nutritionists, physicians and sociologists have investigated cultural aspects and nutrient composition of edible species. Important contributions to the diet from edible wild plants are well documented and numerous studies reveal roles played by 'lesser-known' species when meeting macro- and micronutrient needs of groups at risk, whether infants and children, pregnant and/or lactating women, or the elderly. The literature is vast and scattered but information on the macro- and micronutrient content of wild plants and their importance to the human diet appear in five kinds of publications: cultural works by social scientists, descriptions and inventories by botanists, dietary assessment studies by nutritionists, intervention programmes managed by epidemiologists and physicians, and composition data generally conducted by food scientists and chemists. Many macro- and micronutrient-dense wild species deserve greater attention but lack of adequate nutrient databases, whether by region or nation, limit educational efforts to improve diets in many Third World areas. Limited and uneven compositional data generally reflect factors of cost and personal interest in key nutrients. Whilst edible wild plants are regularly deprecated by policy makers and considered to be the 'weeds of agriculture', it would be tragic if this led to loss of ability to identify and consume these important available species.

The Arts of Leadership

Abstract: This book provides case-based analyses of leadership across business, political, military, and social contexts. Its rich historical detail and arts-of-leadership metaphors help separate this book from many others taking new approaches to leadership. This breadth across various historical time periods and contexts should help bolster the value of this book for both academics and non-academics alike.

Hidden Value: How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People

Abstract: Preface Acknowledgments 1. The "Right" People or the "Right" Organization? 2. Southwest Airlines: If Success Is So Simple, Why Is It So Hard to Imitate? 3. Cisco Systems: Acquiring and Retaining Talent in Hypercompetitive Markets 4. The Men's Wearhouse: Growth in a Declining Market 5. SAS Institute: Succeeding with Old-Fashioned Values in a New Industry 6. PSS World Medical: Opening the Books 7. AES: Is This Global Company Out of Control? 8. New United Motors Manufacturing, Inc.: Transforming People and Systems 9. Cypress Semiconductor: What's Missing? 10. Unlocking the Hidden Value in All of Your People Index

International Socialization in the New Europe: Rational Action in an Institutional Environment

Abstract: The international relations of the `new Europe' are shaped by a process of international socialization in which the Western community transmits its constitutive liberal norms to Central and Eastern Europe. This process neither fits rationalist assumptions about international politics in a technical environment nor sociological theories of action. Rather, international socialization in the new Europe is best explained as a process of rational action in a normatively institutionalized international environment. Under these conditions, rational state behaviour is constrained by value-based norms of legitimate statehood and proper conduct. Selfish political actors conform to these norms in order to reap the benefits of international legitimacy, but as instrumental actors they also calculate whether these benefits are worth the costs of conformity and how they can be reaped efficiently. An empirical analysis of the behaviour of the Western socialization agencies and the CEE countries supports this perspective ...

Indigenous Mestizos: The Politics of Race and Culture in Cuzco, Peru, 1919–1991

Abstract: Marisol de la Cadena, Duke University Press, 2000, 408 pages.Reviewer: Maria-Ines ArratiaMarisol de la Cadena has written an interesting, detailed and insightful historical-ethnographic account of the politics of identity in the city of Cuzco, Peru, a highly significant cultural centre for the entire Andean region. This is the kind of in-depth study for which an "indigenous anthropologist" is particularly well suited, since probing into the very roots and sustenance of a complex, solidly established class system, can certainly benefit from an intimate, self-reflected exposure to its values, its implications and its pervasive long-term consequences. It is a prime example of embodied learning coupled with anthropological sophistication.The book is composed of seven chapters, each dealing with one context where the politics of identity construction become manifest. The agents involved in these politics include intellectuals, dominant elites, political ideologists, writers, and, of course, aboriginal populations dubbed "Indians" by the Conquistador. Attention is given to the relationship between the State andIndigenous peoples, the particular role of academics and the politics of representation. Copious explanatory notes decoding some otherwise implicit meanings and a broad bibliography add value both to de la Cadena's analyses, as well as to the work as a resource for Andeanists. It is important to note that references are drawn from Peruvian sources as well as from international scholars.The volume is historically rich and replete with details of the complex dynamics involved in the construction of indianness and mestizaje in the 20th century, which are so relevant and revealing in understanding the complexities of current day, postcolonial cultural politics in Peru. The many-layered and textured account includes archival research and ethnographic examples, and provides the basis for a new style of postcolonial Andean ethnography, that incorporates historical developments, rural-urban interactions, socially dominant-subordinate dynamics, and includes the reproductive aspects of hegemony, as well as the symbolic aspects of legitimation and authenticity in the creation and reproduction of expressive culture intended to make visible and position cultural diversity as part of a regional heritage.Indigenous Mestizos introduces the interpenetrated, patterned constructions of identities in the economic, social and symbolic contexts, carefully and explicitly attending to gendered differences. Breaking with the highly prevalent binary oppositions that characterize Andean ethnography, de la Cadena uncovers the essentialism of a "cultural racism" that constitutes the basis of the class system in Cuzco. Her ethnographic cases illustrate the currency of her historically drawn analyses bringing forth the voices of the informants, who use their own embodied learning experiences as the basis of their "native exegesis."De la Cadena deals particularly well with the politics of representation, by unpacking complex hegemonic processes. The hegemony of "decency" is defined as the symbolic capital of the elites, to which the Mestizo cannot aspire, and the Indian, even less. Education and respect are two values that subaltern groups can harness for themselves in the process of accumulating their own symbolic capital. …

