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One of the lessons of the Great Recession is that managing for shareholder value can result in damage to other stakeholders. This paper seeks to articulate a new purpose for the firm that is more legitimate than maximizing financial returns for shareholders.

The paper examines the various management alternatives: modify the shareholder value strategy; become socially responsible; and adopt radical management practices.

A central question is whether the alternative management models will contribute to corporate longevity. The paper suggests an alternative approach: the virtuous corporate.

The paper looks at the virtuous corporation which would balance the need to reward external stakeholders with relentless attention to internal excellence and virtue.

This paper challenges the assumption in cross-cultural research of liability of foreignness (LOF). The literature review demonstrates that LOF comes from pressures for isomorphism, while asset of foreignness (AOF) can derive from the active process of breaking norms. The purpose of this paper is to explore how leaders can initiate and sustain AOF.

The paper analyzes the case of the Nissan revival led by Carlos Ghosn and the impact in the years after. The analysis is based on the authors’ interviews and discussions with Ghosn and senior leaders at Nissan and Renault, complemented with published interviews and assessments.

Analysis confirmed the potential for AOF, and further uncovered four patterns of behavior that created AOF virtuous cycles among Nissan leaders: initiating trust, shaping identity, anchoring and transcending common language, and acting positively on ignorance. The virtuous cycles were sustainable and transformed into new global strategic perspectives.

The paper proposes a research model identifying moderators between foreignness and performance. Generalizability is limited by the focus on a single case study.

The four sets of behaviors can serve as guides to action for leaders when working in foreign contexts.

This research goes beneath the surface of a famous example to analyze leadership dynamics over time, and provides insight on positive aspects of foreignness.

The aim of this paper is to explore how virtue ethics might inform our understanding about what constitutes “good” practice in forensic accounting. In particular, the paper explores the concept of phronesis (or practical wisdom) as a basis for guiding the application of professional judgement in forensic accounting practice.

The paper draws on a review of relevant literature.

Prior literature has identified a number of technical and personal characteristics and attributes that are desirable in forensic accounting practitioners. Although being ethical is identified as an important characteristic, the question of what constitutes a “good” forensic accountant has not hitherto been investigated. Because of the profession’s multi-disciplinary and highly technical nature, forensic accountants are significantly at risk of conflating ethics with compliance with the law. The paper suggests that an understanding of virtue ethics and especially the virtue of “phronesis” or practical wisdom will help forensic accountants maintain public confidence and quality in their services and provide practical guidance on the exercise of professional judgement.

The paper suggests that the primacy currently given in forensic accounting literature and practice to a commercial logic, technical competencies and legal compliance risks damaging the professional standing of forensic accountants and, over time, reduces the ability of forensic accountants to exercise professional judgement in complex unstructured situations. Virtue ethics can act as a useful counter point to these threats.

A recognition of the need for the forensic accounting profession to collectively develop phronesis would re-establish the primacy of the profession’s public interest logic and maintain public trust and quality in forensic accounting services.

There appears to be no prior literature in forensic accounting which explores the application of virtue ethics in this field. In addition, although virtue ethics has been the subject of some prior papers in accounting per se, the importance of phronesis as a basis for understanding the nature and application of professional judgement has not been addressed.

Because of the paucity of information about what and how Chinese leadership styles contribute to organizational success, this study aims to elucidate Chinese leadership styles with reference to Confucian and Daoist schemata, relate them to organizational success, and explicate the relationships by exploring a grounded theory.

To obtain such knowledge, this study applies a grounded theory approach to analyzing interview data from 11 Hong Kong Chinese CEOs.

Results delineated the Chinese leadership styles based on relationship building, virtuous practice, hierarchical and centralized organization, and humility and self‐effacement. These practices were conducive to trust, cooperation, competence, and other achievements in the staff. The contributions of the Chinese leadership styles tend to reflect a security theory in that sustaining followers' security appears to mediate leadership practices and their outcomes.

Because the tradition of Confucian and Daoist teachings can be a basis for successful Chinese leadership styles, the teachings can still be valuable for leadership development today.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on competitiveness by using the business model concept and to understand the need to adapt business models to changes in the environment.

