The authors use the theoretical notion of anomie to examine the impact of top management's control mechanisms on the environment of the marketing function. Based on a literature review and in-depth field interviews with marketing managers in diverse industries, a conceptual model is proposed that incorporates the two managerial control mechanisms, viz. output and process control, and relates their distinctive influence to anomie in the marketing function. Three contingency variables, i.e., resource scarcity, power, and ethics (...) codification, are proposed to moderate the relationship between control mechanisms and anomie. The authors also argue for the link between anomic environments and the propensity of unethical marketing practices to occur. Theoretical and managerial implications of the proposed conceptual model are discussed. (shrink)

Corporate sustainability is an important strategy and value orientation for marketing, but scarce research addresses the organizational drivers and barriers to including it in companies’ marketing strategies and processes. The purpose of this study is to determine levels of commitment to corporate sustainability in marketing, processes associated with sustainability marketing commitment, drivers of sustainability marketing at the functional level of marketing, and its organizational context. Using survey data from 269 managers in marketing, covering (...) a broad range of industries in Sweden and Denmark, we took a structural modelling approach to examine construct relationships, mediation, and moderation effects. Overall, the findings show that marketing capabilities associated with the innovation of new products, services, and business models constitute a strong driver to leverage sustainability marketing commitment. In conjunction with insights into processes related to the enactment of sustainability marketing, this result indicates that companies’ marketing departments have a propensity to drive corporate sustainability. The study provides substance to the idea of aligning substantive marketing capabilities closer to dynamic capabilities. Accordingly, the study reveals that reliance on market orientation alone does not lead to greater sustainability commitment. (shrink)

Since market scoring rules have become popular as a form of market maker, it seems worth reviewing just what such mechanisms are intended to do. The main function performed by most market makers is to serve as an intermediary between people who prefer to trade at different times. Traders who have the same favorite times to trade can show up together to an ordinary continuous double auction, and then make and accept offers to trade. But when traders have different (...) favorite times, a market maker can help them by first making offers that some of them will accept, and then later making opposite offers which others will accept. By adjusting prices in his favor, a market maker can even profit from providing this service. By making offers, however, a market maker opens himself up to the risk of losing to informed traders who know more than he about asset values. It is a complex and difficult task to choose the price and duration of offers in order to profit the most from intermediary trades while suffering the least from informed trades. This task requires subtle judgments about the relative fraction of informed and intermediary trades at different times, prices, quantities, and trading histories. No simple algorithm could reasonably claim to do this task optimally. Very active markets have little need for market makers, as anyone can trade at anytime. In markets with large but sporadic trades, a human will likely find it profitable to apply their considerable intelligence to the complex task of market making. The question is what to do for smaller less-active markets, which cannot afford such human attention. Trading may simply not happen there if no intermediary can be found to make such markets. A computer program with less than human intelligence that attempts to make markets runs the risk of being out-smarted by human traders. Humans might even figure out how to turn that program into a money pump, giving up cash each time it is run through some cycle of trades.. (shrink)

The human resources profession emphasizes the personal and interpersonal aspects of work, that make it conscious of complex ethical issues in relationships in the workplace, while finance specialists are conversant with routine compliance with regulations. Marketing professionals are under pressure to produce revenue results. Thus, this research hypothesized that human resources managers would be more disapproving of unethical conduct than both finance and marketing functional managers, and that finance managers would be more disapproving than marketing managers. When (...) asked to evaluate instances of unethical behavior in vignettes, human resources and finance managers were both significantly more disapproving than marketing managers. However, human resources managers were not significantly more disapproving than finance managers. Explanations for the results lie in the divergent antecedent conditions, objectives, perceptions of ethical problems and demands of the various functions. Alternative behavior patterns to resolve ethical dilemmas and expected consequences by the different functions also define their ethical orientations. Average responses on the disapproving side from all three functional groups are explained by two complementary trends that promote ethical awareness among all functional managers. One is the adoption of homogeneous conventions in ethical business practice. The other trend is the increase in ethical awareness specific to each of the functional professions. (shrink)

There has been a remarkable shift in the relation between market and state responsibilities for public services like health care and education. While these services continue to be financed publicly, they are now often provided through the market. The main argument for this new institutional division of labor is economic: while (public) ends stay the same, (private) means are more efficient. Markets function as ‘mere means’ under the continued responsibility of the state. This paper investigates and rejects currently existing (...) egalitarian liberal theories about this division of labor and it presents and defends a new theory of marketization, in which social rights and democratic decision-making occupy center-stage. (shrink)

This article examines the role of Islamic ethics in the marketing field. It presents Islamic contributions to the field by referencing original sources and concepts that are often not easily available to researchers and practitioners alike. In foundational texts, Islamic ethics have their own marketing practice prescriptions, practices that are driven by a discipline which shuns any dichotomy between organizational and societal interests. The paper underscores the role of marketers in improving the well-being of individuals and the community (...) and presents a framework for analyzing the link between Islamic ethics and societal welfare vis-a-vis marketing. Several marketing issues are identified and the contributions of Islamic teachings are presented. This paper, too, identifies emerging ethical dilemmas and the necessity to tackle them in a way that strengthens the role of marketing in societal affairs and ensures morally driven conduct. (shrink)

This chapter argues that markets function better when participants are virtuous, although markets could function without especially virtuous actors. Additionally, we show that market participants tend to be virtuous. Deirdre McCloskey has forcefully and convincingly made the same point that markets are compatible with and depend on virtuous behavior. The bourgeois virtues are both bourgeois (i.e. born of markets) and virtuous (i.e. exhibiting the very virtues we have long admired). Beyond exhibiting the seven virtues that McCloskey highlighted (love, (...) faith, hope, courage, temperance, prudence, and justice), we show that people in market societies tend to be more altruistic, are less likely to be materialistic and corrupt, and are more likely to be cosmopolitan as well as trusting and trustworthy. (shrink)