Virtue, Vice, and Value

Abstract: What are virtue and vice, and how do they relate to other moral properties such as goodness and rightness? Thomas Hurka defends a distinctive perfectionist view according to which the virtues are higher-level intrinsic goods, ones that involve morally appropriate attitudes to other, independent goods and evils. He develops this highly original view in detail and argues for its superiority over rival views, including those given by virtue ethics.

Designing a New Material World

Abstract: In this month9s essay, Gregory B. Olson of Northwestern University traces the routes of modern materials science and engineering, from the medieval alchemists9 attempts to transmute base metals into gold to the modern materials engineer9s use of complex processing to "transmute" the multilevel microstructure of materials to achieve the essential property of gold, namely, economic value. The emerging "systems approach," he contends, is leading researchers beyond an era of empirical discovery into a new "Age of Design," marked by the systematic invention of new, more capable materials.

Minimizing Workplace Gender and Racial Bias

Abstract: WILLIAM T. BIELBY University of California, Santa Barbara bielbyw@Rsssf: ucsb. ed u Assessment of Yob Applicants." Social Psychology Quarterly 57: 326-339. Glass, Xennifer. 2000. "Envisioning the Integration of Family and SVork: Toward a Kinder, Gentler Workplace." Contemporary Sociology 29: 129-43.. Harrod, Wendy J. 1980. "Expectations from Unequal Rewards." Social Psychology (;2uarterly 43: 126-30. Hochschild, Arlie R. 1997. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. New York: Metropolitan Books. Kessler, Suzanne and Wendy McKenna. 1978. Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach. New York: Wiley. Lorber, Yudith. 1994. Paradoxes of Gender. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Major, Brenda. 1989. "Gender Differences in Comparisons and Entitlement: Implication for Comparable Worth." Joumal of Social lssues 45: 99-115. Markovsky, Barry, LeRoy F. Smith, and Joseph Berger. 1984. "Do Status Interventions Persist?" American Sociological Review 49: 373-82. Miller, Dale T. and W. Turnbull. 1986. "Expectancies and Interpersonal Processes." Annual Review of Psychology 37: 233-56. Pugh, Meredith D. and Ralph Wahrman. 1983. "Neutralizing Sexism in Mixed

Collectivism, Collaboration, and Societal Corporatism as Core Professional Values in Public Relations

Abstract: Public relations must achieve professional status before its social role will be broadly accepted as valuable to society and organizational clients will accept readily the advice of public relations counselors. Professions are based on core values and a body of knowledge that provides expertise on how to implement those values. Professionalism empowers public relations managers to negotiate with clients to change organizational behavior-helping organizations to rise above the "wrangle in the marketplace" to consider the interests of publics as well as their own interests. The core value of public relations is the value of collaboration, which also can be found in the concepts of societal corporatism, collectivism, and communal relationships. Activist groups benefit from professional public relations counsel just as much as other organizations, and the same generic principles of public relations apply to activist communication. Activist groups must use specific applications of these principles, however, wh...

Rational Lives: Norms and Values in Politics and Society

Abstract: Although economic reasoning has infiltrated many fields in the social sciences, those who study value conflicts have resisted rational choice approaches to the subject. Instead, most contend that political conflict over cultural values is best explained by group loyalties, symbolic motives and other "nonrational" factors. In this book, Dennis Chong shows that a single model can explain how people make decisions across both social and economic realms. He argues that preferences result from a combination of psychological dispositions, which are shaped by social influences and developed over the life span, as well as costs and benefits calculated according to our desire for material gain and social acceptance. Chong's book yields insights about the circumstances under which preferences, beliefs, values, norms and group identifications are formed. Most significantly, it offers an explanation of how ingrained social norms and values can change over time in spite of the myriad forces working to maintain the status quo.

