Accountants preparing information are in a position to manipulate the view of economic reality presented in such information to interested parties. These manipulations can be regarded as morally reprehensible because they are not fair to users, they involve in an unjust exercise of power, and they tend to weaken the authority of accounting regulators. This paper develops a model for detecting earnings manipulators using financial statements’ ratios in a sample of Spanish listed companies. Our results provide evidence that accounting data (...) can be extremely useful in detecting manipulators. This approach can be used by a large category of users of accounting information among which we can cite stock exchange supervisors or investing professionals. (shrink)

Preparers of financial statements are in a position to manipulate the view of economic reality presented in those statements to interested parties. This paper examines two principal categories of manipulative behaviour. The term macro-manipulation is used to describe the lobbying of regulators to persuade them to produce regulation that is more favourable to the interests of preparers. Micro-manipulation describes the management of accounting figures to produce a biased view at the entity level. Both categories of manipulation can be viewed as (...) attempts at creativity by financial statement preparers. The paper analyses two cases of manipulation. First, it describes a recent case of significant and successful lobbying against the accounting regulator in the USA. The second case examines some recent Spanish earnings manipulation to demonstrate the effects of biased reporting at the entity level. Both types of creativity are considered in an ethical context. The paper concludes that the manipulations described in it can be regarded as morally reprehensible. They are not fair to users, they involve an unjust exercise of power, and they tend to weaken the authority of accounting regulators. (shrink)

Creative accounting involves accountants in making accounting policy choices or manipulating transactions in such a way as to convey a preferred and deliberately chosen impression in the accounts. Although it is regarded as unethical by most observers, a defense of creative accounting can be based on the assumption that users of accounts can identify bias in accounting policy choices and make appropriate adjustments. In this paper we take the example of the Barcelona Football Club where the club management made three (...) key accounting policy choices that resulted in the presentation of a favourable position, and a supporters club presented an alternative report choosing three alternative accounting policies that presented an unfavourable position. We presented each of these financial reports to one of two groups of Spanish bank loan officers: we found that the more favourable set of accounts was significantly more likely to attract a positive response to a loan request. This result undermines the validity of defending creative accounting based on the argument that accounts users can identify manipulation. (shrink)

Creative accounting involves accountants in making accounting policy choices or manipulating transactions in such a way as to convey a preferred and deliberately chosen impression in the accounts. Although it is regarded as unethical by most observers, a defense of creative accounting can be based on the assumption that users of accounts can identify bias in accounting policy choices and make appropriate adjustments. In this paper we take the example of the Barcelona Football Club where the club management made three (...) key accounting policy choices that resulted in the presentation of a favourable position, and a supporters club presented an alternative report choosing three alternative accounting policies that presented an unfavourable position. We presented each of these financial reports to one of two groups of Spanish bank loan officers: we found that the more favourable set of accounts was significantly more likely to attract a positive response to a loan request. This result undermines the validity of defending creative accounting based on the argument that accounts users can identify manipulation. (shrink)

One of the defining features of the classical gene was its position. In molecular genetics, positions are defined instead as nucleotide numbers and there is no clear correspondence with its classical counterpart. However, the classical gene position did not simply disappear with the development of the molecular approach, but survived in the lab associated to different genetic practices. The survival of classical gene position would illustrate Waters’ view about the practical persistence of the genetic approach beyond reductionism and anti-reductionist claims. (...) We show instead that at the level of laboratory practices there are also reductive processes, operating through the rise and fall of different techniques. Molecular markers made the concept of classical gene position practically dispensable, leading us to rethink whether it had any causal role or was just a mere heuristic. (shrink)

In an ever more transparent, digitalized, and connected environment, customers are increasingly pressuring brands to embrace genuine corporate social responsibility practices and co-creation activities. While both CSR and co-creation are social and collaborative processes, there is still little research examining whether CSR can boost co-creation. In addition, while previous research has mainly related co-creation to emotional outcomes, limited empirical research has related it to rational and behavioral outcomes. To address these shortcomings in the literature, this paper examines the influence of (...) CSR on customer loyalty, considering the mediating roles of co-creation and customer trust. It also investigates the influence of co-creation on customer trust. The data were collected in Spain in late 2017 using an online survey, and the sample contained 1101 customers of health insurance services brands. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships simultaneously. The results show that CSR influences customer loyalty both directly and indirectly through co-creation and customer trust. However, the indirect impact is the stronger of the two, implying that embracing co-creation activities and developing customer trust can make it easier for CSR practices to enhance customer loyalty. In addition, co-creation has a direct effect on customer trust. (shrink)

