SBANC Newsletter
July
26,
2005
Issue
382-2005
QUOTE
"An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning
into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage."
-- Jack
Welch
FEATURE
PAPER
Finding
Competitive Advantage in Managing Workplace Ethics
This paper was presented at the 2005 USASBE/SBI 19th Annual Conference
in Indian Wells, California by J. Michael Alford of the School
of Business Administration, The Citadel
in Charleston,
South
Carolina.
.
ABSTRACT
The many breaches of ethical conduct and violation of laws involving
high profile executives in recent years have focused attention
on the way firms manage business ethics and company values. This
paper identifies some of the bottom line benefits and other benefits
of actively managing the business ethics process and recommends
practical approaches for developing a program for the management
of the process. It is especially important for small and medium
enterprises to become active in this area. The management of
business ethics and company values have received increased emphasis
with the recent incidents of unethical and unlawful behavior
on the part of some high profile executives. Many firms have revisited
their programs to ensure proper compliance. The Sarbanes-Oxley
Act of 2002 now requires that each public company disclose annually
its code of ethics for the company’s CEO
and senior financial officers. Compliance is one matter, but there
are other very practical and rewarding aspects to the process
of actively managing ethics in the workplace. These are the benefits
to the firm’s bottom line because the practice of good
business ethics makes the firm a desirable one with which to
do business and the community image of the firm is enhanced.
This paper identifies some of these benefits and proposes a method
by
which firms can become actively engaged in the management of company
values.
Read the Entire Paper...
TIP
OF THE WEEK
Sustaining
Competitive Advantage
Once established,
competitive advantage is subject to erosion by competition. The
speed with
which competitive advantage is undermined
depends on the ability of competitors to challenge either by imitation
or innovation. Imitation is the most direct form of competition;
thus, for competitive advantage to be sustained over time, barriers
to imitation must exist. Rumelt uses the term isolating mechanisms
to describe "barriers that limit the ex post equilibration
of rents among individual firms." The more effective these
isolating mechanisms are, the longer competitive advantage can
be sustained against the onslaught of rivals. Empirical studies
show that the process through which competition destroys the competitive
advantage of industry leaders is slow. Even over periods of a decade
and more, inter-firm profit differentials tend to persist, with
little change in the identities of the leaders and the laggards.
To
identify the sources of isolating mechanisms, we need to examine
the process of competitive
imitation. For one firm successfully to imitate the strategy of
another, it must meet four conditions:
- Identification.
The firm must be able to identify that a rival possesses a competitive
advantage.
- Incentive. Having
identified that a rival possesses a competitive advantage (as shown
by above-average profitability),
the firm must believe that by investing in imitation, it
too can
earn
superior
returns.
- Diagnosis. The
firm must be able to diagnose the features of its rival's strategy
that give rise to the competitive
advantage.
- Resource acquisition.
The firm must be able to acquire through transfer or replication
the resources and
capablities necessary
for imitating the strategy of the advantaged firm.
Grant, Robert
M. Contemporary Strategy Analysis. 5th ed. Malden: Blackwell, 2005.
232.
CONFERENCES
IPSI-2005 Amsterdam
IPSI (Internet, Processing, Systems, and Interdisciplinary (Research))
will hold the 2005 IPSI-Amsterdam conference at the Hotel Okura in Amsterdam, Holland on September
1-4, 2005.
For more information, visit: http://www.internetconferences.net/amsterdam2005/index.html
35th
EISB Conference
The European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) is holding
the 35th EISB Conference at the IESE Business School in Barcelona,
Spain on September 12-14, 2005. The conference theme is "Sustaining
the Entrepreneurial Spirit Over Time: Implications for young
companies, family businesses and established companies."
For more information, visit: http://www.iese.edu/en/events/OtrosEventos/EISB/CallForPapers/CallForPapers.asp
7th Cambridge Enterprise Conference
Cambridge Enterprise is holding the 7th Cambridge Enterprise Conference
in Cambridge, UK on September 14-15, 2005. Innovation; knowledge; networking – it’s
what the Cambridge Enterprise Conference is all about.
For more information, visit: http://www.cambridgeenterprise.co.uk/
The
Experiential Classroom VI
Syracuse University, the University of Colorado, the Kauffman Foundation,
the Coleman Foundation, and the Beyster Institute are holding The
Experiential Classroom VI in Syracuse,
New York on September 15-18, 2005. This annual clinic is designed
to demonstrate practical, simple, provocative, and innovative ways
in
which those
who are new to the teaching of entrepreneurship can use a variety
of experiential and application-oriented pedagogical tools and learn
how to be great entrepreneurship educators.