This article offers an analysis of marketing as an ideological set of practices that makes cultural interventions designed to infuse social relations with biopolitical injunctions. We examine a contemporary site of heightened attention within marketing: the rise of online communities and the attendant profession of social media marketing managers. We argue that social media marketers disavow a core problem; namely, that the object at stake, the customer community, barely exists. The community therefore functions ideologically. We describe the (...) ideological gymnastics necessary for maintaining momentum behind a practice that barely exists and we ponder why such ideologies are necessary, and what they allow the marketer to do. Working with such concepts as ‘the wild’, ‘communicative capitalism’, and ‘biopolitical marketing’, we explore a genre of popular business literature that proselytizes for online customer communities and we reflect on the broader implications. (shrink)

We should seek an ethic internal to marketing arising from marketing's societal function, rather than imposing some add-on ethic. This suggests that marketing should enhance the information and the freedom the potential customer brings to the market transaction. Defining and achieving this information and freedom is difficult, but marketers suggest that the market itself drives out major violators, a suggestion less persuasive concerning increasingly complex goods and services. Marketing also is tempted to appeal to our (...) baser, darker side. These problems are better addressed through self-regulation guided by a vision of advertising and business in the service of society, and by the marketer's own sense of integrity than through external regulation. (shrink)

The body-oriented approach in the philosophy of cognitive sciences is gaining in importance in the conditions of the formation of new high-tech contexts. The problem of interoception and integration of bodily data into socio-economic processes requires a comprehensive analysis and ethical assessment. This article examines the conceptual foundations of the body-oriented approach and its impact on the essence of cognitive processes. The main advantages and disadvantages of this approach are presented. We consider the methodological conflict zones of the bodily paradigm (...) and traditional methodological attitudes of the cognitive sciences. The system ofinteroceptive sensations is a special «layer» of bodily experience. The social functions of interoceptive sensations are an interdisciplinary research area that focuses on the mechanisms of interaction between the private content of bodily experience and systems of social interaction. The regularity between interoceptive sensations and human behavioral patterns reflects the importance of examining bodily data. Today, the market for bodily data is just beginning to form, but at the same time it is already playing an important role in global digital transformation processes. A multitude of applications and wearable digital devices that track bodily activity and generate gigantic amounts of data are used today by millions of people around the world. The identification of bodily activity leads to the emergence of new forms of interaction between a person and socio-institutional systems, the specific properties of which are also considered in this article. (shrink)

In a commercial society, said Adam Smith, “every man becomes in some measure a merchant.” If Smith is right, what does that mean for the character of the society? This paper addresses the character forming effects of the market—and, specifically its impact on the “virtues.” There is a long tradition of viewing commerce as subversive of the virtues. In this view, the market is held to have legitimated the pursuit of narrow self-interest at the expense of social and civic obligations (...) and moral restraints. But, as Albert Hirschman has shown, many Enlightenment moralists saw commercial society as a moralizing force. Which view is right? This paper examines how many of the character traits that we commonly call virtues are rewarded— and so presumably reinforced and diffused—by the market. In this way, the market (as it were by a hidden hand) strengthens its own foundations and reproduces a moral culture that is functional to its own needs. (shrink)

This paper provides an English version of a study originally circulated as a working paper in November 2005 on prediction markets and subsequently published in Italian in Mondo Bancario (January–February 2006). The paper reviews the structure, functioning, and empirical performance of prediction markets, with particular emphasis on the Iowa Electronic Markets and other platforms active in the early 2000s. The analysis covers electoral markets, cur-rent events, entertainment markets, and macroeconomic derivatives, and discusses issues related to information aggregation, forecasting accuracy, and (...) regulation. (shrink)

Growing research suggests social ventures (SVs) variably combine social and profit orientations in core organizational features, and this variation in hybridity leads to divergent organizational dynamics and outcomes. However, no comprehensive and precise measurement scale has emerged to capture the varying degrees of hybridity across SVs. To advance theory and empirical research, this study presents an instrument for assessing how organizational actors perceive the degree to which social and market logics are (a) compatible and (b) central to organizational functioning. An (...) inductive-confirmatory two-study approach ( Nstudy1 = 293, Nstudy2 = 315) validates a hybridity scale—composed of 6-item compatibility and 4-item centrality factors—for U.S. nonprofit organizations, benefit corporations, and social enterprises. Moreover, results reveal perceived compatibility is associated with SVs’ revenue structure, whereas centrality is related to their legal status. The development of this scale will facilitate large-scale quantitative research that systematically examines the varied nature, drivers, and implications of organizational hybridity. (shrink)

Strategic marketing scholars argue that our existing marketing knowledge is inept to meaningfully sustain the competitive advantage of a brand, even only from a single bottom line context, i.e., focusing only on profit-making initiative to ensure the brand’s long-term commercial competitive advantage. Subsequently, the existing strategic marketing principles are further impractical to rationally support a brand’s initiative to prolifically pursue the triple bottom line, i.e., contributing to people and planet while making profit. To address this gap in (...) existing marketing pedagogy, this chapter will help prepare marketeers to apply different strategic cross-disciplinary and cross-functional business theories to support their strategic marketing plan, with an aim to more meaningfully pursue the triple bottom line, and sustain or extend the short-lived commercial competitive of a brand.At the intersections of strategic management, psychology, economics, cognitive science and marketing principles, this chapter:First, discusses the resources and capabilities that can help marketeers to establish an initial competitive advantage.Second, the chapter, clarifies why a brand’s competitive advantage would be vulnerable in a mid- or long-term period.Third, how marketeers could equip with different cross-disciplinary and cross-functional theories to underpin their strategic marketing plans, in order to prolong the commercial competitive advantage of their brand (e.g., possibly extending a brand-specific short-term competitive advantage to a mid- or longer-term period).Fourth, the chapter discusses how an enriched strategic marketing plan in support of different cross-disciplinary and cross-functional business theories could meaningfully contribute to people and planet while making profit.Fifth, the embryonic changes in marketing dynamics and the role of sustainable marketeers are discussed.Sixth, summarizing the discussions across different sections, the last section of this chapter clarifies how the discussed strategic marketing plans help marketeers to pursue sustainable development goals.Similar to all other chapters in the book, this chapter also presents discussions based on real-life marketing schemes, socioeconomic and ecological case examples, web exercises, manager’s corners, and sustainable marketing-in-actions, in order to clarify the application of complex cross-disciplinary and cross-functional arguments in a simplified manner. The futuristic evolutionary aspects of strategic marketing education and practice, and the subsequent propositions that are discussed in this chapter will help tomorrow’s marketeers to understand the practical significance of the propositions to meaningfully contribute back to their society and ecology, while sustaining (or at least extending) the commercial competitive advantage of their brands. (shrink)

