This study examines the influence of firm governance structures (board size, independence, CEO duality, director share ownership, and board meeting frequency) in relation to carbon emission disclosures by high-polluting Chinses firms. In addition, the study further examined the moderating role of earnings management on this relationship. In line with stakeholder and agency theories, our study identified that the large and independent boards exercise and demonstrate a higher degree of carbon emission disclosures. However, CEO duality and director share ownership are associated (...) with lower carbon emission disclosures. In addition, the study determined that higher earnings management results in a reduced level of carbon emission disclosures. Lastly, a firm earnings management strategy moderates the relationship between a firm governance structure and its carbon emission disclosures. The findings from the study are consistent with multiple econometric models and variables. The findings from the study contribute to the literature in the areas of firm corporate governance and carbon emission disclosures by documenting the moderating role of earnings management, which is not evident in previous studies; provide an enhanced perspective on the implications for firms, regulators, policymakers, and stakeholders who have an interest in reducing carbon emissions and advancing climate change mitigation goals in line with UN's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7: climate action, and zero emissions goal by 2050. (shrink)

We investigate the impact of women shareholders on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and how they interact with women directors to exert a greater influence on CSR activities. Little is known about how women's ownership can enhance their roles in CSR practices. Based on data from Omani-listed firms during 2016–2020 and using CSR budgeting and spending as proxies for CSR activities, firms with women shareholders allocate more CSR budgeting and spend more money on CSR activities. However, we also find that women (...) directors can only affect CSR budgeting and spending if their representation on the board is increased. Furthermore, we find that firms with women shareholders and directors have higher CSR budgeting and spending. Further analysis reveals that women shareholders are more likely to spend money on CSR activities within the budgeted amount and are less likely to be associated with gaps between CSR budgeting and spending. This analysis also shows that the type of ownership (family versus non-family) influences women shareholders' effects on CSR budgeting and spending. Our empirical findings provide critical insights into how woman shareholders influence CSR actions. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 32, Issue 4, Page 1123-1125, October 2023.

Drawing on the behavioral theory, this study examines how the misalignment between a firm's environmental effort and the level of subsidies received from the government in affecting the firm's investment in non-environmental R&D. Based on a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2019 and using polynomial regression techniques, our findings reveal that firms in the “low effort-high subsidies” group exhibit lower non-environmental R&D intensity compared to firms in the “high effort-low subsidies” group. This study contributes to the (...) literature by shedding light on the interplay between corporate environmental efforts, government subsidies, and non-environmental R&D investment. The findings suggest the importance of aligning the environmental efforts of firms with subsidy levels from the government to effectively allocate resources for different types of R&D. The implications of this research suggest that firms should carefully consider aligning their environmental efforts with government subsidies to optimize their investment in non-environmental R&D and overall innovation strategy. Furthermore, the study indicates that firms and governments should prudently balance the relationship between environmental R&D and non-environmental R&D to avoid any negative impact on the latter. (shrink)

Employees have their own understandings of corporate social responsibility (CSR) motives. This study investigated whether employees' different perceptions of CSR motives, including substantive CSR attribution and symbolic CSR attribution, influence their work attitudes, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Moreover, we explore the mediating role of person-organization fit in the relationships among CSR attribution, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. We collected 687 responses for an overall response rate of 16%. The results of structural equation model (SEM) analyses show that substantive CSR (...) attribution decreases employee turnover intention and that symbolic CSR attribution increases employee turnover intention. Based on these results, we provide relevant theoretical and managerial implications. (shrink)

Although organic standards and certification schemes have a crucial role in ensuring quality, safety, and sustainability within food systems, there is a need to critically analyze their implications on human capabilities within alternative food networks (AFNs). Therefore, this paper draws upon the capability approach to analyze the implications of three governance mechanisms (i.e., third-party, social control, and hybrid certification) on human flourishing within AFNs in Ceará, Brazil. The three cases primarily build on 66 interviews with farmers, consumers, AFN owners and (...) employees, certifying officials, governmental and non-governmental representatives, and researchers. Third-party certification has some positive effects in terms of material, political, and environmental capabilities and many negative effects regarding social/cultural capabilities. Social control certification bolsters material, social/cultural, political, and environmental capabilities for the benefit of farmers and consumers. Hybrid certification increases the material control, political power, social legitimacy, and environmental governance of market intermediaries. The findings can help scholars, practitioners, and policymakers rethink the role of organic standardization and certification in fostering fundamental human capabilities and tackling inequalities within AFNs. (shrink)

The study investigates how board cultural diversity (BCD) affects bank stakeholder engagement through improved corporate social performance (CSP) and whether banks' corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy mediates the relationship between BCD and banks' social performance. Adopting an international sample of 379 banks from 2010 to 2019, we found that BCD improves engagement in socially responsible issues in the banking sector. Moreover, we show a mediating role of strategic CSR on the relationship between BCD and banks' social performance. Hence, we contribute (...) to the research on the role of corporate governance mechanisms as drivers of CSR engagement. Furthermore, based on the mediation effect of strategic CSR, we advance the discussion on the link between BCD and banks' social performance. Our findings provide implications for banks and policy-makers, indicating the opportunity to promote cultural diversity, which supports socially responsible banking, while a CSR strategy positively impacts the stakeholder approach in the banking industry. (shrink)

The advocates of “doing well by doing good” have advised firms to invest in corporate social responsibility (CSR), but firms may get lost on how to invest their limited resources in it since CSR is a complex concept involving many activities and different types of stakeholders. In this work, we draw upon the perspective of stakeholder saliency and the stakeholder resource-based view (SRBV) to propose that stakeholders may have different levels of expectations for CSR and contribute to firm value creation (...) differently. Therefore, firms using different CSR to treat different stakeholders (high CSR variability) will have better financial performance. We further propose that context, in particular media coverage and state ownership, moderates the relationship between CSR variability and firm performance, as stakeholders of highly visible firms and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) may frown upon a discriminate treatment in CSR. Findings based on a sample of 3313 publicly listed firms and 15,324 firm-year observations in China's stock markets during the 2010–2018 period provide good support for our predictions. (shrink)

Building on the Norwegian case, this study examines the long-term implications of board gender quotas on the advancement of gender diversity in managerial leadership. Previous research has indicated that, aside from the board, the quota had limited impact on achieving this objective. However, these studies have narrowly focused on the spill-over effects of the quota, primarily concentrating on the positions of CEO and Chair. The findings of this study reveal contrasting effects of the board gender quota on the gender composition (...) of the board and the executive committee of the board. Consequently, Norwegian companies have increased the representation of women on their boards, as mandated by the law, while simultaneously experiencing a reduction in the presence of female executive directors. Moreover, the strength of both opposing effects has diminished over time. In addition to the board of directors, the quota has not influenced the promotion of gender diversity at other managerial levels. Furthermore, our study suggests that the quota has led to a decrease in the average tenure and level of independence of the boards, although it has not affected the qualifications of board members. (shrink)

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing is synonymous with sustainable investment for socially responsible investors. Unfortunately, the diversity of ESG investing remains unattended amidst the growth in ESG literature, as the academic literature focuses dominantly on measuring performance. An understanding of a wide range of subjects entailing ESG is required before future research on ESG investing is performed. To overcome the challenge, this systematic literature review uses bibliometric mapping to reveal four significant research themes within the ESG investing literature: investor (...) behavior and motivations for ESG investing; cost and risk mitigation in ESG investing; portfolio screening and ESG investing; and ESG performance. The review critically examines each theme and broadens the research agenda for future studies. In addition to the significant themes, this paper also discusses theoretical and recent research trends in the ESG investing literature. The review identifies clashes and crossovers between these themes to appropriately interpret one theme using another and emphasizes the heterogeneity in ESG investing. Lastly, discussion over concerns and criticisms of ESG investing highlights greenwashing as a major cause of concern for investors. (shrink)

Nowadays, consumer ethics represents a relevant field of review. There have been some attempts to conduct literature reviews; however, these have been few and incomplete. For this reason, this paper follows two main objectives: (1) to develop a performance analysis to measure the impact/perceptibility of academic production on consumer ethics (most cited authors, journals and themes) and (2) to visually present the scientific structure by themes of research in consumer ethics as well as its evolution along time. Using SciMAT software, (...) a comprehensive thematic review is discussed. 568 scientific papers (2569 keywords and 8642 citations) were retrieved from the Web of Science from 1995 to 2021 (May). Our results show three main periods with two main research themes (consumer and corporate social responsibility), which remain relevant themes at the time. Also, some new themes that promote ethical consumption have gained weight or appear over time, some of which are linked to the marketing field (such as experiences, satisfaction, attitudes or privacy among others). (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 32, Issue 4, Page 1452-1469, October 2023.

