Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility最新文献

Research on recruitment shows that jobseekers display positive attitudinal and behavioral responses to potential employers' corporate social responsibility (CSR), while corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) works contrariwise. However, few studies have examined how jobseekers react to companies that show the two attributes in an inconsistent way. This study investigates how jobseekers' perceptions of a company, shaped by its CSR history, are changed based on its recent CSR/CSI practices. It also examines how jobseekers' moral traits affect their perceptions of and behavioral intentions toward the company, influenced by the (in)consistency of its CSR. The results of a scenario-based experiment with 203 subjects show that jobseekers perceive a company with a strong (vs. weak) CSR history as warmer and infer that its CSR motive is genuine. However, when they obtain information about the company's recent CSI practices, they tend to perceive that the motivation of the previous CSR is not genuine and are less likely to be attracted by the company. This tendency is amplified when the jobseekers have a strong propensity to belong to ethical organizations. This research contributes to the literature on the effects of the (in)consistency of a company's CSR on its external stakeholders.

Corporate greenwashing, a significant manifestation of the decoupling of corporate social responsibility, has attracted considerable attention from stakeholders. Based on the internal governance theory, this study examines listed Chinese companies from 2011 to 2021 to assess the effects of managerial decision horizons on corporate greenwashing behaviours. Our finding shows that a shorter managerial decision horizon exacerbates corporate greenwashing. The robustness of the result has been verified by employing various methods, including the use of instrumental variables, the two-stage Heckman model and alternative variable substitution. Additionally, the study reveals the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon and identifies reduced environmental investment as one of the channels through which myopic managerial decision-making enhances corporate greenwashing. The results also indicate that financial constraints on firms intensify the impact of managerial myopia on greenwashing, whereas the proportion of female executives and investors' site visits mitigate this effect. This study presents important implications for stakeholders governing corporate greenwashing by elucidating the relationship between managerial decision horizons and greenwashing.

In recent decades, implementing a code of conduct (CoC) as part of an organization's CSR infrastructure has become a sine qua non for gaining trust and fostering credibility. Despite numerous studies aimed at identifying cultural differences in the content of CoCs, little is known about what causes those differences and how they relate to an organization's communicative endeavor to gain trust and strengthen its legitimacy. In response, this article examines potential cultural differences in the public availability, design, and content of CoCs of corporations headquartered in countries in the Confucian Asian versus Anglo cultural clusters from the perspective of strategic communication. Drawing on the concepts of individualist versus collectivist culture and low- versus high-context communication, the findings reveal significant differences, including that Anglo-based companies more often make their CoCs publicly available and, in turn, significantly more comprehensive than Confucian Asian codes. Furthermore, compared with Anglo CoCs, significantly fewer CoCs of companies headquartered in Confucian Asia address the importance of moral values in daily business practices and sensitive issues such as prohibited behavior, whistleblowing, and sanctions following code violations. Those findings indicate significant institutional and cultural differences in companies' communication about ethical principles and corresponding conduct and suggest that, across cultures, CoCs differ in their content and are not accorded equal relevance as a means to foster legitimacy via CSR communication.

Taiwan has a complete semiconductor industry chain and is important in global semiconductor manufacturing. In addition to considering operational conditions, companies have also attached importance to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in recent years. This research thus takes 60 integrated circuit (IC) companies in Taiwan as a research sample and adopts the Meta Two-stage dynamic RDM DDF (range directional model directional distance function) under an exogenous CSR model to explore their market stage efficiency and production stage efficiency. This study aimed to analyze whether incorporating a company's CSR performance into performance evaluations affects the production and profitability efficiency of Taiwanese IC companies. The findings are as follows: Most IC companies practice CSR and demonstrate good CSR performance. The market stage efficiency and production stage efficiency of the IC packaging and testing group are better than those of other groups.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of 30 years of academic research on organizational trust in socio-economic practice in the management and business ethics literature. A systematic review of 160 papers published in leading management and business ethics academic journals reveals two interpretations—one based on a transactional, cause-and-effect idea of the benefit of trust within relationships (or utilitarian trust), and one based on personal, sincere, and virtuous attributes of character allowing the participant to engage in trusting (or virtuous trust). Our review contributes an analysis of the state of prior research and the literature's intertextual coherence which allows problematization of the current theory and identification of opportunities for further contributions. Future work could be based on the interconnections among these two research traditions, ways to expand the current understanding of utilitarian trust, and proposals for a basic moral framework to support virtuous trust from the perspective of an understanding of trust in the socio-economic practice in which contemporary trust problems arise. Our reinforcement of the theoretical underpinnings of trust also offers practical guidance as it sheds light on trust's nuanced dimensions in complex organizational and socio-economic environments.

