Journal of Business Ethics最新文献

Integrating the categorization-elaboration model (CEM), resource complementarity, and human capital perspectives, we investigate whether the founder CEO’s human capital resources can influence the effect of workforce gender diversity, an untapped strategic resource, on venture firm performance. Our main focus lies on knowledge- and technology-intensive venture firms, and we propose that both workforce gender diversity and the CEO’s human capital resources jointly influence venture firm performance. We identify the specific functional impacts of the founder CEO's human capital, encompassing entrepreneurial experience, human resource (HR) management experience, and same-industry experience. Analyzing 1413 venture firms utilizing multilevel analysis (random coefficient modeling), we find that gender diversity does not significantly affect venture firm performance. Nevertheless, the founder CEO’s entrepreneurial experience exerts a positive impact on the interplay between gender diversity and venture firm performance. These findings underscore the strategic role of the founder CEO’s human capital resources in moderating the effects of gender diversity, making significant contributions to the diversity and strategic human capital resource literature.

Ethical and sustainable business practices in global supply chains have become a major concern for firms. Media stakeholders hold firms accountable for the environmentally unethical behavior of their suppliers. Based on agenda-setting theory and stakeholder theory, this study presents a model that shows how various internal and external factors explain media reporting of environmental supply chain sustainability risks. It also examines the role of firms’ risk avoidance practices. The study uses regression analysis of secondary data from 541 buying firms. The results show that the size and brand visibility of buying firms, and their affiliation to high-risk industries increase the frequency of media coverage of suppliers’ environmental misconduct, while their affiliation to high-risk countries decreases the frequency of media coverage. In addition, companies can reduce media coverage by implementing proactive supply chain sustainability risk avoidance practices. However, reactive supply chain sustainability risk avoidance practices are not effective in reducing media coverage.

Possessing slack resources enables businesses to invest in innovative and stakeholder-focused initiatives. Therefore, we posit that higher slack resources encourage businesses to allocate these resources to improve their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Moreover, as a central sustainability governance mechanism, we hypothesize that the corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee supports investing slack resources in ESG initiatives. Using data from Nasdaq-100 firms, we find initial support for a positive effect of slack resources for ESG. However, further analyses reveal that slack resources become detrimental to ESG after an economically relevant threshold, indicating an inverted U-shaped effect of slack resources. Additionally, despite their generally positive effect, we uncover that CSR committees cannot effectively enhance the benefits of low or moderate slack levels for ESG nor prevent the detriments of elevated slack levels for ESG. Therefore, our study significantly contributes to the ongoing discourse surrounding slack resources, ESG, and the usefulness of CSR committees. These findings hold significant implications for ethical resource allocation, urging firms and their decision-makers to reconsider the dual-edged role of slack resources in the unique ESG context and support the CSR committee in realizing its potential for promoting sustainability and ethical practices within the organization.

We take an ethics theory perspective to examine rule violations and workarounds in the UK construction industry in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK construction sector remained largely operational during lockdowns in the UK, providing an opportunity to explore the ways in which construction workers made ethical decisions in situ, related to health and safety at work, and COVID-19 rules. We conducted 22 semi-structured interviews with participants from 11 organisations (3 major construction companies and 8 subcontractors) during November 2021 to January 2022. Our qualitative analysis focused on coding responses based on the use of moral disengagement tactics, and the dimensions of moral intensity (magnitude of consequences, social consensus, probability of effect, temporal immediacy, proximity and, concentration of effect). We found instances of ethical dilemmas, including conflicts between compliance with organisational health and safety rules, and following COVID-19 rules. Our analysis showed that rule violations were often justified based on moral disengagement tactics, particularly cognitive reconstrual, obscuring personal agency, disregarding consequences and vilification of the victims. Furthermore, moral intensity played a significant role in making ethical decisions about violating rules. Moral intensity was most influential (across dimensions) for moral disengagement based on cognitive reconstrual (e.g., justifications for choosing to follow one set of rules over another). Social context was highly influential in workers’ ethical decisions, including organisational and group social norms, but wider societal attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic, also played a significant role. We discuss the implications for business ethics theory, policy and practice, including recommendations for businesses and policymakers.

This paper examines greenwashing practices in environmental funds. We utilize a unique data set of US equity mutual fund holdings between 2012 and 2021 to calculate the funds’ carbon footprints. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, we find that, following their commitments to sustainability, environmental funds fail to reduce their carbon footprints relative to a matched group of conventional funds. We also find, using an event study, a significant increase in the flows of environmental funds in response to these commitments. The combination of the failure to reduce carbon footprints and the surge in inflows provides evidence of greenwashing by environmental funds, raising concerns about their fiduciary duty. Our findings also show that greenwashers tend to initially have low flows and high portfolio carbon emissions suggesting that they announce their commitments to sustainability just to attract investors.