This study seeks to shed light on the effect of star CEOs on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of Chinese firms. Relying on the theoretical perspective of role identity and role constraints, we analyze data from 1222 Chinese firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2006 to 2019. The results analyzed using the ordinary least squares estimate method reveal a positive effect of star CEOs' extreme confidence and legitimacy pressure mechanisms on ESG performance. We also (...) find that this positive relationship is negatively moderated by higher organizational slack but strengthened by a lower level of regional marketization, as the degree of firms' dependence on external stakeholders' resources differs significantly. Additionally, this study finds that ESG activities are less likely to be associated with firm performance if star CEOs pursue them to satisfy their need for star status. These findings supplement the early tests of the influence mechanism of star CEOs on organization-level results and expand the context discussion of role identity and role constraints theory in the Chinese institutional environment. (shrink)

Building on agency and resource-based view theories, this study investigates the level of environmental disclosure (ED) practices of family versus non-family firms and explores the moderating role of board gender diversity. We test our hypotheses on a 3-year (2018–2020) panel data sample comprising 324 observations of Italian small- and medium-sized enterprises traded on the Euronext Growth Milan. Findings show that, compared to non-family firms, companies with a family firm status are characterized by lower levels of ED. Gender diversity on the (...) board, however, moderates this relationship, reducing this gap, to the extent that the family firm status is associated with higher ED when the number of women directors is high enough to constitute a critical mass. We consequently contribute to the studies on family business, corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility. (shrink)

For the period 2015–2019 and based on a Spanish sample of 145 listed companies, this paper provides insights into how narcissistic chief executive officers (CEOs) influence the proportion of women in top management teams (TMTs). As a further analysis and in line with social psychology and upper echelons theories, we study whether the power and gender of a CEO and the female proportion in the firm's board moderate the relationship. Our results reveal that narcissistic CEOs are less likely to support (...) women in TMTs, confirming that CEO personality traits influence team structure. Further results suggest that this aversion increases as the CEO's power grows and is a woman, and when female proportion in board decreases. The results have an impact on the gender equality goal, demonstrating that the behavior of women toward promoting gender equality in TMTs depends both on the specific position of women in the firm's hierarchy and on their personal psychological attributes. We find that women directors support social identity values and that narcissistic female CEOs act like queen bees. (shrink)

In this study, we performed a comparative analysis to examine the extent to which local governments (LGs) in two Mediterranean countries – Spain and Italy – use their websites to disclose information related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in response to the launch of the United Nations' (UN) 2030 Agenda. We performed a manual content analysis of the official websites of all Italian and Spanish LGs with more than 100,000 inhabitants, constructing different disclosure indexes. We then used a non-parametric statistical (...) test to assess differences in disclosure behaviours between countries. Our findings show that the extent to which the investigated LGs disclose SDG-related information online remains limited. Based on Oliver's (1991) strategic responses framework, we postulate that Italian and Spanish LGs have responded to the launch of the SDGs by adopting compromise and avoidance strategies. (shrink)

In recent decades, Alasdair MacIntyre has developed a style of moral philosophy and an argument for Neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics that has deeply influenced business ethics. Most of the work inspired by MacIntyre has dealt with individual and organisational dimensions of business ethics rather than the market economic environment in which individuals and organisations operate. MacIntyre has been a fierce critic of capitalism and economics. He has read Adam Smith an advocate of selfish individualism, rule-based ethics and the banishment of teleology. (...) This reading is seriously defective, and Smith in fact offers much of what MacIntyre calls for in economics. MacIntyre's ethical framework can be made more powerful and useful to business ethicists by incorporating Smithian insights, especially Smith's account of market virtues and teleological account of markets as extended cooperation directed towards the common good of wealth creation. Aside from issues of the interpretation of MacIntyre and Smith, this analysis opens new pathways for dialogue between business ethicists and economists. (shrink)

Business schools, and universities providing business education, from across the globe have increasingly engaged in responsible management education (RME), that is in embedding social, environmental and ethical topics in their teaching and research. However, we still do not fully understand the institutional pressures that have led to the adoption of RME, in particular concerning under-researched regions like Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Hence, we undertook what is to our knowledge the most comprehensive study into the adoption of RME in CEE (...) to date (including 13 countries: Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine). We find that, with regard to RME, isomorphic pressures seem to shape teaching and research in different ways, which suggests that the idea of a holistic approach to RME, promoted by, for example, the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME), needs to be revisited; rather, different trajectories of organizational engagement may emerge for each principle. As a contribution to institutional theory, we discuss how a highly fragmented organizational field—like RME with its multiple dimensions—impacts on notions of actor centrality, where actors achieve centrality with regard to some dimensions of the field but fail to do so for others. In particular, we found that the European Union holds centrality in the area of RME teaching, but not in RME research. Our findings thus suggest that the concept of field centrality needs further clarification. (shrink)

This research scrutinises the correlation between state ownership and the attributes of green innovation, specifically underscoring generality as a primary trait of innovation favoured by governments. Green innovation with generality, due to its applicability across diverse contexts at reduced expense, becomes an appealing strategy for states to address environmental concerns. Consequently, we suggest that state ownership encourages the prevalence of green innovation characterised by generality. Furthermore, we delve into two contingencies related to ascribed and achieved political connections, positing that they, (...) respectively, impose negative and positive moderating influences. Support for our propositions comes from data gathered from Chinese listed firms during the period 2004–2019. By emphasising the importance of green innovation characteristics over their quantity, our research offers a significant contribution to the literature on green innovation in the context of state ownership. (shrink)

Given the adverse consequences of destructive leadership at work, we examine leader favoritism prevalent in contemporary organizations. Our study builds on previous research on unethical leadership behaviors and extends social exchange theory by assessing whether leader favoritism contributes to employee psychological withdrawal behavior at work and whether perceived unfairness explains this link, addressing a gap in the literature on this topic. In addition, we investigate the condition of perceived employability to seek whether the influence of perceived unfairness due to leader (...) favoritism on psychological withdrawal behavior at work is strengthened when employees think they can secure alternative employment elsewhere. The study utilizes a two-wave data collection approach to gather responses from 206 front end customer service employees working in the hospitality and tourism firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study findings offer empirical support for the proposed mediated moderation model. Specifically, the results demonstrate that leader favoritism directly, indirectly (via perceived unfairness), and positively influence employee withdrawal behaviors. This influence is stronger among employees who believe they can easily find alternative employment options. Our findings highlight the relevance of incorporating social exchange theory into the unethical leadership behaviors and withdrawal behaviors literature and provide valuable insights for managers into how to mitigate the practice of leader favoritism because of its adverse consequences on employees' work attitudes and behavior. (shrink)

Green innovation has been attracting much attention from academia and practice, but the influence of religion as an important informal institutional factor has not been fully investigated in existing studies. Taking Chinese listed companies from 2008 to 2019 as a sample, this study attempts to examine the relationship between religious atmosphere and corporate green innovation performance. The empirical results indicate that a religious atmosphere (Buddhism and Taoism as a whole) can significantly improve corporate green innovation performance, particularly high-quality green innovation. (...) The positive association between religion and green innovation performance is attenuated by pervasive formal institutions (i.e., environmental regulation), indicating that there is a substitutive effect between religion and formal institutions. We also find that Taoism mainly supports these results, while Buddhism has a limited impact, showing that there is a heterogeneous effect between different religions. We further find that the positive impact of religious atmosphere on green innovation performance is more pronounced in low-governance enterprises and low-polluting industries. This study contributes to research on the antecedents of corporate green innovation and the consequence of religion, which is of great significance to the value of religion in business practice. (shrink)

Building on social information processing theory and social exchange theory, this research advances the emerging concept of work engagement and inclusive leadership. Surprisingly, there is no study linking work engagement and inclusive leadership style in the setting of multiple organizations in China. The main purpose of this study is to identify the effective leadership style affecting work engagement directly and indirectly through psychological safety. The trust in leader further moderated the direct relationships. Using multi-source data of 390 responses from leaders-subordinates (...) dyads working in 20 Chinese companies (which include textile, manufacturing, construction, and trading), this study tested how inclusive leadership increased the work engagement of their subsequent subordinates. The mediating role of psychological safety and moderating role of trust in leader therein. The findings introduced an interactive motivational framework that revealed the positive influence of inclusive leadership on the work engagement of subordinates. Further, psychological safety mediated the direct relationship between inclusive leaders and work engagement. The role of trust in leader strengthened the direct relationship of inclusive leadership with psychological safety and work engagement. This is among the first studies to integrate inclusive leadership, psychological safety, trust in leader, and work engagement into a single interactive framework. Further, it provides empirical evidence in the context of predicting and increasing the work engagement of subordinates. (shrink)

Informal institutions are found to shape the behaviors of economic organizations within the business world by creating localized social norms and moral commitments. However, the existing literature pays greater attention to the financial consequences of such institutions, and little is known about their environmental impacts, especially in the context of transition economies. By linking institutional theory with environmental strategy literature, in this study, we develop a theoretical framework and empirically test how social trust, one of the dimensions of informal institutions, (...) influences corporate environmental responsibility. Using a longitudinal data set of Chinese listed firms from 2006 to 2015, we find support that firms located in regions with a higher level of social trust engage in more environmental responsibility activities. We also show that this effect is more pronounced when local environmental protests are fewer and information transparency is worse. Our findings highlight the importance of social trust in environmental governance and provide evidence of how it serves as a substitute for formal environmental institutions in transition economies. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure is becoming increasingly important in practice, yet knowledge about the antecedents of such CSR initiatives is limited. Drawing on faultline theories, we expect that the compositional attributes of top management teams, such as the level of heterogeneity, influence their decisions about CSR disclosure and reporting. Data and a sample from Chinese publicly traded companies are used to examine our hypotheses. Our results demonstrate that a top management team's faultline strength is negatively related to CSR disclosure (...) decisions and CSR report quality. We contribute to the literature about CSR disclosure by offering specific insights, through a micro-level analysis, about how to compose and structure top management teams to advance CSR in emerging economies such as China. Practical implications for managers and policymakers are also discussed. (shrink)

Ethical workplace climate has been extensively researched in the for-profit context but neglected in nonprofits. Perhaps because nonprofits promote shared values, engage with people, and implement development interventions creating public good, they are considered implicitly ethical. This assumption has been questioned in recent studies. We attempted to develop a psychometrically valid scale measuring ethical workplace climate following a sequential research design to fill this gap. We interviewed 74 employees from 30 nonprofit organizations using the critical incident technique to generate statements (...) on ethical workplace climate. The statements generated were categorized with expert judges' help, followed by a survey of 507 nonprofit employees across India. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and subsequent confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) resulted in a 43-item scale, further reduced to 26 items using stepwise regression. Results of subsequent application of EFA and CFA confirmed a four-factor solution: self-interest, collegiality, internal legitimacy, and stewardship. A follow-up study of 243 members of nonprofit organizations confirmed the hypothesized relationships that ethical work climate has a significant effect on affective commitment and job engagement. Finally, we discussed our findings along theoretical contributions, implications, limitations, and future direction. (shrink)

