Most recent papers:

• Green Leadership Unleashed: Boosting Eco‐Innovation and Employee Performance Through Sustainable Behaviors.
  Kwame Ansong Wadei, Kwame Asare Duffour, Edward Okyere, Paul Opuni Dapaah, Bernice Wadei.
  Business Ethics A European Review. 4 days ago
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nUsing empirical data, this research aims to explore the interplay of sustainability‐driven leadership (green transformational leadership) and its influence on environmental performance. It delves into the connection between green transformational leadership, facilitated through green innovation, and its effects on employee environmental performance. Additionally, it investigates how employees' green behavior moderates this relationship within Ghanaian industries. A multi‐item survey questionnaire was used to collect data from employees and their supervisors working in the manufacturing and service industries in Accra and Kumasi, Ghana. Analysis was conducted on 373 valid responses using SPSS AMOS and PROCESS analysis. The study's results unveiled that green transformational leadership positively influences green innovation, subsequently impacting employee environmental performance within the organization. Moreover, it was discovered that employee green behavior played a moderating role in the connection between green innovation and employee environmental performance. Based on the study's findings, the implications for practitioners are discussed.\n"]

  May 06, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70117   open full text
• Performance Expectation Shortfall and ESG Performance: An Integrated Perspective of Media Attention and Environmental Regulation.
  Junping Yang, Ruiqi Wu.
  Business Ethics A European Review. 4 days ago
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nDrawing from corporate behaviour theory and institutional theory, this article delves into the influence of the performance expectation shortfall on ESG performance through the lenses of environmental regulation and media attention. Employing a comprehensive dataset from Chinese publicly traded companies from 2013 to 2022, the article yields several notable conclusions: (1) It identifies an inverted U‐shaped relationship between performance expectation shortfall and ESG performance; (2) Environmental regulation acts to smooth the inverted U‐shaped curve, indicating a positive moderating effect and (3) Media attention not only flattens the curve but also shifts the inflection point rightward, indicating a positive moderating effect. Through an application of corporate behaviour theory, this article fills in the gaps in the dynamic analysis of how performance expectation deficiency affects ESG performance. It also identifies the crucial influencing factors from the perspective of institutional theory. It enriches the contextual mechanisms of performance feedback studies, offering practical insights and enlightenment on the ESG issues of companies within the context of harmonious development between humans and nature in China.\n"]

  May 06, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70115   open full text
• Environmental Regulation, Corporate ESG Environmental Performance and the Mediating Role of Green Innovation: Evidence From China.
  Honghong Wei, Ying Wang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. 6 days ago
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nIn response to stricter environmental regulations and increased stakeholder awareness, firms are increasingly focused on enhancing their ESG performance. However, limited research has explored how environmental regulation affects corporate ESG environmental performance, particularly through the mediating role of green innovation. This study addresses this gap by analyzing the influence of environmental regulation on corporate ESG performance in China, using panel data from listed firms between 2010 and 2023. Our findings reveal that: (1) stringent environmental regulations hinder ESG environmental performance; (2) green innovation mediates the relationship between environmental regulation and ESG environmental performance; (3) the negative impact of regulations on ESG environmental performance is mitigated in firms with environmental management systems, yet intensified in state‐owned enterprises and high‐polluting industries. This research offers insights into the effects of environmental regulation on corporate practices, highlighting implications for advancing a green economy in transitional economies like China.\n"]

  May 04, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70116   open full text
• Feeling Obliged to Follow: The Impact of Work‐Related Identity on Unethical Pro‐Organizational Behavior and the Role of Psychological Empowering.
  Sabrina Jeworrek, Christoph Ostermair, Joschka Waibel.
  Business Ethics A European Review. 6 days ago
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study examines why people engage in unethical pro‐organizational behavior (UPB) by focusing on an overlooked mechanism: the mere fact of being a subordinate at the workplace. To establish a causal relationship, we conducted an online experiment with 615 full‐time employees. We primed participants with private versus work‐related contexts before instructing them to follow a rule that was beneficial for the organization but potentially unethical. We find that individuals high in power distance orientation engage to a greater extent in UPB after being primed on their work‐related identity. Our results further emphasize that empowering leadership can mitigate this effect: For participants high in power distance, empowering messages eliminated the priming effect; their UPB levels matched those in the private control group. Thus, our study makes three key contributions: First, we add to the discussion of UPB antecedents. Second, we identify organizations that may be particularly vulnerable. Third, we point to strategies that could reduce UPB.\n"]

  May 04, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70093   open full text
• Escaping the Shadow of Performance Pressure: The Relationship Between Female Managers and Bribery in Emerging Economy Firms—Insights From Chinese Listed Firms.
  He Cheng, Jianquan Guo.
  Business Ethics A European Review. 9 days ago
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nWhy is it often difficult for the advantages of female managers in emerging economy firms (EEFs) to be fully realized, and why do they sometimes become entangled in the whirlpool of bribery? How can their strengths be better leveraged? Drawing on a sample of listed companies in China, this study reaches the following conclusions. First, there is a significant positive association between the proportion of female managers and the level of bribery in EEFs. Second, this positive relationship is significantly weakened when EEFs receive more favorable performance feedback. Further analysis yields additional insights. First, the proportion of female managers in EEFs is positively associated with the firm's inclusive value‐sharing performance toward its internal and external stakeholders, yet this beneficial effect is substantially undermined by bribery. Second, government subsidies received by EEFs can significantly weaken the positive relationship between the proportion of female managers and bribery. Third, the central government's anti‐corruption initiatives have led to a decline in bribery. Overall, our findings suggest that performance pressure may erode the potential advantages female managers could otherwise bring in emerging markets. Based on these insights, we offer recommendations for both firm management and policymakers in emerging markets: fostering a more equitable environment for female managers can enhance the firm's broader, stakeholder‐oriented outcome and promote sustainable corporate success.\n"]

  May 01, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70113   open full text
• Business Realism—A New Account of Morality and Power in Business Ethics.
  Iwan Alijew.
  Business Ethics A European Review. 9 days ago
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis article introduces a new account of morality and power in business ethics called “business realism”. To this end, it first outlines the political realism literature—a view in political philosophy that deals with the question of the relation between morality and politics. This view stresses the importance of power in politics and of a political ethics guided by political practice. Second, it uses the concept of change to argue, by analogy, for a realist view of business—a view in (what we might call) business philosophy that stresses the importance of power in business and of a business ethics guided by business practice. Third, it maps influential business ethics frameworks through a lens of business change. Fourth, it states business realism—a new account of morality and power in business ethics. Against this background, it considers the implications of this new account for business ethics and business.\n"]

  May 01, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70109   open full text
• From an Aging Society to a Green Society: Annuity Systems and Corporate Green Technology Innovation.
  Xiaoqiu Chen, Hao Yang, Yilong Li, Qichen Qiu.
  Business Ethics A European Review. 9 days ago
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nPopulation aging and environmental pollution have become critical challenges to global sustainable development. Against this backdrop, we aim to explore the largely underexamined economic role of corporate pension plans in promoting corporate environmental sustainability, beyond their traditional function of mitigating demographic aging risks. Leveraging China's rapid expansion of the second pillar of its pension system, we empirically investigate the association between corporate pension plans and firms' environmental sustainability practices, based on 51,435 firm‐year observations of Chinese A‐share listed firms over the period 2007–2024. Our results indicate that the implementation of annuity systems significantly enhances firms' green technology innovation. This finding remains robust across a battery of identification strategies, including instrumental variable estimation, Heckman two‐stage models, propensity score matching, and placebo tests. Mechanism analyses suggest that annuity systems promote green technology innovation by improving the quality of human resources, alleviating financing constraints, and mitigating managerial myopia. Cross‐sectional analyses further indicate that the effect is more pronounced as Chinese society transitions into the stage of deep aging, particularly in regions with higher levels of population aging, and among firms with greater levels of digitalization and corporate governance. Overall, our study integrates labor market dynamics with socio‐ecological sustainability within the context of population aging, thereby providing novel insights into synergistic pathways for addressing demographic transitions and advancing sustainable development globally.\n"]

  May 01, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70106   open full text
• Responsible Leadership Types: Understanding the Variety and Implications of Different Forms of Leading Responsibly.
  Christian Voegtlin, Andrew Crane.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 26, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nResponsible leadership can be manifested in a variety of ways but we lack understanding of what drives this variation and what the implications are of different approaches. In this conceptual article, we develop a novel typology of responsible leadership approaches based on leaders' different perceived obligations as experts, facilitators, and citizens, giving rise to seven distinct responsible leadership types. We build our arguments on role theory and ground responsible leadership in a psychological perspective. We show what happens when leaders focus on some of these obligations and neglect others, outlining tensions and mutually reinforcing effects of enacting responsibility in these different ways. Our analysis provides new insight on the drivers and challenges of different responsible leadership types and offers scholars and practitioners a new lens through which to study and approach responsible leadership.\n"]

