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Synopsis

The research problem

Many diversified multinational professional service firms utilize a global professional service network (GPS network or network) to deliver assurance and other types of consulting services worldwide. This research investigates and analyzes the complex interactions between members of such GPS networks and their management in the execution of an international consulting/advisory engagement.

Motivation

Few studies have discussed the nature and characteristics of GPS networks, including the relationships among their members and the management of the network when providing assurance, tax, or consulting services. Also, limited studies have provided insights into the nature, complexity, and challenges associated with referral engagements for such GPS networks’ members. Even though networks serve as a coordinating platform in implementing the network’s policies, member firms who are legally independent may have incentives to deviate from these policies. Thus, evidence is needed on how such GPS networks monitor and ensure appropriate compliance and interpretation of the operating methodologies by disparate member firms, and the effectiveness of such practices to achieve the networks’ global strategies and objectives.

Scope

This study focuses specifically on consulting engagements in GPS networks. It is not intended to describe or research multinational assurance engagements, which are often referred to as group audits.

Research questions

RQ1: To what extent and how do member firms in a GPS network interact to provide their services for international consulting engagement, without giving up their autonomous management of their firms and related decision-making?

RQ2: To what extent and how do member firms and senior global leadership of a GPS network use power to influence member firms’ decisions in the provision of international consulting engagements?

RQ3: To what extent can senior global leadership sacrifice the membership ties in a GPS network to protect and safeguard the network’s interest?

Target population

Stakeholders include the academic community, practitioners, company managers, regulatory authorities, Forum of Firms, audit networks, and investors at large.

Adopted methodology

An interpretive real-life case study was conducted using a triangulation of theories to analyze and assess an actual referral engagement undertaken by member firms in one of the top 10 global professional service firms (with an assurance product offering).

Analyses

The data were composed of narratives from email correspondences and semistructured interviews with local partners, managers, and the regional director of the network.

Findings

The findings illustrate the disagreement and miscommunication among members of the GPS network, a lack of trust, and excessive use of power and authority from the lead partner and the regional director of the network. One member lost a vital consulting engagement when he insisted on asserting and maintaining autonomous management of elements of an engagement referred to him by an affiliated firm. Senior global leadership of the GPS network failed to appropriately intervene between the network and disregarded the autonomous status and welfare of the member firm when it conflicted with the financial benefits of the network.

The history and development of reproductive genetics span centuries of scientific exploration and technological innovation. Today, the importance of offspring health and further understanding of the relevant molecular mechanisms and interdisciplinary knowledge have led to significant advancements, which are gradually appearing in clinical settings. However, whether this rapid progress in reproductive genetics could lead to technical, ethical, and economic problems warrants evaluation. This brief review introduces a range of approaches to reproductive genetics, from the earliest to the most recent, and discusses future concerns regarding the large-scale use of emerging reproductive genetic tools.

The purpose of this paper is to give a brief demonstration on how deontic logic can be used to help the design of robots capable of choice, equipped with artificial intelligence, by providing a framework that will help maintain ethically sound behavior. We begin by presenting an overview of the potential applications of robots and the expansion of their use in various areas of our society as well as the ethical concerns artificial intelligence and robots raise. Then, we give a quick introduction to deontic logic, highlighting its key concepts and explaining what it offers to the field of ethics. In the third part of the paper, we present our own approach to deontic logic, based on common sense reasoning. The fourth part includes three short applications of our common sense deontic logic approach in the field of artificial intelligence and robotics. These applications illustrate how deontic logic can be used to guide robots in making morally sound decisions, using examples from the health sector. In the final section, we have the conclusions of our paper as well as our limitations and plans for future research.

The paper aims to review the current state of the knowledge in an attempt to renew the interest in studying cognitive side of entrepreneurial ethics. The paper explores how the two streams of the literature — entrepreneurial cognition and entrepreneurial ethics — can possibly be integrated to guide future research. It also reviews the literature at the intersection of entrepreneurial cognitions and ethics. In doing so, the paper draws upon the extant literature to propose a set of questions for future research. Given the ethical implications of entrepreneurial behavior, this paper calls for future interdisciplinary work among entrepreneurial cognition scholars and business ethicists. The extant literature has generally focused on exploring the linkages among entrepreneurial cognitions, moral awareness, and moral judgment. It appears that relatively sparse attention is paid to explore the underlying cognitive patterns of an entrepreneur's actions pertaining to unethical business practices. This gap in the literature at the intersection of cognitions and ethics holds significant potential for future research. The proposed questions for future research include the following: How do cognitive biases and heuristics make an entrepreneur more susceptible to immoral judgment and reasoning? Which of the cognitive schemas is more likely to enhance moral intentions of entrepreneurs? How does distributed cognition shape socially responsible entrepreneurial behavior? Do entrepreneurs prefer rule-based or cost/benefit-based reasoning approach while making moral judgment? Which of the cognitive dimensions of socially responsible behavior — utilitarianism, just, and rights — is more common among entrepreneurs in developed countries in comparison to the entrepreneurs in developing and emerging economies? Do immigrant and/or ethnic entrepreneurs experience identity ambiguity and how does it relate to their unethical actions? How does the level of motivation affect an entrepreneur's reliance on heuristics rather than employing a systematic response to process information for ethical judgment? The proposed questions potentially offer insights into the way in which entrepreneurial cognitions and entrepreneurial ethics are interconnected. Entrepreneurship scholars may enrich their future research efforts by exploring how might insights from entrepreneurial ethics better inform the theoretical developments of entrepreneurial cognitions.