This paper merges the non-expected utility approach (Tversky and Kahneman, J Risk Uncertain 5:297–323, 1992 and Quiggin, J Econ Behav Organ 3:323–343, 1982) into Akerlof’s (Quart J Econ 84:488–500, 1970) model of Market for Lemons. We derive the results for different probability weighting functions and analyze the phenomenon of market failure in light of non-expected utility maximization. Our main finding suggests that when the proportion of traded lemons is high (low), the problem of market failure is mitigated (enhanced). In addition, (...) for the case of Cumulative Prospect Theory, we show that (a) the higher the loss aversion is, the more pronounced is the market failure; (b) gain-domain elevation is negatively related to the extent of market failure; and (c) the value function is (i) negatively monotonic in the gain-domain diminishing sensitivity parameter when the market is characterized by a high proportion of “peaches,” and (ii) positively monotonic in the loss-domain diminishing sensitivity parameter when the market is characterized by a high proportion of “lemons.”. (shrink)

Markets, just like states, are systems of governance. Their justification must therefore meet similar standards of moral scrutiny, despite the fact that their authority structure is impersonal. In order to argue for the role of markets as systems of governance that raise similar justificatory burdens, this book provides a philosophical account of market institutions. According to this view, shared social institutions define a framework for how members of a political community think and act toward one another, consistent with citizens respecting (...) themselves and one another as free persons, each entitled to guide their activities in light of their own judgments. The market is one of these shared institutions, so its rules must also be consistent with mutual respect as free persons. This perspective represents a fundamentally different way of thinking about economic life, which rejects both the view of economic actors as disconnected individuals in a state of nature and the view of economic actors as mere preference orderings that are inputs to a giant social welfare function. The book formulates a deeper framework for thinking about economic life, which can displace the familiar ideas that underpin contemporary neoliberalism and finance capitalism. In so doing, the book works out the implications of the idea that the burdens of equal citizenship extend to economic life, such that appropriately regulated markets and workplaces elicit and realize a system in which people respect one another as free. The book concludes with a defense of economic democracy, elements of which can be found under German codetermination. (shrink)

In this paper, we aim at identifying a concept of man that can represent a reference point for those who work or supervise social processes characterized by commercial or economic purposes. Economic, management, and organizational theories and ideas have a large impact on the way we think of ourselves, and we act accordingly. By making a radical departure from the ontological assumptions, this paper proposes a shifting of the current paradigm in terms of how we theorize about man. In order (...) to do this, we analyze the ontological level of the relationship between the idea of happiness and the concept of man from medieval scholastics, and the relationship between the idea of happiness and functionalism in social science. We first prove the formal equivalence between the structures of human choice as described in the qq. 6–21 Prima Secundae of the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas, and the model of problem-solving behavior as conceptualized in popular management models. Then we show that the Aquinas theory of action could provide a more adequate view of economy and business in the sociocultural and environmental context in which they operate. Finally, we present the implications of this study for management theory, practice, and education. (shrink)

In the Marxist tradition, capitalism is understood as a commodified society based on markets. The article argues that the ultimate justification of this position does not lie in any ‘materialistic’ approach, but in the disembedding of markets that was the result of the historical ‘Great Transformation’ analysed by Karl Polanyi. Disembedded markets are not an economic subsystem within society but take the place of the most encompassing social system, which Durkheim had reserved for religion. The article distinguishes between spatial, social, (...) material and temporal dimensions of disembedding, thereby elaborating and correcting the analysis of Karl Polanyi. As a genuine form of society, disembedded markets give rise to the epistemological dilemma, which, as Luhmann had shown, is fundamental to any encompassing social theory: Society as a whole cannot be viewed by any observer. According to this viewpoint, economic theories take on ‘theological’ functions, as they provide rationality and legitimacy to a reality that is unknowable. (shrink)

Purpose of the article is to partially describe underpinning economics for the circular economy. A circular economy (closed-loop system) is an advancement from the linear economy (open-loop system) which behaves according to the hierarchy of 6R, preferring reuse, remanufacture or recycle solutions insead of disposal (known also as a „linear dead-end“). This new approach is a trigger of new business models seeking many times vor various kinds of support from the side of government. However, governmental support is not neither the (...) only option nor the most functional one. Underpinning economics for the circular economy can be based also at market-based tools. What we have in mind under this term for the purspose of this paper is the game in the market being played between buyers and sellers. Methodology: We have analyzed this interaction using game theory tool (interactive decision theory). The scietific goal of our paper was to suggest a quick market-based solution how to support circular economy business models whilst helping to the society to solve certain social problems. Our findings have led to a newly proposed way, how the current game in pricing could be changed. An emphasis shall be placed on strategies how to rise prices of linear economy products whilst offering wider social benefits to small sellers of such products. The price increase of linear economy products is considered in this paper as a market-based incentive to support recycled, remanufactured ones, whilst circular economy products are becoming more economically feasible in comparison with more expensive linear economy products. (shrink)