  April 26, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70107   open full text
• The Double‐Edged Sword Effect of Virtual Corporate Social Responsibility Co‐Creation Interactivity on User Stickiness.
  Xue Zhang, Wensong Zhang, Rui Zhang, Baolian Chen, Xin Wen, Jiayuan Wang, Yuxiang An.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 26, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nDriven by digital transformation, the practice logic of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has undergone a revolutionary shift, with virtual CSR co‐creation becoming a hot topic in both industry and academia. However, existing research lacks analysis on the interactive characteristics of virtual CSR co‐creation and their subsequent effects. Based on the conservation of resources theory, this paper constructs a dual‐path model of how virtual CSR co‐creation interactivity affects user stickiness. The results show that virtual CSR co‐creation interactivity has a double‐edged sword effect on user stickiness. The human‐system interaction and human‐human interaction of virtual CSR co‐creation can positively affect user stickiness by enhancing users' perceived benefits, but they can also negatively affect user stickiness by exacerbating users' privacy concerns, with the effect of human‐system interaction being more pronounced. At the same time, the customizability of virtual CSR co‐creation can not only strengthen the positive effect of human‐system interaction and human‐human interaction on users' perceived benefits but also mitigate their negative impact on users' privacy concerns. Moreover, except for the insignificant moderating effect of customizability on the mediating effect of perceived benefits between human‐human interaction and user stickiness, its moderating effect on other mediating paths is significant. This paper provides theoretical guidance and practical insights for enterprises to enhance user stickiness through virtual CSR co‐creation activities.\n"]

  April 26, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70110   open full text
• From Precarity to Moral Authenticity: Butler, Ghazali, and Polycrisis Ethics.
  Abdullah Muhammad Dhrubo.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 16, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nIn contemporary polycrisis scenarios, characterized by intertwined global disruptions, ethical frameworks face significant limitations due to intensified uncertainty, systemic vulnerability, and moral ambiguity. This paper synthesizes Judith Butler's relational ethics of precarity with Abu Hamid al‐Ghazali's Islamic virtue ethics of sincerity (ikhlāṣ) to propose “moral authenticity” as a robust ethical orientation for navigating polycrisis contexts. Butler's emphasis on relational vulnerability demands empathetic and nonviolent ethical responses but lacks concrete guidance for operationalizing these responsibilities. Ghazali's internal virtue‐based approach provides essential moral clarity and intentional alignment but insufficiently addresses structural and relational vulnerabilities. By integrating these perspectives, this study presents four theoretical propositions demonstrating how recognizing stakeholder precarity fosters ethical sincerity, translating awareness into moral authenticity, mitigating moral nihilism, and enhancing organizational ethical resilience. This integrative framework offers both theoretical advancement and practical guidance for authentic ethical leadership and decision‐making amidst profound complexity and uncertainty.\n"]

  April 16, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70105   open full text
• Minority Shareholder Activism and ESG Greenwashing.
  Hao Qian, Zhihong Zhang, Lingyun Yang, Hua Feng.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 03, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe influence of minority shareholder activism on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) greenwashing is examined in this study, and the results reveal that active voting by minority shareholders places pressure on management, thereby increasing their catering behavior in terms of ESG greenwashing. Mechanistic analysis reveals that the pressure from minority shareholder activism leads to managerial myopia, which increases ESG greenwashing. Furthermore, negative sentiment among minority shareholders amplifies management's catering behavior. The heterogeneity test indicates that a concentrated ownership structure can mitigate the positive relationship between minority shareholder activism and ESG greenwashing, while the standalone release of ESG reports can exacerbate ESG greenwashing. This study provides new insights from the perspective of catering theory, offers theoretical support for understanding the impact of minority shareholder activism on ESG greenwashing and provides empirical evidence to inform policies aimed at addressing the negative effects of such activism.\n"]

  April 03, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70103   open full text
• Sustainable or Just Ethical? Revisiting Islamic and ESG Indices Through the Lens of Resilience.
  Abdulkader Aljandali, Mohammed Amine, Dalia ElEdel.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 03, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nAs financial systems face mounting exposure to economic, environmental, and geopolitical shocks, the definition of Corporate Sustainability (CS) is undergoing a fundamental transformation. This paper advances the field by reconceptualizing CS to include resilience—defined as the ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from systemic disruptions—as a core dimension. This theoretical shift raises questions about the sustainability classification of ethically oriented investment frameworks—particularly Islamic and ESG indices—which have traditionally been considered sustainable due to their normative commitments to ethical governance, social responsibility, and environmental stewardship. By placing resilience at the heart of sustainability evaluation, this study provides a novel conceptual lens to distinguish between ideological alignment, structural similarity, and functional convergence in ethical finance. To empirically test this expanded framework, our paper analyzes the behavior of Islamic and ESG markets across eight major crises from 2004 to 2024, encompassing financial, macroeconomic, geopolitical, and public health crises. Using risk‐adjusted return metrics, Value at Risk (VaR), Dynamic Conditional Correlation–GARCH models, and Time‐Varying Parameter Vector Autoregression (TVP‐VAR), we assess risk, connectedness, and hedging effectiveness. Findings reveal complementary resilience profiles: the Islamic market outperforms the ESG market during financial and macroeconomic crises, while ESG exhibits greater robustness during energy‐related and geopolitical shocks. Both indices show strong spillover dynamics and mutual hedging benefits, primarily through exposure to clean energy, commodities, and general equities. In doing so, the paper offers a multidimensional, resilience‐based redefinition of sustainable finance, challenging conventional ESG classifications and advancing a more adaptive understanding of what it means to be truly sustainable in an era of global volatility.\n"]

  April 03, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70104   open full text
• Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Perspective on the Business–Environment–Performance Nexus in an Emerging Market Economy.
  Li KaoDui, Maxwell Kongkuah, Ummar Faruk Saeed, Noha Alessa.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 03, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nSustainability has become a defining challenge for firms in emerging economies, where pressures to address environmental and social concerns increasingly intersect with the need to remain financially competitive. Yet many organizations struggle to show whether sustainability disclosures create measurable business value, particularly in complex supply chain environments. This raises two central questions: To what extent do economic, social, and environmental disclosures affect firm financial performance? And how does Supply Chain Visibility (SCV) influence these effects by strengthening or weakening the disclosure–performance link? To answer these questions, this study develops a conceptual model informed by the Triple Bottom Line theory. The model was tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS‐SEM) with survey data from 120 senior managers of manufacturing firms in Ghana. The findings reveal that all three types of sustainability disclosure are positively associated with financial performance, with environmental disclosure showing the strongest effect. SCV significantly moderates these relationships by enabling firms to monitor, coordinate, and communicate sustainability practices more effectively across their supply chains. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that SCV functions both as a strategic capability and as a mechanism of institutional alignment, allowing firms to convert sustainability commitments into tangible financial outcomes in emerging markets. For managers, the results highlight the value of investing in SCV tools and supplier collaboration to embed sustainability within competitive strategy. For policymakers, the study suggests that incentives for visibility‐enhancing mechanisms can promote more transparent and sustainable industrial ecosystems.\n"]

  April 03, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70100   open full text
• Can External Sustainability Have a Spillover Effect? Buyer's Sustainable Institutional Investor and Supplier's Green Innovation.
  Xiao Yan, Lei Zhang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 24, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study examines the green innovation determinants at the external–external level. The external–external perspective refers to examinations of the impact of a buyer's external stakeholders (institutional investors) on another external party of the buyer (suppliers), with a focus on the former's cross‐organizational sustainability spillover effects on the latter's green innovation. Based on delegated philanthropy and signaling theories, we analyzed 2010–2020 data from Chinese listed firms (970 buyer–investor–supplier pairs). A significant positive correlation is found between buyers' institutional investors' sustainability and suppliers' green innovation. This holds true after robustness checks including the Heckman two‐stage method, Poisson model, instrumental variable test, propensity score matching, hierarchical linear model, and generalized method of moments. This relationship is strengthened by buyer–supplier power dynamics (buyers' power over suppliers and suppliers' industry power) and is more pronounced among buyers in highly regulated industries, among larger buyers, and when suppliers depend more heavily on buyers. This study expands relevant theories and offers practical insights for firms and regulators promoting sustainability.\n"]