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The Human Biomedical Research Act: Overview and International Comparisons.

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This paper involves developing financial utility function that considers compliance to a certain qualitative characteristic and studies the impact on market equilibrium prices, should this criterion be Sharia compliance, fair-trade, environmental, social and governance principles or other ethical aspect. The goal is to show that individual utility can depend on other parameters than wealth and risk aversion, that therefore influence equilibrium market prices. This has been done by examining a possible utility function that takes into account individual sensitivity to the criterion and the intrinsic quality of compliance of this parameter. In order to prove the effectiveness of the proposed utility function, a simulation is made using agent-based approach with NetLogo platform. Upon examination of the impact of these parameters, it becomes clear that compliance to a qualitative characteristic would impact individual utility, supply and demand and result in equilibrium prices. This research highlights the importance of ethical arguments on individual decision making and how markets behave to this.

This article introduces a model of rationality that combines procedural utility over actions with consequential utility over payoffs. It applies the model to the Prisoners' Dilemma and shows that empirically observed cooperative behaviors can be rationally explained by a procedural utility for cooperation. The model characterizes the situations in which cooperation emerges as a Nash equilibrium. When rational individuals are not solely concerned by the consequences of their behavior but also care for the process by which these consequences are obtained, there is no one single rational solution to a Prisoners' Dilemma. Rational behavior depends on the payoffs at stake and on the procedural utility of individuals. In this manner, this model of procedural utility reflects how ethical considerations, social norms or emotions can transform a game of consequences.

This article reviews the political and ethical dimensions of technology applications in social work by focusing on a descriptive case study. The case study is of an initiative undertaken by the New Zealand government between 2011 and 2015 to develop an algorithm that would allow child protection services to predict future child maltreatment at the point of birth and to pre-empt it before it occurs. The paper explores the new threats to human rights and social justice associated with the rise of algorithmic governance and explores the sources of algorithmic injustice. It also outlines some of the key ethical issues and political challenges associated with algorithmic governance.

This article presented empirical information to explore and examine the advocacy activities conducted by social workers in Hong Kong. The effectiveness of the advocacy activities as perceived by the social workers are measured and matched with the actual practice. Reasons for undertaking advocacy are collected. The determinants of advocacy include: recognition of the importance of empowerment and relationship building between social workers and service users, helping service users exercise their rights and broaden their life options are instrumental in driving advocacy efforts. The sense of guilt is also a contributing factor behind certain advocacy activities. The importance of research and education in advocacy are emphasized.

Understanding the ethical conduct of entrepreneurs is becoming increasingly important. Previous research has focused on the differences between entrepreneurs and managers in terms of their ethical values and behaviors and has investigated the antecedents of ethical behaviors. However, the question that whether entrepreneurs' ethical behaviors contribute to or hamper crucial aspects of new venture development, such as effective information acquisition, has remained unanswered. In this paper, we extend previous research on ethics and entrepreneurship by examining the impact of entrepreneurs' ethically suspect behaviors on information acquisition. Data from 139 entrepreneurs in China revealed the negative influence of ethically suspect behaviors on information acquisition. Further, this relationship is weakened by entrepreneurs' impression management tactics such as ingratiation and self-promotion. Implications of these findings for entrepreneurs and research at the interface of entrepreneurship and ethics are discussed.

The study aims to show how organisation's corporate ethics and social responsibility have influence on satisfaction with management and workers' attitudes and behaviours, especially in terms of organisational commitment (OC), innovative behaviour (IB) and performance. To systematise this reality, was used a self-reported sample of 223 Portuguese individuals. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. On the influence on satisfaction with management, the results showed that employees value the ethical component and also workforce social responsibility practices. Concerning OC, statistical evidence was found on the influence of satisfaction with management, ethical values and also workforce practices. It was also found that OC influences IB, and that this attitude had strong positive relationships with in-role performance. The empirical evidence suggests that organisation's corporate ethics and social responsibility are important to workers, so should be taken in account by managers and be subject of research by academics.

