Several College of Business faculty attended the 25th Anniversary International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference Oct 25-27, 2018, in New York City. The conference rotates between the 3 Vincentian Universities, DePaul University in Chicago, Niagara University and St. John’s University. Sponsored by the Center for Global Business Stewardship at St. John’s University, this year’s theme was "People, Planet Progress: Business Ethics for a Global Society" and explored how progress and prosperity in business are achieved in the context of a sustainable future for the planet and all who inhabit it.
Vince Agnello, professor of law and Dr. Kris Principe, associate professor of economics served on the organizing committee for Niagara.
“Increasing Cultural Competence in Competitive Negotiation: An Experiential Learning Activity"paper was presented by Dr. Todd Inouye, assistant professor of management, which he co-authored with Patrick Tutka, assistant professor in the College of Hospitality and Sports Management. His presentation described how they have implemented a new cross-cultural negotiation activity which they hope will increase cultural awareness in management education.
Dr. Tenpao Lee, professor of economics, presented a paper co-authored by Dr. Ann Rensel, associate professor of management, and Dr. Ian Burt, assistant professor of accounting, “A Comparison of Business Ethical Behavior between Developed and Developing Countries”. The authors discuss that two major forces have changed the world since early 1990s – globalization and Information Technology. These two forces are interrelated, in that information technology is the enabler or the pre-requisite to globalization while globalization accelerates the development of information technology. A third force, ethical behavior, or the presence of less corruption, plays a critical role in shaping the capability of a country to expand and grow. This paper adds to the understanding of the relationship between the perception of ethical behavior, the level of technology development (NRI), economic development and population change. Accomplishing Sustainable Development Goals developed by the United Nations depend on ethical behavior rather than international laws written in paper. This research finds that as a country’s population increases corruption increases, conversely as the level of economic development increases and the level of technology capability increases, corruption decreases.
“Economics and Ethics: The Impact of Government Integrity on Macroeconomic Performance and Inequality” was presented by Dr. Kris Principe, associate professor of economics and co-authored with Dr. Randy Cragun, assistant professor of economics. They analyzed the impact of the various components of economic freedom on 5 year GDP growth rates for 119 countries, controlling for capital investment and education level.
Dr. Anna McNab, associate professor of management discussed some of the principles behind blockchain technology that could make business transactions more ethical in her paper “The Adoption of Blockchain Technology Will Make Business Transactions More Ethical”. She also drew attention to the increased need for computing power and energy consumption that could have very negative effects on the environment, which could be seen as unethical on the broader societal level.
“Teaching Ethics through Philosophy: Can It Be Done?” was the paper by Dr. Ian Burt, assistant professor of accounting and Vince Agnello, Professor of Law. They compared students responses to ethical vignettes, comparing differences based on prior philosophy courses taken, ethics course taken, course year of student, major, sex, age, and other factors. They tried to determine at what point do students learn to identify ethical choices and/or does this change throughout their time in university based on course material.
Next year the IVBEC 2019 conference will focus on "Ethics and Capitalism" and will be held in Dublin City University, Ireland, from October 24 - 26.