This research empirically investigates the static and dynamic impacts of firms' digital transformation on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance by employing data of listed Chinese companies from 2011 to 2020 via estimations of propensity score matching and difference in differences. First, we find that digital transformation does some good to improve firms' ESG, which is confirmed after conducting several robustness tests. Second, digital transformation benefits the three aspects of ESG (environmental performance, social responsibility, and governance), and its impact is (...) dynamic, promote ESG two years after the digital reform. Third, the impact of digital transformation on ESG is not constant among different firms. Specifically, digital transformation's impact on ESG is stronger among firms located in western or central regions of China and to those in polluting and competitive industries, as well as among non-stated-owned enterprises. (shrink)

This study examines the roles of environmental strategy and accounting in corporate carbon performance, as measured by the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol. A novel interaction model is developed based on legitimacy theory and natural-resource dependence theory to capture the interaction between environmental strategy and accounting. An international sample of 3322 firms from 73 countries is used in the analysis, based on a panel data design for 17 years (2005–2022). The empirical findings reveal an overall reactive role of these environmental initiatives (...) in relation to carbon performance. The marginal effect analysis shows that environmental accounting favourably moderates the effect of environmental strategic functions on carbon performance, indicating that the former facilitates the translation of the latter into practice. Similarly, environmental strategic initiatives improve the impact of environmental accounting information on carbon performance. The main contribution of this study stems from methodologically demonstrating how the synergy between environmental strategic initiatives and environmental information mechanisms can translate into improved carbon performance. This finding has multiple societal, practical and research implications. The interaction effect evidence can be viewed as consistent with recent trends of integrated approaches to thinking and reporting, where interrelated phenomena are integrated into operational and reporting contexts to improve efficiency. This can be of interest to policymakers, investors, corporate managers and providers of assurance services related to carbon performance. (shrink)

Marketing scholars have extensively examined the role of altruistic and ecological personal values and pro-environmental identity in ethical consumption decisions. Conversely, the role of egoistic personal values and other identities has received scant attention from researchers. This research examines the role of altruistic, egoistic, and ecological personal values in triggering two types of identities: pro-environmental and car-authority. The effects of values and identities on personal norms and attitudes toward electric cars were also examined. A sample of Egyptian consumers responded to (...) an electronic survey, and collected data were analyzed using SEM. The findings generally support the VIP framework, where biospheric values significantly affect pro-environmental identity, and pro-environmental identity affects personal norms. Furthermore, personal norms affected attitudes positively. A different path was obtained which starts with biospheric and altruistic values affecting car authority positively and negatively, respectively. Car authority identity was found to affect attitudes directly, although this is accepted at lower confidence levels. A discussion of research findings, implications, and research limitations were also presented. (shrink)

Previous research has almost universally shown that forgiveness is a beneficial virtue that can generate a series of positive outcomes. We challenge this prevailing view by proposing that employee forgiveness is a mixed blessing. Setting off from distinguishing the motives behind forgiveness, we integrated the relational perspective and ego depletion theory to explore the beneficial and detrimental consequences of employee forgiveness. Specifically, our study investigated when and how employee forgiveness leads to interpersonal citizenship behaviors (ICBs) and interpersonal deviance. Using a (...) sample of 349 supervisor–employee dyads, we found that employee forgiveness driven by strong relationship-oriented motives could foster high-quality relationships with coworkers and facilitate ICBs. In contrast, employee forgiveness driven by strong self-oriented motives could cause more resource depletion and increase interpersonal deviance. Furthermore, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our study as well as future research directions. (shrink)

Inconsistent corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices across stakeholder groups may induce undesired consequences for the firm. This study investigates the longitudinal and differential effect of chief executive officer (CEO) tenure on external and internal CSR and the moderating effects of two important contingencies relevant to the firm's social investments: firm visibility and slack availability. It presents CEO tenure as an important upper echelon factor that may induce differential preferences toward external and internal CSR and, therefore, CSR inconsistencies. Accordingly, it proposes (...) two important and relevant contingencies and provides additional evidence on how a firm's visibility and slack availability could affect CEO tenure-related differential behaviors. The findings contribute to studies on the temporal orientations of CEOs and how they impact firm strategic behavior. They also contribute to the literature on firm visibility and slack and how they may interact with certain upper echelon characteristics and affect firm behaviors. The analysis cautions against the perceptions of the relationships between firm- and CEO-level variables and a firm's aggregate CSR. (shrink)

Drawing on social cognitive theory and social information processing theory, this study investigated how organizations' efforts to embody environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) shape consumer perception of a green corporate image through employees' environmental passion and pro-environmental behavior (PEB). To test our hypotheses, we collected multisource time-lagged data from 214 employee–customer dyads from hotel and banking sector organizations in Pakistan. The findings show that organizations' green corporate image is a function of their efforts to engage in ECSR activities as demonstrated (...) through employees' environmental passion and PEB. These findings have important implications in the environment and management domains because it can help organizations draft useful strategies to counter environmental degradation and generate a green corporate image in customers' minds through employees' green behavior. (shrink)

In efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, social entrepreneurship has gained popularity as a vehicle for positive change in developing countries. The multiplicity of stakeholders, diverging sociocultural contexts and the hybrid mission complicate the process of legitimacy construction for social entrepreneurs as a basis for the acquisition of scarce resources. This study investigates how social entrepreneurs operating in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia tackle this challenge of bridging conflicting directions in discursive interaction with their European funders. We conduct a multimodal (...) discourse analysis to uncover discursive strategies for legitimacy construction by combining linguistic data from interviews with visual data from social media accounts. Legitimacy construction, and thus resource acquisition, centers on three aspects which interlink pragmatic, cognitive and moral legitimacy: developing innovative solutions, mobilizing private-sector efficiency, and contributing to local empowerment. Presenting these aspects as mutually reinforcing overcomes contradictions between social and business logics and provides an expanded space for legitimacy construction of social entrepreneurship. Discursively constructing legitimacy around a ‘glorified version of social entrepreneurship’ mobilizes resources but downplays the risk of being an entrepreneur in the Global South, contributing to increasing corporatization of social purpose organizations. (shrink)

The role of religion in ethical decision-making, both for individual managers and at an organisational level, remains elusive due to contrasting findings in extant literature. This is exacerbated by a dearth of studies focusing on specific religious mechanisms that can foster ethical decision-making, particularly with respect to organisational corporate socially responsible (CSR) behaviour and in backgrounds different from Christianity. This exploratory study investigates the mechanisms in Islam that can influence individual/micro- and organisational/meso-level ethical decision-making, and hence CSR outcomes. It draws (...) on in-depth, qualitative data from 63 domestic organisations in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. The findings reveal a complex macro-normative religious environment, founded on specific factors that shape ethics and decision-making. Internalised by organisational leaders, these factors translate into organisational CSR behaviour as the organisation becomes a place for fulfilling individual religious responsibilities and even creates CSR products shaped around religious principles. The study contributes to the literature on ethical decision-making, organisational behaviour and Islamic CSR and offers recommendations for policymakers and practitioners on integrating religion within the organisation. (shrink)

As AI technology becomes more influential, ethical considerations surrounding its application are becoming increasingly relevant. In this paper, I reflect on some moral questions from a Buddhist perspective and consider the moral status of AI to evaluate its function and purpose in our lives. Since a robot lacks the capacity to experience suffering and has no conscience, AI ethics are possible only as ethics about robots and not as ethics for robots. Despite having no concrete moral status, robots cannot be (...) deemed entirely morally insignificant as they exist as moral objects toward which moral agents have a duty. Our unique endowment as human beings is the intelligence for moral deliberation as we develop AI technologies and determine the future direction of humanity. From a Buddhist point of view, there is potential to advance our spiritual growth through the realization of the interdependence between humans and AI. As we recognize the uniqueness of our humanity and take a middle-way approach, the rise of robots need not threaten our existence but could instead catapult humanity into a new dawn. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 32, Issue 3, Page 877-881, July 2023.

Academic experience has been found to significantly impact on the attitudes and behaviors of managerial decision-makers, which in turn influences corporate strategic decisions. However, the impact of academic decision-makers on corporate ethical decisions, particularly corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR), has yet to receive due attention to date. In this study, we integrate the upper echelons theory and managerial discretion literature to examine whether and when academic CEOs (CEOs with academic experience) influence corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR). First, we suggest that academic CEOs (...) discourage CSIR because they have higher moral standards; thus, their companies are less likely to engage in CSIR activities. In addition, we propose that negative attainment discrepancy (slack resources) reduces (enhances) academic CEOs' managerial discretion to incorporate their ethical preferences into their decisions, thereby weakening (enhancing) the above relationship. This study is the first to examine the relationship between academic CEOs and CSIR. Additionally, the empirical findings of this study offer crucial insights for shareholders and policymakers to prevent or mitigate CSIR effectively. (shrink)

Environmental sustainability is an increasingly important issue for many business and social actors. This has led many scholars to research the effects of this phenomenon from various points of view trying to understand whether green attitudes can influence consumer behaviours in sustaining consumer–brand relationships. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore the impact of green consumer values on consumer–brand relationships in driving intentional behaviour. The authors developed an empirical study based on a research framework with six latent variables and 43 manifest (...) variables using a partial least squares-structural equation (PLS-SEM). A survey was given to a sample of Italian consumers (n = 661) to explore mobility choices from a sustainability perspective (i.e. car and motorcycle users). The main findings show that green consumption values positively impact offline and online brand responses. Moreover, the research outcomes are discussed and evaluated in terms of theoretical, managerial and policy implications. Finally, we present the main limits and future research opportunities. (shrink)

Resilience has become a topic of renewed interest due to the frequent difficulties encountered by organisations and individuals in the present turbulent world. It is widely recognised that HRM practices play a crucial role in stimulating employee resilience. However, only few studies have explored the role of socially responsible human resource management (SRHRM) in enhancing employee resilience. Accordingly, our study aims to address this research gap by utilising self-determination theory to develop a theoretical model clarifying the effect of SRHRM on (...) employee resilience, focusing on the mediating role of basic psychological needs. Furthermore, we identify collectivism as a critical moderating factor in the relation between SRHRM and employee resilience. For this purpose, data were collected from 355 employees in central China in three waves. Results revealed that SRHRM can enhance employee resilience by fulfilling basic psychological needs. Moreover, the results indicated that collectivism strengthens the indirect relation between SRHRM and employee resilience through the fulfilment of basic psychological needs. (shrink)

