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The following selected, annotated listing of over 30 government titles and/or series provides basic, as well as detailed, information on foreign countries. The information contained in these documents is compiled by the U.S. government and, for the most part, is to be used by government employees in overseas' positions. The material, however, should be of use to travelers, tourists, businessmen, teachers, military personnel, or any individual who needs information about a foreign country. In addition to containing an abundance of information and statistics on foreign countries, these government documents provide other features that make them a valuable resource. These include:

This chapter opens up a question central to the mission of the business in society field as it has evolved since the formation of division in the Academy of Management (AOM): What are the (future) distinctive competencies of business in society scholarship? We first empirically demonstrate that core topics to the business in society field, as represented by the Social Issues in Management (SIM) Division of the AOM, are now disseminated broadly throughout the management academy, represented by AOM. We call this dissemination the popularity paradox, because it demonstrates that SIM is not well connected with other divisions, that is, sub-disciplines of management despite that they are now regularly dealing with its core questions. Given that SIM’s (and business in society’s) traditional foci are now widely dispersed, the authors argue that it is time for business in society scholars, with SIM as proxy, to begin tackling new core issues that put growing civilizational threats around sustainability and the consequent need for system change and transformation front and center. In a sense, the authors argue that business in society scholars need to return to their roots of seriously questioning the roles and functions of businesses in society through a critical lens that asks and seeks to answer – today’s emerging new and tough questions, though the questions now emphasize the sustainability of human civilization as we know it.

This index accompanies the index that appeared in Reference Services Review 16:4 (1988). As noted in the introduction to that index, the articles in RSR that deal with specific reference titles can be grouped into two categories: those that review specific titles (to a maximum of three) and those that review titles pertinent to a specific subject or discipline. The index in RSR 16:4 covered the first category; it indexed, by title, all titles that had been reviewed in the “Reference Serials” and the “Landmarks of Reference” columns, as well as selected titles from the “Indexes and Indexers,” “Government Publications,” and “Special Feature” columns of the journal.

The United States government is widely acknowledged as an inveterate collector and disseminator of statistical information. The various agencies of the government gather statistics on virtually every aspect of American life, as well as world affairs. The impact and use of these data are immeasurable, since U.S. government statistics on such topics as economics, society, and labor supply the bases for all forms of statistical research and analysis.

The construct of “tradition” is commonly used in studies of society and culture and refers to historically patterned institutionalized practices that emphasize the “presentness of the past” in their transmission. However, there is “very little analysis of the properties of tradition” (Shils, 1971, p. 124), especially in the management literature. We draw on illustrative examples from Martha Stewart Living magazine to reveal the use and meanings of traditions and their relevance to understanding institutional micro-foundations in contemporary living. We investigate how organizations bundle various aspects of institutions in their presentation, and seek to advance theory on how institutions matter in everyday life.

ANYONE who might have looked in at one of the windows of the “pavilion” at Churchill College in Cambridge in the late evening of September 11th, 1967, would have witnessed a rather remarkable event—a group of British and Scandinavian librarians performing with great sincerity a stirring musical interpretation of “Bobby Bingo”, using a variety of instruments ranging from potato pots and wine glasses to combs and human voices.

There are four criteria that people universally value: health, well-being, longevity, and environmental preservation. When these criteria are violated, a society becomes unsustainable. In order to preserve cultures, these four universal criteria therefore need to be taken into account. But nation states are no longer the dominant form of social organizing – corporations are. This raises questions about the role of corporations in preserving cultural values. How do corporations measure up to these four universal truths? Can corporations live up to these values, above and beyond financial performance, and does it matter? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Amidst a shifting trend toward vertical individualism which emphasizes personal needs, status, and hierarchy, the paper argues that the universal truths are more important than ever in the consideration of corporate social responsibility.

The paper concludes that although most companies claim to be attending to social and environmental issues, the current form of corporate governing is largely incapable of optimizing the four universally held values.

The authors present some examples of corporations and corporate forms that appear to be heading in the “right” direction, but highlight that challenges remain. Nevertheless, the cross-culture literature can help inform the future of the relationship between business, society, and the natural environment.

Chance models – mechanisms that explain empirical regularities through unsystematic variance – have a long tradition in the sciences but have been historically marginalized in management scholarship, relative to an agentic worldview about the role of managers and organizations. An exception is the work of James G. March and his coauthors, who proposed a variety of chance models that explain important management phenomena, including the careers of top executives, managerial risk taking, and organizational anarchy, learning, and adaptation. This paper serves as a tribute to the beauty of these “little ideas” and demonstrates how they can be recombined to generate novel implications. In particular, we focus on the example of an inverted V-shaped performance association centering around the year when executives were featured in a prominent listing, Barron’s annual list of Top 30 chief executive officers. Our recombination of several chance models developed by March and his coauthors provides a novel explanation for why many of the executives’ exceptional performances did not persist. In contrast to the common accounts of complacency, hubris, and statistical regression, the results show that declines from high performance may result from the way luck interacts with these executives’ slow adaptation, incompetence, and self-reinforced risk taking. We conclude by elaborating on the normative implications of chance models, which address many current management and societal challenges. We further encourage the continued development of chance models to help explain performance differences, shifting from accounts that favor heroic stories of corporate leaders toward accounts that favor their changing fortunes.