Using Catalonia as a context, the paper derives recommendations by presenting and analyzing examples of companies, referred to as “new generation companies,” that have innovated in their business models. The case studies illustrate the contributions of the business model notion to the competitiveness debate.

Reviewing the history and contemporary practice of Catalan firms, examples of “new generation” companies are analyzed to derive recommendations for managers seeking to reconfigure their business models to support innovation and internationalization. Since business models sit at the core of competitiveness, they must be the focus of managers aiming to create efficient firms that foster sustained competitive advantage.

The analysis is based on a small number of case studies.

The business model approach described in this paper enriches the current debate on competitiveness by focusing the analysis at the level of the firm.

Knowledge management (KM) is associated with higher performance and innovative culture; KM can help the public sector to be fiscally lean and meet diverse stakeholders’ needs. However, hierarchical structures, bureaucratic culture and rigid processes inhibit KM adoption and generate inertia. This study aims to explore the nature and causes of this inertia within the context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) public sector.

Using an in-depth case study of a UAE public sector organisation, this study explores how organisational inertia can be countered to enable KM adoption. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with 17 top- and middle-level managers from operational, management and strategic levels. Interview data is triangulated with content analysis from multiple sources, including the UAE Government and case organisation documents.

The results show transformation leadership, external factors and organisational culture mediate the negative effect of inertia on KM practices adoption. We find that information technology plays a key role in enabling knowledge creation, access, adoption and sharing. Furthermore, we uncover a virtuous cycle between organisational culture and KM practices adoption in the public sector. In addition, we develop a new model (the relationship between KM practices, organisational inertia, organisational culture, transformational leadership traits and external factors) and four propositions for empirical testing by future researchers. We also present a cross-case comparison of our results with six private/quasi-private sector cases who have implemented KM practices.

Qualitative data is collected from a single case study.

Inertia in a public section is a result of bureaucracy and authority bounded by the rules and regulations. Adopting a qualitative methodology and case study method, the research explores the phenomena of how inertia impacts KM adoption in public sector environments. Our findings reveal the underlying mechanisms of how internal and external organisational factors impact inertia. Internally, supportive organisational culture and transformational leadership traits positively effect KM adoption, which, in turn, has a positive effect on organisational culture to counter organisational inertia. Externally, a progressive national culture, strategy and policy can support a knowledge-based organisation that embraces change. This study develops a new model (interactions between internal and external factors impacting KM practices in the public sector), four propositions and a new two-stage process model for KM adoption in the public sector. We present a case-comparison of how the constructs interact in a public sector as compared to six private/quasi-private sector cases from the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the design of characteristics and use of practices incorporated in customer relationship management information systems (CRM‐IS) impact on the expression and realisation of moral agency within organisations.

The paper draws on the findings from an in‐depth UK case study of a CRM‐IS implementation.

The paper finds that some characteristics and practices within CRM‐IS can restrict the expression and realisation of moral agency in organisational life, resulting in a number of problems. For a greater consideration of MacIntyre's virtue ethics approach in order to respond to such challenges is argued.

The paper offers a relatively rare insight into the significance of the ethical issues arising from the organisational use of CRM‐IS and strategies. The paper should be of interest to managers, computer professionals and academics.

This paper aims to present and discuss an interdisciplinary educational approach to business ethics, based on a virtue ethics framework and the common good paradigm. This approach addresses the challenges that businesses face in building legitimacy and creating shared values.

The paper presents a case study of an experience of an interdisciplinary postgraduate course, discussing both the design of the program and its first results.

The paper focuses on the theoretical and practical reasons for the interdisciplinary nature of business ethics education and contributes to the literature on business ethics education as well as training and educational practices in academic and professional contexts.

This paper can positively influence business education practices by sharing a replicable educational model and fostering virtuous practices that contribute to renewing the perception of the purpose of firms.

Improving business ethics education can positively affect the social performance of firms contributing to the common good.

The paper presents an innovative interdisciplinary educational program that, to the best of our knowledge of the current literature, can be consider an original contribution.