Regional market integration in Europe and North America has grown increasingly extensive. This integration has created institutions and structures to guide pancontinental political, economic, and social policies. At the same time, both regions are experiencing pressures of decentralization. These competing trends are transforming relationships between and among business, society, and government. This article compares and contrasts integration in North America and Europe, and discusses the implications of political, economic, and institutional changes in these two regions for business-government relations and the (...) structure and strategic orientation of the corporate public affairs (PA) function. This article reviews recent literature on comparative political economy, business and public policy, and corporate PA, and it presents a conceptual model and research propositions, supported by case illustrations, of how integration and decentralization affect business-government relations and corporate PA in Europe and North America. (shrink)

Markets are not given, transcendent and commanding. Markets are socially constructed, a function of interaction among both institutions normally seen as within the market and institutions of social control. The conventional theories of the firm, by Gardiner C. Means, Ronald Coase and others, do not go far enough when they are used as theories of the market. Markets are a function of the activities of firms to establish market structures of their own liking and of the impact of (...) a wide variety of government regulatory activities. Even law not deemed regulatory has impact on the existence, domain, character and structure of markets; moreover law is profoundly influenced by nominally private-sector activities brought to bear on and through government in the legal-economic nexus.Les marchés ne sont pas donnés, transcendents, ni dominants. Ils sont socialement construits. Ils sont le résultat d’interactions à la fois entre les institutions généralement perçues comme étant à l’intérieur du marché et les institutions de réglementation. Les théories conventionnelles de l’entreprise de Gardner C. Means, Ronald Coase, et des autres, ne sont pas assez abouties pour être utilisées en tant que théories du marché. Les marchés sont fonction des activités des entreprises qui établissent des structures de marché selon leurs propres préférences mais ils sont aussi fonction d’une grande variété d’activités de réglementation. Même le droit qui n’est pas réglementaire a une influence sur l’existence, le domaine, la nature, et la structure des marchés; de plus le droit dépend des activités du secteur privé qui exercent une influence sur, et à travers le gouvernement dans la sphère économico-juridique. (shrink)

A legal system is any institution or set of institutions in a given society that provides dispute resolution in a systematic and reasonably predictable way. it does so through the exercise of three functions: the judicial, the legislative, and the executive. The judicial function, the adjudication of disputes, is the core of any legal system; the other two are ancillary to this. The legislative function is to determine the rules that will govern the process of adjudication (this (...) class='Hi'>function may be merged with the judicial function, as when case law arises through precedents, or it may be exercised separately), while the executive function is to secure submission (through a variety of means, which may or may not include violence) to the adjudicative process and compliance with its verdicts. A government or state (for present purposes i shall use these terms interchangeably) is any organisation that claims, and in large part achieves, a forcibly maintained monopoly, within a given geographical territory, of these legal functions, and in particular of the use of force in the executive function. now the market anarchist objection to government is simply a logical extension of the standard libertarian objection to coercive monopolies in general.1 First, from a moral point of view, among people regarded as equals2 it cannot be legitimate for some to claim a certain line of work as their own privileged preserve from which others are to be forcibly excluded; we no longer believe in the divine right of kings, and on no other basis could such inequality of rights be justified. Second, from an economic point of view, because monopolies are insulated from market competition and hold their customers by force, they lack both the information and the incentive to provide consumers with fair, efficient, and inexpensive service. The anarchist accepts these arguments, and merely asks why they should apply with any less force to the provision of legal services. (shrink)

Friedrich A. von Hayek influenced many areas of inquiry including economics, psychology and political theory. This article will offer one possible interpretation of the ethical foundation of Hayek's political and social contributions to libertarianism and free market capitalism by analyzing several of his important non-economic publications, primarily The Road to Serfdom, The Fatal Conceit, The Constitution of Liberty and Law, Legislation and Liberty. While Hayek did not offer a particular ethical foundation for free market capitalism, he argued consistently that free (...) markets are liberating and, for the markets to be truly free and for individuals to participate freely in markets, they should be subject to little control. Beyond some very basic principles, such as the protection of private property, that enable the free market to function properly, individuals are both free to and required to determine their own ethical compass. The central question, then, is what are the ethical principles that underlie Hayek's view of the successful organization and operation of a free market? If formal rules and regulations must be kept to a minimum, then ethical behavior is an individual choice as well as an important foundation for the self-regulating free market. This article will argue that one possible ethical foundation underlying Hayek's libertarian justification for free market capitalism are Friedrich Nietzsche's "will to power" and noble/slave ethics. This article will rely primarily on Nietzsche's On The Genealogy of Morals, Beyond Good and Evil, Zarathustra, and the Will to Power. (shrink)

In this paper I: (1) Describe something of the present situation in the United States and briefly contrast this with the state of affairs in other nations of the industrialised world. I emphasise health care but also allude to other social conditions: health care is merely one institution of a society and, just as do its other institutions, the system of health care reflects the basic world-view of that society. (2) Sketch the world-view and the philosophy which underwrites the use (...) of a market system in distributing what are acknowledged to be critically important social goods like health care and higher education. I show that a well-functioning market can indeed be useful when it comes to distributing some, but not when distributing other goods. (3) Suggest that when competition and the market are used to ‘regulate’ health care, technology—instead of being used to benefit patients—is apt to be used primarily to maximise individual profit: it becomes a weapon between what is often painted as ‘warfare’ among health care providers and institutions. I argue that this state of affairs is based on an undue emphasis upon the demands of individual freedom to the detriment of the community. Finally (4) I suggest an alternative approach to balancing individual with communal interests, an approach which is neither based on a predominance of one with neglect of the other, nor on a dialectic balance between them, but rather upon an approach which sees both individual and communal interests as modifying forces in a complex homeostatic balance. Individual success, in any civilised sense of the term, is possible only in a viable and well-functioning community, and a well-functioning community is not possible without individual success: the two are inevitably interdependent and linked. (shrink)

