Citation
Pesqueux, Y. (2018), "Editorial", Society and Business Review, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 130-131. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBR-07-2018-125
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited
This issue includes eight papers: four viewpoints, three research papers and one conceptual paper.
In “Mobile phones as a learning tool: a lecturer’s viewpoint”, Tashfeen Ahmad shares a lecturer’s viewpoint on using mobile phone as an academic tool in the lecture room. Students were encouraged to use their mobile phones and find information during the author’s class discussions, at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. At the end of the semester, the author asked the students if they found the mobile phone a distraction in their learning process and if they enjoyed using them. These questions were asked to understand their perspective about mobile phone usage during class discussions. The finding is that respondents did not see mobile phone usage in the lecture room as a distraction as they learn, and they also enjoyed using them.
In “From slaves to servant leaders: remembering the contributions of John Merrick and Alonzo Herndon”, Leon Christopher Prieto, Simone Trixie Allison Phipps and Babita Mathur-Helm contribute to the knowledge by recognizing two historic entrepreneurs who played an important role in the African-American community and by viewing their contributions through the lens of servant leadership. The paper is conducted by reviewing and synthesizing a number of writings from sources such as history journals, newspapers and other resources. The main finding is that two former slaves (Merrick and Herndon) practiced servant leadership in the early twentieth century as a way to create jobs and transform communities.
In “Bhagavad Gita and Hindu modes of capitalist accumulation in India”, Bhabani Shankar Nayak expands the idea of the capitalist accumulation process from social structures of accumulation theory to religious structures of accumulation within the Indian context. The paper analyzes the philosophical tenets of Hindu religious philosophy as outlined in the Bhagavad Gita. It argues that the ideological narratives within the Bhagavad Gita are concomitant with the logic of capitalism. The Bhagavad Gita (Songs of God) gives social and spiritual legitimacy to a specific form of production and accumulation processes by rationalizing and justifying socioeconomic stratification based on eternal inequality. The paper focuses on the interface between cardinal principles of Hindu religion as outlined in the Bhagavad Gita and capitalist modes of social and economic processes in India. The paper aims to advance a new concept called “Hindu modes of accumulation” by advancing the theoretical understanding of the theological processes in the Hindu religion, which reinforces capitalism and capitalist social relations in India.
In “Eurocentric conceptualisation of risk in international business”, Bhabani Shankar Nayak deals with the Eurocentric conceptualization of “risk” which reinforces rent-seeking language, culture and practices of doing business that are alien to non-European societies. This paper also attempts to engage with Eurocentric methods and strategies that sustain hegemony in international business by promoting “risk” and perpetuating “uncertainty” within the non-European business culture. Such territoriality within basic conceptualizations of risk in the international business is central to the manufactured “risks” that reinforce crisis, while the state deals successfully or fails to deal with it, the global corporations extract resources and expand their capital and market base in non-European societies while doing business. This paper presents the philosophical basis of risks and its historical foundations and deals with the neo-colonial business methods, languages, cultures and strategies which are Eurocentric by nature. This paper argues that manufacturing risk is the Eurocentric business strategy.
In “Influencing Fairtrade consumption through servant leadership: Bruce Crowther’s story”, Anthony Samuel, Gareth Reginald Terence White, Helen Martin and Martyn Rowling expand the understanding of servant leadership beyond organizational boundaries by examining its role in the establishment and growth of a social movement. The paper’s findings are developed from four sequential, semi-structured interviews and a narrated tour of Garstang with the founder of the Fairtrade Towns (FTT) movement. It follows a theoretical framework of servant leadership (SLship) from Spears (1996; 2009). Evidence is gathered through in-depth investigation of the activities of Bruce Crowther, the architect and driving force behind the FTT initiative. The findings discovered how SLship operates in a social, place-based setting to influence Fairtrade consumption. The paper argues that the success of the FTT movement is linked to Bruce Crowther’s leadership.
In “The welfare organization agenda: revisiting the epistemological boundaries of management thought based on the writings of Ibn Khaldun”, Muhammad Kashif, Atiq Ur Rehman and Nicholas Grigoriou argue that if the role of managers is crucial to achieve holistic organizational goals to benefit the key stakeholders, a Western perspective is dominant as management literature, where the work of Anglo-Arab philosophers is largely ignored. This paper aims to fill this knowledge gap and promulgate the writings of Ibn Khaldun (a fourteenth-century Muslim philosopher) to advance management knowledge.
In “Perception of Russian employees’ culture by Western managers of Western subsidiaries in Russia”, Aysylu Valitova and Dominique Besson analyze perception of the Russian national culture by the Western managers in the Western subsidiaries in Russia. Interpretivist analyses of narratives have been collected by the authors by interviewing several Western managers in Russian subsidiaries, based on the concepts of E.T. Hall. They globally found more examples of high context than low context and also of “hybrid context”, as well as more examples of polychrony than monochrony and a mixture of polychrony and monochrony, which the authors call “hybridchronie.” They show implications of socioeconomic change in society, organizational structure and work hierarchical relationship, generation effect and importance of clans.
In “Money laundering through gambling devices”, June Buchanan examines how money laundering occurs through electronic gaming devices, the regulatory requirements for operators of electronic gaming machines, the issues of online versus land-based gambling and a discussion about ethics and social responsibility. This conceptual paper includes an identification of several theories relevant to money laundering. Primary data were obtained from one respondent through a face-to-face meeting and another through a telephone conversation. A strong, globally coordinated effort is required to fight against the increasingly “dark side” of money laundering. The tenets of corporate social responsibility, including a strong focus on ethics, are vitally important in the gambling industry in helping to wipe out money laundering, which is used to make “dirty” money “clean” and, in some instances, used to fund terrorism.