For more information, visit: http://www.whitman.syr.edu/eee/falcone/classroom
ISBE
28th National Conference
The Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (ISBE) is
holding its 28th National Conference at the Hilton Hotel in Blackpool,
UK
on November 1-3, 2005. The theme for this conference is "Illuminating
Entrepreneurship: The theory and practice of enterprise creation
and development."
For more information, visit: http://www.isbe2005.org
ASBE
2005 Fall Conference
The Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship 2005
Annual Fall Conference will be held October 5-7 at the La Posada
de Albuquerque in Albequerque, New Mexico.
For more information, visit: http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/research/asbe/ASBE_Website/home.htm
CALL
FOR PAPERS
Small Business Institute (SBI)
The
Small Business Institute (SBI) will hold the 2005 Small Business Institute
Annual Eastern Conference at The Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania on September 16-17, 2005. This conference is open to all
those with an interest in small business and entrepreneurship, and
it is not limited to members of the SBI Eastern region.
Submission Deadline: August 1, 2005
For more information, visit: http://www.duq.edu/sbdc
Southeast
Academy of International Business
The Southeast Academy of International Business will hold its 2005
Annual Conference at the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston, South
Carolina on November 9-11, 2005. In addition to formal presentations
of completed papers, this year's conference will also feature an
alternate interactive presentation session providing a rich forum
for the exploration of ideas.
Submission Deadline: August 1, 2005
For more information, visit: http://aib.msu.edu/community/chapters/AIB_USA_Southeast-Call_for_Papers_2005.pdf
ASBE 2005 Fall Conference
The
Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship 2005 Annual Fall
Conference will be held October 5-7 at the La Posada
de Albuquerque in Albequerque, New Mexico. There will
be best paper awards, and these papers will also be considered for
publication in the Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship.
Submission Deadline: August 15, 2005
For more information, visit: http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/research/asbe/ASBE_Website/conf/callforpapers.htm
ISBE 28th National Conference
The
Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (ISBE) is holding
its 28th National Conference at the Hilton Hoteal in Blackpool, UK
on November 1-3, 2005. The theme for this conference is "Illuminating
Entrepreneurship: The theory and practice of enterprise creation
and development."
Submission
Deadline: August 31, 2005
For
more information, visit: http://www.isbe2005.org
Western Decision Sciences Institute
Western
Decision Sciences Institute (WDSI) is holding their 35th Annual Meeting
at the
Hilton Waikoloa Village Hotel in Waikoloa, Hawaii on April 11-15,
2006. WDSI is be accepting papers on Accounting,
Business Law, E-Business, Logistics & Transportation,
Economics, Marketing, etc.
Submission Deadline: October 1, 2005
For more information, visit: http://wdsinet.org
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Last
week's SBANC Newsletter listed incorrect information about the SBI/USASBE
Joint Conference. We apologize for any confusion our mistake may have
caused,
the correct conference information follows:
The United States Association
for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Small Business Institute
will host their 2006 Joint Conference
at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tucson, Arizona on January
12-15, 2006. The theme for this conference will be “The Changing
Entrepreneurial Landscape.”
Submission Deadline: August 15, 2005
For more information, visit: http://www.usasbesbi2006.org
The SBANC
Newsletter is provided as a service to the members of our affiliates:
Academy
of Collegiate
Marketing Educators
(ACME), Association for Small Business& Entrepreneurship
(ASBE), Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), Federation of Business
Disciplines (FBD), International Council for Small Business
Congress (ICSBC), Institute
for Supply Management, The International Small Business
Congress (ISBC), Marketing Management Association (MMA),
Small Business
Administration (SBA),
Service Corps of Retired Executives, Small Business Institute
(SBI), Society for Marketing Advances (SMA), United States
Association
for Small Business & Entrepreneurship
(USASBE), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Western Decision
Sciences Institute (WDSI). If you are interested in membership
or would like further
information on one of our affiliates, please see our web site
at http://www.sbaer.uca.edu
SBANC
STAFF
Main Office Phone: (501) 450-5300
Dr. Don B. Bradley III, Executive
Director of SBANC & Professor
of Marketing
Direct Phone: (501) 450-5345, E-mail: donb@uca.edu
Esther
Mead, Graduate Research, E-mail: esthermead@gmail.com
Ashley
Ford, Development Intern, E-mail: ASHatsbanc@hotmail.com
Brad Lawrey, Development Intern, E-mail: bradlawrey@hotmail.com
Olivia Johnson, Development Intern, E-mail: reneeatuca_2003@hotmail.com
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the SBANC
Newsletter, please E-mail SBANC at sbanc@uca.edu