The traditional understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has largely been focused on its downstream performance implications, particularly its associations with firms’ customer market metrics such as customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and customer co-creation as well as financial ones such as firm value, return on assets etc. However, given the close relationship between CSR and marketing that literature has identified, it is surprising that the relationship between a focal upstream construct, i.e. the marketing function’s power within a (...) firm and the firm’s propensity toward CSR has not been addressed in the literature. Examining the link between marketing’s power (MP) in a firm’s top management team (TMT) and firm CSR levels, we investigate how this fundamental TMT configuration, i.e. the distribution of marketing power in the TMT, motivates the firm’s social endeavors. Further, we formulate this relationship in a contingency-based model that incorporates the moderating effects of firm size, firm age, service intensity, and resource slack across 1569 firms operating in 63 industries. In addition to their effect on CSR, this study shows how MP in TMT may influence corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) as well as CSR capability after controlling for industry type. The inclusion on these additional dimensions of CSR (CSI and CSR capability) complements our analyses of the effect that MP has on CSR. The research contributes to a deeper understanding of CSR’s fundamental corporate determinants as well as identifies the essential role of the marketing function in firms’ CSR strategy. In this process, it yields useful implications for multiple streams of theory as well as for business practices. (shrink)

The transition of the former socialists economies to the system of market economy can also be viewed as an exceptional experiment about the real nature of market economy. In this respect, the difficulties met in the transition provide fruitful informations concerning the relative importance of the different parts composing the system. In this paper, we consider the flexibility of behaviors, the time path of transformations and the role of the State during the transition. Endly, an assessment of the validity of (...) the neoclassical paradigm, as a picture of market economy, comes out.La transition des anciennes économies planifiées vers J’économie de marché représente une expérience en grandeur réelle d’une portée considérable pour l’analyse économique. Dans le cas présent, les difficultés de mise en place d’une économie de marché nous amènent à réfléchir sur l’importance réelle des différents éléments constitutifs d’un tel système. La capacité d’ajustement des comportements des agents économiques, le rythme des transformations et le rôle de l’Etat sont ainsi réexaminés. En conclusion, il apparaît que la représentation traditionnelle de l’économie de marché à travers le schéma dominant inspiré de la théorie néoclassique, qui a servi de soubassement intellectuel à la plupart des programmes se révèle peu adapté. (shrink)

As the rapidly advancing possibilities of biotechnology have outstripped the adaptive capacity of current legal and ethical institutions, a vigorous debate has arisen that considers the boundaries of appropriate use of this technology, particularly when applied to humans. This article examines ethical concerns surrounding the development of markets in a particular form of human genetic engineering in which heterozygotes are fitter than both homozygotes, a condition known as heterozygous advantage. To begin, we present a generalized model of the condition, illuminated (...) by the application to sickle-cell anemia. Next, we propose a typology of related markets, some of which are currently functioning with available products and services, and others that are widely viewed as imminent. We suggest the manner in which perverse incentives may arise for firms that market genetic intervention in circumstances where heterozygous advantage is possible. Finally, we propose that this misalignment of incentives with social welfare has arisen from both ill-conceived market intervention where markets are capable of achieving efficient outcomes and the lack of market intervention where markets have failed. We offer specific legal and regulatory approaches for reform. (shrink)

The chapter explores the relationship between markets, space and infrastructure through an interdisciplinary lens. There are two competing conceptualisations of space, i.e., the Cartesian space and the social space as conceived by (Lefebvre, La production de l’espace, Éditions Anthropos, Paris, 1974). Economics assumes that markets operate over Cartesian space. To explore the relationship between market and space, we break down market transactions into its four spatial flows, i.e., the flow of information about the price and quality of the goods and (...) the actual flow of goods and money between buyers and sellers. We define market-space as a contiguous social space between all potential buyers and sellers through which these four spatial flows occur. Our main argument is that the pre-requisite for a well-functioning market is a market-space that has public good characteristics. Further, we use the notion of Lefebvrian social space to understand the key role transport and telecommunication infrastructure play in creating a conducive market-space that can support the markets and explore why some remote areas are not able to access certain markets. (shrink)

To what extent does the market exhibit moral and ethical behavior? Morality complements the positive effects of the market. The results of the market correspond only partially to our righteous ideas. In case of market failure, morality ensures that third parties are not harmed. Against this background, the social market economy is entering the market and changing the distribution results. Social morality is an important corrective factor in the market economy. If a market economy is to be an advantage for (...) society, society must sanction immoral, damaging behavior through legal penalties or social exclusion. In addition, it must promote voluntary ethical behavior through the provision of values.In order for a society to function and to develop the productive forces, there is still the ethics of social capital which has to be in line with the orders, the system, and the economic stage of development. In this context, it is particularly the attitudes of the people that are important for social, thus the community, and social cooperation. The norms, values and morality as well as the attitudes to the political and economic system are important.Ethics pays off in the long term for companies. There is a short-term goal conflict between profit and ethics but not a long-term one. Central to the functioning of a market economy on the basis of self-employment strings is the regulation building block private property. Otherwise, the incentive and sanction mechanisms of the competition functions described above do not work. (shrink)

The Health Impact Fund (HIF) is a project aimed at expanding access to life-saving drugs worldwide and incentivizing pharmaceutical companies to invest in research and development for neglected diseases. The HIF would invert the existing patent framework by rewarding ideas through their diffusion rather than protecting against this diffusion, by encouraging a collective rather than privatized wealth scheme. The basic idea behind the HIF is the creation of a new competitive market that centers on individuals who, under normal circumstances, exert (...) very little force on the tide of market demand. The HIF does not operate on standard market measures of demand, but instead measures demand as a product of needs, while in conventional market scenarios, private citizens and national welfare states pay for needs. The idea is that the HIF would create a functional, competitive market in which pharmaceutical profit is determined by the actual health impact of each new drug, a measure born from pharmacological and distributive efficacy. In this article, the basic features of and main challenges to the HIF are addressed. (shrink)

