Asian Journal of Business Ethics最新文献

Drawing on the conservation of resource theory, the study presents a theoretical model to examine how and when servant leadership motivates employees’ taking charge behavior. The study collected the employee-leader dyad data in three waves, each with an interval of two weeks. The statistical analysis of the 315 three-wave, multi-source data reveals that psychological availability plays a mediating role in the transmitting process from servant leadership to followers’ taking charge behavior. Political skill moderates not only the relationship between psychological availability and taking charge but also the indirect effect of servant leadership on taking charge via psychological availability, such that the relationship and the mediating mechanism are stronger when followers have a high level of political skill as opposed to a low level. The study provides a new perspective of the underlying mechanisms for leaders to fuel the taking charge behavior. At last, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications as well as future research directions of the findings.

Grounded in Ego Depletion Theory, this study examines the drivers of employee expediency, focusing on perceived resource scarcity, performance pressure, and the mediating role of perceived ethical work climate, with job autonomy as a moderator. Conducted in India using a time-lagged design, data were collected from 350 respondents across hospitality and tourism, IT/ITES, healthcare, and banking and financial services sectors through stratified random sampling. Results show that resource scarcity positively influences expediency and negatively impacts ethical work climate, which in turn negatively affects employee expediency and mediates the resource scarcity-expediency relationship. Performance pressure positively influences employee expediency, negatively impacts perceived ethical work climate, and mediates the resource scarcity-expediency link. Job autonomy moderates the relationship between ethical work climate and expediency, weakening the negative link for employees with high autonomy. This study highlights how cognitive and environmental stressors erode self-regulation, offering strategies to foster ethical work climates and mitigate expedient behaviors.

The concept of impermanence is one of the three essential teachings in Buddhism, known as the three marks of existence (TME), which describe the nature of experience. This study is among the first to empirically investigate the impact of an impermanence mindset—an underexplored psychological factor—on consumer behavior. Using Buddhist psychology as a framework, the research examines two novel psychological dimensions: impermanence awareness and impermanence acceptance, and their influence on consumer well-being. A total of 327 participants from the USA completed a survey study via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our findings distinguish between impermanence awareness and impermanence acceptance conceptually and empirically. Impermanence awareness is positively linked to perceived resource scarcity and negatively associated with consumer peace of mind and consumer well-being. In contrast, impermanence acceptance is positively related to peace of mind and consumer well-being, and marginally negatively associated with perceived resource scarcity. Our study underscores that while awareness may serve as a foundation, it is the acceptance of impermanence that drives positive psychological and behavioral outcomes, offering a pathway to greater consumer well-being and more ethical consumption attitudes. Given that current consumer psychology largely relies on cognitive, social, and behavioral frameworks, this research highlights the potential for integrating alternative approaches, such as Buddhist psychology, to address often overlooked consumer issues like happiness, life satisfaction, and well-being.

Regenerative business has emerged as a transformative paradigm that moves beyond sustainability, focusing on creating net-positive impacts on ecological, social, and economic systems. Grounded in systems thinking, this study conceptualizes regenerative business through the perspectives of Southeast Asian youth. Using a mixed-methods design, the research first engaged 28 business-oriented university students in a structured concept mapping workshop to generate and cluster perceptions of regenerative business. This was followed by a survey of 238 university students, whose responses provided statistical validation through exploratory factor analysis. Systems thinking offers a holistic framework to understand the interconnections between regenerative business practices and broader socio-ecological systems, emphasizing adaptability, resilience, and feedback loops. The final analysis identified four primary clusters: Impact to Environment, Impact to Society, Innovation Practices, and Regenerative Business Models. Key findings highlight how regenerative businesses operate as adaptive systems that co-evolve with their environments, integrating circular economy principles, social equity, and systemic innovation to drive long-term transformation. This research contributes to the empirical literature on regenerative business by advancing a framework that balances stakeholder needs, fosters collaboration, and embeds regenerative principles within self-sustaining, interdependent systems. By applying systems thinking, this study underscores the necessity of dynamic, multi-layered interventions that ensure businesses transition from harm reduction to active ecological and social regeneration. The findings offer valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and businesses seeking to embed regenerative principles into management practices, fostering resilience and innovation in an increasingly complex global landscape.

This study investigates the relationship between corruption, gender diversity in top management teams, and firm performance in Vietnam, drawing on the resource-based view’s mechanism. Analyzing a sample of 5616 firm-year observations measured biannually from 2005 to 2015, we demonstrate that the bribery amount a firm paid is significantly and positively associated with the firm’s gross profit. This contradicts prior empirical evidence and highlights the critical roles of intangible resources devoted to corruption in emerging markets such as business networks and time spent dealing with government bureaucracy. Additionally, we find that gender diversity in top management teams is not a significant predictor of gross profit, nor does it moderate the bribery-performance relationship, as has been alluded to in previous top management team research. Our findings highlight the disconnect between the enactment and enforcement of anti-corruption policies while also providing theoretical, managerial, and policy implications.