  March 24, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70102   open full text
• A Bibliometric Analysis to Study the Evolution of Artificial Intelligence in Business Ethics.
  Mario Tani, Valerio Muto, Gianpaolo Basile, Giulia Nevi.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 655-677, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe contemporary world is witnessing the pervasive diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) across diverse societal domains. Concurrently, the implementation of these technologies in numerous management areas raises novel and critical ethical considerations. Considering that AI is not a neutral technology, this study employs a bibliometric approach to conduct a systematic literature review, aiming to understand the evolution of this nascent field within management studies. Our analysis is limited to publications from 2016 onward, a year widely recognized as marking the onset of significant AI dissemination. By examining the recent years of diffusion and the evolution of this phenomenon, our work reveals a fragmented field. To investigate thematic evolution, we used the Cobo method, partitioning the corpus into three distinct time slices with cut‐off points at 2020 and 2022. The findings indicate that, despite the emergence of key themes and a substantial body of research exploring AI from both technical and philosophical standpoints, the field remains in its initial stages of development. This analysis underscores the increasing relevance of research in management science concerning the responsible and ethical application of AI technologies. Consequently, this area presents considerable opportunities for future management research employing diverse managerial and theoretical frameworks, particularly in relation to the antecedents of ethical AI adoption and the implications of AI for ethical leadership.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12797   open full text
• A New Piece in the Puzzle: Corruption and Financial Constraints—Evidence From European Firms.
  Conrado Diego García‐Gómez, Seda Bilyay‐Erdogan, Ender Demir, José María Díez‐Esteban.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 693-716, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study explores how country‐level corruption affects firm‐level financial constraints. We use a sample of 21 European countries from 2002 to 2022 comprising 22,974 firm‐year observations. We find that corruption increases financial constraints. In other words, as countries become more transparent, firms face fewer financial constraints. Our findings are robust when we employ alternative definitions of corruption, financial constraints, alternative subsamples, additional firm‐level control variables, and different econometric methodologies. As a further analysis, we provide novel evidence that an increase in country‐level transparency decreases financial constraints only for firms with lower information asymmetry, higher institutional ownership, or higher foreign ownership. Finally, this effect is stronger for firms with lower ESG performance and firms without bribery corruption or fraud controversies. Our paper contributes to the literature by employing country‐level corruption indices as a macroeconomic determinant of firm‐level financial constraints for firms in developed countries and by investigating how different firm‐level factors moderate the association between country‐level corruption and firm‐level financial constraints.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12815   open full text
• ‘Clinging Together Against the Dark’: A Pragmatist Reading of Sustainability Conversations.
  Barry A. Colbert, Elizabeth C. Kurucz.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 744-763, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nIn this paper, we present a typology of managers' interpretations of sustainability as ‘narrative fields’ derived from a qualitative multi‐site study and offer a Pragmatist reading of the results. Pragmatism is grounded in an ethic of meliorism, the belief in the possibility of gradually improving the world through human effort and experimentation. Through a Pragmatist lens we see managers talking the way to better futures: continuously negotiating the big idea of sustainability via their myriad interactions with stakeholders and within their evolving constructions and re‐constructions of the relationships among ecology, society, and economy. We find that the contestable concept of sustainability is most usefully conceived as a field of narratives delineated by broad dimensions (discrete/integrated, actual/possible), with sustainability conversations—those that push toward integration and new possibility—as the primary means to move toward living better futures. We conclude with implications for research and management practice.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12816   open full text
• Ethical Implications of the Authoritarian Personality.
  Peter E. Mudrack.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1038-1051, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nAlthough authority relationships are obviously ubiquitous in organizations, management scholars have, curiously, contributed little to the substantial body of research into the authoritarian personality. Moreover, an observed large‐magnitude negative relationship between authoritarianism and ethical relativism, first reported over a quarter century ago, has made almost no meaningful impact on our conceptions of either construct. Perhaps as a consequence, some business ethics researchers have gravitated toward demonstrably inaccurate interpretations of relativism. From these starting points, this paper makes the case that an understanding of the authoritarian personality, with its grounding in low relativism, may provide otherwise unavailable insights into business ethics. Past research reveals that high authoritarians readily comply with authority figures that advocate ethically questionable actions, prioritize the needs of business over concern for the natural environment, appear to lack personal initiative at work, display hostile and aggressive tendencies, and often view diverse others negatively. Awareness of such findings may expand research horizons to include the possibility that highly authoritarian employees might, for example, regard organizational attempts to increase diversity or ‘go green’ as anathema, want no part of participation in decision making, and feel totally justified when engaging in bullying behaviors at work. Managers wanting intelligent and creative employees able both to think for themselves and take initiative, and employees who lack preconceived notions of inferiority about diverse others that has to be overcome when interacting with them at work, should consider hiring persons who are low in authoritarianism.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12826   open full text
• Integrating Social Responsibility and Performance Through Quality Management in Supply Chains: A Balanced Centricity Approach.
  Yubing Yu, Xiuru Zhang, Reham Eltantawy, Yulong David Liu, Justin Zuopeng Zhang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1118-1133, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nIn recent years, sustainability has become increasingly important for both scholars and practitioners of supply chain management (SCM), driven by tighter regulations and strengthening consumer and community pressures. To meet these demands, firms must integrate both environmental and social dimensions into their supply chain strategies and practices. This study focuses on the supply chain social responsibility (SCSR) principle of sustainability, which reflects management orientations toward a commitment to norms underlying the future relationships, information sharing, and product development involvement of suppliers and customers. Specifically, we investigate the linkages among SCSR, management practices, and the resulting supply chain outcomes using a balanced centricity (BC) approach. Our analysis extends quality management (QM) into the supply chain by focusing on two sets of practices—supplier QM (SQM) and customer QM (CQM). For this purpose, data are collected from 209 manufacturing firms and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings confirm the positive relationship between SCSR and QM, emphasizing the significance of responsible behaviors toward both suppliers and customers in shaping the overall QM practices within the firm. Second, we show that effective SQM and CQM practices can contribute to improved overall supply chain performance (SCP). Finally, this study reveals that SQM is a crucial intermediary in linking SCSR with SCP, whereas CQM does not exhibit a similar effect. Our findings contribute to the literature on BC and QM practices in supply chains and have practical implications for firms seeking to improve their sustainability and SCP.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12830   open full text
• The Impact of Non‐Market Strategic Integration on Green Innovation: The Moderating Effect of Shareholding Structure.
  Rong Ran, Xiaoran Yang, Yejing Chen, Jie Zhang, Yijia Xia.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1072-1098, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe effects of non‐market strategic integration are a common concern in both theory and practice. We integrate two non‐market strategies, namely corporate philanthropy in corporate social responsibility and political connection in corporate political activities, and meticulously explore in depth the impact of non‐market strategic integration on green innovation using data from Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2020 based on the principal‐agent theory. We find that two types of non‐market strategic integration, corporate philanthropy in corporate social responsibility and political connections in corporate political activities, negatively affect corporate green innovation because of the emergence of managerial agency problems. Further investigation into the moderating effect of shareholding structures indicates that both cross‐shareholding and multiple large shareholders can alleviate the negative impact of non‐market strategic integration on corporate green innovation. These findings complement the research on the relationship between non‐market strategic integration and value creation by the firm.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12833   open full text
• Exploring Tolerance Towards Corruption in the European Union Through Experienced Corruption, Perceived Corruption and Institutional Trust.
  Begoña Alvarez‐García, Dolores Lagoa‐Varela, Susana Iglesias‐Antelo, Jorge Gallud Cano.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1279-1304, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nCorruption is a major problem that undermines the foundations of democracy and reduces citizens' trust in institutions. However, even in the world's most advanced countries, citizens accept certain levels of corruption. This tolerance towards corruption (TC) reduces the impact of anti‐corruption actions and ends up giving a patina of normality to some corrupt behaviour. Therefore, lowering TC is an important challenge to be faced in the fight against corruption. However, TC is an understudied phenomenon in the literature, with three main gaps: (1) TC has more often been approached as an explanatory variable for other phenomena than as a central variable in the analysis, (2) most of the research studying TC focused on a single country and a single period, which only shows a narrow and static view of the problem and (3) studies are more concerned with knowing the impact of individuals' socio‐demographic characteristics on TC than on understanding how their experience of corruption or their personal perceptions of it may affect it. This paper addresses these gaps by analysing, for the 27‐EU countries over the period 2013–2022, the extent to which TC may depend on (1) experienced corruption, (2) perceived corruption and (3) personal perceptions of the anti‐corruption crackdown. The paper explores the differences among the 27‐EU countries and also takes into account the temporal evolution of TC by analysing whether there are differences before and after the COVID‐19 pandemic. This paper provides strong evidence that the greater the exposure to corruption, the greater the TC in all the time scenarios considered, which could eventually lead to a very dangerous vicious circle effect. However, no evidence is found in favour of above relations 2 and 3, nor of significant differences between before and after the pandemic. These findings highlight the importance for policymakers and other authorities to devise corrective measures to prevent citizens from being exposed to corruption by promoting a culture of zero TC.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12834   open full text
• Is Normative or Strategic CSR Better? The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Social Evaluations.
  Min Huang, Mengyao Li, Siwei Zhu, Dong Wang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1247-1262, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nBuilding on the literature on optimal distinctiveness, this study explores the differential impacts of normative versus strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on social evaluations. We argue that normative CSR, which entails conformity in the scope of CSR, mitigates negative social evaluations, whereas strategic CSR, which emphasizes differentiation in CSR practices, enhances positive social evaluations. Additionally, we examine the moderating factors influencing these relationships. Using the case of corporate social activities of Chinese listed firms during the period from 2006 to 2019, our results show that the mitigating effect of normative CSR on negative evaluations is more pronounced in firms with higher reputational risk. Conversely, the relationship between strategic CSR and positive social evaluations is stronger among firms with lower levels of peers' strategic CSR. Furthermore, we demonstrate that negative and positive social evaluations serve as mechanisms through which normative and strategic CSR, respectively, influence market outcomes. These findings contribute to the optimal distinctiveness theory and advance research on CSR strategy.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12836   open full text
• Female Directors' Independence and Corporate Environmental Strategy in Chinese Firms: The Moderating Role of Negative Performance Feedback.
  Jianzu Wu, Xinyu Guo, Chongchong Lyu.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1194-1212, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nPrevious research examining the impact of board gender diversity on corporate environmental strategies has yielded mixed results, leaving the specific role of female directors' independence underexplored. To address this gap, this study developed a behavior‐selection model based on agency theory and the behavioral theory of the firm to examine the influence of female directors' independence on corporate environmental strategies, as well as the moderating role of negative performance feedback. Evidence from 3821 Chinese listed companies between 2011 and 2020 reveals that female independent directors have a positive impact on corporate environmental strategies, whereas female non‐independent directors have a negative impact. Furthermore, these relationships are weakened by negative performance feedback. These findings extend the existing body of knowledge, providing a more nuanced investigation into the influence of board gender diversity on corporate environmental strategies. The insights gained from this study hold practical significance for corporations and regulatory bodies aiming to bolster environmental stewardship through enhancing board gender diversity.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12837   open full text
• Symphony of Circular Economy Target Performance: Un‐Echoing the Bright Harmony of Green Environmental Performance Among Tourism Industry.
  Ghadeer Alsanie, Zahid Yousaf, Maria Palazzo.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1169-1179, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis research investigated the role of green environmental practices (GEP) for the improvement of circular economy target performance (CETP). Given importance to human well‐being, this study examines the function of GEP, zero waste practices (ZWP) and pollution reduction for CETP. Moreover, the mediation of ZWP and pollution reduction is also tested between GEP and CETP. Furthermore, the moderating effect of enviropreneurship and greener energies is also tested. The tourism sector of China was selected as a unit of analysis. With the help of systematic sampling, we collect data from 391 front‐line managers working in the tourism sector of China. Correlation, structural equation modeling (SEM), and moderated hierarchical regression approaches were used to analyze the research data. The results revealed that GEP has a positive effect on pollution reduction and ZWP, which in turn improve CETP of the tourism sector. The findings confirmed the foundational role of GEP, pollution reduction, and ZWP for CETP. Moreover, greener energies also strengthen the link between GEP and pollution reduction. Finally, the outcomes also highlighted the role of enviropreneurship and greener energies in promoting CETP.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12843   open full text
• Strategic Sustainability Initiatives and the Circular Economy: Insights From Firm‐Level Targets, Board Dynamics, Stakeholder Pressure, and Digital Transformation.
  Abednego Osei, Andrew Osei Agyemang, Joana Cobbinah.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 764-789, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study contributes to the literature on sustainability, innovation, and corporate governance by advancing the understanding of the circular economy (CE) through an analysis of firm‐level sustainability targets, board dynamics, stakeholder pressure, and digital transformation within firms in the MENA region. Drawing on resource‐based, stakeholder, and innovation theories, we developed models linking sustainability targets and board dynamics to CE performance, with stakeholder pressure as a mediator and digital transformation as a moderator. We tested these hypotheses using data from 647 publicly listed manufacturing companies in the MENA region, spanning 2010–2022. By employing robust econometric techniques, we found strong evidence that embedding sustainability incentives in executive compensation and implementing structured sustainability initiatives significantly enhance CE performance. Additionally, effective boardroom characteristics positively influence CE adoption, while stakeholder pressure mediates the relationship between sustainability targets, board dynamics, and CE performance. Similarly, digital transformation reinforces sustainability governance, strengthening the role of board dynamics and sustainability targets in driving CE adoption. Finally, our findings highlight regional and performance‐based differences in how MENA firms implement sustainability targets and board dynamics to influence CE outcomes. The results remain consistent after multiple robustness tests, including rolling window analysis, sensitivity analysis, and endogeneity tests. The findings emphasize the need for incentive‐driven policies that integrate CE principles into corporate governance, promote sustainability‐linked executive compensation, enhance board diversity, and support digital transformation initiatives. Policymakers should also standardize CE reporting frameworks to align with global sustainability commitments, ensuring transparency, accountability, and long‐term sustainability adoption.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12818   open full text
• From the Shallows to the Shelves and Back: A Review, Synthesis, and Research Agenda for Socially Sustainable, AI‐Driven Digital Fashion Supply Chains.
  Guli‐Sanam Karimova, Stephen A. LeMay, Alina Müller, Matthias Klumpp.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1230-1246, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe fashion supply chain is undergoing a transformation driven by AI, with significant implications for social sustainability and ethics. This study examines how AI‐powered innovations optimize supply chain operations, enhance transparency, and support ethical labor practices. Through a systematic literature review, we identify key challenges and opportunities, emphasizing the role of AI in fostering circular economy models, responsible sourcing, and stakeholder collaboration. Our findings propose a research agenda centered on policy frameworks, technological advancements, and ethical AI governance. This study contributes to the discourse on socially sustainable and ethical AI adoption in fashion supply chains, offering insights for researchers and industry leaders.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12839   open full text
• Legitimation and Trust Strategies for Sustainability in and for Global Sport Events: The Case of the ‘Climate Positive’ Brisbane 2032 Olympics.
  David M. Herold, Shannon Colville, Nadine Kathrin Ostern, Marleen Voss.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1158-1168, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nInternational sport governing bodies are increasingly under scrutiny due to their questionable environmental sustainability records of global sport events, thereby facing a potential legitimacy gap and loss of trust that the proclaimed sustainability goals can be achieved. However, despite the critical importance of legitimacy and trust for sustainability in and for sport events management, sport academics have not only stayed relatively silent on this important relationship and the distinction between those two concepts, but also on the strategies that can be implemented to increase legitimacy and trust. As a response, we use the case of the upcoming Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games—the first to be contractually obliged to be delivered as ‘climate positive’—to examine the role of legitimacy and trust for sustainability in global sport events. Based on secondary data, we (a) provide a taxonomy distinguishing legitimacy and trust aspects, (b) present a framework explicating the relationships between legitimacy and trust aspects for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, and (c) suggest concrete strategies to increase legitimacy and trust for the climate positive Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games. These findings will support local authorities, sport event managers, and policymakers in their decision making leading up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12838   open full text
• Does Corporate Environmental Responsibility Enhance Environmental Performance? Evidence From Emerging Economies.
  Adnan Ali, Qian Yang, Zeeshan Ali, Afzaal Ali.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1134-1157, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nDespite the recognized importance of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) in advancing firms' performance in emerging economies like China, its role in enhancing environmental performance (EP) remains underexplored in the existing literature. Drawing on institutional perspective, this study aims to investigate the relationship between CER and EP and how environmental factors—such as political ties (PT), institutional development, and industry competition—shape this relationship. Using a dataset of 635 Chinese‐listed firms from 2011 to 2022, we test the theoretical model using a fixed‐effects regression model. The results demonstrate that CER positively influences firms' EP. Additionally, findings reveal that PT and institutional development strengthen the positive relationship between CER and EP, while industry competition weakens it. These results remain robust across alternative measures and endogeneity checks, including Heckman two‐stage, Propensity Score Matching, two‐stage least squares, and a 1‐year lag model. Overall, this study contributes to corporate business ethics and environmental management literature in emerging economies by providing new insights into the conditions under which CER impacts EP. Moreover, it offers valuable practical implications for managers and policymakers in implementing CER to improve environmental outcomes more effectively.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12831   open full text
• Legitimacy and Opportunism: Examining Climate Risk and Green Mergers and Acquisitions in Polluting Firms.
  Silu Pang, Guihong Hua, Yuanchu Liu.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1052-1071, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nCorporate green mergers and acquisitions (GM&As) activities are perceived as important signals of legitimacy. However, amidst the pressing climate crisis, GM&As by companies may be driven by opportunistic behavior with instrumental motives, especially in emerging markets. Drawing on dual legitimacy theory, we examine how climate risk shapes polluting firms' GM&A decisions. Using a dataset of M&As by polluting listed companies in China, we find that firms facing higher climate risks are more likely to undertake GM&As, but this impact is not sustained in the long run. We also find that this relationship depends on the reactive pressure transmission mechanism of climate risk and is positively moderated by executive environmental background and industry competition. Further evidence suggests that under climate risk pressures, GM&As by polluting firms may be more instrumentally motivated, as these firms tend to adopt a “scale over quality” approach to GM&As. Moreover, their post‐GM&A environmental investments and carbon reduction outcomes show no significant improvement, indicating an escalation in greenwashing behaviors. Our research provides new causal evidence for stakeholders to discern the true motivations behind GM&A activities of polluting firms.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12829   open full text
• Norms Over Threats and Trends: A Managerial Perspective on the Role of Normative Pressures in Motivating Sustainable Strategies and Positive Outcomes.
  Alina Marculetiu, Cigdem Ataseven, Injazz J. Chen.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 995-1016, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study investigates the effectiveness of institutional pressures in motivating two contrasting sustainability strategies, symbolic and substantive, and their subsequent impact on the triple bottom line (TBL). Using data from 388 US supply chain professionals, this research applies institutional theory and structural equation modeling to examine key informants' perceptions of the antecedents–strategies–results paradigm. Findings reveal that normative pressures uniquely drive symbolic and substantive strategies, while coercive and mimetic pressures lack significant influence. Substantive strategies are positively associated with all TBL dimensions—economic, social, and environmental—while symbolic strategies show limited benefits, impacting only economic performance. This study contributes to institutional theory by highlighting the primacy of internal norms over external pressures in driving meaningful sustainability outcomes and questions the efficacy of compliance and imitative pressures. The insights provide valuable implications for managers and policymakers, emphasizing the need to cultivate sustainability‐oriented organizational cultures and strategies to achieve TBL performance.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12827   open full text
• Navigating Acceptance of Paradoxical Tensions: A Self‐Efficacy Perspective on Paradox and Goal Setting Theories.
  Alice Alosi, Giulia Casamento, Eleonora Annunziata, Francesco Rizzi, Marco Frey.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 954-975, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study examines how individuals accept and navigate paradoxical tensions within a sustainability context, using a multiple case study of five Italian companies implementing circularity measurement tools. By exploring the interplay between self‐efficacy and acceptance of paradoxical tensions, drawing upon the Goal Setting and Paradox theories, we found that self‐efficacy and collective efficacy are significant drivers for accepting paradoxical tensions at the individual level. The study contributes to the literature on Corporate Sustainability by better understanding tension management through two key findings. Firstly, based on our results, we propose a model that describes the motivational roles of self‐efficacy and collective efficacy within “reactive‐leader centric” and “proactive‐team centric” organisations. Secondly, it reveals how training and information sharing reinforce self‐efficacy and collective efficacy. This study also offers practical managerial insights, suggesting strategies for enhancing self‐efficacy and collective efficacy in organisational settings, thereby facilitating the successful navigation of paradoxical tensions in pursuing circular economy goals.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12825   open full text
• Food Sharing Platforms as a Technology to Reduce Food Waste at Food Service Level: Recommendations for Businesses and Society.
  Ludovica Principato, Camilla Comis, Mengting Yu, Luca Secondi.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 860-875, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nDespite the growing awareness of food waste (FW) issues, there is still a lack of comprehensive studies that examine the perspectives of food service professionals and their FW management, particularly regarding food sharing practices. This paper investigates the perspectives of food service establishments on FW mitigation and on their engagement with digital technologies such as food‐sharing platforms. Adopting a mixed‐methods approach, it explores the motivations, challenges, and dynamics associated with public establishments' involvement in FW mitigation. Primarily, this paper addresses 4 key questions: (1) the significance of FW mitigation challenges among public establishments in Italy, (2) the driving factors and FW mitigation potential, (3) the impacts of digital technology adoption on public services, and (4) strategies to enhance the acceptability and effectiveness of digital technologies for FW mitigation. Our findings reveal a high level of awareness within public administration in particular about FW and its impacts, especially economic loss. Challenges in FW mitigation stem from both internal and external factors, including implementation costs and client preferences. Indeed, the results reveal a discrepancy between our intentions and actions, often due to utility and perceptual barriers, the service challenges faced by clients, and differences in business performance across establishments. The study stresses the need for inclusive technology adoption to make the best use of digital tools in FW reduction. Strategies should address internal and external barriers while capitalizing on diversity motivations driving public sector engagement with FW mitigation. Practical implications include promoting inclusion in digital transition and targeted interventions to reduce FW in the food service sector. Overall, the study makes a theoretical contribution to this topic and offers insights for policymakers and stakeholders seeking to enhance more sustainable and circular food systems.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12823   open full text
• Director Network Centrality and Firm Green Innovation: Moderating Effect of Absorptive Capacity.