In the midst of the ultra modernity of stock exchanges and financial markets, certain practitioners are increasingly using forecasting models of changes in rates whose scientific rationality is particularly contested. We refer to ‘technical analysis’, or, in the jargon of finance, of ‘chartism’. The adherents of this practice affirm that their models offer the possibility of detecting and of reading, by means of stereotyped graphical configurations, rising or falling market trends. Now, for a large number of people who hold scientific (...) economic and financial theories to describe the ‘nature’ of changes in rates as so many random and unpredictable phenomena, these models arise above all from the sphere of ‘superstition’ and ‘beliefs’, in the worst sense of the term. To listen to them, one would think there was hardly any difference between sorcery, prophecy, and chartism, since in short: “it works because people believe in it”. These are remarks that can only arouse the curiosity of the anthropologist, because they actually serve merely to recall epistemologica! controversies that depend on the rationality and the irrationality of observed practices and debates in various cultures. At the heart of these contradictory debates, it is precisely prophecy as a cultural mode of managing unforeseen events that has been the subject of multiple anthropological, historical, and epistemological studies which can, in a comparative perspective, clarify the structure and functioning of forecasting tools employed by the chartists in the context of financial speculation. (shrink)

Networks for the exchange and/or sharing of genetic data are developing in many countries. We focus here on the situations in the US and France. We highlight some recent and remarkable differences between these two countries concerning the mode of access to, and the storage and use of genetic data, particularly as concerns two-sided markets and dynamic consent or dynamic electronic informed consent. This brief overview suggests that, even though the organization and function of these two-sided markets remain open (...) to criticism, dynamic e-IC should be more widely used, especially in France, if only to determine its real effectiveness. (shrink)

Why do people buy particular products? Which are the antecedents that lead to the decision in favour of or against the purchase? Knowledge of the underlying semiotic and perceptual mechanisms is of key importance for understanding marketing processes. There are different psychological approaches that help to explain the effects of advertisements and product design. Analysing the sign processes of marketing clarifies the strategies applied. By identifying the manipulative functions of advertising, this book supports the consumers' critical discourse.

The virtue of internalizing environmental costs so that prices reflect full social opportunity costs at the margin, reaffirmed by Terry Anderson and Donald Leal, is unarguable. Beyond that, however, Anderson and Leal's Free Market Environmentalism neglects the classic works in the intellectual tradition to which it is supposed to be a contribution; is unconvincing and inconsistent in the functions it ascribes to the “environmental entrepreneur”; conflates problems of distribution and scale with the problem of allocation; ignores international dimensions; and misrepresents (...) the debate over “sustainable development.”. (shrink)

The accurate delineation of various forms of business organization requires a comparative analysis of their objectives, functions, and organizational structures. In particular, this paper highlights differences in managerial work between business firms and non-profits exemplified by the charitable organization. It adopts as its template the theory of the marketing firm, a depiction of the modern corporation as it responds to the imperatives of customer-oriented management, namely consumer discretion and consumer sophistication. It describes in §2 the essentials of the theory (...) and its basis in consumer behavior analysis, and outlines its unique position as the organization responsible for marketing transactions, based on objective exchange, competitive markets and prices, and the deployment of the entire marketing mix. §3 deals in greater depth with the objective, strategic functions, and organization of the marketing firm in terms of the concepts of metacontingency and bilateral contingency. §4 discusses how the marketing firm differs from charities in terms of goal separation, market-based pricing and competition, the entrepreneurial process, the pursuit of customer-oriented management, and organizational structure. Particular attention is accorded the organizational differences between marketing firms and charities, which arise as a direct consequence of the distinct patterns of contingency they entail. §5 discusses the implications of the foregoing analysis and draws appropriate conclusions. (shrink)

Those who advocate higher out-of-pocket spending, especially high deductibles, to keep health care costs better controlled without losing quality use market language to talk about how people should think about health care. Consumers—that is, patients—should hunt for bargains. Clip coupons. Shop around. Patients need to have more “skin in the game.” Consumer-patients will then choose more carefully and prudently and use less unnecessary health care. Unfailingly, “skin” refers to having money at stake. Usually, those arguing for high deductibles express dismay (...) or frustration that patients do not face the full cost of the health services they receive. Unfortunately, a lack of price transparency, the need to unbundle bundled groups of services to discover total price, and the challenge of validly and reliably measuring and disclosing quality make shopping for health care a challenge for even the savviest patient. Urgency, fear, and sickness that impairs peak cognitive function and other aspects of emotionally laden decision-making, even when “shared” with a physician, add obstacles to coupon clipping and tire kicking. Who has more at stake in health decisions than patients? Whose flesh is literally, not just figuratively, at risk? (shrink)

The virtual community under consideration is called theNigerian Village Square, ‘…a marketplace of ideas’. As an online discussion forum, NVS combines the features of listservs and newsgroups with a more elegant and user-friendly interface. While computer-mediated communication technologies augment political discourse in established democracies, new media and mobile technologies create avenues for a virtual sphere among Nigerians. Therefore, the ideal virtual sphere guarantees equal access to all connected netizens, equal right for all languages in netizens’ linguistic repertoire, and it fosters (...) democratic deliberation through policy debates, public dialogues and ‘online polylogues’. By linguistic marketing is meant discourse as a vehicle for ‘promotional acts’ and for ‘selling’ particular cultures and ideologies to multicultural and multilingual readers/audiences. One interpretation of this is in terms of asserting language rights and linguistic equality. The use of Nigerian languages with Nigerian Pidgin online is promotional and forexistential negotiation. This results in language mixture which is an instantiation of freedom of speech, freedom of switch and freedom to switch. The underlying pragmatic motivation for top-down language mixture and alternation in Nigerian virtual discourse is attention-getting with the aim of inducing an interdiscursive writer-reader cognitive as well as communicative interaction. Other pragmatic functions of code switching discussed in the paper include allusive textuality, amusing phaticity, anticipated interactivity, affective expressivity and audience affiliation or alienation, among others. Thus, intertextuality is an explanatory technique for investigating previously unexplored phenomena in digital code switching. (shrink)