Corruption involves greed, money, and risky decision-making. We explore the love of money, pay satisfaction, probability of risk, and dishonesty across cultures. Avaricious monetary aspiration breeds unethicality. Prospect theory frames decisions in the gains-losses domain and high-low probability. Pay dissatisfaction (in the losses domain) incites dishonesty in the name of justice at the individual level. The Corruption Perceptions Index, CPI, signals a high-low probability of getting caught for dishonesty at the country level. We theorize that decision-makers adopt avaricious love-of-money aspiration (...) as a lens and frame dishonesty in the gains-losses domain (pay satisfaction-dissatisfaction, Level 1) and high-low probability (CPI, Level 2) to maximize expected utility and ultimate serenity. We challenge the myth: Pay satisfaction mitigates dishonesty across nations consistently. Based on 6500 managers in 32 countries, our cross-level three-dimensional visualization offers the following discoveries. Under high aspiration conditions, pay dissatisfaction excites the highest- (third-highest) avaricious justice-seeking dishonesty in high (medium) CPI nations, supporting the certainty effect. However, pay satisfaction provokes the second-highest avaricious opportunity-seizing dishonesty in low CPI entities, sustaining the possibility effect—maximizing expected utility. Under low aspiration conditions, high pay satisfaction consistently leads to low dishonesty, demonstrating risk aversion—achieving ultimate serenity. We expand prospect theory from a micro and individual-level theory to a cross-level theory of monetary wisdom across 32 nations. We enhance the S-shaped Curve to three 3-D corruption surfaces across three levels of the global economic pyramid, providing novel insights into behavioral economics, business ethics, the environment, and responsibility. (shrink)

Primary stakeholder pressure has long been considered the main reason that firms engage in responsible behaviors. However, prior studies are generally silent on how industry characteristics reshape the relationships among stakeholders. By integrating information asymmetry in credence goods industries with the stakeholder power framework, we posit that the extent to which consumers can evaluate the qualities of goods alters the dynamics between a firm and its two primary stakeholders, regulators and consumers. Longitudinal data collected on 72 pharmaceutical companies indicate that (...) consumers of pharmaceutical products can only influence firms indirectly through the regulator. Further, contrary to the conventional wisdom that innovative firms are more capable of resisting stakeholder pressure, we find that R&D investment increases the dependency of pharmaceutical firms on the regulator. Lastly, we do not find that lobbying reduces dependency on the regulator except for high R&D firms. These findings provide important theoretical, ethical, and policy implications. (shrink)

Open Innovation and Sustainability-Oriented Innovation are undoubtedly two of the most debated topics of the last decades, gaining the interest of policymakers, practitioners, and scholars all over the world. Even if they have been usually described as two independent research fields, there are some emblematic examples presenting interplay and synergy between these topics, represented either by the hybrid perspectives of Open Sustainable Innovation, that is, the Open Innovation approach acting as an enabler of Sustainability-Oriented Innovation, and Sustainable Open Innovation, which (...) instead analyzes how firms developing Sustainability-Oriented Innovation also adopt the Open Innovation approach. On the basis of these two perspectives and through a systematic literature review, this paper investigates the relationships between the Open Innovation and Sustainability-Oriented Innovation approaches and frames these relationships by developing an innovative framework, which highlights the main aspects characterizing the hybrid perspectives of Open Sustainable Innovation and Sustainable Open Innovation. The proposed framework highlights the Open Innovation practices and strategies enabling Sustainability-Oriented Innovation, as well as the contextual factors enabling both practices and strategies for Sustainability-Oriented Innovation. In addition, it shows how firms developing Sustainability-Oriented Innovation have a similar orientation toward the adoption of the Open Innovation approach both in terms of how they engage stakeholders, and the innovation capabilities they develop. Finally, a research agenda identifying the central issues and the key research gaps is offered for further development in future studies. (shrink)

Recurrent scandals in business ethics demonstrate that work is, on occasion, unambiguously unethical. It is not clear, however, exactly how the concept of ‘meaningful work’ can be applied to such work, and whether, for example, work can be both unethical and meaningful. This article explores three different conceptualisations of meaningful work: where meaningful work is considered to be subjective, primarily subjective but with objective constraints or primarily objective (adopting Alasdair MacIntyre's neo-Aristotelian framework). These competing conceptualisations are examined in relation to (...) the ethical failures in the Australian financial advice industry. From 2009, a range of parliamentary inquiries, including a Royal Commission, documented significant ethical failures at both individual and institutional levels across the industry, which caused substantial hardship to tens of thousands of clients. Among the subsequent reforms was a drive towards the professionalisation of financial advice through enhanced educational standards, a code of ethics and the development of a professional identity. This case demonstrates the different ways in which the conceptualisations of meaningful work can be applied. However, Alasdair MacIntyre's scheme of practices, institutions, internal and external goods is presented as a preferred conceptualisation of the case, accommodating considerations of both ethics and meaningful work and contributing towards a theory of good work in general. (shrink)

Building on institutional theory, we examine the effect of politicians' hometown favouritism on a firm's philanthropic engagement in China. We propose that firms headquartered in the politicians' hometowns tend to reduce their philanthropic investment because identification with their hometown activates the politicians' tendency to extend political legitimacy to hometown firms. Analysing a large sample of publicly listed Chinese firms for 2003–2015, we demonstrate that hometown firms evade their social responsibility by taking advantage of the incumbent provincial political leader's “home bias”. (...) We also find that such a “home bias” effect exists when the political leader comes into power and disappears after the leader leaves office. Further analyses show that the firms' political dependency strengthens the “home bias” effect, so that firms in sensitive industries, with greater financial resources and private ownership, are more likely to evade their social engagement by taking advantage of the politicians' hometown favouritism. Our study highlights the critical role of hometown connections in corporate social responsibility in the Chinese relationship-based business system. It also advances a normative institutional assessment of hometown-based favouritism by highlighting its distinct dynamics and impacts on focal firms' social decision-making. (shrink)

Integrating the behavioral theory of the firm and agency theory, this study is the first to examine the antecedents of firms' choice to disclose low-quality accounting information from the perspective of performance persistence below aspirations. Based on empirical data of 31,326 firm-annual observations involving 3584 listed companies for the 2007–2021 period, we find that firms actively reduce accounting information reliability and comparability in the presence of performance persistence below aspirations. Furthermore, we find that CEO-CFO surname ties enhance the negative effect (...) of performance persistence below aspirations on accounting information comparability. Finally, we find that agency costs play a mediating role in the relationship that performance persistence below aspirations has with accounting information reliability and comparability. This study is the first to examine performance persistence below aspirations and accounting information reliability and comparability. Meanwhile, this study provides important insights for policymakers to improve the quality of capital market information and for shareholders to improve the quality of corporate governance. (shrink)

This study aims to unravel the determinants of social entrepreneurial intention (SEI). Using a moderated mediation approach, we examine the direct and indirect effects of prior experience with social problems, proactive personality, and social self-efficacy on SEI via social entrepreneurial passion for founding (SEP) as a mediator. This study is based on data collected from a survey using questionnaires completed by 283 Saudis. To analyze data and test the developed hypotheses, we used exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses followed by structural (...) equation modeling to test the direct and indirect effects of the main variables on SEI. Our findings reveal positive relationships between prior experience with social problems and proactive personality and SEP with SEI. Surprisingly, no significant relationship was found between social self-efficacy and SEI; its effect was indirect through SEP. Finally, gender moderated the relationship between SEP and SEI. Academic contributions and practical implications are then proposed. (shrink)

For three decades, scholars have investigated the phenomena of organizational misconduct (OM) in the fields of business ethics, management, and organization studies. In recent years, the construct has gained increased attention due to widely reported corruption, bribery, crime, violations, and other acts of immorality undertaken by organizations, especially in emerging markets. Despite its popularity, review studies on OM are sparse, and no systematic review of research on OM in the context of emerging markets exists. This article attempts to fill this (...) void by analyzing the literature on OM in the specific context of emerging markets based on a systematic review methodology and integration approach. Based on the findings of our literature review, we develop an integrative model of the antecedents and consequences of OM in emerging markets and discuss important moderators that may curtail the development of OM and alleviate its consequences. In doing so, we provide scholars with a conceptual model and overview of the current knowledge and findings on the topic. We further discuss important gaps in the literature and provide fruitful avenues for future work that we believe are promising to advance our understanding of OM in the context of emerging markets. (shrink)

In this paper, we apply imprinting theory to examine how institutional transformation substantially influences perceptions of corruption that we argue to be incorporated to a varying extent in organizations founded in that period. For this purpose, we compare the effect of a sudden shock (dissolution of the Soviet Union) on the managers' present perceptions to that of a steady transition (EU accession). We consult the 5th round of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey from 2012 to 2014 analyzing 4715 (...) interviews with managers of organizations from twelve Central and Eastern European countries. Our results reveal striking differences in the present perception of corruption for organizations founded immediately before and immediately after these institutional transitions. The study's results contribute to the research on imprinting theory regarding the relationship between organizations and institutional conditions that constitutes a lasting effect on organizational structures. Thus, applying an institutional perspective that considers less stable periods for organizations yields a promising avenue in research on organizational behavior. (shrink)

This paper aims to improve knowledge about the main factors influencing firm environmental commitment, by examining empirically the relationship between public support for R&D for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their investment in environmental protection. The empirical analysis was developed using a sample of 1594 Spanish firms, and a binary logistic regression to evaluate the existence of dependency relationships between the analyzed variables. The results show that those companies receiving direct funding from local public entities and those collaborating with (...) research centers and universities, invest more in environmental actions to protect the natural ecosystem. The paper contributes to the academic literature by analyzing the main factors that influence the SMEs environmental commitment. Moreover, showing practitioners and policy makers the effectiveness of different types of financial support depending on the origin of the funds and the form of action taken; showing managers the advantages of collaborating with public administrations, as well as with other research organizations, to obtain better ECSR results. (shrink)

