Feature Channels: Business Ethics

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Coding is often thought of as male activity, but students at Wellesley College, an all-women’s college outside of Boston, are challenging that notion.

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With all of the talk about the growing success of Cyber Monday sales, an Indiana University retailing expert suggests that traditional retailers are closing the gap with online retailers such as Amazon.com.

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Corporate executives are astonishingly overconfident in their ability to forecast the stock market, a new study shows.

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The controversy and legal battles surrounding the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act have led to a new – and worrisome – legal concept: the idea of a “corporate conscience,” warns Elizabeth Sepper, who teaches at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

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Independent, financially-literate audit committees lead to higher firm values and less diversion of resources by management, shows a new study by researchers at the University of Toronto. But the paper, which looked at small companies that voluntarily adopted standards required of larger companies, also says it’s important for regulators to stay flexible around rules requiring high-quality audit committees, particularly for smaller firms that may be hurt by expensive director compensation costs.

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For many firms, losing significant revenue and profit to employee theft has been a cost of doing business. But a new study from Washington University in St. Louis finds that information technology monitoring is strikingly effective in reducing theft and fraud, especially in the restaurant industry.

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The unemployment rate is in a holding pattern and so is your career. Will you be ready for the next move when the job market expands?

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In 2002, the federal government mandated that corporate boards of directors include at least one “audit committee financial expert” to help avert future accounting scandals. But the title and description of that position may have an unintended negative effect on the gender diversity of corporate boards, argues Seletha Butler, assistant professor of law and ethics at Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business.

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A study of 365 sell-side financial analysts shows that private phone calls with managers remain an essential source of analysts’ earnings forecasts and stock recommendations – even in light of regulations limiting businesses’ selective disclosure of financial information.

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A recent study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln provides evidence that CEOs who turn out to be successful are the ones who are offered higher compensation packages from their boards at the outset.

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As Germany prepares to enact quotas that will mandate quotas for female participation on major corporate boards, the United States is feeling the pressure to improve board diversity, says Hillary A. Sale, JD, corporate governance expert and professor of law at Washington University School of Law.

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Case Western Reserve University will award the Inamori Ethics Prize to the founder of the premier outdoor gear and clothing company, Patagonia Inc., Yvon Chouinard. Chouinard is a global leader in corporate social responsibility with a keen focus on protecting the planet.

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Companies may overreact to social or environmental activists protesting their business practices, according to a Baylor University article in the Academy of Management Review. The article examined why some firms are more likely to change such practices than others, as well as whether and how targeted firms and other industry members will change.

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In about one in every four deals, the CEO of an acquired firm is awarded a merger bonus according to a recent study that examined more than 949 merger and acquisition offers that occurred in the U. S. between 1999 and 2009. The study also found that target shareholders received inferior premiums when their firms were sold while CEOs received a merger bonus.

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A University of Virginia Darden School of Business study finds that American CEOs are worth their paychecks.

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Anonymous, untraceable shell companies are preferred vehicles for moving large sums of dirty money - bribes, money laundering and financing terrorism. And new research shows that it's quite easy to find corporate service firms willing to skirt the law and sell anonymously-owned shell companies.

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For years, card issuers have been making money off the fees they charge retailers for the convenience of using a credit card at checkout. Beginning Jan. 27, however, retailers are now permitted to pass this cost onto customers in a big way. Marketing expert Brent Smith, Ph.D., says consumers should be wary of surprises as some retailers may experiment with some level of a new surcharge fee.

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Like many issues in national politics these days, there’s a stark divide between Democrats and Republicans on tax policy.

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Who are the worst CEOs of 2012? For the third time, Tuck School of Business Professor Sydney Finkelstein has compiled his list of Worst CEOs of the year.

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Under the law, whistle-blowers are supposed to be protected from direct reprisals on the job, including discrimination. But what if they and their actions becomes the subject of a widely distributed email? Is that a form of retaliation? Two professors at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business set out to answer that question and determine when public disclosure of the whistle-blower's identity -- like in an email -- is sufficient to support such a claim, in a paper that has been accepted for publication in North Carolina Law Review.