This article provides an in depth analysis of the organization, technology employed and functioning of the guild-organized leather manufacturing industry in the capital during the tenth century. Emphasis is placed on the internai organization and operations of the establishments; the technical processes employed; their business organization form and governing rules; the implications of the guild's occupational exclusivity; the likely market structure, degree of exercisable market power, and their impact on price competition. The scale of operations and growth of firms was (...) determined by entrepreneurial decisions based on market signais. Prices and wages were set by market forces – not by the guild. Pro-competitive regulations and unimpeded new entry fostered correct business conduct and maintained a level playing field. Occupational exclusivity did flot ensure market monopoly, as the guiid system did not aim to promote the members' economic interests, thwart intra-guild and extemal competition, or achieve equality of economic resuits. (shrink)

In light of the structural role of computational technology in the expansion of modern global finance, this essay investigates the ontology of contemporary markets starting from a reformulation of liquidity—one of the tenets of financial trading. Focusing on the nexus between financial and algorithmic flows, the paper complements contemporary philosophies of the market with insights into recent theories of computation, emphasizing the functional role of contingency, both for market trading and algorithmic processes. Considering the increasing adoption of advanced computational methods (...) in automated trading strategies, this article argues that the event of price is the direct manifestation of the incomputability at the heart of market exchange. In doing so, it questions the ontological assumptions of “flow” and “fluidity” underpinning traditional conceptions of liquidity and challenges the notion of rationality in market behavior. Ultimately, the paper gestures toward some of the social and political consequences of this reformulation. (shrink)

The importance of the marketing function at board level is often underestimated and its role in driving change in HR is often undervalued. This research examines how marketing can partner with organizational leadership for a mutually beneficial exchange of marketing skills and capabilities to be able to realign human resources quickly enough to deal with shifts in the external business environment and create a sustainable future for the business. The current research explores the concept of “ (...) class='Hi'>marketing leadership” from an interpretive perspective that challenges the traditional view of marketing and leadership as two separate domains and offers a comprehensive approach to human resource management. The descriptive survey method was used for this research, and the research population was the oil marketing company. The current research assumed that marketing leadership affects human resources management. The research concluded that marketing leadership greatly affects human resources management and its dimensions, with an average effect of (0.52). This indicates a high and significant impact of marketing leadership on human resources management. (shrink)

Increasing international uncertainty – including factors such as ongoing financial crises, climate change and energy scarcity – raises questions about which policy strategies can best solve environmental problems and promote community development. This article describes the functioning of the farmers’ market in the Czech city of Brno and analyses how it may contribute to local sustainable development. Theoretically, the article engages the debate over the meaning of sustainability and appropriate policies to achieve sustain-ability goals. Field observations, interviews, content analysis of (...) government documents, and a survey of vendors reveal how the market functions, indicate the meaning of the market for customers and vendors alike, shed light on the future use of the space and provide data for comparison of market activities with official sustainability policy. The article concludes that a novel approach toward sustainable development is to work with existing traditions like farmers’ markets rather than focus efforts exclusively on top-down initiatives and high-tech solutions. While such markets are not automatically ecologically friendly, and farmers’ markets alone cannot produce a sustainable society, this research demonstrates the potential of such emergent, bottom-up activities to help transform society–nature relations while improving urban quality of life. (shrink)

The purpose of the article is to study the specifics and develop measures of anti-crisis marketing of railway engineering enterprises. The relevance of anti-crisis marketing of railway engineering enterprises lies in the need to effectively respond to changes in the economic environment, competitive pressure and changes in demand for products that arise during crisis situations. The role of anti-crisis marketing in the anti-crisis management of enterprises is to ensure effective interaction with other functional units, operational analysis of (...) the market situation and making strategic decisions to overcome crisis phenomena. The main functions of anti-crisis marketing are the analysis of market trends, forecasting changes in demand, development of strategies for maintaining and developing market position. The main tasks of anti-crisis marketing are to ensure the stability of sales, maintain customer loyalty, optimize marketing costs and increase the competitiveness of the enterprise. To achieve the goals of anti-crisis marketing of railway engineering enterprises, it is proposed to use such methods as: diversification of products and sales markets; flexible pricing; market and competitor monitoring using benchmarking; active use of digital marketing; implementation of СRM (customer relations management). (shrink)

Narratives of violence and resilience weave through the fabric of our collective consciousness of womanhood, echoing in the stories of friends, family, and public figures alike. These intimate and distant accounts often serve as stark reminders of the persistent dangers shadowing women's passage through both public and private spaces. Drawing on Brian Massumi's concept of affective facts and Sara Ahmed's understanding of affect theory, this article contends that the circulation of fear-laden media not only shapes consumer demand but sustains societal (...) conditions that render fear an essential aspect of femininity. I explore how this pervasive fear fuels the creation of what I term the ‘market for women's safety,’ a commercial sphere where ordinary feminine objects are transfigured into instruments of defence. In this marketplace, items like lipstick tasers and glittering keychain alarms transcend their practical function, embodying both protection and the aesthetics of empowerment. These products fortify the body and the psyche, cultivating a fragile resilience in environments fraught with risk. Grounded in the lived experiences of sellers, this article reveals how the market's reliance on fear reflects and reproduces the anxieties of those who sustain it. Vendors, often women themselves, straddle the spaces of entrepreneurship and activism, transforming personal apprehension into commercial ventures. Fear, far from repelling, becomes a powerful force, reshaping women's relationship to safety, vulnerability, and the fragile pursuit of self-determination. (shrink)

The concept of negative liberty as non-interference is operative in the concept of a free market and stipulates that market relations remain outside the purview of social control. As a purported self-regulating system, however, the market functions as a system of necessity that facilitates and rules social life. I argue that Isaiah Berlin’s defense of negative liberty leads to a paradox as it entails subjection to the external necessity of a self-regulating market. The argument for the self-defeating nature of negative (...) liberty relies on two philosophical insights that have their roots in G. W. F. Hegel’s theory of self-determination. First, negative liberty fails to account for the inner and outer conditions of freedom and thus reduces to mere whim or arbitrariness, subject to heteronomous forces but masquerading as license. Second, individual freedom is intersubjectively mediated in its deliberative process and framed by social and political institutions in its exercise; thus, free agency must be theorized as embedded agency. I challenge the association of freedom and the market and the automatic and unchallenged implication of deregulation and freedom. Deregulation, rather, leaves the community’s future development to the whims of economic players using a rhetoric of freedom as both lure and principle. (shrink)