This study explores the impact of cooperative engagement with nonfamily employees, consumers, and communities on risk-taking behavior of privately held, long-lived family firms. We posit that cooperative relations can build and reinforce connectedness among the family and nonfamily stakeholders which, in turn, can lead to increased risk-taking. More specifically, the increased stability from widespread cooperative nonfamily engagement will positively moderate risk-taking behavior by amplifying the influence of family involvement in privately held family firms. Using a unique survey of long-lived, privately held family firms, we find support for our hypotheses: cooperative engagement interacts with the essence of family involvement to amplify risk-taking. This study contributes to the stakeholder engagement and family firm literatures and offers managerial and policy implications by underscoring the benefits of cooperative engagement as it enhances risk-taking of family firms, a precursor of growth.

Despite growing recognition of the interconnectedness between climate change and modern slavery within supply chains, these issues are often studied in isolation, leading to a fragmented understanding of their relationship. This research aims to bridge this gap by investigating the key factors in supply chains that influence both climate change and modern slavery and how interactions among supply chain stakeholders impact the relationship between them. Utilising the PRISMA literature review method, we systematically reviewed 56 articles to identify the underlying mechanisms and stakeholders' interactions that influence the dynamics between climate change and modern slavery in supply chains. Our findings culminate in a conceptual model that delineates 11 factors bi-directionally impacting both climate change and modern slavery. These factors include social (migration, violent conflict, and war as well as tradition and culture), environmental (deforestation, soil erosion, disruption of protected area, extreme weather, and resource) and economic (liabilities, employment, education, and pandemic). Furthermore, it highlights how stakeholder interactions at the government, NGO, supplier, focal firm, worker, and consumer levels impact this relationship. Finally, the model underscores the potential of technology adoption, sustainable development strategies, and stakeholder engagement and collaboration as levers to positively influence the relationship between climate change and modern slavery in supply chains.

The study investigates the effects of ESG washing on banks' reputational exposure. We define ESG washing as a disparity between a bank's environmental and social disclosure level and the practical implementation of the relative measures. The analysis involves an international sample of 120 banks operating across 35 countries from 2014 to 2020. The results evidence a different effect based on the pillar considered: the higher the inconsistency on environmental issues, the higher a bank's reputational exposure. Conversely, higher levels of disclosure compared to performance on social issues appear to reduce reputational exposure. In addition, citizen movements and the country's legal system play a significant role in amplifying or mitigating a bank's reputational exposure. Our findings offer insight into the phenomenon of ESG washing in the banking industry, supporting the need for more verified information across countries and all economic sectors.

Prior research on leader self-sacrifice mainly demonstrates its positive role, while less attention has been paid to its potential negative consequences in the workplace. Based on social exchange theory, this study examines how and when leader self-sacrifice may lead to employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). We tested our hypotheses with three-wave data gathered from 570 employees. Results showed that leader self-sacrifice indirectly promoted UPB via leader–member exchange (LMX). Moreover, employees' desire to see themselves in a positive light (i.e., self-enhancement motives) moderated this indirect relationship, such that the indirect effect was less salient when employees had higher self-enhancement motives. We discuss this study's implications for the research on leader self-sacrifice as well as those for practitioners seeking to avoid the potential dangers of positive leadership behavior.

While the notion of business ethics has historical roots, previous research endeavours have refrained from consolidating the existing body of knowledge on the intersection of business ethics and society. This hesitance is attributed to the intricate and diverse nature of such studies. Thus, there is a gap in the literature on synthesizing the intimate relationship between business ethics and society. This gap in research serves as the impetus and motivation for the current investigation. However, limited empirical studies are found to have been conducted in the allied areas and there are limited studies that map business ethics and society in an extensive manner. In this context, this study systematically reviewed 87 scholarly works spanning a period of over 20 years in the realm of business ethics concerning society by considering articles included in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Through the outcomes of this inquiry, an integrative and comprehensive framework detailing the interplay between business ethics and society at individual and organizational levels is introduced, with the potential to guide forthcoming scholars and practitioners in their pursuits. In this study, themes including employees' ethical behaviour, manufacturing strategy and ethics, leadership dynamics, consumer trust and so on have not been considered as critical societal dimensions that have not been included.