In order to be competitive in an era of ethical consumerism, brands are facing an ever-increasing pressure to integrate ethical values into their identities and to display their ethical commitment at a corporate level. Nevertheless, studies that relate business ethics to corporate brands are either theoretical or have predominantly been developed empirically in goods contexts. This is surprising, because corporate brands are more relevant in services settings, given the nature of services, and the fact that services settings comprise a greater (...) number of customer–brand interactions and touch points than goods contexts. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to empirically examine the effects of customer perceived ethicality of corporate brands that operate in the services sector. Based on data collected for eight service categories using a panel of 2179 customers, the hypothesized structural model is tested using path analysis. The generalizability theory is applied to test for measurement equivalence between these categories. The results of the hypothesized model show that, in addition to a direct impact, customer perceived ethicality has a positive and indirect impact on brand equity, through the mediators of recognition benefits and brand image. Moreover, brand heritage negatively influences the impact of customer perceived ethicality on brand image. The main implication is that managers need to be aware of the need to reinforce brand image and recognition benefits, as this can facilitate the translation of customer perceived ethicality into brand equity. (shrink)

Philosophe de la culture et non seulement essayiste et critique de la modernité, Georg Simmel a voulu proposer une idée de la culture en temps de crise, susceptible de servir d'horizon pour une " vie moderne " fragmentée et déchirée entre processus d'objectivation et dissolution des formes. Cette entreprise a un nom : " relativisme ", ou plutôt " relationnisme " – une " philosophie dans son concept cosmique ", mais sans l'artifice du système. Le relationnisme s'installe d'emblée dans le (...) concret de la vie socio-historique, il commence par le milieu : la relation. Après avoir interrogé la valeur et l'" esprit objectif " des produits de la culture, il analyse les conditions de leur appropriation par la vie individuelle et sociale. Si la discordance entre subjectivités et objectivités peut être surmontée, ce sera au moyen d'une nouvelle description, relationniste, des formes de l'individualité. En reconstruisant ce programme philosophique, ce livre redonne à Simmel sa place dans la tradition allemande et parmi les grands auteurs de son temps. (shrink)

Starting from the Michal Sandel's 2020 book "The Tyranny of Merit", in this essay we will study the resentment of white American workers without college degrees towards political, economic and social elites and its relationship to the phenomenon of disinformation and conspiracy theories, specifically the one known as QAnon. We will first explore Sandel's book and its relationship with paranoia and then we will expose the keys to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which will serve to compare the similarities between its (...) causes and logics with Sandel's reflections on the consequences of meritocracy. (shrink)

The doctor-patient relationship is a crucial aspect of primary-care practice Research on associations between quality of care provision and burnout and empathy in a primary care setting could improve this relationship. Cross-sectional study of family physicians and nurses of twenty-two primary care centers in the health district of Lleida, Spain. Empathy and burnout were measured using the Jefferson Physician Empathy Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory, while quality of care delivery was evaluated using Quality Standard Indicator scores. JPSE and MBI (...) results were grouped into low, medium, and high scores to analyze associations with QSI scores and sociodemographic variables. The mean QSI score recorded for the family physicians and nurses was 665. Higher, albeit insignificant, QSI scores were observed for practitioners with high burnout. No differences were observed according to level of empathy. The differences with respect to sex, age, and area of practice were not significant. Practitioners with low empathy had higher QSI scores than those with high empathy while those with high burnout had higher scores than those with low burnout. Burnout and empathy did not significantly influence quality of care delivery scores in 22 primary care centers. More studies, however, are needed to investigate the unexpected trend observed that suggests that physicians and nurses with higher levels of burnout provide higher quality care. (shrink)

To carry out an ethnographic study on the work process in the sterilization unit of a hospital in Catalonia, we found the socially distributed cognition approaches of Hutchins and Kirsh useful. However, these approaches lack sufficient explanation on three important issues: the pragmatic criteria for identifying and delimiting a relevant unit of analysis and therefore the setting and contexts of the work process; the mechanisms and results of reciprocal influences between these levels of analysis; and the relation between these levels. (...) Therefore, we added several new elements to these approaches, in addition to Layder's model of contexts with some important modifications, with the aim of offering an interactive, cognitive and social proposal of analysis that clarifies these three issues, allowing a more exhaustive and broader empirical analysis that captures better the ‘social’ dimension embedded in the work processes. (shrink)