As the functional capabilities of high-tech medical products converge, supplying organizations seek new opportunities to differentiate their offerings. Embracing product sustainability-related differentiators provides just such an opportunity. This study examines the challenge organizations face when attempting to understand how customers perceive environmental and social dimensions of sustainability by exploring and defining both dimensions on the basis of a review of extant literature and focus group research with a leading supplier of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning equipment. The study encompasses seven (...) hospitals and one private imaging center in the Netherlands and identifies five social aspects that cover 11 indicators. The authors conduct 22 customer perception interviews with key decision-making stakeholders involved in purchasing MRI scanning equipment. Respondents find environmental and social sustainability dimensions personally relevant but professionally secondary to cost, performance, and ability to use the equipment in their organizations' physical infrastructure. Finally, incorporating a product's environmental and social credentials within the marketing of MRI scanning equipment enhances the perception of the product offering in decisionmaking stakeholders' minds and provides a means of differentiation. (shrink)

Research indicates that the integrity demonstrated by a business can have a positive effect on its bottom line. The challenge is to not only embrace and voice ethical principles, but to also practice them in all business transactions. When the world knows that a business can be trusted to act ethically, the results show up not only in higher profits but also in lower employee turnover and better customer relations.This volume of research reinforces our comprehension of marketing as more (...) than a functional area of organisations; marketing spans the boundaries of the enterprise and is the nexus for many of its stakeholders. Therefore, the reader will find chapters relating not only to typical marketing activities such as advertising but also about the importance of communicating ethics in the banking industry and the ethical concerns of promoting tourism. For it is not a matter of simply behaving ethically but of voicing that behaviour and the resulting impact of it on the company, on the consumer, on the shareholder and on society as a whole. (shrink)

Modern realities of market economy have considerable influence on social mechanisms and problems of a civil society and the whole social-political sphere. Comprehension of this influence in Ukrainian social philosophy is not adequate to the theoretical and practical meaningfulness of problem. The conclusion is grounded: only on the basis of the mature civil society the „social capital” may be created which makes an economic sphere socially effective. Key words: civil society, values, market relations, money, theory of public choice, civil consensus.

Marketing in the social network environment integrates current advanced internet and information technologies. This marketing method not only broadens marketing channels and builds a network communication platform but also meets the purchase needs of customers in the entire market and shortens customer purchases. The process is also an inevitable product of the development of the times. However, when companies use social networks for product marketing, they usually face the impact of multiple realistic factors. This article takes (...) the maximization of influence as the main idea to find seed users for product information dissemination and also considers the users’ interest preferences. The target users can influence the product, and the company should control marketing costs to obtain a larger marginal benefit. Based on this, this paper considers factors such as the scale of information diffusion, user interest preferences, and corporate budgets, takes the influence maximization model as a multiobjective optimization problem, and proposes a multiobjective maximization of influence model. To solve the NP-hard problem of maximizing influence, this paper uses Monte Carlo sampling to calculate high-influence users. Next, a seed user selection algorithm based on NSGA-II is proposed to optimize the above three objective functions and find the optimal solution. We use real social network data to verify the performance of models and methods. Experiments show that the proposed model can generate appropriate seed sets and can meet different purposes of information dissemination. Sensitivity analysis proves that our model is robust under different actual conditions. (shrink)

This article examines how distrust drives exchange. We propose a theoretical framework integrating the literature of trust into cultural sociology and use a case of patients giving hongbao (red envelopes containing money) to doctors in China to examine how distrust drives different forms of unofficial exchange. Based on more than two years’ ethnography, we found that hongbao exchanges between Chinese patients and doctors were, ironically, bred by the public’s generalized distrust in doctors’ moral ethics. In the absence of institutional assurance, (...) Chinese patients drew on the cultural logic of particularism and its associated cultural repertoire to induce fidelity from their physicians. They mobilized interpersonal networks to function as assurance and presented hongbao as a return of favor to the doctors. This form of exchange is gifting-oriented. Alternatively, if there were no interpersonal networks to rely on, they proactively offered hongbao to doctors at arm’s length in an attempt to personalize the relationship to seek assurance and abate their anxieties. This form of exchange is bribery-oriented. Both forms of exchange co-existed when there was one-way generalized distrust manifested from patients to doctors. When doctors also developed generalized distrust in patients, arm’s length exchanges declined, leaving embedded exchanges as the dominant form. Our study asserts the central role of culture in constituting exchange behaviors and the importance of institutions in shaping the form of exchange. It contributes to the midrange theory of trust, generating a number of hypotheses for future research on the relationships among culture, institutions, distrust, assurance, and illicit exchange. (shrink)

In the wake of the current financial crises triggered by risky mortgage-backed securities, the question of ethics and risk-taking is once again at the front and center for both practitioners and academics. Although risk-taking is considered an integral part of strategic decision-making, sometimes firms could be propelled to take risks driven by reasons other than calculated strategic choices. The authors argue that a firm's risk-taking propensity is impacted by its ethical climate (egoistic or benevolent) and its emphasis on output control (...) to manage its marketing function. The firm's long-term orientation is argued to moderate the control–risk propensity relationship. The authors also extend research on risk and performance and argue that the association of risk-taking propensity and firm performance is contingent on the ownership (publicly traded versus privately held) structure of the firm. Based on survey data from a sample of manufacturing industries in the United States, the results show significant impact of ethical climate and marketing output control on a firm's risk-taking propensity; also risk-taking propensity shows a stronger association with firm performance in privately held firms than in publicly traded firms. (shrink)