Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
We shall call a semigroup S a σ-reflexive semigroup if any subsemigroup H in S is reflexive (i.e. for all a, b ∈ S, ab ∈ H implies ba∊H ([2], [5]). It can be verified that any group G is a σ-reflexive semigroup if and only if any subgroup of G is normal. In this paper, we characterize subdirectly irreducible o-reflexive semigroups. We derive the following commutativity result: any generalized commutative ring R ([1]) in which the integers n=n(x, y) in the equation (xy)n = (yx)m can be taken equal to 1 for all x, y ∈ R must be a commutative ring.