El presente estudio analiza los recientes discursos sobre las guerras actuales. Hemos podido identificar dos tipos de argumentaciones, una proveniente del ámbito belicista y otro del ámbito humanitarista. El primero de estos discursos defiende explícitamente las intervenciones militares y recurre a nociones como el poder y la hegemonía. El segundo en cambio apela a la defensa de valores universales, la democracia y los derechos humanos. No obstante, aun partiendo de posturas teóricas opuestas (incluso enfrentadas), finalmente confluyen en la normalización y (...) legitimación de los conflictos actuales. Así pues, en ambos casos, quedan legitimadas las guerras desde posiciones teóricas opuestas, y además bajo esas teorizaciones quedan relegadas otras opciones no bélicas. Por ello el propósito del presente texto es realizar un repaso y balance de esas teorizaciones, puesto que, aparte de animar el debate intelectual actual, tienen una importante influencia práctica en la forma de concebir los conflictos internacionales (e incluso los conflictos sociales), en los que se juegan la vida de miles de personas. (shrink)

El presente artículo presenta una discusión acerca del carácter contracultural de algunos estilos o culturas juveniles, con las implicaciones políticas que ello conlleva. Para cumplir este objetivo los autores desarrollan un marco de referencia conceptual que sitúa los términos de la discusión, comparando elementos básicos de las culturas “jipis” de principios de los setenta, con las culturas “techno” de los noventa. Uno de los elementos centrales a nivel comparativo, será el consumo de ciertas drogas y sus significados en cada contexto (...) de estilo juvenil. A modo de conclusión, los autores plantean algunas proposiciones acerca del papel de las culturas juveniles, y más en concreto, de sus posibles significados políticos en nuestras sociedades contemporáneas. (shrink)

Preguntarse por la libertad es hacerlo a la razón y al corazón de nuestra vida. Reconocer el valor de ser, sentirse y vivir libre es reconocerse como humano y por ello aceptar el compromiso feliz e inexcusable del esfuerzo continuado. Una tarea para toda la vida. Es el tema de este libro. Para empezar, ingenuamente, puede plantearse así: ¿En qué consiste la libertad? ¿Existe realmente la libertad, ¿es algo que tengo antes de saberlo, algo que sólo adquiero al saber que (...) lo tengo o algo que para tenerlo debo renunciar a saber con precisión qué es? ¿Soy capaz de libertad o soy libertad y por ello capaz de ser humano? Y tantas, tantas: demasiadas preguntas.. En la primera parte se intenta una antropología a partir de la libertad, es decir considerando la libertad como diferencia específica del género humano. Cuestiones sobre la elección, lo voluntario e involuntario, la intención, el azar,?ayudarán a comprender qué es. En la segunda parte se presenta un breve repertorio de opciones libres argumentadas, destinadas a comprometer las abstracciones de la primera con la peripecia actual que vivimos y en la que somos. Se ofrecen algo así como unos "ejercicios de libertad". ". Es una incitación a continuar pensando y repensando. La filosofía nunca es para mí la cancelación definitiva que nos permite salir de dudas sino el acicate que nos arroja a ellas, permitiéndonos vivir con dignidad inteligente en la ausencia de certidumbres absolutas" (F.Savater). (shrink)

The recent rise in ethical consumerism has seen increasing numbers of corporate brands project a socially responsible and ethical image. But does having a corporate brand that is perceived to be ethical have any influence on outcome variables of interest for its product brands? This study analyzes the relationship between perceived ethicality at a corporate level, and brand trust, brand affect and brand loyalty at a product level. A theoretical framework with hypothesized relationships is developed and tested in order to (...) answer the research question. Data have been collected for 45 product categories in the fast moving consumer goods sector using a panel of 4,027 Spanish consumers. The proposed relationships are tested using structural equations modeling. The results suggest there is a positive relationship between perceived ethicality of a brand and both brand trust and brand affect. Brand affect also positively influences brand trust. Further, brand trust and brand affect both show a positive relation with brand loyalty. The managerial and academic implications of the results are discussed. (shrink)

In the current socioeconomic environment, brands increasingly need to portray societal and ethical commitments at a corporate level, in order to remain competitive and improve their reputation. However, studies that relate business ethics to corporate brands are either purely conceptual or have been empirically conducted in relation to the field of products/goods. This is surprising because corporate brands are even more relevant in the services sector, due to the different nature of services, and the subsequent need to provide a consistent (...) high-quality customer experience across all the brand–customer interactions and touch-points. Thus, the purpose of this article is to study, at a corporate brand level and in the field of services, the effect of customer perceived ethicality of a brand on brand equity. The model is tested by structural equations, using data collected for eight service categories by means of a panel composed of 2179 customers. The test of measurement equivalence between these categories is conducted using generalizability theory. Confirmatory factor analysis marker technique is applied in order to check for common method variance. The results of the hypothesized model indicate that customer perceived ethicality has a positive, indirect impact on brand equity, through the mediators of brand affect and perceived quality. However, there is no empirical evidence for a direct effect of customer perceived ethicality on brand equity. (shrink)