  Shiquan Wang, Jingxin Lv.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 876-894, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nGreen innovation has garnered extensive concern in academia and practice as a systematic project oriented to accelerate the concordant development of economy and environment. Rooted in social network theory and resource dependence theory, the present study empirically examines the influence of director network centrality on green innovation and the moderating effect of absorptive capacity by using Chinese manufacturing listed companies as a sample. Regression results indicate director network centrality significantly boosts firm green innovation. Moreover, absorptive capacity serves as a positive moderator in the association between director network centrality and firm green innovation. Extended analysis demonstrates the impact of director network centrality on firm green innovation is predominantly driven by non‐independent directors. Director network centrality plays a more pronounced role in stimulating substantive green innovation compared to strategic green innovation. These findings not only enrich the existing literature regarding the consequences of director network and drivers of firm green innovation, but also provide guidance on how to improve firm green innovation practice.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12822   open full text
• The Catholic Social Teaching‐Inspired Work Organization.
  Gabor Kovacs.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 850-859, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis paper introduces Catholic Social Teaching‐inspired (CST‐inspired) work organization based on a qualitative explorative study conducted with 11 Catholic business leaders from Hungary. The schematic model of CST‐inspired work organization suggests that this alternative form of work organization (AFWO) is based on adhering to the principles of human dignity and the dignity of work. Catholic business leaders apply initiatives and business practices that (i) support the work‐life balance and family lives of their employees, (ii) create a homely working environment, and (iii) sustain employee retention and practice a humane dismissal, if needed, within the framework of CST‐inspired work organization, to promote their employees' personal development. In return, Catholic business leaders experience noneconomic rewards like (i) a good working atmosphere, (ii) employee loyalty, and (iii) employees contributing beyond what has been formally agreed. The findings of the study that promoting human dignity and the dignity of work pay off may encourage not only Christians but any business leader.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12821   open full text
• How Important Is Corporate Social Responsibility for Corporate Financial Performance?: A Machine Learning Prediction and Model Interpretability Approach.
  Ephraim Kwashie Thompson, Samuel Buertey, So‐Yeun Kim.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 895-913, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nCorporate social responsibility (CSR) has become central to corporate strategy, yet its impact on corporate financial performance (CFP) remains debated. Existing literature, which often relies on conventional statistical methods, overlooks the complex, nonlinear interactions between CSR and CFP. This study revisits the CSR‐CFP relationship by analyzing CSR's contribution to predicting CFP and identifying the most influential CSR dimensions on financial outcomes using interpretable machine learning models, specifically Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP). Based on data from the South African market (2015–2019), the results show that while CSR influences CFP, its impact is less strong than other factors, such as firm characteristics, shareholding structures, and board attributes. Among CSR dimensions, governance exerts the strongest effect on CFP, positively impacting market value but negatively affecting profitability. These findings challenge the assumption that robust CSR practices always correlate with financial success, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of CSR's role in CFP and considering competing organizational and financial factors.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12820   open full text
• Mapping Research Into Religion in Family Firms: Conceptual Framework Development.
  Tobias Koellner, Muhammad Anwar.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 815-849, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nReligion research is gaining prominence in family firms due to its strong connection to family traditions, values, and culture. This expanding literature highlights the need for systematic, bibliometric, and meta‐studies to comprehensively understand religion's role in family businesses. Addressing this gap, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of 131 documents (1992–2024) from Scopus. Alongside descriptive analyses, we rigorously reviewed these documents, identifying major theories, methods, and frameworks in the field. Co‐citation analysis revealed three intellectual foundations: ethics and values, family dynamics, and decision‐making with financial performance. Bibliographic coupling identified four emerging research areas: spirituality and decision‐making, ethics and values, family unity and traditions, and entrepreneurial activities. The thematic analysis highlighted the most and least explored topics about the role of religion in family businesses. Based on these insights, we developed a conceptual model and a framework outlining antecedents, moderators, mediators, and outcomes in the study of religion in family firms. Consequently, this study identifies research gaps and proposes future directions to advance scholarship in this field.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12819   open full text
• Recognition as an Alternative Form of Work Organization: A Case Study of Three Free/Libre Open‐Source Software Projects.
  Roland Bessenay.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1180-1193, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nFree/libre open‐source software (FLOSS) projects are Internet‐based initiatives that organize work without any remuneration or task prescription. Although celebrated by some authors and criticized by others, few studies have attempted to understand what alternative form of work organization (AFWO) replaces the contract‐based organization in these projects. Some critical authors propose that recognition may constitute a noncontractual form of organization, a perspective that has not generated uniform agreement among scholars. Therefore, we explore the enabling conditions of recognition‐based organization in FLOSS projects by studying the cases of Wiktionary, OpenStreetMap, and Debian. First, we show that what we call “recognition‐based organizations” manifest themselves in interpersonal practices organizing work quality and utility, and which are the result of a tension between the contributors' need for a sense of pride and meaningfulness, and the absence of remuneration and prescriptive tasks. We then suggest, on the basis of four discussed proposals, that the autonomy and gratuitousness of FLOSS projects must coexist in order to constitute a sustainable AFWO, or else risk giving rise to phenomena of struggle for recognition or isolation.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12841   open full text
• How Environmental Leadership Influences Performance Outcomes: A Study of the Manufacturing Sector.
  Junaid Aftab, Feng Wei, Muhammad Ishtiaq Ishaq, Nabila Abid.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 930-953, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nDrawing on the ability‐motivation‐opportunity (AMO) theory and the resource‐based view (RBV), this study argues that environmental transformational leadership (ETL) enhances both economic and environmental performance through green human resource management (GHRM). It also examines the moderating role of environmental knowledge in the relationship between ETL and GHRM. Furthermore, this study posits that big data analytical capabilities (BDAC) strengthen the impact of GHRM on economic and environmental performance. Using a random sampling approach, we collected multi‐respondent data from 355 manufacturing firms, incorporating insights from first‐level managers and top executives. Structural equation modeling was employed as our analytical technique. The findings confirm that GHRM significantly mediates the effect of ETL on both economic and environmental performance. However, contrary to expectations, environmental knowledge does not moderate the ETL–GHRM relationship. In contrast, BDAC strengthens the influence of GHRM on economic and environmental performance. This study contributes to the leadership literature by identifying the underlying mechanism (how) and boundary conditions (when) through which ETL influences firms' performance outcomes.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12817   open full text
• CEO's Demographic, Governance, and Career Factors in Environmental and Sustainable Performance: Evidence From China M&A Cases.
  Dan Li, Umer Sahil Maqsood.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 717-743, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study aims to assess the influence of CEO demographic, governance, and career‐related factors on the environmental sustainable performance (ESP) of corporations in the post‐merger era of Chinese M&A, spanning the years 2008–2022. We evaluate firms' overall ESP by considering both environmental and sustainability outcomes. Additionally, the ownership structure is examined by comparing state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs). The findings reveal that certain CEO demographic traits, such as education, age, and gender, exert a positive and significant influence on firms' ESP. This suggests that gender diversity, experienced leadership, and highly educated CEOs contribute to enhanced ESP in M&A contexts. Among CEO governance and career factors, only CEO tenure positively impacts corporate ESP, as longer tenured CEOs are more likely to implement and sustain long‐term sustainable practices within M&A firms. Interestingly, while ownership structure remains consistent across SOEs and POEs, CEO career factors, particularly retired CEOs and CEO tenure, show significant effects only in POEs. Overall, our findings provide valuable insights for future research and policy development to promote improved ESP in the evolving landscape of Chinese M&A.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12814   open full text
• Affective Orchestration at the Helm! Unraveling CEO Affects' Effect on Corporate ESG Performance.
  Ming Yuan, Xuetong Wang, Xuekun Suo, Han Lin, Mingchuan Yu, Wan Jiang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 636-654, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe role of CEO affects in influencing corporate ESG performance is underexplored, despite the growing importance of ESG factors in modern business strategy. Previous literature suggests that CEO emotions can impact corporate decisions, but the specific relationship between CEO affects and ESG outcomes remains unclear. Using panel data from 35,078 firm‐year observations spanning from 2010 to 2022, we examine the nonlinear relationship between CEO positive and negative affects and corporate ESG performance. Our results reveal that CEO positive affects exhibit an inverted U‐shaped relationship with ESG performance, where moderate positive affects enhance ESG outcomes, while excessive positivity undermines them. Additionally, we find that CEO negative affects are negatively correlated with ESG performance. Media pressure moderates these relationships, amplifying the negative effects of negative affects and mitigating the impact of extreme positive affects on ESG performance. This investigation contributes significantly to our understanding of how CEO affects impact ESG performance and provides guidance for achieving sustainable development objectives.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12813   open full text
• High‐Temperature Risk and Corporate Social Responsibility in China.
  Yongliang Yang, Shijia Xie, Mengmeng Qiang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 619-635, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nIn the context of global climate change, this study examines the performance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in response to increasing high‐temperature risk. Using data from Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2020, we find that companies located in cities with higher climate risk exhibit a marked improvement in their CSR practices, and this conclusion is robust after conducting a series of robustness tests. Moreover, high‐temperature risk has a greater impact on CSR for companies that face higher financing costs, have a high equity concentration, or are particularly temperature‐sensitive. This study also provides evidence that increased exposure to high temperatures causes a decline in firms' financial performance, and the heightened CSR lessens such negative effects. These findings indicate the importance for both policymakers and firms to increase their awareness of climate risks, with a specific focus on integrating CSR strategies to enhance climate resilience.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12812   open full text
• How to Reduce Time Theft Behavior in Telework: A Moral Self‐Regulation Perspective.
  Bingqian Liang, Lingyu Jin, Weiwei Huo, Yi Shi.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 678-692, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nDespite the growing prevalence of telework in the workplace, the impact of telework extent on deviant workplace behaviors, especially time theft, has received scant research attention. Notwithstanding common assumptions, Microsoft and Ctrip have demonstrated in practice that telework does not necessarily lead to time theft among teleworkers. Inspired by these insights, the current research leverages the theoretical perspective of moral self‐regulation, proposing that telework extent threatens moral justification and displacement of responsibility, thereby reducing time theft behavior. The strength of these above indirect effects is contingent upon the key individual moral trait of teleworkers, namely moral attentiveness. This moderated mediation model is validated through a three‐wave study involving a sample of 304 teleworkers. Implications of how telework extent influences time theft behaviors from the moral self‐regulation perspective are discussed.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12809   open full text
• Integral Human Development Through Culture: The Olivetti Blueprint for Unleashing Creative Forces.
  Rosa Fioravante, Antonino Vaccaro, Mara Del Baldo.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 790-814, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study explores the exemplary case of an organization pursuing a cultural strategy to support the Integral Human Development (IHD) of its critical internal and external stakeholders. It presents the historical case of Olivetti, the first Italian multinational company, in the period 1930–1970. Olivetti's approach to corporate social responsibility is well‐documented, while its cultural approach, extensively used in managerial practice around the world for almost a century, has been underexplored in organizational and business ethics research. Our findings reveal the Olivetti Cultural Strategy (OCS) that is characterized by different processes of engagement of key personalities with humanistic and artistic backgrounds. These processes integrate individuals through professionalization and collaboration with technical corporate profiles, support their humanistic and artistic vocations, and provide “freedom space” for cultural outputs. These outputs benefit internal and external stakeholders across the three dimensions of IHD: freedom, relationality, and transcendence. This study contributes to debates on the critical role of the humanities and the arts in humanizing business and on how cultural activities can be leveraged by companies to support IHD for their internal and external stakeholders.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12807   open full text
• Environmental, Social, and Governance in Family Firms: A Bibliometric Review and Agenda for Future Research.
  ChangYi Zhu, Alexandra Simón Villar, BingBing Ge.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 593-613, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis paper reviews the literature on the relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) engagement and family firms. Drawing from mainstream databases, it identifies and analyzes 34 pivotal articles. Research on ESG and family firms is still emerging, but inconsistent findings and paradoxes obscure the field. Specifically, variations in theory, region, and research methods shape the relationship between family firms and ESG. This study uses bibliometric analysis to synthesize the literature to clarify ESG performance and its implications for family firms. Building on these findings, it proposes a theory‐driven research agenda to address existing gaps and guide future studies. By advancing theoretical frameworks, this study enhances the understanding of ESG in family firms and outlines directions for further research.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12805   open full text
• Redefining Purpose: The Effect of the 2019 Business Roundtable Statement on Corporate Tax Strategies.
  Sadok El Ghoul, Omrane Guedhami, Rana Jamshed.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 914-929, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nBusiness Roundtable (BRT) firms have faced intense scrutiny from investors, media, and the public following their 2019 “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation,” which marked a shift from shareholder‐centric governance to a stakeholder‐focused approach. This shift has sparked debate over whether BRT firms are genuinely committed to social responsibility or merely using it as a branding strategy without implementing meaningful changes. This paper contributes to the debate by empirically examining a key dimension of social responsibility—corporate tax behavior. Using a difference‐in‐difference analysis covering 2004–2022, we find that BRT firms engage in higher levels of tax avoidance than other publicly listed U.S. firms. More importantly, our results indicate that BRT firms have not significantly adjusted their tax behavior since the 2019 Statement, suggesting a disconnect between their stated commitment and actual practices. Our findings provide new insights into the social responsibility of BRT firms and contribute to the broader literature on the relationship between corporate tax avoidance and CSR.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12804   open full text
• Are CEOs With High Self‐Perceived Status More Likely to be Green Innovation Advocates? Evidence From Chinese Private Enterprises.
  Xinyi Hua, Juelin Yin, Xueji Liang, Dima Jamali, Jintao Lu.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 574-592, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nChief executive officer (CEO) status is increasingly recognized as a significant intrinsic factor in enterprises' strategic decisions. However, insufficient attention has been given to whether and how a CEO's self‐perceived status influences corporate green innovation. Drawing from the upper echelons theory, we examine the impact of a CEO's self‐perceived status on corporate green innovation. Using a unique dataset of 6478 Chinese private enterprises in 2016 and 2018, we find that high self‐perceived status endows CEOs with motivation (e.g., self‐esteem and status maintenance needs) and capabilities (e.g., risk‐taking and resource acquisition) that contribute to their increased green innovation investment. Further, we integrate institutional theory to reveal how three institutional contingencies—government environmental regulation, peer green pressure, and environmental social norms—amplify such enhancing effect of a CEO's self‐perceived status on green innovation. Our findings, which integrate micro and macro drivers, contribute to an enhanced understanding of the antecedents of green innovation from the perspective of CEO psychology and cognition as a result of how they construe their social status and clarify the institutional boundary conditions of the link between CEOs' self‐perceived status and green innovation.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12803   open full text
• Capabilities Approach to Working From Home: Is It the Path to Work Engagement and Work‐Life Balance?
  João J. Ferreira, Pedro Ferreira, João M. Lopes, Sofia Gomes, Marina Dabic.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 976-994, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study investigates the role of the capabilities approach (as an ethical framework in management) on the well‐being of workers in the context of working from home. A capabilities approach was used to examine the relationship between work engagement and work‐life balance. Additionally, the conceptual model tested the role of trust as a mediator. The European Working Conditions Survey was the source of data for this study. Participants were selected based on their self‐reported frequency of working from home. The final sample consisted of 23,748 participants. The hypothesis of the conceptual model was tested using the Partial Least Square (PLS) method for data analysis. The results show that, in general, the list of capabilities is empirically valid, presenting a significant relationship with work engagement and work‐life balance, either directly or when mediated by trust. Based on the results of this work, organizations gain access to a set of guidelines on how to manage working from home based on the principles of the capabilities approach and liberated companies. This study presents the first empirical validation of the model's capabilities and demonstrates the application of the capabilities approach to the context of working from home.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12802   open full text
• Audit Committee Characteristics and Sustainability Performance: The Mediating Role of Sustainability Reporting Quality.
  Rosalinda Santonastaso, Riccardo Macchioni, Claudia Zagaria.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1213-1229, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study examines the impact of audit committee characteristics, specifically independence and expertise, on sustainability performance. It also explores the mediating role of sustainability reporting quality in the relationship between audit committee characteristics and sustainability performance. The study analyzes a sample of 8336 firm‐year observations across 18 European countries and 10 economic sectors from 2012 to 2022. The results reveal that audit committee independence and expertise are positively associated with sustainability performance. Furthermore, the quality of sustainability reporting mediates this relationship, explaining how audit committee characteristics enhance sustainability performance. Empirical evidence regarding the relationship between audit committees and sustainability performance within European countries is limited. Prior research mainly focuses on the direct effects of audit committees on sustainability performance. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that provides useful evidence regarding the mediating impact of sustainability reporting quality on the relationship between audit committee characteristics and sustainability performance, offering novel insights into this underexplored area. The findings offer important implications for managers focused on identifying the drivers and enablers for improving sustainability performance. They also contribute to the ongoing regulatory debate by highlighting that a deeper understanding of audit committees' composition and expertise would make European companies more sustainable and more focused on enhancing the quality of sustainability reporting.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12842   open full text
• The Co‐Optation of Gender Equity Issues in Empirical Business Research: A Systematic Literature Review.
  Larthia Gaspari, Marco Giuliani.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1263-1278, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe aim of this study is to develop a conceptual framework for examining how gender equity issues are co‐opted within CSR activities, focusing on empirical, business‐related studies. The authors investigate how companies navigate the co‐optation of gender equity, its subphenomena, underlying conditions, and employed strategies. A systematic literature review was conducted, followed by a thematic analysis due to the limited research available on this subject. The findings reveal that companies often engage in “CSR‐washing” practices, specifically fem‐washing, gender‐washing, pink‐washing, or rainbow‐washing, depending on the target audience and strategic objectives. These practices typically involve superficial actions or messaging that fail to address structural inequalities, using gender equity themes primarily for reputation management or profit‐driven motives. While this study provides valuable insights, it is limited by its reliance on the Scopus database, which excludes nonindexed sources. Additionally, the subjective nature of thematic analysis may result in varying interpretations by different researchers. Despite these limitations, this study makes a significant contribution to gender‐related CSR research. It offers a systematic overview of the conceptual boundaries, practical manifestations, and contributing factors involved in the co‐optation of gender equity issues. This framework lays a strong foundation for future research, particularly quantitative studies and critical analyses of CSR‐washing strategies. Additionally, it underscores the importance of structural reforms to ensure authentic gendered CSR practices and highlights the need for stronger regulatory frameworks and standardized reporting to enhance transparency and accountability.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12844   open full text
• Silent No More: How Minority Shareholder and ESG Ratings Propel Environmental Innovation in China.
  Shanshan Yue, Saleh F. A. Khatib, Guang Ye, Norkhairul Hafiz B. Bajuri, Farid Ullah.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1305-1331, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nEnvironmental innovation (EI) plays a pivotal role in achieving sustainable development. However, the influence of minority shareholder protection (MSP) on EI remains insufficiently explored. This research investigates the impact of MSP on EI within an emerging economy, considering ESG ratings as an interactive component. By analyzing a decade dataset spanning 2013–2022, comprising 4234 firms with 33,718 observations, this study finds that MSP exerts a positive effect on EI performance. Although prevailing literature emphasizes minority shareholders' inclination toward short‐term gains, our findings suggest that strong ESG ratings help counteract this tendency, encouraging a more active engagement. Moreover, an assessment incorporating international ESG standards highlights the importance of tailoring such frameworks to the specific needs of developing economies. Firm characteristics and regulatory intensity can be the channels for MSP propelling EI performance. Regional variations in China further demonstrate that ESG ratings function most effectively as regulatory instruments in the central region, where they reinforce corporate alignment with sustainability objectives. The robustness of these conclusions is confirmed through two‐stage IV‐GMM and propensity score matching (PSM) estimations. Drawing on stakeholder and signaling theories, this study offers fresh insights into corporate governance and sustainability. It expands stakeholder theory by illustrating how MSP can harmonize with corporate sustainability goals, while signalling theory underscores ESG's role in signaling long‐term commitment. Practically, these findings emphasize the necessity of embedding ESG principles within corporate governance frameworks, recommending that policymakers enhance MSP and ESG disclosure mechanisms. Future studies could examine additional sustainability strategies across varying industrial and regulatory landscapes.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12846   open full text
• Revisiting Research on Gender Equality and Sustainability Multi‐Stakeholder Initiatives: A Scoping Review.
  Tanja Verena Matheis, Christian Herzig.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1099-1117, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nConcerns about the slow progress in gender equality, both globally and within corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, prompt a critical assessment of “gendered CSR,” that is, women's empowerment programs and partnerships driven by the private sector. Sustainability multi‐stakeholder initiatives (MSIs), such as Fairtrade International and the Rainforest Alliance, are prevalent channels and initiators of trainings, leadership seminars or “women‐produced” marketing programs. While MSIs aim to improve working conditions, occupational safety, and labor rights—especially for women—the scope and impact of these interventions remain insufficiently assessed. To map the growing evidence for more concerted action in favor of SDG 5, gender equality, we bring the diverse literature on sustainability MSIs into a conversation with feminist perspectives by means of a systematic scoping review. Informed by feminist organization studies, we analyze problem definitions, organizational challenges, and solution pathways, focusing on the experiences of women workers and producers in the Global South. Our findings reveal a broad range of gender‐related efforts, often based on the assumption that empowering individuals leads to the claiming of rights. While some studies highlight structural inequalities perpetuated in the global economy, others point to women's alternative organizing and resistance in the context of sustainability MSIs. We contribute to the academic debate by broadening the notion of gendered CSR and identifying a middle ground between women‐centered approaches and systemic critiques. Practically, the review helps clarify how gender issues are framed and addressed at different levels of intervention while also acknowledging tensions between empowerment initiatives and the persistent inequalities embedded in the global economy.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12828   open full text
• Corruption Detection Through Textual Analysis: Evidence From Eurozone Banks.
  Rodolfo Damiano, Salvatore Polizzi, Enzo Scannella, Giuseppe Valenza.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 23, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 1017-1037, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis research investigates the disclosure of banking institutions by analyzing their annual reports to identify the determinants capable of signaling possible corruption scandals. A textual analysis was conducted on the financial reports of 42 Eurozone banks from the period 2013 to 2022. Drawing on impression management theory, we combine an advanced large language model (LLM) and dictionary approach to extract and analyze the governance‐related textual content of the banks in the sample. Machine learning algorithms—including random forests, support vector machines, gradient boosting, and naive Bayes classifiers—and logistic regression have been employed to verify whether disclosure indicators allow for the identification of corruption scandals from a preventive perspective. Our findings show that specific textual measures can be used to analyze the association between disclosure and corruption events and as predictive tools to detect corruption scandals before they become public domain. Our study has several implications, particularly for supervisors and investors who can proactively leverage our findings to identify possible corruption scandals in banks by analyzing their financial disclosures.\n"]