The combined effect of coercion (public and private pressure), self-interest (competitive advantage) and conviction (intrinsically motivated or genuine) explain why environmental issues have become a key priority for companies. While research has explored coercion and competitive advantage, the role of conviction has received little attention. This paper aims to address this gap. Conviction, which has been correlated with institutional and individual drivers, offers more stable results and a potential multiplier effect as good examples are disseminated by imitation throughout an industry. (...) While the role of imitation has drawn increasing attention of business management studies, it has received scant attention in research on sustainability. This is the second gap this paper aims to address, contributing to the literature on sustainability in two ways: firstly, we will further explore the role of conviction in environmental sustainability; secondly, employing a compartmental model of epidemic propagation, used for other social phenomena, we model the role genuine examples by leaders can play within an industry and the dissemination of good behavior by imitation. Defining genuine conviction as the voluntary mitigation of the externalities of a firm's operations beyond that required by law or the market, substantiated in the responsible behavior of its leaders, our model discovers patterns that policymakers could use to create a “sustainability epidemic”. We suggest mathematical models of epidemics can be applied to sustainability, offering a fresh perspective on the phenomenon of imitation, allowing us to discover how some cultural and social habits can be used. (shrink)

We experimentally investigate whether donation motive attribution influences individual investors' judgments of the donating firm's future earnings prospects and whether individual moral orientation, that is, perceived importance of social goodwill (PISG), moderates this effect. We find that investors forecast higher future earnings per share (EPS) when the donation motive is believed to be altruistic or win–win rather than egoistic; the EPS forecasts for altruistic and win–win motives are not different. However, this motive attribution effect holds only for higher-PISG investors. A (...) further examination finds that when the donation motive is believed to be egoistic and/or when investors have lower PISG, doing good is no better than doing nothing, but no backfire effect occurs. Our findings indicate that the positive effect of corporate donation on investors' judgments is generated only when higher-PISG investors believe that the donation motive is not purely egoistic; corporate donation will not generate negative effects on investors' judgments even under less favorable conditions. (shrink)

The complex triadic relationships among consumers, providers, and platforms in the sharing economy have led to increasing conflicts in the interactions between the actors involved, especially when it comes to unethical behavior, such as rule breaking by consumers. This paper examines consumer misbehavior from the perspective of their peers, i.e., service providers. In two studies (an experiment and a survey, combined N = 452), we observe a significant positive effect of ethical climate and a significant negative effect of trust in (...) consumers on providers' strictness of ethical judgments of consumer misbehavior and through this on negative word of mouth. Further, the survey results show that the relationship between the strictness of ethical judgments and negative word of mouth is only significant for providers with low or medium levels of trust in the platform. The results highlight the importance of regulating consumer misbehavior in the sharing economy. (shrink)

It has been suggested that moral courage in the workplace supports more robust application of regulatory principles. A workforce with the courage to act on moral imperative, it is argued, can bolster corporate governance and promote both more stable business organisations and greater economic stability at large. Research in the area investigates the bases of moral courage, a central implication being that businesses should invest in ethical training as a matter of public policy. It is standard to present moral courage (...) as the strength of will to do the morally right thing. From a managerial perspective, however, this distorts the normative character of the kind of issues managers typically face. Doing the morally right thing commonly entails inflicting permissible harms. Such harms, though permissible, can be a source of moral concern to the conscientious manager. A difficulty for the standard account, then, is that moral courage may be expected in scenarios in which the moral implications of the manager's action have not been fully assessed. In this paper, an alternative account of moral evaluation is presented that incorporates the concern around permissible harms. The basis of such concern is found to be manager-regret. Building on this foundation, we can establish a new definition of moral courage, that understands the right action to be that which entails defensible harms, and requires courage because those harms will likely have to be defended. It should be recognised in the academic literature that moral courage has this intellectual dimension. Furthermore, managerial training and practice should reflect this understanding of moral courage if its benefits to public policy, in particular corporate governance, are to be realised. The thesis takes a novel approach to the topic that draws, centrally, on the work of Bernard Williams, Martha Nussbaum and Søren Kierkegaard. (shrink)

This study investigates the risk and return characteristics of impact investing in the public equity market. We use a unique hand-collected dataset of 50 US listed firms whose product (or service) addresses at least one of the global social and environmental challenges, as defined by the United Nations Social Development Goals (SDGs). We designate such firms Impact Firms, and we compare their financial performance to a matched sample of Non-Impact Firms in the time span 2002–2019. Our results show that Impact (...) and Non-Impact Firms have similar level of financial performance and both volatility and systemic risk over the entire sample period. At the same time, Impact Firms show a slightly lower negative skewness of the returns over the entire sample period, but not during crisis periods. However, compared to matched Non-Impact Firms, Impact Firms outperform during periods of market crisis, generating a valuable dampening of downside risk. (shrink)

The biggest research programme within business ethics is arguably Corporate Social Responsibility and all its related streams (Corporate Citizenship, Social Justice, etc.) While there seems to be widespread agreement that business ethics is situated between the amoral or even immoral view of Milton Friedman as explicated in his 1970 New York Times paper, and the moral view expounded by R. Edward Freeman, this essay challenges that view. Friedman, maybe owed to his flamboyant writing style and crude and purely rhetorical oversimplifications (...) has been misinterpreted to advocate for managers to be completely amoral maximisers of profitability. This misinterpretation has become common wisdom, despite him clearly stating that the law and the moral standards of surrounding society must limit profit-seeking behaviour. Freeman's stakeholder theory, on the other hand, is seen as being on the other end of the continuum, arguing for selflessness—another misinterpretation, as I argue with Ed Freeman's help. Instead, I suggest that both Friedman and Freeman represent the virtuous mean of the business ethics continuum and not its extremes because they both base their theories on the idea of the free and socially embedded individual. The two vicious ends of the continuum are inhabited by the unreal, atomised, completely a-social and selfish individual on the one end, and by the equally unreal collectivised self-less individual on the other. The mainstream in business ethics has declared the collective and selfless end to be the ideal that must guide practice and research. The selfish and the selfless strawmen have prevented a proper debate in business ethics for too long. (shrink)

In the leadership literature of the past 100 years or so, rhetoric has been a topic for a long time and ethics was introduced some 30 years ago. However, the three topics, leadership, rhetoric, and ethics, have not been connected. This is astonishing because when ethical leadership made its comeback, scholars acknowledged the debt that ethical leadership owes to Aristotelian ideas. For Aristotle, leadership, ethics, and rhetoric were inseparable: without ethics, there could neither be good leadership nor rhetoric, and rhetoric (...) was the bridge from leader to follower and back. Aristotle is known as the practical philosopher and we argue that closing this major lacuna in leadership theory, would be beneficial for practice too and would help prevent Theranos-like scandals. The lacuna lies in what some call a Machiavellian view of leadership and rhetoric: both are regarded as amoral tools to achieve given ends. Aristotle would bristle at that idea. Both, leadership and rhetoric, to be good, must aim at the noble. The noble is not dictated by a heroic despot nor by a selfless saint but is understood by a leader because s/he is a socially embedded individual. We argue that leadership should be understood as personal development, that organisational rules must not inhibit virtue, that leadership is more about listening than talking, that synthesising that which is heard is central, and finally, that the common, not the collective, good is the goal of leadership. (shrink)

As consumers represent a key actor for the success of businesses implementing socially responsible strategies, companies need to gain further insights on the determinants of responsible behaviors. In this study, we provide a contribution to the ongoing debate on responsible consumers by means of an integrative literature review, which analyzes a set of competing models mainly from social psychology and marketing. Stemming from this preliminary analysis of the existing evidence, we develop a new conceptual model, that is, a framework based (...) on (i) a flexible setting of the boundaries of analysis, (ii) a broader lens taking into account interrelations across behaviors, and (iii) a dynamic approach. The framework, for which an exemplary use is illustrated, represents the basis for advancing a rich agenda for future research. The latter is aimed at overcoming current criticalities in responsible consumer research, and it develops around the need for an integrative, dynamic, and cross-cultural approach on the one hand, and the elaboration of new perspectives on single antecedents, on the other. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 32, Issue 2, Page 415-418, April 2023.