In the past few decades, a growth in ethical consumerism has led brands to increasingly develop conscientiousness and depict ethical image at a corporate level. However, most of the research studying business ethics in the field of corporate brand management is either conceptual or has been empirically conducted in relation to goods/products contexts. This is surprising because corporate brands are more relevant in services contexts, because of the distinct nature of services and the key role that employees have in the (...) services sector. Accordingly, this article aims at empirically examining the effects of customer perceived ethicality in the context of corporate services brands. Based on data collected for eight service categories using a panel of 2179 customers, the hypothesized structural model is tested using path analysis. The results show that, in addition to a direct effect, customer perceived ethicality has a positive and indirect effect on customer loyalty, through the mediators of customer affective commitment and customer perceived quality. Further, employee empathy positively influences the impact of customer perceived ethicality on customer affective commitment, and customer loyalty positively impacts customer positive word-of-mouth. The first implication of these results is that corporate brand strategy needs to be aligned with human resources policies and practices if brands want to turn ethical strategies into employee behavior. Second, corporate brands should build more authentic communications grounded in their ethical beliefs and supported by evidence from actual employees. (shrink)

El objetivo del presente artículo es doble. Por un lado, se pretende defender la tradición retórica que impregna el humanismo cívico en términos de su potencial utilidad con vistas a la educación para la ciudadanía. Por otro lado, mediante un ejercicio de “rational reconstruction” (Richard Rorty) o “rewriting” (Stanley Fish), se propone rastrear el papel de la solidaridad cívica en la Laudatio Florentinae urbis de Leonardo Bruni para realizar una “apropiación” de sus elementos en el contexto de los debates actuales (...) en filosofía política. La metáfora del “florecimiento” de la comunidad política, recurrente en el humanismo cívico, implica siempre una exhortación a la práctica de las virtudes cívicas por parte de los ciudadanos, es decir, una subordinación de los intereses particulares al bien común y, en consecuencia, una base de solidaridad en el cuerpo civil. Para ello, se partirá de la distinción rawlsiana entre “republicanismo clásico” y “humanismo cívico” que se halla en El liberalismo político (V, §7, 5). El argumento por disociación de Rawls será problematizado para sostener que el papel de las virtudes ciudadanas, como virtudes propiamente humanas, debe ser más importante y más exigente que el que el liberalismo le reserva si queremos una sociedad verdaderamente floreciente. (shrink)

Ce texte dessine les contours de l’interprétation de l’œuvre de Nietzsche par Georg Simmel. On en tirera des éléments pour l’intelligence du projet philosophique de Simmel, comme effort pour articuler objectivité et relativité de la valeur. Mais on trouvera aussi des raisons de défendre un certain usage de Nietzsche, replacé par Simmel dans une lignée humaniste, mais sans la moindre naïveté anthropocentrique. Nous nous arrêterons particulièrement sur deux thèses de Simmel : (1) Nietzsche propose une « théorie de la valeur (...) » objective et systématique ; (2) Nietzsche est un « moraliste » qui défend une variété particulière de « personnalisme ». (shrink)

Few elements of Aristotle’s practical philosophy have been more discussed than the so-called “practical syllogism”. But there are also few as suggestive to the commentators as this one. In this article I intend to define what the theory of practical syllogism would consist in, as a separated element within the Aristotelian ethical theory (or, more precise-ly, within his theory of action). It is not properly a demonstration of the existence of such a theory, but rather of the possibility that it (...) can take its place, even a necessary one, into the Stagirite’s general theory of action, in spite of some difficulties that I try to solve. This conclusion is reached through an analysis of the main elements of this theory. (shrink)

The concept of value is often discredited for its ambivalence: value increases and decreases, and is valid for one person but not necessarily for the next. Philosophies of value are subjectivist or contaminated by economic rationality. I show, from Gilbert Simondon, that value can be conceived of as a variable quantity without falling into levelling or axiological relativism. This implies dismissing the neo-Kantian separation of ontology and axiology, rejecting the conception of culture as a set of values and the bipolarity (...) of value oppositions, and finally thinking of value from a physical-mathematical rather than an economic analogy. (shrink)

The quasi-interchangeability of the words »culture« and »world« in German philosophy of culture at the beginning of the 20th century has frequently been stressed. Can we infer from that the idea that this philosophy of culture could be described as a type of cosmology? This article argues for such an interpretation, reflecting on Georg Simmel's work, particularly his little known concept of »ideal world«. Following this path, Simmel's relation to Kant and the Southwest School of Neo-Kantianism is analyzed.