Is asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism necessarily a disability?

Abstract: This article considers whether Asperger syndrome (AS) or high-functioning autism (HFA) necessarily leads to disability or whether AS/HFA simply leads to "difference." It concludes that the term "difference" in relation to AS/ HFA is a more neutral, value-free, and fairer description than terms such as "impairment," "deficiency," or "disability"; that the term "disability" only applies to the lower functioning cases of autism; but that the term "disability" may need to be retained for ASIHFA as long as the legal framework provides financial and other support only for individuals with a disability. Two models are summarized which attempt to define in what way individuals with AS/HFA are "different": the central coherence model, and the folk psychology-folk physics model. The challenge for research is to test the value of such models and to precisely characterize the differences in cognitive style.

Acts of faith: instinct, value and IT investment decisions

Abstract: Although well over 1000 journal articles, conference papers, books, technical notes and theses have been written on the subject of information technology (IT) evaluation, only a relatively small subset of this literature has been concerned with the core issues of what precisely is meant by the term 'value' and with the process of making (specifically) IT investment decisions. All too often, the problem and highly complex issue of value is either simplified, ignored or assumed away. Instead the focus of much of the research to date has been on evaluation methodologies and, within this literature, there are different strands of thought which can be classified as partisan, composite and meta approaches to evaluation. Research shows that a small number of partisan techniques are used by most decision makers with a minority using a single technique and a majority using a mixture of such techniques of whom a substantial minority use a formal composite approach. It is argued that, in mapping the set of evaluatio...

Ethical Decision Making: The Person in the Process

Abstract: Ethical decisions made by social workers are shaped by the decision maker and the process used to resolve ethical dilemmas. Although systematic guidelines for resolving ethical dilemmas offer social workers a logical approach to the decision-making sequence, it is inevitable that discretionary judgments will condition the ultimate choice of action. Social workers are influenced by professional roles, practice experiences, individualized perspectives, personal preferences, motivations, and attitudes. Through reflective self-awareness social workers can recognize their value preferences and be alert to the ways in which these values unknowingly influence the resolution of ethical dilemmas. Understanding which values or ethical principles were given priority from among competing alternatives can inform social workers about their value patterning. This article challenges social workers to view current ethical decisions as linked to other ethical decisions they have made in the past or will make in the future. An approach to developing keener insight into value patterning is presented.

Whose job is it anyway?: organizational information competencies for value creation

Abstract: . Research highlights that most business managers continue to be dissatisfied with the value they perceive they are deriving from their organization's information systems investments. On examining the literature, the dominant perspective is that creating value through information systems is primarily the responsibility of the IS function. Accordingly, to address this chronic malaise, attention generally focuses on the IS function with proposed prescriptions ranging from re-skilling the IS professional through re-engineering the IS function to the ultimate sanction of outsourcing. This paper examines the problem of value creation from IS investments from an organizational as opposed to an IS functional perspective. Drawing on resource-based theory, the paper argues that the effective deployment and exploitation of information should be viewed as a ‘strategic asset’. To leverage value from IS, the paper proposes that organizations must recognize and develop information competencies and that the elements of these competencies are distributed throughout the organization and not solely resident in the IS function. Through a multimethodological approach these information competencies are identified and described. The resultant competencies are then studied in an organizational context. The paper ends by drawing conclusions and articulating further research directions and opportunities

Community, Solidarity and Belonging: Levels of Community and their Normative Significance

Abstract: Despite the frequency with which the term 'community' is used, it is hard to find any comprehensive exploration of the nature and value of community. This book tries to remedy this omission whilst taking seriously the idea that community can be of different kinds and can exist at different levels, and that these levels and kinds may come into conflict with one another. It focuses on the question of what kind of community is valuable at the level of the state. It then explores the limits that ideals of political community place upon cultural diversity within the state, and the limits that, in turn, ideals of global community place upon the self-determination of political communities. This book will be of interest to students of political theory, philosophy and international relations

Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace

Abstract: Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, by Lawrence Lessig, Basic Books, 1999, 230 pages. I. INTRODUCTION Just as Rachel Carson's classic Silent Spring awakened the world to environmental pollution in 1962, Larry Lessig's insightful Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace(1) (Code) seeks to warn longtime inhabitants of cyberspace of a major danger to the wild, unregulated, "1960s-like" environments to which they have grown accustomed. Code challenges the presumption of early Internet heroes, like John Perry Barlow, that technology has created an inherently free environment that can only remain so if governments leave it alone. Code observes, rather, that cyberspace is quite susceptible to alteration and that the gravest threats to online civil liberties in the United States are posed, not by laws, but by computer code--particularly those designed to commercialize the Web for e-commerce. Code explains how the business community's efforts (with government support) to make it easier to confirm cyberspace buyers' identities also unintentionally facilitate regulation of other conduct. Lessig's particular concern is with those civil liberties and other values central to American society, that the framers of the Constitution left without explicit legal protection; the limits of the technology of the time already safeguarded them. Now that the Internet and other new media have eliminated many physical and economic constraints on intrusive conduct-like the tracking of every page that an Internet suffer views--Code pleads for citizens to defend those privacy and other values they consider fundamental, lest they be diminished--if not eliminated--by code. In fact, the introduction of e-commerce-friendly Internet code is somewhat analogous to the genetic engineering of agricultural products. As Europeans--and increasingly Americans--have come to recognize, the manipulation of such basic codes may have widespread effects not limited to their targeted product markets or by national boundaries.(2) This has led many to demand public debate on the issue of what many call "Frankenfoods," and its effects on world ecosystems and human health. While Lessig certainly does not oppose e-commerce code, he advocates collective decision making where code may have major consequences with respect to important societal liberties. From an economist's perspective, Lessig understands that the "externalities" of e-commerce code--in terms of harm to social values--are too significant to expect private sector code writers to design a socially optimal architecture guided solely by Adam Smith's invisible hand. Rather, democratic principles require that, prior to the adoption of important varieties of what he terms "West Coast [computer],"(3) there be public discussions comparable to those associated with the adoption of "East Coast [legal] code."(4) Decisions about how much control over information society wants to allow and by whom, call for democratic decision making. With concerns similar to those of political activist Jeremy Rifkin,(5) Lessig implores citizens not to maintain blind faith in the social value judgments of the commercial marketplace where externalities may be given short shrift, if not ignored altogether, until irreversible harm is done. While Code focuses on issues arising from Internet technology, it also discusses the more general relationship between technology and law. Code observes that four principal forces regulate people's behavior: laws, norms, prices, and technology (although it calls the latter forces "market" and "architecture"). It explains how each of these limit individuals' actions, how the forces can work directly or indirectly in combinations, and how improvements in technology can dramatically alter the composite constraint on people's conduct. The middle third of Code is entirely devoted to identifying how technology--primarily the Internet--is significantly altering the net effect of these four forces on behaviors. …

Issues in predicting and explaining usage behaviors with the technology acceptance model and the theory of planned behavior when usage is mandatory

Abstract: Within certain industries there is an increasing prevalence toward computerizing work practices and mandating specific tasks performed using an Information System (IS). This trend is unlikely to diminish the need for stakeholders, involved in the implementation of an IS, to identify the determinants of successful use. Yet, to date, there is a paucity of research that has considered the issues specific to predicting and explaining user behavior in these situations. In this paper, we identify the relevant issues necessary for applying the technology acceptance model and the theory of planned behavior to the prediction and explanation of mandated IS usage, and we assess the value of these models to the task. The results of a longitudinal study conducted in a hospital setting are presented and we suggest the direction that future research might take.

The tyranny of concepts - CUDIE (Cumulated, Depreciated Investment Effort) is NOT capital

Abstract: The cost of public investment is not the value of public capital. Unlike for private investors, there is no remotely plausible behavioral model of the government as investor that suggests that every dollar the public sector spends as"investment"creates capital in an economic sense. This seemingly obvious point has so far been uniformly ignored in the voluminous empirical literature on economic growth, which uses, at best,"cumulated, depreciated investment effort"(CUDIE), to estimate capital stocks. But in developing countries especially, the difference between investment cumulated at cost and capital value is of primary empirical importance: government investment is half or more of total investment. And perhaps as much as half, or more of government investment spending has not created equivalent"capital."This suggests that nearly everything empirical written in three broad areas is misguided. First, none of the estimates of the impact of public spending identify the productivity of public capital. Even where public capital could be very productive, regressions and evaluations, may suggest that public investment spending has little impact. Second, everything currently said about"total factor productivity"in developing countries is deeply suspect, as there is no way empirically to distinguish between low output (or growth) attributable to investments that created no"factors"and low output (or growth) attributable to low (or slow growth in) productivity in using accumulated"factors."Third, multivariate growth regressions to date have not, in fact,"controlled"for the growth of capital stock, so spurious interpretations have emerged.