Social capital and scaling social impact are two of the most important concepts within social entrepreneurship and social enterprise research. However, what role social capital plays in scaling social impact is less understood and academic literatures on the connection of these two crucial concepts are fragmented and scattered. To fill this research gap, we have conducted a bibliometric review to inform academics and researchers the salient agents in the field and categorize the conceptual structure of the knowledge base. Using science (...) mapping techniques, we have analyzed 1549 relevant documents from SCOPUS that are published between 1986 and 2021. The primary objective of this review is to uncover the size, growth trajectory, and geographic distribution of literatures related to social capital's role in scaling social impact. Additionally, we have also analyzed key publishing journals, authors, and documents to map the intellectual structure and research fronts of the domain. The review shows that there is a reasonable accumulation of scientific knowledge concerning social capital's role in scaling social impact in the last three decades. Another key finding is that, some of the keywords identified within the research fronts are closely aligned with a number of UN-SDG goals. This is the first study to systematically map social capital's role in scaling social impact literature with the help of a science mapping tool called bibliometric analysis. This work provides a clear overview of the evolution of the research field and presents potentially important research gaps that require further attention. (shrink)

Despite being the primary homeland of Quebec's Inuit people, Nunavik's health care is typically planned and provided by non-Inuit newcomers. This retrospective case study investigates the effects of ethical leadership on the Westernized local Nunavik health care system's cultural sensitivity to its disproportionately Inuit populations. An integrative framework is developed that considers the dimensions of ethical leadership and the omnibus and discrete dimensions of context. This study shows that some Nunavik health care managers seek to improve and adapt the system (...) to the needs of their Inuit populations, while others do not. Unfortunately, the context restricts the former managers' ability to act consistently with their moral responsibilities and beliefs. Specifically, the findings show various institutional barriers to providing respectful and sensitive health care to Inuit. This study contributes to the scientific literature on ethical leadership by proposing an integrative conceptual framework. This framework illustrates how ethical leadership is inseparable from organizational context, identifying 16 contextual factors influencing managers' ethical behavior. Finally, three practical recommendations are proposed to highlight the omnibus and discrete context elements. (shrink)

Faced with increasing global environmental problems, organizational scholars and practitioners have increasingly considered how to promote employee pro-environmental behavior. This research seeks to expand our understanding of the facilitators of employee pro-environmental behavior from the perspective of leader expectations. Drawing on behavioral confirmation theory, we propose that leader pro-environmental expectations are expressed in active support for the environment, which subsequently facilitates employee pro-environmental behavior, thus rising to meet the leader's initial expectations. Furthermore, we argue that the above relationship becomes stronger (...) with the increase in employees' pro-environmental self-expectations. Based on data from 197 leader-employee dyads, the results of regression analysis showed that leader pro-environmental expectations are positively related to employee pro-environmental behavior via demonstrated leader support for the environment, and this indirect relationship is positively moderated by employee pro-environmental self-expectations. When an employee holds high pro-environmental expectations for himself or herself, a leader with high pro-environmental expectations will render support for the environment, which ultimately increases employee pro-environmental behavior. Our findings highlight the relevance of incorporating behavioral confirmation theory into the pro-environmental behavior literature and provide valuable insights for managers on how to effectively promote employee pro-environmental behavior. (shrink)

Although companies recognize the importance of social responsibility and community engagement, conflicts between companies and communities have been noticeably increasing. To better understand the role of institutional environments in company–community conflicts, we analyze two mining conflicts—Minera Yanacocha's Minas Conga extension project in Peru and Minera Los Pelambres' El Mauro Tailings Dam in Chile. Our findings imply that, to prevent negative consequences and alleviate company–community conflicts, mining companies should address underlying structural causes and pursue informal approaches in order to obtain and (...) maintain their social license. We find that better formal institutional environments not only alleviate conflict intensity but also facilitate informal approaches through which companies and communities can cooperate to resolve conflicts. The best practice would be to start and continue dialogs between communities and companies, mediated by impartial governments, to understand the concerns of the counterparty and find means by which to address the causes. (shrink)

This study employs the bibliometric analysis approach to examine research on ethical decision-making (EDM) of accountants from 1987 to 2022. The study specifically examines the developments in EDM research and evaluates the intellectual structure of the research field. Employing citation, co-authorship, co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling analyses, bibliometric data on 908 publications from the Scopus database was analysed. The results indicate that there has been a significant increase in the rate of publication on EDM of accountants following the spate of ethical (...) breaches in the early 2000s. Further, we find that a large proportion of EDM in accounting research originates from developed countries like USA, Australia and UK. Our cluster analysis suggests that two main research streams have evolved over the period. Prior to 2012, researchers in this field mainly focused on individual level issues, particularly, on the determinants of the EDM process of individuals. Research, post 2012, however, has focused on firm-level EDM issues including organisational ethics, culture, and corporate governance. The study further discusses the themes in detail andproposes a future research agenda. (shrink)

This study examines the impact of returnee executives on top management teams' (TMTs') unethical management behavior (e.g., excess perquisite consumption). Synthesizing insights from upper echelons theory and the psychological entitlement literature, this study proposes that returnee executives cause TMTs to generate a high degree of psychological entitlement, which subsequently leads to a high degree of excess perquisite consumption in their firms. In addition, this study proposes that returnee chief executive officers, product diversification, and regional institutional development moderate the aforementioned relationships (...) by influencing managerial discretion. This study provides empirical evidence for the above view using a dataset that was constructed based on 1960 listed Chinese manufacturing companies from 2010 to 2019. From a psychological entitlement perspective, this study confirms, for the first time, that the introduction of returnee executives may have unintended negative consequences, for example, in promoting the excess perquisite consumption activities of TMTs. (shrink)

This study examines the impact of returnee executives on top management teams' (TMTs') unethical management behavior (e.g., excess perquisite consumption). Synthesizing insights from upper echelons theory and the psychological entitlement literature, this study proposes that returnee executives cause TMTs to generate a high degree of psychological entitlement, which subsequently leads to a high degree of excess perquisite consumption in their firms. In addition, this study proposes that returnee chief executive officers, product diversification, and regional institutional development moderate the aforementioned relationships (...) by influencing managerial discretion. This study provides empirical evidence for the above view using a dataset that was constructed based on 1960 listed Chinese manufacturing companies from 2010 to 2019. From a psychological entitlement perspective, this study confirms, for the first time, that the introduction of returnee executives may have unintended negative consequences, for example, in promoting the excess perquisite consumption activities of TMTs. (shrink)

This study examines the volatility risk for firms that are rated high on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) dimensions in emerging markets and developed markets outside the United States and Canada. Employing the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) ESG Leader indices, this study investigates the impact of good news and bad news on the volatility risk for the highest ESG-rated firms through multivariate DCC-EGARCH modeling. This study finds that the impact of a negative news shock of size 2 standard deviations (...) is approximately 45% higher than that of a positive news shock of the same size for the case of the developed markets under interest. With respect to emerging markets, this study reports that the impact of a negative news shock of size 2 standard deviations is 41% higher than that of a positive news shock of the same size. The results provide empirical evidence in support of the hypothesis that the volatility impact of news for high ESG-rated firms in developed markets and emerging markets is larger for bad news compared to good news, and the results are robust across time. The empirical findings underline the importance of reporting-related disclosures of ESG initiatives, and provide seminal evidence of a slow response to news by high ESG-rated firms in emerging markets. (shrink)

Promoting innovative work behaviour and employee wellbeing has become essential as it endows companies with competitive advantages to thrive in today's complex business environment. This study investigates the role of workplace spirituality in inducing innovative work behaviour and employee wellbeing based on the social exchange theory and the spillover theory. It also looks at the previously unexplored mediating function of employee engagement in the relationship between workplace spirituality and the outcomes above. Additionally, it examines the interactive effect of workplace spirituality (...) and individual spirituality on employee engagement. Two waves of survey data were collected from 538 employees and their managers working in the IT sector in Pakistan. This study contributes to the expanding corpus of research on workplace spirituality, confirming that the latter positively influence innovative work behaviour and employee wellbeing. The mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between workplace spirituality and innovative work behaviour and employee wellbeing is also significant. Further, the results confirm that the influence of workplace spirituality on employee engagement is contingent on the degree of individual spirituality. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

This study proposes and tests a model that integrates ethical leadership, internal social capital, and firm performance in small- and medium-sized family firms at different generational stages. Using the upper echelons theory and the social capital perspective of familiness, this study shows that ethical leadership can explain the effectiveness of certain behaviors in relation to family firm performance. Moreover, social capital helps spread a leader's business ethics to firm members, thus improving the family firm's performance. Our results show that founders' (...) personalities and identities determine high internal social capital, which decreases over generations. The study also shows that internal social capital is a communicative element crucial to ethical leadership, facilitating the absorption of the culture and values of the family in the firm. This powerful resource should be promoted and supported by coherent behavior over time by senior leaders. (shrink)

This article investigates whether increased female representation on a board improves firm performance in terms of electric vehicle (EV) sales in China when government subsidies are available. The increase in EV sales in China is a direct result of the sustainability efforts spearheaded by the various levels of local and state governments. This area is of importance due to the rising Chinese footprint in global EV sales, the increasing role of subsidies, and a transformation from State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to market-driven (...) firms that are more likely to pay attention to corporate governance issues such as board diversity. Using the instrumental variable (IV) approach, we estimate a two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression to control for more women representation on EV boards using firm-level data. The results indicate that board gender diversity (BGD) positively impacts firm performance in terms of EV sales. Furthermore, the effect amplifies in the presence of government subsidies. The insights provide valuable contributions to bridge the critical literature gap on how board diversity impacts firm performance in the presence of subsidies and offer valuable insights into corporate governance and policymaking. (shrink)

Many contemporary theories on good leadership (e.g., ‘moral leadership’, ‘responsible leadership’, ‘authentic leadership’ or ‘transformational leadership’) emphasize the importance of intrinsic motivation in followers and of leading by example. This also involves a rejection of the use of power and manipulation as well as advocacy for virtues such as modesty and a concern for equality. By focusing on magnanimity (Aristotle's virtue of the great), we show that, contrary to what contemporary theories often claim, there are good reasons for exemplary leaders (...) not to be modest, to point out their greatness in comparison with others, and to make use of external goods and incentives, particularly honor. This conceptual virtue ethical analysis results in specific lessons for the ethical manager who wants to lead by example and points to new questions for empirical research on the determinants of effective ethics management. (shrink)

On the background of voluntary assurances made by corporations in line with the assertions in their corporate social responsibility disclosures, we investigate which types of firms will obtain an independent certification of their corporate social responsibility disclosures. The study is based on firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) from 2015 to 2019. Deviating from traditional regression approaches, we employ machine learning techniques and show that machine learning techniques obtain superior performance compared to traditional logistic regression at predicting the (...) likelihood of corporate social responsibility assurance by a corporation. The result also shows that large firms with high CSR score, independent board, highly leveraged and belonging to finance industry are the most likely to assure their CSR disclosures. (shrink)

We examine the role of religiosity on the financing activities in both Islamic and conventional banks in Indonesian provinces by using five different measures of religiosity: number of Islamic schools, hajj application, number of Islamic seminary schools, number of Mosques, and number of certified halal products. Based on regression analysis, the results show that both Islamic and conventional banks provide more financing in religious provinces. Religiosity also helps in reducing the volume of non-performing financing. Our the results are still qualitatively (...) valid after taking into account endogeneity issue that emanates from omitted variables (i.e., unobservable beliefs, ideas, and attitudes), and possible reverse causality between religiosity and the total amount of financing at the province level. (shrink)

