Amid the many food safety scandals that have erupted in recent years, Chinese food activists and consumers are turning to the creation of alternative food networks to ensure better control over their food. These Chinese AFNs have not been documented in the growing literature on food studies. Based on in-depth interviews and case studies, this paper documents and develops a typology of AFNs in China, including community supported agriculture, farmers’ markets, buying clubs, and recreational garden plot rentals. We unpacked the (...) four standard dimensions of alternativeness of AFNs into eight elements and used these to examine the alternativeness of AFNs in China. We argue first that the landscape of alternativeness varies among different networks but the healthfulness of food is the most prominent element. Second, there is an inconsistency in values between AFN initiators and customers, which contributes to the uneven alternativeness of Chinese AFNs. Third, Chinese AFNs are strongly consumer driven, a factor that constrains their alternativeness at present. The inclusion of “real” peasants in the construction of AFNs in China is minimal. This paper adds to the existing literature on AFNs with an analysis of recent initiatives in China that have not been well documented before. By unpacking the dimensions of alternativeness into specific elements, this paper also provides an analytical framework for examining the alternativeness of AFNs especially nascent ones that have not developed a full spectrum of alternativeness. (shrink)

This study provides a general overview of contemporary business ethics research of the last 10 years (1997-2006) and discusses potential future research directions in business ethics based on the overview. Using citation and co-citation analysis, this study examined the citation data of journal articles, books, and other publications collected in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), wherein key research themes in business ethics studies in 1997—2006 and correlations between these themes were explored. The results show that major research themes in (...) business ethics have shifted in the last decade from research on ethical decision making and on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate performance to research on stakeholder theory in business ethics and on the relationship between consumer behavior and corporate social responsibility. The results of this study help map the invisible network of knowledge production in business ethics research and provide important insights on future business ethics research. (shrink)

This study explores the research paradigms of contemporary business ethics research in 2001–2008. With citation data from the top two business ethics journals included in the Social Sciences Citation Index, this study conducts citation and co-citation analysis to identify the most important publications, scholars, and research themes in the business ethics area and then maps the intellectual structure of business ethics studies between 2001 and 2008. The results show that current business ethics studies cluster around four major research themes, including (...) morality and social contract theory, ethical decision making, corporate social responsibility, and stakeholder theory. This study helps profile the invisible network of knowledge production in business ethics and provides important insights on current research paradigms of business ethics studies. (shrink)

This study explores the research paradigms of contemporary business ethics research in 2001–2008. With citation data from the top two business ethics journals included in the Social Sciences Citation Index, this study conducts citation and co‐citation analysis to identify the most important publications, scholars, and research themes in the business ethics area and then maps the intellectual structure of business ethics studies between 2001 and 2008. The results show that current business ethics studies cluster around four major research themes, including (...) morality and social contract theory, ethical decision making, corporate social responsibility, and stakeholder theory. This study helps profile the invisible network of knowledge production in business ethics and provides important insights on current research paradigms of business ethics studies. (shrink)

Ethical dilemmas are inescapable components of business negotiations. It is thus important for negotiators to understand the differences in what is ethically appropriate and what is not. This study explores the cross-cultural differences in business ethics between Canada and China by examining the perceived appropriateness of five categories of ethically questionable strategies often used in business negotiations. The results show that the Chinese are more likely to consider it appropriate to use ethically inappropriate negotiation strategies, but the impact of cultural (...) values on ethically inappropriate negotiation strategies is much stronger in Canada than in China when negotiators choose to use these strategies. In addition, there are more gender differences in Canada, where men are more likely to consider it appropriate to use ethically questionable strategies in all five categories than women; while in China no gender differences are found in the perceived appropriateness of using these strategies in all but one category. Implications are also discussed along with potential future research directions. (shrink)

This study examines the personal values and value types of Chinese accounting practitioners and students, using the values survey questionnaire developed and validated by Schwartz (1992, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 25, 1–65). A total of 454 accounting practitioners and 126 graduate accounting students participated in the study. The results show that Healthy, Family Security, Self-Respect, and Honoring of Parents and Elders are the top four values for both accounting practitioners and accounting students, although these values are not ranked in (...) the same order. Social Power, An Exciting Life, Devout, and Accepting My Portion in Life are the lowest rated four values for the accounting practitioners whereas Devout, An Exciting Life, Detachment, and Accepting My Portion in Life form the bottom four values for the accounting students. Both accounting practitioners and students ranked Security as the highest value type and Tradition as the lowest one, and the students rated Self-Direction as significantly more important than the practitioners. With respect to gender differences, both the male accounting practitioners and students rated the value type Achievement significantly higher than their female counterparts and there were several significant gender differences in personal values for both accounting practitioners and students. In addition, the perceived values are linked to social and cultural factors as well as to the influence of Western values. (shrink)

This study integrates the resource dependence perspective and the stakeholder perspective to analyze local Chinese suppliers’ environment strategies in response to environmental requirements of different types of customers. With a sample of 1,215 local Chinese manufacturing suppliers, we examine the impact of export intensity and environmental requirements of multinational enterprises on local Chinese suppliers’ environment strategies. The results show that local Chinese suppliers with high levels of export intensity are more likely to adopt positive environment strategies to reduce environmental risks. (...) In addition, local Chinese suppliers respond actively to environmental requirements of MNE customers but not to those of local customers. The linkage between MNE customers’ environmental requirements and local Chinese suppliers’ environment strategies remains significant, even after we control for the impact of export intensity. Implications of the findings conclude the article. (shrink)