  March 23, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.12824   open full text
• ESG and Firm Performance: A Configuration Perspective.
  Gang Ren, Peishu Peng, Yan Li.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 20, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nAs global concerns over environmental protection and carbon reduction intensify, firms face growing pressure to improve environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance to maintain legitimacy. Although the ESG‐performance relationship has been widely studied, prior work has focused on net effects, overlooking its resource interdependencies. Drawing on the resource‐based view (RBV), this study applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and constructs ESG scores using machine learning techniques. The results show that high ESG is associated with high firm performance, particularly when coupled with high independent directors and R&D investment. Notably, we identify a complementary relationship between ESG and sales growth, underscoring the interdependence of financial and non‐financial reputations. Pillar‐level analyses underscore the predominant roles of the social and governance dimensions in influencing performance. Finally, heterogeneity analyses further demonstrate that the positive ESG‐performance association occurs more in firms with superior green innovation, companies in sectors with lower market competition, and those in regions without the Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme. Our findings help reconcile previous conflicting findings and provide valuable guidance for sustainable practices.\n"]

  March 20, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70099   open full text
• Untangling CSR Decoupling: Board Attributes Effects and the Unexplored Moderating Role of Board Gender Diversity.
  María Consuelo Pucheta‐Martínez, Isabel Gallego‐Álvarez, Inmaculada Bel‐Oms.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 12, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study investigates the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR) decoupling, wherein firms' CSR disclosures diverge from their actual CSR performance, often resulting in misleading portrayals of environmental and social commitments commonly associated with greenwashing. Drawing on resource dependence and agency theories, the research examines how specific board attributes—board tenure, board‐specific skills and board cultural diversity—function as governance mechanisms to reduce CSR decoupling by enhancing board effectiveness in aligning managerial actions with stakeholder expectations. Using a large international sample of 14,004 firm‐year observations from 34 countries between 2012 and 2023, the study also explores the moderating role of board gender diversity, an area underexplored in prior research. The results confirm that longer board tenure, greater board‐specific skills, and higher board cultural diversity significantly reduce CSR decoupling. However, the presence of female directors unexpectedly weakens these beneficial effects, indicating a complex and nuanced interaction between board gender diversity and other board characteristics in shaping CSR outcomes. These findings contribute to the literature by clarifying how corporate governance mechanisms influence the authenticity of CSR engagement, highlighting the importance of considering gender diversity as a moderator in governance studies.\n"]