In this study, we examine how top management teams' foreign experience affects firms' green innovation performance and what role environmental regulation plays in their association. Using a large data set on firms' green patents and foreign work or education experience of top management teams from China, we find robust evidence that firms whose top management team members have foreign experience achieve significantly more green patents, and this positive relationship is more pronounced for firms subject to strong environmental regulation. Our findings (...) indicate that via enhancing firms' green innovation performance, top management teams' foreign experience has a positive corporate governance effect on advancing sustainable social development, and environmental regulation is helpful to promote this effect. (shrink)

Commentators believe that the COVID-19 pandemic reveals the inconveniences of capitalism and that the end of “neoliberalism” could be near. In this article we show that a capitalist ethics is capable to deal with the challenges of pandemics and comes with important advantages such as the prevention of overreactions. We apply both utilitarian and rights-based ethics to the case of epidemics in general and COVID-19 in particular. First a libertarian natural law ethics is used to assess the government interventions in (...) the Corona pandemic. We maintain that these interventions cannot be justified from a libertarian point of view despite of the possible objections that are discussed such as the “potential threat argument”. Moreover, the utilitarian argument in favor of government lockdowns is evaluated. The negative effects of lockdown on mental health, addictions, domestic violence, etc. have to be taken into account. The utilitarian argument in favor of lockdown is far from convincing, as economic calculation is not possible. (shrink)

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has represented an intense period of stress and anxiety for individuals, it has also been an opportunity for firms to engage in cause-related marketing initiatives as a means of providing support and helping them cope with this global pandemic. This study analyzes the influence of cause–brand fit and cause–brand alliance on customer-based legitimacy and reputation. This study also examines the mediating and moderating roles of trust and betrayal, respectively. Data were collected from 455 participants during (...) the first wave of the pandemic, especially during the first lockdown. The results contribute to unveiling the economic and societal outcomes of cause-related marketing. The findings also enrich the antecedents of the legitimacy and reputation conferred by customers. (shrink)

Organizational restructuring involving mass layoffs is an integral part of the corporate strategic landscape. While aimed at increasing a company’s efficiency and profitability, it often falls short of desired objectives, partly due to negative consequences for remaining employees, the so-called “survivors”. As workforce reductions may jeopardize a company’s legitimacy, we develop a model that links the change in post-restructuring employee productivity to the factors that help mitigate legitimacy issues. By using a comprehensive and innovative dataset of restructuring announcements reported by (...) European companies over the post-crisis period, we analyze the moderating effect of the restructuring extent on the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and economic justification as legitimacy tools in counterbalancing the negative effects of job reduction measures. Our findings reveal that in reactive layoffs, induced by financial difficulties, initially high levels of CSR help lessen negative effects of restructuring on employee productivity in low-extent restructuring events; while in high-extent restructuring events employee productivity is supported by continuing investments in CSR. We provide evidence that both the level and dynamics of CSR practices play a significant role, and their effect on employee performance is conditional on the restructuring context. (shrink)

In this article, I developed the CSR-19 scale to assess the perceptions company executives have of CSR actions during the COVID-19 pandemic and to conceptualize the economic, legal, social, and environmental aspects of CSR actions as a high-order construct. This paper's findings suggest that the legal, environmental, and social aspects of CSR actions are being perceived to positively contribute to companies' CSR actions, but the economic aspect of CSR actions is deemed to contribute negatively to companies' CSR actions. The 16-item (...) CSR-19 scale shows strong evidence of reliability as well as content, convergent, and discriminant validity in a sample of 211 Jordanian companies. Managerial implications and suggestions for applying the CSR-19 scale in future research are presented. (shrink)

This study aims to analyze whether resilient SMEs have been able to overcome the bump of the COVID-19 crisis in terms of profitability. When facing such unforeseen crises, SMEs require resilience, and one of the factors that positively affect resilience generation is the adoption of social and environmental practices (SEPs). Using survey data on the managerial perceptions of 259 SMEs, this study reveals the positive association between resilience and improvements in business performance, and how the adoption of SEPs is an (...) essential prerequisite for developing a higher level of resilience. We corroborate these associations for SMEs at two moments of the pandemic: November 2020 and October 2021. Our findings show that more resilient SMEs exhibit better results in terms of business performance, and the prior adoption of SEPs is positively associated with the development of resilience in the crisis context of COVID-19. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 32, Issue S1, Page 1-3, April 2023.

This paper extends previous attempts at understanding the nature of organizational integrity and its increasingly important role for companies which, after all, bear a moral and societal responsibility. Interpretations of organizational integrity in business ethics literature incorporate aspects ranging from the behavior of managers and employees to corporate structures and incentive systems. We argue that virtue ethics builds an indispensable framework for understanding the origin of the concept of integrity and transfer these findings to an organizational level. Hence, we first (...) define organizational integrity, and second operationalize it in a closed three-step process, consisting of morally sound corporate commitments, their transparent institutionalization within the company, and their implementation into actions. We consider the main goal of organizational integrity to be of a preventative investment nature. Organizational integrity is a company investment that translates into avoiding fines for potential violations of the law or ethical missteps, as well as an investment in the company’s reputation. In turn, organizational integrity can protect a company from disruptions that can threaten its existence. Defining and operationalizing the concept of organizational integrity provides the foundation for future scientific research and the basis for developing practical guidance for organizations and managers. (shrink)

Collaborative economy emerged as a response to the need of people to exchange, produce and share in a more humane and cooperative manner. However, the growth of collaborative economy organizations and the terminological confusion have led to debates about their possible effects, both positive and negative. In this study, we have created a guideline that can be used to evaluate the contribution of organizations considered within collaborative economy to common good. We used the conceptualization of common good, which, from its (...) Aristotelian-Thomist philosophy, was developed by the personalist-humanist perspective of management. Our analysis leads us to conclude that the evaluation of the contribution of any organization to the common good must take into account how the participants develop their virtues, the creation of the community and its impact on the common good of society. At the end of the article, we present the aspects that society must take into account regarding collaborative economy. Firstly, society, in general, must approach collaborative economy as a tool that must complement others in the search for solutions to economic and social problems and, secondly, the governance of the platform-network is essential to foster organizational models that favour the common good. (shrink)

This article addresses the service of financial companies to society from the perspective of the Catholic Social Teaching (hereinafter CST), specifically regarding conflicts of interest between banks and their customers. The article begins with a case based on interviews with professionals in the financial sector, which provides the context for the CST’s contribution. The analysis of the aforementioned conflicts points to an apparent disconnect between service to society and service to customers. Thus, the bank would set aside the customer’s interests (...) in exchange for a better service to society through good results. This article presents the CST’s normative framework to analyze this matter through some of the CST’s principles: the centrality of the person, the respect for her dignity, and the orientation to the common good. These principles and the CST’s ethical concept of service provide guidance in assessing these conflicts of interest. From an ethical point of view and according to CST, there cannot be a true service to society if the dignity of the client is not respected. It is necessary to review the organization’s incentive policy and level of awareness about the importance of customer service. We end with recommendations related to conflicts of interest with clients. (shrink)

In designing regulation, as has long been recognized in the academic literature, there is a tension between reliance on fixed mechanical “bright line” rules and the flexibility offered by granting a degree of discretion to the regulator subject to guiding principles. The failure of principles-based financial regulation a decade ago reinforced a trend towards mechanical rules. This essay, drawing on practical experience gleaned in the years following the Global Financial Crisis, argues that both are needed; indeed, in many cases, the (...) regulatory policymaker needs some discretion if it is to be sufficiently intrusive. Although regulatory discretion brings its own risks, the growing complexity of products and markets suggests a tilt towards granting greater discretion to the regulator in preference to over-complicating mechanical rules. (shrink)

Neo-capitalistic approaches to value creation have sometimes developed a bad reputation in terms of sustainability and care for the environment. Yet, there are examples to the contrary emphasising a concern for sustainable capitalism. Our literature synthesis suggests that there is a lack of understanding of the sustainability mechanisms—ways of working helping companies to achieve their leadership in sustainability and maintain it over time. We contribute by addressing this deficiency and specifying four discrete mechanisms which we call the 4S model. Specifically, (...) we apply this model to the cases of two leading exponents of sustainability—Unilever and Patagonia—to explain how companies can operate as forces to change business practice and improve sustainability having regard to people, planet, and profits. (shrink)

This paper analyses the main perceptions of capitalism and crises from a mainstream and heterodox perspective. Broadly defined within the neoclassical structure, the mainstream approaches support the idea of long-term stability of capitalism and describe crises as exogenous events. The heterodox perceptions, on the contrary, perceive crises as an internal feature of capitalism and propose to reframe the global economy within the limits of the socio-environmental systems. Despite the historical recurrence of crises, the neoclassic capitalist framework and the related mainstream (...) perceptions are still dominating the international economic debate. Most of the crises have then been addressed with reforms oriented to adjust some elements of the system without changing the overall economic structure. On the contrary, limited numbers of initiatives have been implemented to reorganise the economy according to the heterodox perspectives. Within this context, further analysis would be needed to investigate the feasibility of the proposed heterodox solutions. By discussing the main perceptions of capitalism and crises and by considering the ethical implications of the mainstream and the heterodox approaches, the present paper contributes to the existing debate around stability of capitalism and provides a starting point for analysis oriented to investigate the feasibility of alternative economic structures. (shrink)

