Until recently, in business practice, there was a belief that companies were operating solely for the profit of their owners. Few companies have recognized the need to combine their activities with ethics, and in particular with their obligations toward society or the environment. However, the perception of ethical issues has changed radically in business over the last 20 years. If a company wants to be perceived as a reliable business partner and a respected member of the business sector, it should demonstrate a high level of institutionalization of business ethics principles and practices, and it must practice outstanding ethical behavior. This is exceptionally true in some controversial industries. The purpose of our study is to identify the scale and scope of the use of these principles and practices in two Central European countries, i.e., Poland and Hungary, in three controversial sectors of the economy, i.e., pharmaceutical, tobacco and alcohol. The data were achieved on the basis of data gathered through survey methodology. The target subjects included a group of 48 companies (25 Hungarian and 23 Polish ones). Our survey mainly focused on the degree of institutionalization of business ethics (such as the presence of a code of conduct, an employee appointed to deal with ethical issues, ethical training, and so on), the perceived ethical behavior of the firms, and their relationship with their key stakeholders. Our study confirmed that business ethics is regarded as a significant factor which has an influence on business success and the corporate image of companies from the sectors in question. However, it is necessary to emphasize that the scale of this phenomenon varies, across both sectors and countries. The level of institutionalization is somewhat higher at Hungarian firms while preventing and handling corruption cases are more at the forefront of Polish companies. Although it seems that stakeholders from Polish firms have greater ethical expectations, we did not observe significant differences between perceived ethical behavior in the
The importance of researching public support for preventive policies have been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a representative sample of the Hungarian population, we investigated the support for commonly used preventive measures (social distancing, hand hygiene and wearing masks) comparing two different policy tools (nudges and regulations). Because of the high risk and unfamiliarity of the pandemic, the respondents’ risk perception and experience with the disease was also assessed. All preventive measures were generally supported and, contrary to the findings of previous nudge research, there was no clear pattern whether regulations or nudges are preferred. People with higher level of risk perception supported both types of policies more but slightly favoured the regulations. Those who had contact with the disease (either themselves or a close friend or family member contracting COVID-19) reported a higher level of risk perception. When the person themselves was afflicted, this higher levels of risk perception did not translate to a higher level of support, moreover, it even decreased support for the regulations according to regression analysis. In case of a loved one contracting the disease, there was an increased support for both types of measures, but that is explained by the higher risk perception.
Background and Purpose:Many studies have explored the differences in the management of corporate social responsibility (CSR) of multinational companies across the globe. The main question of the study was, are there differences between CSR practices between home country and host country operations? Design/Methodology/Approach: This study investigates the differences in online CSR communication between global corporate websites and the webpages of local subsidiaries in Hungary. The sample contains 70 multinational companies (MNCs) and their Hungarian subsidiaries. All the subsidiaries of the sample are listed amongst the largest 200 companies (based on turnover) in Hungary. Both the local (Hungarian) and the global internet sites of these MNCs were visited, and pre-defined categories were sought on the corporate websites. The presence/lack of these CSR themes and topics on the websites were recorded. Results: The findings show that online CSR disclosure of the subsidiaries is usually more limited than the global communication. Moreover, distance from the headquarters seems to matter, the farther the headquarters of the MNC is located, the narrower CSR presence on the websites of the local subsidiary can be observed. Conclusion: The paper's main contribution is to deepen our knowledge about the CSR strategies of the multinational companies across their operations. It was confirmed that their CSR practices significantly differ between the host and home countries.
In a two-sided matching market when agents on both sides have preferences the stability of the solution is typically the most important requirement. However, we may also face some distributional constraints with regard to the minimum number of assignees or the distribution of the assignees according to their types. These two requirements can be challenging to reconcile in practice. In this paper we describe two real applications, a project allocation problem and a workshop assignment problem, both involving some distributional constraints. We used integer programming techniques to find reasonably good solutions with regard to the stability and the distributional constraints. Our approach can be useful in a variety of different applications, such as resident allocation with lower quotas, controlled school choice or college admissions with affirmative action.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.