In response to Russia’s war of aggression and the accompanying human rights violations in Ukraine, several scholars have called for all multinational companies to divest and leave the country; otherwise, they become accomplices to the aggressor. This article reconstructs the arguments in favor of this general call. The first contribution of this article is to extend complicity theory to the context of crimes of aggression and atrocities to promote this demand. Although this extension of complicity theory ensures internal coherence, the call for a general divestment of all companies is tantamount to comprehensive economic sanctions. In contrast, recent developments in sanction theory as part of just war theory suggest that targeted sanctions are the legitimate sanctions that states prefer. Therefore, the second contribution is to evaluate sanctions morally and analyze and discuss the moral implications of three categories of goods and services (sanctioned, essential, and nonessential). This discussion shows no moral justification for a general call for all companies to leave an aggressor state. Companies have moral obligations to comply with legitimate sanctions, moral duties concerning essential goods, and moral permissions concerning nonessential goods.

This study examines the multi-contextual dynamics of refugee entrepreneurship through the lens of embeddedness. It attempts to explain the interplay of inclusion and exclusion within a host society. For this purpose, the study qualitatively analyses the narratives of 39 Syrian refugee entrepreneurs and four critical informants in Türkiye. Our findings reveal a diverse set of refugee entrepreneurs, categorized into survival, ethnic-targeting, and integrating entrepreneurs, based on their motivations and level of embeddedness. Interestingly, as refugee entrepreneurs become more embedded in the host country, they experience increased exclusion due to various societal factors. To navigate these challenges, entrepreneurs continually negotiate their societal position using innovative strategies to combat exclusion. Our study incorporates social, political, institutional, and spatial contexts across host, home, and third countries. Thus, it extends the embeddedness literature by highlighting refugee entrepreneurs' multi-layered and multi-locational embeddedness. Our findings also emphasise the significant role of political embeddedness, which Research often overlooks. Differentially excluding refugee entrepreneurs from society and their counter-strategies are closely tied to their limited political embeddedness. Finally, we discuss the ethical and policy implications of promoting the inclusion of refugee entrepreneurs and contributing to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. We argue that clear integration policies, removal of institutional barriers, and international cooperation are necessary.

Consumers spend billions of dollars per year on homeopathic products. But there is powerful evidence that these products don’t work, i.e., they are not medically effective. Should homeopathic products be for sale? I give reason for thinking that the answer is ‘no.’ It has been suggested that the sale of homeopathic products involves deception. This might be so in some cases, but the problem is simpler: it is that these products don’t do what people buy them to do. More precisely, homeopathic products don’t meet the “desire-satisfaction condition,” according to which products for sale in markets should satisfy the desires that people buy them to satisfy. I defend my view against objections, and conclude by acknowledging some of the practical difficulties of banning products people want to buy.

This study examines the dynamics of how ideas about entrepreneurship are transmitted from Public Organizations (POs) and Non-Public Organizations (NPOs) to Indigenous entrepreneurs, using a case study in Ecuador based on 29 interviews and field observations. Employing the concept of Institutional Translation, a three-stage translation process model was developed, encompassing the conveyance of ideas about entrepreneurship from POs and NPOs, the response by Indigenous entrepreneurs, and the evaluation of translation outcomes. This process occurs within a high institutional distance context, reflecting significant cultural and social disparities between these actors, complicating the translation process. The findings indicate that POs and NPOs do not differentiate Indigenous entrepreneurs from others and fail to consider essential cultural components, such as traditional knowledge, when conveying ideas about entrepreneurship. Conversely, Indigenous entrepreneurs exhibit diverse levels of adoption and rejection of these ideas, highlighting their agency and resilience in protecting and continuing to use their traditional knowledge in their entrepreneurial activities despite external pressures. This research makes three contributions: it advances the field of Indigenous entrepreneurship by theorizing the complex process of transferring ideas about entrepreneurship from external actors to Indigenous entrepreneurs; it enhances business ethics discourse on the critical role of cultural differences by examining the ethical challenges arising from the interaction; and it addresses overlooked aspects within Institutional Translation by exploring a high institutional distance context where cultural disparities complicate the translation process.

This study addresses the growing interest in the social impact assessment of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Using the benefit (value) transfer approach, this study seeks to demonstrate how the social return on investment (SROI) of a CSR inclusion initiative promoting disability sport participation can be assessed. Literature on CSR inclusion initiatives, social impact measurement, disability sport participation and disability interventions/organizations was reviewed and compared. This helped identify the stakeholders and social outcomes to include, and the assumptions for the financial proxies and beneficiary percentages. Based on data provided by the Rugby Football League in England, an application to Inclusion Rugby League— a CSR inclusion initiative promoting disability sport participation—was then conducted. The SROI of Inclusion Rugby League is 3.39:1—a social return of £3.39 for £1 invested. Our research quantifies the positive social impact of a CSR inclusion initiative in monetary terms, providing insights for assessing SROI. This study informs future research on the social impact assessment of CSR initiatives, offering valuable guidance for organizations and their managers in making a case for further investments in CSR. Moreover, it encourages potential funders to engage in CSR initiatives.