This paper centers on a case study of CSR performativity during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the extant CSR literature, CSR performativity has focused on “walking the talk” and/or “talking the walk,” wherein narrative and action around CSR are typically treated as two different things with their relationships questioned. We focus on what has been called “t(w)alking” wherein speech is understood to be performative and wherein speech acts and CSR are merged, becoming one and the same thing. Performativity then entails what (...) is (and what is not) said, whereby CSR involves taking responsibility for speech and/or silences. Our thesis is that the COVID-19 pandemic led to the “presenting” of CSR as performativity, in the presence of Levinas' Other, as noble (speech) acts. We examine what became of CSR performativity in a for-profit medical services provider when the COVID-19 pandemic turned fatal for its main client group: the infirm elderly. The performativity of the statement: “The elderly and their carers must be protected” turned out to be crucial and set the stage for the provider's emergency action. Following on insights derived from Nietzsche and Levinas, and more specifically from their views on the particularity of ethical action, we find that CSR morphed into ethical performativity in the case study at hand. Against the backdrop of the views of these thinkers, the research potential of the performativity of “t(w)alking” in future CSR studies emerges and is critically discussed. (shrink)

This editorial of the special issue addresses the question of whether/how responses to the Covid-19 pandemic corresponded with authentic CSR. The literature on CSR has tended to endorse a business-centric perspective and its inherent focus on the search for alignments between CSR activities and the economic/financial interests of the firm. The Covid-19 pandemic has put this perspective to the test, pushing many companies to engage in distinctively more genuine and authentic CSR and/or demonstrating the importance of prior CSR engagement in (...) facilitating crisis management. The papers included in the special issue appear to converge on the idea that firms combining evidence of both pre-crisis engagement in CSR and strong CSR performance during the crisis (demonstrated through the deployment of various CSR assets and resources, including certified reporting, social marketing, individual engagement, resilience, legitimacy, trust) have coped better. This provides interested researchers with an opportunity to appreciate the value of CSR during a crisis. (shrink)

This study examines the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) during COVID-19. Little is known about how organizations practice CSR during acute exogenous crises. Overlooking how CSR practices change during a crisis matters because organizations are compelled into trade-offs that carry implications for their CSR initiatives. Analysis of interview data with CSR managers, from 21 Dubai-based business organizations during COVID-19, uncovers changes in the content and process of CSR during the pandemic. The results show that the practice of CSR underwent (...) a fundamental change in focus as organizations shifted to an employee-centric model of CSR and away from an environmental one. Measures placed on organizations and society to combat the pandemic also led to a recalibration of stakeholder and issue salience, with notable effects on CSR that challenge the capability of the power–legitimacy–urgency framework to anticipate these shifts. We consider the impacts associated with the shift in the content of CSR initiatives and process of their implementation and discuss the implications of the findings for CSR theory, research, policy, and practice. (shrink)

This paper explores stakeholder relations of sustainable banks as organizations that simultaneously pursue the community development and market profitability goals. The study features the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV), an international group of 62 financial institutions and 16 strategic partners, which collectively hold $200 billion USD of assets under management. Using the organizational identity orientation framework (Brickson, 2005, 2007), it reveals that, contrary to widely held assumptions that community-focused organizations serve a broad common good purpose, sustainable banks take (...) a relational stance based on effectively prioritizing community issues aligned with their missions and establishing strong partnerships with selected counterparts. Sustainable banks approach their stakeholder relations through the relational identity orientation expressed in the practices of inclusion of affected communities, full incorporation of local needs, philanthropic inclusiveness, transparency and power balance among stakeholders, governmental commitments, and relational hiring and socializing. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 32, Issue S2, Page 65-67, September 2023.

Neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics applied to work and business theory have received increasing attention due to Alasdair MacIntyre's philosophy. At the same time, this approach has been accused of being inapplicable, a romantic nostalgia for an ideal world far from the reality of today's markets. Moreover, the more this theory evolves, the bigger the gap seems to become, as if good work were at odds with its economic dimension. This paper aims to address this gap by explaining how MacIntyre's neo-Aristotelianism conceives (...) of the economic dimension of good work. In particular, we claim that it is consistent with MacIntyre's philosophy that said economic dimension of work can be defined in terms of excellence and virtue, particularly in accordance with the virtues of justice and unity of life. However, for these virtues of good work to be practicable, a reconsideration of market practices performed under the logic of giving and receiving is needed. Hence, defining and sustaining an economic dimension of good work in MacIntyre also depend on the possibility of market practices being defined as excellent. (shrink)

The novel COVID-19 has created an exogenous shock to capital markets and, hence, an ideal opportunity for researchers to assess whether CSR-related activities provide an insurance-like mechanism to protect firms against the shock. Using a large sample of 4361 firms domiciled in 40 countries, we investigate the roles of CSR reporting and assurance in the negative consequences of COVID-19 on firm value. The results confirm that prior CSR reporting experience buffers firms against the adverse effects of the health crisis. The (...) results also support that not only does the assurance on CSR reports create a buffering effect against the health crisis, but it also intensifies the buffering effects of prior CSR reporting experience against the pandemic. Moreover, using difference-in-difference method for testing the link between CSR reporting and firm value, we show that the positive association of reporting and assurance with firm value is more pronounced during the pandemic as compared with the years preceding it. The results of this study are robust to various analyses. Replicating the analyses to the context of the global financial crisis, we find that prior CSR reporting experience and assurance provide similar buffering effects when a market is exposed to various exogenous shocks. The results also hold for the mandatory disclosure regimes. By distinguishing first and subsequent reports and assurance, we show that, unlike subsequent CSR reports and assurance, the initial ones cannot mitigate the negative effects of the crisis on firm value, indicating that stakeholders take into account longer-term CSR reporting experiences. Aside from reporting and assurance aspects of CSR, we analyze the role of CSR report's quality and accuracy and show that the adoption of Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) frameworks can enhance socially responsible firms' resilience against systematic shocks. (shrink)

The Covid-19 pandemic posed a serious threat to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This explorative qualitative study of 100 SMEs from 20 industries and 21 countries investigates how entrepreneurs responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and which cognitive frames guided their actions. Observed cognitive frames prioritize either business survival, conversion of business and stakeholder interest, or acceptance of conflicting social and financial goals. These cognitive frames influence the choice of crisis response without determining it. Four response patterns were found: weathering the (...) storm, bricolage, solidarity and support, and social innovation. Strategic innovation creating access to new markets is the most successful response. The findings support a more encompassing definition of the concept of organizational resilience and shed light on motivations for acts of solidarity and social innovation as crisis responses. (shrink)

Among the many approaches to leadership, servant leaders stand out for the emphasis they place on the importance of service to their followers, the organization, and the broader community. We develop and test a multilevel mediation model, in which the relationship between servant leadership and team performance is sequentially transmitted through individual-level organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and team-based internal social capital. Multilevel structural equation modeling was applied to a sample of 343 teams, reflecting 835 respondents from various departments at 171 (...) hotels in Spain; both top-down (between team leaders and individual employees) and bottom-up relationships (individual employee behavior and team outcomes) were assessed. As anticipated, individual-level OCB and group-level internal social capital fully mediated the positive effect of servant leadership on team performance. Our findings illustrate that servant leadership in the team-based business enterprise context can foster virtuous individual-level OCB to help build task-focused community, in which leaders, followers, and teams can flourish for the common good. Thus, managers should know that serving their team members first and foremost is a positive for the flourishing of all involved. As such, policymakers should pursue communication and training initiatives to encourage the practice of servant leadership. (shrink)

This article has a twofold purpose: first, it explores how Leonardo Polo's personalist anthropology enriches and enhances neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics and second, it highlights how this specific personalist approach brings new perspectives to servant leadership. The recently revived neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics tradition finds that MacIntyre's scholarship significantly contributes to virtue ethics in business—particularly his conception of practices, institutions, and internal/external goods. However, we argue that some of his latest insights about the virtues of acknowledged dependence and human vulnerability remain underdeveloped (...) because of the underlying anthropology that neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics relies on. To overcome this limitation, we introduce Polo's transcendental anthropology as a possible foundation of a personalist approach that enriches virtue ethics. To do so, we address how transcendental anthropology can enrich two central aspects of virtue ethics, namely (1) the understanding of human beings and their flourishing and (2) the relationship of virtue to praxis and human work. Finally, to address the practical implications for business leadership and work that can derive from assuming transcendental anthropology, we address how servant leadership acquires a new perspective in light of this personalism and its logic of gift, highlighting interpersonal self-giving as a way of service. (shrink)

Animals are an important part of our social, economic and corporate world. Their wellbeing is significantly affected by the ways in which humans treat them. However, animals have long remained (and, indeed, continue to remain) effectively invisible in the business ethics and corporate responsibility discourse. This article argues in favor of the moral necessity of according animal welfare a higher priority in business. In line with most streams in both recent and traditional animal ethics, this article derives the avoidance of (...) unnecessary animal suffering as the moral minimum standard for responsible management in the livestock industry. Based on a broad range of different interpretations of what animal suffering may be necessary, the article discusses three distinct ways in which humans working in the animal industry could meet their moral responsibility to avoid unnecessary suffering, and, with this, increase animal welfare: by ameliorating circumstances for animals, by aiming at a two-pronged transformation, or by transforming into a “zero-suffering” business. Considering animal welfare as a legitimate ethical value in and of itself is a first step towards overcoming the anthropocentric bias in today's sustainability and corporate responsibility debate. (shrink)

That technologies may raise ethical issues is now widely recognised. The ‘responsible innovation’ literature – as well as, to a lesser extent, the applied ethics and bioethics literature – has responded to the need for ethical reflection on technologies by developing a number of tools and approaches to facilitate such reflection. Some of these instruments consist of lists of questions that people are encouraged to ask about technologies – a methodology known as the ‘Socratic approach’. However, to date, these instruments (...) have often not adequately acknowledged various political impacts of technologies, which are, I suggest, essential to a proper account of the ethical issues they raise. New technologies can make some people richer and some people poorer, empower some and disempower others, have dramatic implications for relationships between different social groups and impact on social understandings and experiences that are central to the lives, and narratives, of denizens of technological societies. The distinctive contribution of this paper, then, is to offer a revised and updated version of the Socratic approach that highlights the political, as well as the more traditionally ethical, issues raised by the development of new technologies. (shrink)