Studies on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm value have reported mixed findings, often due to endogeneity issues and a lack of clarity with respect to the mechanisms linking CSR to firm performance. Using data from Japanese listed companies between 2010 and 2017, this study reexamines this relationship by focusing on the heterogeneous effects of Sanpo-yoshi, a traditional business ethic which has been deeply rooted in Japan’s corporate culture for over three centuries. First, firm-fixed effects regression results show that CSR has a positive impact on both firm value and labor productivity. Mediation analysis confirms that labor productivity partially explains the CSR–firm value link, with supporting evidence from Sobel tests and GMM IV regressions. To address endogeneity, we use the geographic distance from a CEO’s birthplace to Shiga Prefecture—origin of the Sanpo-yoshi business philosophy—as an instrumental variable. Furthermore, we investigate which human resource investments contribute to increased labor productivity and, therefore, firm value. Our findings show that while increasing the representation of Female Directors has no significant impact on firm value, prioritizing the employment of female workers and implementing initiatives to support them can significantly enhance both firm value and productivity. Given the corporate governance reforms that have aimed to promote board diversity and improve firm value since 2014, as well as the enactment of the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace in 2016, these results carry timely and valuable policy implications.

While research on the government’s influence on state-owned enterprises (SOE) sustainability practices has expanded, most studies have predominantly focused on “what” the government is doing rather than the “how” it exerts its influence. This emphasis has led to neglect of the discursive strategies the government employs to shape SOE sustainability agendas. This study addresses this gap by employing Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels to explore how the South Korean government discursively constructs its influence on SOEs’ sustainability reporting. The micro-level analysis examines textual features in 16 sustainability reports published by SOEs during 2017–2018, a critical period marked by the Moon Jae-In administration’s enhanced emphasis on sustainability. At the meso-level, the study employs Dahan et al.’s (2015) stakeholder framework to identify governmental roles as “framework provider,” “business partner,” “interfering actor,” and “advocate.” The macro-level analysis contextualizes these findings within the broader sociopolitical landscape shaped by the 2017 policy aimed at strengthening SOEs’ social value. This study contributes uniquely by revealing how discursive strategies reinforce government influence, exposing underlying ideological and institutional dynamics beyond conventional regulatory perspectives.

This study explores the strategic orientations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and their impact on market and financial performance among firms in China. Using data collected from 602 firms, the study employs content and regression analyses to assess the influence of CSR dimensions—stakeholder focus, area of emphasis, and strategic intent. The findings highlight the critical, yet often overlooked, economic aspects of CSR, advocating for a multidimensional view that integrates stakeholder perspectives with the triple bottom line of sustainability. By demonstrating how strategically oriented CSR practices enhance market performance, brand equity, and customer loyalty, particularly in the dynamic Chinese market, this research provides valuable insights for global brands seeking to develop ethical and responsible supply chains in Asia. The study’s innovative methodology and empirical findings significantly contribute to the understanding of CSR’s role in business ethics and offer a robust framework for leveraging CSR to achieve competitive advantages and ethical brand value.

While prior research shows that corruption sands the wheel of firms’ risk-taking, this paper argues that the institutional environment in Vietnam may make local corruption grease the wheel of corporate risk-taking. Using a dataset of 7341 observations from 555 firms listed during the period 2008–2022, we document that firms headquartered in higher corruption provinces have higher incentives to take risks. Moreover, the association between local corruption and corporate risk-taking is weaker in state-owned and financially unconstrained firms.

Drawing from the social learning and self-determination theory, we investigated the employee outcomes resulting from the perceived responsible behaviour of their leaders in the organisations through affective and normative commitment as a mediator. The proposed hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and followed two steps. The researchers administered the survey to collect data targeting 370 Indian middle-level managers working full-time. The study revealed that perceived responsible leadership considerably influences employee satisfaction and productivity. Furthermore, along with the direct significant relationship among perceived responsible leadership, employee satisfaction, and productivity, the results also indicated the presence of an indirect effect. This research guides new-age leaders on inducing employee productivity and satisfaction by leading responsibly and enhancing their affective and normative commitment. This study uniquely contributes to responsible leadership literature by linking it with self-determination theory. This study uniquely extends the limited understanding of responsible leadership and its relationship with employee satisfaction and productivity.