The Anékdota or Secret History of Procopius of Caesarea tends to raise perplexity among scholars for different reasons, particularly the fact that a courtier wrote this work as well as the Buildings, a clear praise of Justinian through his constructions and foundations, and the Wars, in the most canonical historiographical tradition. It is apparent that the Secret History, as it is usually acknowledged, is related to the tradition of the invective and the pamphlet, even to the earlier classic iambography, but (...) we should try to answer the question with the same analytical tools that have been applied in recent years to the study of ancient biography, whence the author takes inspiration, especially for the portrait of empress Theodora. Here we have identified, alongside the ancient biographical patterns of the classical tradition, new ones, mostly inversions of contemporary hagiographical narratives. (shrink)

If all dependent expressions were adjacent some variety of immediate constituent analysis would suffice for grammar, but syntactic and semantic mismatches are characteristic of natural language; indeed this is a, or the, central problem in grammar. Logical categorial grammar reduces grammar to logic: an expression is well-formed if and only if an associated sequent is a theorem of a categorial logic. The paradigmatic categorial logic is the Lambek calculus, but being a logic of concatenation the Lambek calculus can only capture (...) discontinuous dependencies when they are peripheral. In this paper we present the displacement calculus, which is a logic of intercalation as well as concatenation and which subsumes the Lambek calculus. On the empirical side, we apply the new calculus to discontinuous idioms, quantification, VP ellipsis, medial extraction, pied-piping, appositive relativisation, parentheticals, gapping, comparative subdeletion, cross-serial dependencies, reflexivization, anaphora, dative alternation, and particle shift. On the technical side, we prove that the calculus enjoys Cut-elimination. (shrink)

Breeds are classifications of domestic animals that share, to a certain degree, a set of conventional phenotypic traits. We are going to defend that, despite classifying biological entities, animal breeds are social kinds. We will adopt Godman’s view of social kinds, classifications with predictive power based on social learning processes. We will show that, although the folk concept of animal breed refers to a biological kind, there is no way to define it. The expert definitions of breeds are instead based (...) on socially learnt conventions and skills (artificial selection), yielding groupings in which scientific predictions are possible. We will discuss in what sense breeds are social, but not human kinds and in what sense the concept of a breed is necessary to make them real. (shrink)

La remarquable étude de Olga V. Trokhimenko se donne pour objectif d’examiner les représentations du rire et du sourire féminins dans une large variété de textes médiévaux allemands : épiques, didactiques, religieux ou littéraires, mais aussi dans les représentations sculpturales (notamment les vierges sages et les vierges folles des cathédrales de Strasbourg et Magdebourg). En s’engageant dans la difficile question de la construction et de l’expression émotionnelle du rire, l’auteure met en...

Volume 46, Issue 6, November 2020, Page 676-692.

Since at least the 1970s, the countryside of Western Europe has been the site of a myriad of “new” communal initiatives. Rural areas that were abandoned during the last century have witnessed the arrival of new inhabitants. These newcomers often flock to the mountains escaping urban lifestyles characterized by individualism, mass-oriented livelihoods, and isolation. Many of these individuals move to areas like the Catalan Pyrenees, where common property and communal institutions have had a strong historical presence. In embracing rural life, (...) these new inhabitants are looking for a more integrated social life in which the commons are, on the one hand, a form of collective private property, and, on the other, represent a more egalitarian way of life in which contributing to the collective effort is not only an efficient way of dealing with particularly harsh ecological conditions, but also an ideological statement that defines the community as something different: an alternative to urban capitalism. Two definitions of the commons are colliding in these mountains; two longstanding lines of political thought are converging and establishing a dialogue that is not always easy: (1) traditional ideologies of land ownership that defined common property over the centuries, not based on economic equality, but on private property and locally shared responsibility on the economic base of the community; and (2) utopian anti-capitalism that views the commons as an alternative mode of social organization and ownership based on egalitarianism. (shrink)

Why does a journal that intends to »bring out reason into culture« give so much space to the question of mysticism? The contemporary rise of extra-ecclesial reli- giosity is well known. A critique of culture that questions the significance of its given forms must problematize the enthusiasm for mysticism. But in its claim for immediacy, mystical experience constitutes a kind of impossible object for the phi- losophy of culture. I interpret the reflection on mysticism as a test for the capacity (...) of the philosophy of culture to account for cultural life and not only its objectified forms. This reflection reveals a structural tension of the Logos program as an effort to recover the link between life and its objectivations. (shrink)