With the advancements in nanotechnology, the interaction between nanotechnology, society and environment has increased. Nanotherapeutics and nanopharmaceuticals have allowed facilitation of earlier and more precise diagnosis, reduced side effects, improved targeted therapies and efficacy of drugs. Likewise, nanotechnology has helped in improving the quality of environment by solving issues of air pollution, water remediation and waste management with the help of nanoproducts such as nanofilters, nanophoto catalysts, nanoadsorbents and nanosensors. Moreover, nanopesticides, nanofood, anti-bacterial nanopackaging, nanofertilizers and many other products have helped food and agriculture sector to grow. There are innumerable products on shelf based on nanotechnology impacting almost every sector. However, nanotechnology like any other technology if used unchecked and unregulated can be a cause of social, environmental, legal and ethical concerns. Therefore, it is crucial to consider these challenges in addition to the promises and opportunities nanotechnology has to offer. This review has highlighted the immense importance of nanotechnology by discussing its applications especially in medicine, environmental sciences and food and agriculture sectors. Closely studying these aspects will allow us to discover gaps, obstacles and potential solutions for responsible nanotechnology development and deployment. Understanding these concerns and challenges is also critical for policymakers, researchers, industrialists and society as a whole in order to promote ethical practices and informed decision-making. This review will help to contribute to the continuing discourse and raise ethical awareness in the field of nanotechnology thence minimizing the harm while maximizing the benefits.

Researchers and scientists face globally, and parallel to their core research activities, increased pressure to successfully lead or participate in fundraising activities. The field has been experiencing fierce competition with success rates of proposals falling dramatically down, while the complexity of the funding instruments and the need for acquiring a wide understanding of issues related to impacts, research priorities in connection to wider national and transnational (e.g. EU-wide) policy aspects, increase discomfort levels for the individual researchers and scientists. In this paper, we suggest the use of transdisciplinary AI tools to support (semi-)- automation of several steps of the application and proposal preparation processes.

What roles or functions does consciousness fulfill in the making of moral decisions? Will artificial agents capable of making appropriate decisions in morally charged situations require machine consciousness? Should the capacity to make moral decisions be considered an attribute essential for being designated a fully conscious agent? Research on the prospects for developing machines capable of making moral decisions and research on machine consciousness have developed as independent fields of inquiry. Yet there is significant overlap. Both fields are likely to progress through the instantiation of systems with artificial general intelligence (AGI). Certainly special classes of moral decision making will require attributes of consciousness such as being able to empathize with the pain and suffering of others. But in this article we will propose that consciousness also plays a functional role in making most if not all moral decisions. Work by the authors of this article with LIDA, a computational and conceptual model of human cognition, will help illustrate how consciousness can be understood to serve a very broad role in the making of all decisions including moral decisions.

In this paper, the notion of super-intelligence (or "AI++", as Chalmers has termed it) is considered in the context of machine consciousness (MC) research. Suppose AI++ were to come about, would real MC have then also arrived, "for free"? (I call this the "drop-out question".) Does the idea tempt you, as an MC investigator? What are the various positions that might be adopted on the issue of whether an AI++ would necessarily (or with strong likelihood) be a conscious AI++? Would a conscious super-intelligence also be a super-consciousness? (Indeed, what meaning might be attached to the notion of "super-consciousness"?) What ethical and social consequences might be drawn from the idea of conscious super-AIs or from that of artificial super-consciousness? And what implications does this issue have for technical progress on MC in a pre-AI++ world? These and other questions are considered.

Artificial intelligence, the "science and engineering of intelligent machines", still has yet to create even a simple "Advice Taker" [McCarthy, 1959]. We have previously argued [Waser, 2011] that this is because researchers are focused on problem-solving or the rigorous analysis of intelligence (or arguments about consciousness) rather than the creation of a "self" that can "learn" to be intelligent. Therefore, following expert advice on the nature of self [Llinas, 2001; Hofstadter, 2007; Damasio, 2010], we embarked upon an effort to design and implement a self-understanding, self-improving loop as the totality of a (seed) AI. As part of that, we decided to follow up on Richard Dawkins' [1976] speculation that "perhaps consciousness arises when the brain's simulation of the world becomes so complete that it must include a model of itself" by defining a number of axioms and following them through to their logical conclusions. The results combined with an enactive approach yielded many surprising and useful implications for further understanding consciousness, self, and "free-will" that continue to pave the way towards the creation of safe/moral autopoiesis.

Human society is facing great challenges to address global climate change. How to move the international climate process forward is still a serious problem for politicians. Geoengineering's, so called Plan B to cope with climate change has attracted attentions of the international community with a lot of debate on its impact, risks from an ethical view as well as global governance at the level. In this paper, we focus on some important issues of geoengineering including the definition, characteristics, ethics and global governance, etc. and then put forward some suggestions for China's considerations.