Suchergebnisse

Restructuring activities in Eastern Europe have been widely discussed. Examines firm‐level impediments to the conversion of state‐owned enterprises to market‐oriented firms operated for a profit. Based on the experience gained in several consultancies in Hungarian plants, the greatest problems faced by these firms may be at the operational level — accounting, personnel decisions, manufacturing processes. Suggestions for improvements in each of these areas, and others, are offered.

The purpose of this study is to search for differences in humor use between Arabs and Americans and to provide managerial insights regarding such differences. We use Hofstede's cultural dimensions as a theoretical basis for hypothesizing differences in humor styles between Arabs and Americans. The results indicate that Americans scored significantly higher than Arabs on self-enhancing and self-defeating humor style. There was no significant difference regarding affiliative and aggressive humor. Both Arab and American men scored significantly higher in aggressive humor than did Arab and American women. Managerial implications are provided for both practitioners and researchers.

Although corporate structures in Japan and, to a lesser extent Korea, have been examined in the literature, in most cases the framework is not comparative. In other cases the framework is comparative, with keiretsu and chaebol compared to US conglomerates. A third foreign conglomerate, the Mexican grupo, has thus far escaped much serious attention by scholars. Attempts to compare the structure of keiretsu, chaebol, and grupo in terms of the other. Aims to identify what can be learned from comparing foreign corporate structures with other foreign corporate structures, rather than with corporate structures in the USA.

AbstractCultural content has been examined in consumer adoption of new products, whereas the relationship between enduring cultural beliefs and adoption remains unexplored. In this study, proactive superstitious behaviors (e.g., carrying a lucky charm) and passive superstitious beliefs (e.g., belief in fate) were empirically tested as antecedents of consumer novelty seeking (CNS) and consumer independent judgment making (CIJM). The results suggest that proactive superstitious beliefs positively influence CNS, whereas passive beliefs negatively influence CNS. Only passive superstitious beliefs positively influence CIJM. Results also suggest that previous superstition scales are incomplete and fail to reflect contemporary thinking about superstitious beliefs.Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper compares approaches to environmental risk management in Japan and the United States. The paper includes an historical examination of two case studies of environmental risk management: synthetic detergents and lead in gasoline. In addition, the paper discusses several important differences between Japan and the United States, including (a) different attitudes toward separating environmental risk management from environmental risk assessment, and (b) different approaches toward environmental risk management. Specifically, the Japanese approach is based largely on a cooperative model of risk management, with a strong emphasis on negotiation and consensus‐building, while the U.S. approach is based largely on a confrontational model of risk management, with a strong emphasis on rigorous scientific analysis and open adverserial processes.