Richard Stanley Simmons

Effects of a Business Ethics Elective on Hong Kong Undergraduates’ Attitudes Toward Corporate Ethics and Social Responsibility:

This study examines the effect of a business ethics course on undergraduates’ attitudes toward the importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility, as measured by the PRESOR scale. It employs a survey approach, adopting a pretest/posttest methodology in the data collection. A total of 132 undergraduate students were surveyed over a period of four semesters during 2006 and 2007. To test the effects of individual personality characteristics and examine their potential interaction with ethical education, participants’ personal values and degree of Machiavellianism were also assessed. The business ethics course resulted in significantly less support for the traditional “stockholder view” of business, providing backing for the inclusion of a stand-alone business ethics course in the business studies curriculum. In addition, among nonbusiness majors, the course resulted in significantly greater support for the “stakeholder view,” suggesting that it would be especially beneficial to open such a course to nonbusiness students.

Social responsibility, professional commitment and tax fraud

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to document relationships between accountants’ socioeconomic beliefs and attitudes and their professional commitment and ethical decisions in a domain-specific context. Specifically, it investigates the relationships among Chinese tax accountants’ level of belief in the importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility, affective/normative professional commitment and ethical judgements/intentions in a case involving client pressure to commit tax fraud. Design/methodology/approach - – The study employs a survey of tax practitioners employed by public accounting firms in China. The data are analyzed using linear regression and structural equation modelling. Findings - – The stakeholder view, representing both normative and practical support for the importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility, was strongly and positively associated with professional commitment among tax practitioners. The stakeholder view also exhibited a strong negative association with intentions to engage in tax fraud. Tax accountants who possessed higher levels of professional commitment judged tax fraud as more unethical, and such ethical judgements were associated with a lower likelihood of intending to engage in fraud. Originality/value - – The associations between: first, professional accountants’ beliefs in the importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility and their level of professional commitment; and second, professional commitment and tax professionals’ ethical judgements have received little attention in the prior literature. The findings of this study suggest that the integrity of public accounting services may be influenced by relatively broad socioeconomic attitudes, and that this effect may operate partially through commitment to professional values.

A city-level analysis of the distribution of FDI within China

Purpose - The study examines whether city-level investment climate, local government effectiveness and corporate income tax rates influence the spatial distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) across cities in China. Design/methodology/approach - The study employs regression analysis using city-level datasets. Findings - The study finds that while city-level investment climate and effective local government influence the spatial distribution of FDI across Chinese cities, city-level tax rates have no such influence. Practical implications - The results have implications for the design of policies aimed at enhancing FDI flows into emerging countries. Originality/value - To date, few studies have investigated the investment location choice at the city level in a single country. The study contributes to the literature by examining the role of government in such investment decisions. It also adds to the previously limited research examining the role of investment climate at the micro level.