Ernst & Young's 2013 Fraud Survey has yielded some ugly results. 60% of the 3,000 board members and managers surveyed around the world said that the pressure to report positive financial outcomes had increased in the last 12 months. This is a delicate way of saying that owners and senior managers are prepared to do…

In the last ten years, entrepreneurs have become extraordinarily popular. Politicians, journalists and business people all want to be associated with the idea of entrepreneurship. Official programs have been created to help entrepreneurs and the weekend newspaper invariably contains a special supplement on entrepreneurship. All universities and business associations organize events so that entrepreneurs can…

We kick-off with this entry our new blog dedicated to matters relating to business ethics and the professional and social context in which executives and businesses function. Some may ask themselves, “But why do we need to talk about ethics? Isn’t the concept a bit passé?” Indeed, if you look at academia, you could find arguments…

Every now and then reports on falling hourly labor costs in euro periphery countries surface and make newspaper headlines. Headlines sometimes express falling labor costs as good news, and other times as bad news, depending on who does the interpreting. Falling labor costs may be considered good news because they indicate that it is cheaper…