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Firm Newness, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Ethical Climate

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Abstract

Faced with the liability of newness, a scarcity of resources, and concerns of survival, new firms frequently encounter difficult ethical decisions and might be pressured to make choices that run counter to the tenets of more developed ethical and moral reasoning. This study explores the impact of newness and entrepreneurial orientation on the ethical climate of firms. Data collected from 304 individuals across 37 firms indicated that firm newness was more strongly related to ethical climate than was an entrepreneurial orientation. Results also revealed that firm newness may be usefully conceptualized in both continuous and categorical terms, with each operationalization holding a somewhat different relationship with climate. Finally, results revealed that firm size was related to several types of ethical climates.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, University of Central Florida, U.S.A

    Donald Neubaum, Marie Mitchell & Marshall Schminke

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  1. Donald Neubaum
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  2. Marie Mitchell
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  3. Marshall Schminke
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Neubaum, D., Mitchell, M. & Schminke, M. Firm Newness, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Ethical Climate. Journal of Business Ethics 52, 335–347 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-004-1532-7

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