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A federal rule established in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis improved shareholder value before an appeals court struck it down, according to a management professor at the University of Arkansas and her colleagues.

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A recent study found that applicants whose pictures appear on their social media profiles are viewed more favorably than applicants who are not pictured. Also, that applicants with "attractive" photos were considered stronger than those with "unattractive" pictures.

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Harassment of teen workers can be alleviated by providing them more meaningful assignments and coping strategies.

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A recent study found a strong relationship between cheating in college and counterproductive workplace behavior.

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Research shows that people are more forgiving of lies from a non-profit organization than they are from a for-profit (Fortune 500) company.

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Law requiring Internet posting of feds’ finances will not prevent Congressional insider trading, Kathleen Clark says.

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Some hedge funds manipulate stock prices at the end of the month to improve the returns that they report to their investors, a new study suggests.

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Many consumers sacrificed their Thanksgiving dinners this year to grab that ultimate pre-Black Friday deal that they can spend the rest of the season bragging about. But according to Saint Joseph’s University sociologist Keith Brown, Ph.D., more and more shoppers are seeking something greater than saving a buck.

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The holidays are a busy time for engagements, and Trina Hamilton, a University at Buffalo expert in corporate responsibility, says socially minded consumers have a lot to think about when it comes to finding the right rock.

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As a corporate responsibility consultant, Kellie McElhaney publicly criticized Apple’s recent appointment of another man to an already all-male executive team. McElhaney’s new research goes one step further, indicating that the number of women on a corporate board correlates with a firm’s sustainability performance.

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A strike planned by Wal-Mart workers on one of America’s busiest shopping days has significance on many levels, according to Cornell University ILR School labor experts Ken Margolies, an associate in The Worker Institute in New York City; and Kate Bronfenbrenner, ILR’s director of Labor Education Research in Ithaca.

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Although some scholars have suggested that the income gap between men and women is due to women’s reluctance to negotiate salaries, a new study shows that given an invitation, women are just as willing as men to negotiate. Men, however, are more likely to ask for more money when there is no explicit statement in a job description that wages are negotiable.

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Despite evidence supporting boardroom diversity as a driver of corporate performance, “the percentage of women directors on U.S. boards stagnated some years ago and remains at or near 12 percent, with fewer than 10 percent of boards having three or more women,” says Hillary A. Sale, JD, the Walter D. Coles professor of law at Washington University School of Law. “The pressure to add women directors is, however, growing.” Sale discusses options to grow board diversity.

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Arbitration clauses are critical components of many contracts for consumer financial products. A panel of experts discusses the issues raised by the prevalence of arbitration clauses, and how they are used.

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Georgia Tech Professor Seletha Butler has recommendations on how corporate America can be more inclusive.

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A company’s share price and its CEO’s compensation can be influenced by third-party endorsements of the CEO, as well as the strategic options, called managerial discretion, that executives have at their disposal to manage the company, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Business Research.

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The maker of everything from iPhones to PlayStations can’t simply manufacture worker self-worth through pay raises, a new University of Nebraska-Lincoln study suggests.

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Charles K. Whitehead, professor at the Cornell University School of Law and a former Wall Street attorney, comments on the lawsuit leveled against Facebook, Morgan Stanley and other banks that underwrote Facebook’s initial public offering.

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Women serve as CEOs of just 17 of the Fortune 500 top companies in the United States. PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has been quoted as saying, “The glass ceiling will go away when women help other women break through that ceiling.” However, that may not necessarily be happening. Research from Washington University in St. Louis finds that women often do not support qualified female candidates as potential high-prestige work group peers.

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Research by a University of Iowa law professor and corruption law expert suggests that reaching an out of court settlement for Mexican bribery allegations might not be best for Walmart.

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As details of the Walmart bribery scandal in Mexico plays out, the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law offers two expert sources for comment.

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Stephen B. Wicker, Cornell University professor of electrical and computer engineering, comments on obsolete federal data privacy laws. He conducts research on wireless information networks, and focuses on networking technology, law, sociology, and how regulation can affect privacy and speech rights. He is the author of “Cellular Convergence and the Death of Privacy,” a book to be published by Oxford University Press at the end of 2012.