While China has experienced an unprecedented growth over the past decades, sustainability has become a major concern for policymakers and management practitioners. Consideration has been given to the convergence of mass entrepreneurship and innovation as a new economic driver and sustainability as a long-term economic objective. The focus of China’s economic development has moved from a resource-based expansion to a more entrepreneurial and socially responsible one. This is a timely and critical topic that captures the increasing concerns over sustainability and (...) Chinese firms’ increased responsibility under the new governmental initiatives in fulfilling their social mandates from stakeholders at different levels. It is also a rich area for academic research but still under studied in the Chinese context. More indigenous management research on corporate social responsibility is required to adopt Chinese perspectives in conceptualizing CSR-related problems and further formulating more contextualized CSR theories, the emergence of a new research horizon. (shrink)

Abstract Widespread cheating among business students has been a great concern for educators and business managers in the West, but this issue is largely unexamined in Eastern cultures. This study explores the relationship between cheating at school and cheating in the real world in an international context by investigating Chinese business students’ perception of ethicality and practicality of common business practice. The results show that many Chinese students have engaged in academic dishonesty at school. It was further found that Chinese (...) students have a good understanding of what constitutes ethical behaviors in the real business world and the need for such behaviors. They also believe that business people fail to act in an ethical manner, yet they are unwilling to compromise their ethical standards in order to get ahead in their future career, except when they have a strong need for competitive success. The findings show that Chinese business students view the ethicality of an action as being more important than its practicality in the real business world even though they hold a completely opposite view in their classrooms. Concern arises when self-centered values like competitive success become more accepted in modern Chinese society. Content Type Journal Article Category Original Paper Pages 1-14 DOI 10.1007/s13520-011-0012-2 Authors Zhenzhong Ma, Odette School of Business, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave, Windsor, ON, Canada N9B 3P4 Journal Asian Journal of Business Ethics Online ISSN 2210-6731 Print ISSN 2210-6723. (shrink)

What does it mean to read Ham Seok-heon in the 21st century? Furthermore, what does it mean to read the ‘East-Asian Classics’ through him? In this article, I would like to raise a few issues that existing discussions on the relationship between Ham Seok-heon and the East-Asian Classics have not paid attention to, in order to point out the points that we should give more weight to in the hermeneutics of Ham Seok-heon’s ‘Chewing on Old Classics’. First, Ham’s should be (...) read as an independent text in its own right, not as a commentary on the ‘Oriental Classics’. Second, his SSi-al’ Readings of Old Classics should be read in the context of life and place in contemporary Korea, rather than the Laozi and the Zhuangzi relationships it addresses. Third, the meanings and values in SSi-al’ Readings of Old Classics do not lie in its original interpretation of traditional commentaries, but rather in the “common sense” that guided the perceptions and practices of Ssi-al in the democratization process of twentieth-century Korea. To emphasize this aspect, I contrast it with the interpretation of the Zhuangzi in China during the same period. I want to argue that if Chinese intellectuals in the twentieth century anticipated their own destiny through the interpretation and discussion of the Zhuangzi, Ham Seok-heon’s reading of the Zhuangzi was expressed as the voice of Ssi-al, which changed the subject of interpretation and at the same time called for the values of modern freedom and equality and preached the ideology of democracy and self-government to realize them. In reading Ham Seok-heon in this way, I believe that we can properly evaluate the historical and philosophical meaning and value of SSi-al’ Readings of Old Classics. (shrink)

A terahertz frequency-modulated continuous wave imaging radar system is developed for high-resolution 3D imaging recently. Aiming at the problems of long data acquisition periods and large sample sizes for the developed imaging system, an algorithm based on compressed sensing is proposed for THz FMCW radar 3D imaging in this paper. Firstly, the FMCW radar signal model is built, and the conventional range migration algorithm is introduced for THz FMCW radar imaging. Then, compressed sensing is extended for THz FMCW radar 3D (...) imaging, and the Newton smooth L0-norm algorithm is presented for sparse measurement data reconstruction. Both simulation and measurement experiments demonstrate the feasibility of reconstructing THz images from measurements even at the sparsity rate of 20%. (shrink)

This paper proposes a new system whose potential function is with three types of asymmetric potential wells, driven by trichotomous noise. Firstly, the three types of asymmetric bistable system are described in detail, and the changes of asymmetric bistable system potential function under different asymmetric factors are analyzed. Secondly, the effect of potential function parameters, asymmetric factorα, noise intensity D, and the probability of particle transition q is discussed, using numerical simulation. The detection effects of traditional symmetric SR and three (...) types of asymmetric SR are observed and compared under the driving of trichotomous noise and periodic signals. The mean of signal-to-noise ratio gain is the indicator of the system's effectiveness on enhancing weak signal. The results indicate that it can make the detection effect of the asymmetric system better than that of the traditional bistable system by adjusting the parameters of the asymmetric stochastic resonance system and trichotomous noise. (shrink)

Philosophical study of revelation in religion, chiefly in Islam.

Contributed seminar papers on Vedic literature and civilization.

On aesthetics intelligence of Hanoi people in Vietnam.

Study on Buddhist logic and Mādhyamika philosophy according to ʾBrug-pa Bkaʾ-brgyud's interpretation.

Comparative study on philosophical position (siddhānta) of the Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, Yogācārya, and Mādhyamika schools of Buddhism.

Study of a classical critic of Avicenna's views on the existence and nature of God.

The efficacies of Western and Chinese medicine have been under debate for a long time, and the whole issue still raises questions for the contemporary world. The article emphasizes the humanistic approach as well as the scientific method of the early Protestant medical missionaries to China, so as to give a more comprehensive scope to understand their historical roles and practices in a cross-cultural context. The authors also wish to call for a global readership to further discuss this historical legacy (...) with regard to the reception of Christianity in contemporary China and other East Asian countries. (shrink)