  March 12, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70095   open full text
• The Determinants of Environmental and Social Performance and Its Effect on the Financial Performance of the Ethiopian Banking Sectors: Multi‐Mediation Analysis.
  Xu Hongyi, Atanaw Desalegn Taye.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 12, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe present study examines how Corporate Social Responsibility culture (CSRC) and Corporate Social Responsibility leadership (CSRL) jointly enhance CSR performance (CSRP) (environmental performance (EP), social performance (SP)) and how CSRP subsequently drives financial performance (FP) through the mediating roles of customer satisfaction (CS) and corporate image (CI). Grounded in an integrative framework of Resource‐Based View, Stakeholder Theory, and Knowledge‐Based View, this study employs a quantitative, cross‐sectional approach. Data from 473 employees in the Ethiopian banking sector were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM) with SmartPLS 4. The findings indicate that CSRC (β = 0.384, p < 0.001) and CSRL (β = 0.332, p < 0.001) significantly predict CSRP, which in turn positively influences FP (β = 0.200, p < 0.001). Customer satisfaction (β = 0.206, p < 0.001) and corporate image (β = 0.189, p < 0.001) fully mediate the CSRP–FP relationship. Therefore, these findings underscore the strategic importance of embedding CSR in leadership and culture to improve societal and environmental impact as well as financial outcomes. This study contributes by (1) being one of the first to empirically examine the instruction of CSRC, CSRL, and multidimensional CSRP in Ethiopian banking and (2) proposing and validating a novel mediated pathway in which CS and CI fully transmit CSRP effects to FP—a mechanism previously unexamined in this context. Implications for managers and policymakers underscore the need to prioritize CSR integration across all organizational levels to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.\n"]

