Value (ethics)

About: Value (ethics) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 21347 publications have been published within this topic receiving 461372 citations.

The Mother of All Path Dependencies: Toward a Cross-Cultural Theory of Corporate Governance Systems

Abstract: The goal of this article is threefold. First, it points out the growing awareness among practitioners and theorists of the relevancy of national culture to corporate governance and securities regulation. It shows that efforts to treat cross-cultural aspects so far have been few and sporadic and thus posits the urgent need for a systematic cross-cultural theory of corporate governance systems. Second, this article introduces the framework of cultural value dimensions (CVD) of cross-cultural psychology and demonstrates its potential usefulness for analyzing problems of the sort discussed here. It highlights the promise held by the CVD framework for producing testable hypotheses with regard to cultural features of corporate governance systems, in a fashion similar to standard analyses of corporate finance. Third, this article sketches out an outline for a cross-cultural theory of corporate governance systems based on the CVD framework by implementing it to fundamental issues like shareholding structures and the regulation of self-dealing, insider trading, and disclosure. It concludes that national cultures can be seen, metaphorically, as the mother of path dependence dynamics in the sense that they play a role in both the origin and in future development of corporate governance systems. The mode of analysis proposed in this article could be extended to other legal fields and also looks very promising for the study of law and social norms.

Rethinking the Concept and Measurement of Societal Culture in Light of Empirical Findings

Abstract: Fischer and Schwartz demonstrated that values vary much more within countries than between countries. This challenges the prevailing conception of culture as shared meaning systems, with high consensus, in which values play a central role. This article offers a concept of culture that does not assume shared individual values. It views societal culture as the hypothetical, latent, normative value system that underlies and justifies the functioning of societal institutions. As such, culture is external to individuals. But if culture is not in the minds of individuals, can it be measured by aggregating individuals' values? This article explicates the links between the latent culture and individual values, mediated through societal institutions that partially shape the beliefs, values, behaviors, and styles of thinking of societal members. It discusses the reasons for low value consensus among individuals and the justification for inferring cultural value emphases from aggregated individual values.

Ex-ante and Ex-post Welfare Optimality under Uncertainty

Abstract: It is widely believed by economic theorists that, if there were no transactions costs, and if all information about the economy were perfectly shared by all, then Arrow-Debreu contingent commodity markets should bring about an ideal allocation The basis for this belief seems clear We have the two efficiency theorems of welfare economics which assure us that, in the absence of external effects, any competitive allocation is Pareto-efficient, and that any Pareto-efficient allocation is competitive, provided that appropriate lump-sum transfers are made Of course, there are some reservations that need to be made: local satiation and non-convexities are well known to cause problems But these are not the problems I wish to discuss here To return to the usual argument, the next step involves noticing how, with contingent commodity markets, the efficiency theorems of welfare economics carry over to an economy with uncertainty, as explained, for instance, in Chapter 7 of Debreu's Theorpj of Value The fundamental value judgment that gives these efficiency theorems their normative interest is what may be called "consumer sovereignty" It is an assumption that the social welfare ordering should respect the preferences that govern consumers' market behaviour It is a serious value judgment-more serious than most economists have been prepared to concede But its seriousness increases when there is uncertainty We know full well that individuals misperceive the probabilities of certain events, assuming that they even perceive any probabilities at all (see, for example, Kahneman and Tversky, 1979) Nor are we always willing to accept as appropriate the attitudes to risk of individuals who seem either extremely reckless or extremely cautious Societies are often willing to make some gestures towards property owners who have not insured themselves adequately against damage from fire, flood or tempest, and not just because of imperfect insurance markets or even misperceptions of probabilities In addition, the inequalities of income that arise when some individuals take more risks than others are not necessarily seen to be desirable, particularly if an individual has undertaken a useful but risky activity and has a very low income as a result of failure Such gestures are examples of "contingent lump-sum transfers" It seems clear that, if such transfers occur to a sufficient extent, they could supplant completely the securities markets which are usually sufficient to bring about Pareto efficiency They may even be able to go further, and correct the imperfections of an Arrow-Debreu market allocation when individuals do misperceive probabilities or else have wrong attitudes to risk This is the main question I wish to consider here The idea that consumer sovereignty should not always extend to economies with uncertainty is not new: it can be found in work by Diamond (1967), Dr6ze

An empirical investigation of the relationships among a consumer's personal values, ethical ideology and ethical beliefs

Abstract: This study provides an additional partial test of the Hunt–Vitell theory [1986, Journal of Macromarketing, 8, 5–16; 1993, ‘The General Theory of Marketing Ethics: A Retrospective and Revision’, in N. C. Smith and J. A. Quelch (eds.), Ethics in Marketing (Irwin Inc., Homewood), pp. 775–784], within the consumer ethics context. Using structural equation modeling, the relationships among an individual’s personal values (conceptualized by the typology of Schwartz [1992, ‘Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries’, in M. P. Zanna (ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 25, Academic Press, Orlando), pp. 1–65] ethical ideology and ethical beliefs are investigated. The validity of the model is assessed in a two-step procedure. First, a measurement model of constructs is tested for key validity dimensions. Next, the hypothesized causal relationships are examined in several path models, comparing no mediation, partial and complete mediation of ethical ideology. The empirical results indicate that individual differences in value priorities (resultant conservation and resultant self-enhancement) directly and indirectly (through idealism) influence the judgment of ethically questionable consumer practices. These findings may significantly contribute to the theoretical understanding of ethical decision-making.

Commodified meanings, meaningful commodities: Re-thinking production-consumption links through the organic system of provision

Abstract: Agro-food researchers have yet to systematically theorize how the social life of food intersects with a political economy of food production. Yet without such understanding, activists are unlikely to affect the politics of production in intended ways. It is crucial to understand how the meanings that animate the politics of consumption are translated and distributed as surplus value and rent, and, for that matter, how surplus value and rent value are translated into meanings. This paper is a preliminary attempt to further that understanding by considering these translations in organic food provision. It begins with some recent interventions in conceptualizing taste and then explores their significance in value creation and distribution. It then considers what they offer in understanding the taste for organics specifically. Ultimately, I argue that certain of these tastes present considerable, if different, problems for the commodification of organic food, which are only resolved by a re-making of organic meanings together with unintended distributions of value