Conceptions of value in environmental decision-making

Abstract: Environmental problems have an ethical dimension. They are not just about the efficient use of resources. Justice in the distribution of environmental goods and burdens, fairness in the processes of environmental decision-making, the moral claims of future generations and non-humans, these and other ethical values inform the responses of citizens to environmental problems. How can these concerns enter into good policy-making processes? Two expert-based approaches are commonly advocated for incorporating ethical values into environmental decision-making. One is an 'economic capture' approach, according to which existing economic methods can be successfully extended to include ethical concerns. For example, stated preference methods, especially contingent valuation, have been developed to try and capture ethical responses as 'non-use values' of the environment, in particular 'existence values'. The other is a 'moral expert' approach which confines economic methods to the analysis of welfare gains, and assumes committees of ethical experts will complement economic expertise. Both approaches face problems in terms of addressing many widely held ethical values about the environment. Furthermore, both face problems concerning the democratic legitimacy of their procedures. How can policy-making be made responsive to different ethical values? What role is there for new deliberative and participatory methods? How far do existing decision-making institutions have the capacities to incorporate different modes of articulating environmental values? This policy brief examines the limitations of current attempts to capture ethical values within existing economic instruments and considers how these limitations might be overcome. Section 1 examines the assumptions that standard economic theory makes about individuals when they express values and make choices about the environment. The current models of agents that inform policy-making are seen to be ill-suited to incorporating the ethical responses of agents and this reveals some of the policy failures that may result. Section 2 shows how the physical and social properties of many environmental goods prevent their being treated as commodities. Section 3 considers the problems surrounding conceptions of fairness and legitimacy in processes for environmental valuation. Section 4 raises questions concerning the capacities of policy-making institutions to take cognisance of the results of different methods for articulating environmental values.

The Importance of Community Values in Small Business Strategy Formation: Evidence from Rural Iowa [*]

Abstract: The aim of this research was to test whether small business owners and managers could be clustered on the basis of their values toward their community and whether cluster designation was significantly related to the kind of business strategies employed. Little is known empirically about aspects of social responsibility relating to small business operators' regard for community and their strategic planning. In this study, community values and management strategies were measured by the self-reports of 1,008 small business operators in 30 rural Iowa communities. Cluster analysis revealed three categories of business operators distinguished by high, medium, and low levels of community values. Operators in the high community values cluster were found to vary significantly with regard to personal and business characteristics from operators in the other two clusters. Clusters with high and medium community values differed from the low community values cluster with regard to eleven business strategies. This analysis indicates that business owner/managers in small towns differ in their reported levels of community values, and that those values are associated with their evaluation of the importance of various strategies for success. The values of top management are an essential element in explaining the behavior and performance of a business (Bamberger 1983). These values affect the management style, the structure, the approach to the market, and the strategies for success employed by the business (Bamberger 1983; Thompson and Strickland 1986; Freeman, Gilbert, Jr., and Hartman 1988; Kotey and Meredith 1997). In fact, Freeman, Gilbert, Jr., and Hartman (1988, p. 833) contend that "strategic management is by nature a process of values clarification...." In this article, one area of management values--the area dealing with the attachment of business owners and managers to their communities and their sense of responsibility toward their community--is elaborated. The purpose of this study was to group small business operators according to their community values and then to compare the resulting groups in terms of their business strategies. Values are a stable core of standards about what is "good," desirable, or preferred. Research has refined the categories of possible management values to the following: acceptance of chance, including risk and innovation; manager/ personnel relationships; juridical thinking (for example, the use of all legal means); working for society's or the firm's interest; and participation in society (Bamberg 1983). The latter two value sets include the issues of interest here--community attachment and social responsibility toward the community. Research on corporate social responsibility is the focus of another body of literature. A brief overview of that literature will help to establish the theoretical link between the values of community attachment, social responsibility, and management strategies. Corporate social responsibility refers to the obligation of businesses to contribute to social betterment above and beyond their role in the market exchange of their goods or services (Frederick 1986, 1994). A central question dealt with by scholars in this domain is: What are the factors that distinguish socially responsible businesses from less responsible ones? Finding answers to this and other questions related to corporate social responsibility has proven to be a challenge. One obstacle has been defining and operationalizing the concept of social responsibility (Arlow and Gannon 1982; Wartick and Cochran 1985; Griffin and Mahon 1997). Equally daunting has been the difficulty of obtaining information about the subject, stemming from the reluctance of businesses to reveal information about either their performance or about their socially (ir)responsible behavior (Arlow and Gannon 1982; Wartick and Cochran 1985; Griffin and Mahon 1997). Small businesses have been especially ignored by corporate social responsibility scholars (Thompson and Smith 1991). …