  March 12, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70097   open full text
• Talking vs. Walking: How ESG Strategic Positioning in Disclosure and Practice Across Dimensions Drives Financial Performance.
  Yang Yang, Yuting Gao, Kexin Li.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 09, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nA fundamental challenge for businesses globally is how to allocate limited resources between sustainability disclosure (“talk”) and practice (“walk”). Existing research either relies on aggregated ESG scores or examines disclosure or practice in isolation, failing to capture their strategic interplay and ignoring dimension‐specific differences, which creates ambiguity for practice. This study fills this gap by investigating the dimension‐specific interaction between ESG disclosure and practice (conceptualized as ESG strategic positioning) and its impact on financial performance. Empirically, we first employ an ANOVA to identify significant performance differences across ESG strategic positions. We then apply a fixed‐effects model, controlling for firm and time heterogeneity, to robustly estimate the causal effect. Results show financial returns depend on where (E/S/G) and how (“talking” vs. “walking”) firms invest. Specifically, we find that firms benefit most “talking” on environmental issues; prioritize “talking” while being cautious with “walking” on social issues; and gain value from “walking” on governance issues. These findings offer a universal economic insight: not all ESG investments are equal. At the same time, this study provides managers and investors with a strategic lens to prioritize sustainability investments for maximum financial return.\n"]

  March 09, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70091   open full text
• Walking the Walk or Just Talking the Talk? Corporate Climate Strategies Under Extreme Weather.
  Yuting Dong, Ziyuan Sun, Yiqiang Zhou.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 09, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nIn the wake of extreme weather shocks, do firms “walk the walk” or merely “talk the talk” in their climate strategies? Drawing on legitimacy theory, this study empirically examines firms' climate strategy choices in response to extreme weather events using panel data from Chinese A‐share listed firms from 2012 to 2022. The results show that extreme weather events significantly increase firms' climate‐related discourse but do not lead to corresponding adaptation actions, suggesting a tendency toward symbolic strategies—“talking the talk” without “walking the walk.” These strategies are primarily motivated by institutional pressures and securing credit resources, as firms seek to gain legitimacy through low‐cost disclosures while alleviating financial constraints. Furthermore, firms with older top management teams and lower risk tolerance are more inclined to adopt symbolic strategies. Crucially, such symbolic climate approaches are found to hinder firms' long‐term development. Overall, this study advances understanding of corporate climate strategy choices under extreme weather shocks and offers managerial and policy implications for fostering substantive climate strategies in emerging economies.\n"]

  March 09, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70096   open full text
• Firm‐Level Climate Change Initiatives and Christian Religiosity.
  Jinhua Cui, Hoje Jo, Manuel Velasquez.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 24, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nWe conduct an empirical investigation into whether the Christian religiosity prevalent in a company's headquarters community influences its top management's decisions on climate change. The study tests two opposing theoretical frameworks: a stewardship hypothesis, which predicts a positive relationship in which managers act as environmental stewards, and a dominion hypothesis, which predicts a negative relationship in which managers exercise a harmful dominion over nature. The results present a compelling contrast. We find that general Christian religiosity is negatively associated with corporate climate initiatives, supporting the dominion hypothesis. Conversely, the specific Catholic religiosity within a community is associated positively with Catholic religiosity, supporting the stewardship hypothesis. This pattern is reinforced by data on managers' personal religiosity, showing that Catholic managers favor climate‐friendly initiatives, while Protestant managers disfavor them.\n"]

  February 24, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70089   open full text
• Virtuous Organizations in the Age of AI: Relational Goods and Human Flourishing.
  Francesco Vincenzo Giarmoleo, Pablo García Ruiz, Marta Rocchi, Ignacio Ferrero.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 22, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe integration of AI‐based systems in everyday work has given rise to augmented organizations, transforming traditional work paradigms and prompting new research questions concerning augmented work processes and their related ethical issues. Drawing upon the practice‐institution framework proposed by Alasdair MacIntyre, integrated with Donati's concept of relational goods, this article examines whether and how augmented organizations can be virtuous. This article spans the macro, meso, and micro levels, shedding light on the crucial role of practical wisdom in balancing effectiveness and relational goods. The findings underscore the significance of practical wisdom across diverse organizational settings, with care‐related professions serving as exemplars. We focus on carebots and hospitals, exploring the relational dimension in nursing and medical practices. We chose this sector for its ethical relevance, technological involvement, and its human‐centric nature, combining expertise and technological advancements for the common good. Additionally, the article encourages further investigation of the interplay between AI and human moral development within augmented organizations.\n"]

  February 22, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70090   open full text
• Corporate Environmental Framing and Moral Disengagement Across Strategic Phases: Case Study of BP's Environmental Communication Strategies.
  Afolabi Qudus Olanrewaju, Baruck Opiyo.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 15, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study examines how BP strategically employs environmental framing and moral disengagement across three phases: pre‐accusation branding, accusation response, and post‐accusation sustainability communication to manage public perception and maintain legitimacy. Using a longitudinal qualitative case study of 87 corporate materials, including visual elements such as campaign imagery and logos, the analysis reveals a cyclical moral logic through which BP's “Beyond Petroleum” and “Keep Advancing” and “Possibilities Everywhere” campaigns framed the company as an environmental leader while obscuring its continued fossil fuel reliance. During the Deepwater Horizon crisis, BP used moral disengagement mechanisms such as minimization and displacement of responsibility to deflect blame. In the “Keep Advancing” and “Possibilities Everywhere”, strategies like moral justification and temporal deferral reframed fossil fuel continuity as part of a climate solution. The findings show that BP's communication reflects a cyclical pattern of narrative adaptation rather than a linear shift toward accountability. This research contributes to the business ethics literature by offering a framework for decoding corporate sustainability discourse and highlighting the ethical risks in long‐term climate pledges. The findings have implications for scholars, policymakers, and communication professionals seeking to critically evaluate corporate environmental claims in high‐impact industries.\n"]

  February 15, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70080   open full text
• Place Matters at Work: A Systematic Review of Workplace Attachment and Environmental Factors.
  Rubinia Celeste Bonfanti, Nicolò Billeci, Silvia Platania, Stefano Ruggieri.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 13, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe topic of workplace attachment has garnered significant attention in academic studies since the early 2010s. However, due to its inherently interdisciplinary scope, research on workplace attachment remains notably fragmented and lacks cohesion, resulting in numerous unresolved questions. Consequently, a systematic review was conducted to examine the association between workplace attachment and organizational and environmental factors. Both cross‐sectional and longitudinal studies that used quantitative measures of workplace attachment were included. A total of 16 studies met inclusion criteria (n = 5282). The findings demonstrated distinct relationships between workplace attachment and (1) psychological and relational factors influencing organizational functioning, (2) spatial environmental factors, and (3) variables influencing the perception of work meaningfulness. This review provides nuanced insights into existing literature, examining workplace attachment from employee perspectives. By doing so, it offers an in‐depth understanding of the challenges present within current theoretical frameworks on workplace attachment. A key contribution of this review is the integration of existing findings into a comprehensive conceptual framework on workplace attachment, which systematically synthesizes the relevant variables and theoretical foundations that underpin research in this domain.\n"]

  February 13, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70087   open full text
• Family Firms Towards Sustainability Competitiveness: A Chain of Moderated Mediating Models in Term of ESG Practices and Corporate Governance.
  Nha Minh Nguyen, Hien Vo Van, Dao Truc Thi Vo, Oanh Kieu Thi Nguyen, Duong Van Bui.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 11, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study explores the connection between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions disclosure and the competitive performance of family firm (FAFI) in the ASEAN‐6 region (specifically Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam). It investigates whether GHG emissions disclosure acts as a mediating factor and evaluates the moderating influences of ESG initiatives and corporate governance (COGO) structures. Grounded in a dataset of 3255 firm‐year observations from publicly listed enterprises between 2020 and 2024, sourced from Refinitiv Eikon, we applied maximum likelihood structural equation modeling to examine the proposed links. The findings indicate that FAFI tends to exhibit lower GHG emissions disclosure. GHG emissions disclosure harms competitiveness and serves as a mediator in the relationship between FAFI attributes and competitive performance. ESG practices have moderated the link between GHG emissions disclosure and competitiveness and have been moderated by COGO. This study provides actionable insights for FAFI in ASEAN. Thereby, it suggests ways to improve their competitiveness through GHG emissions management. The results highlight the significance of strong ESG initiatives, especially in the emissions phase, and underscore the important role of effective COGO in optimizing the value‐creation potential of ESG. This research has added to our understanding of FAFI in ASEAN. The study has deeply analyzed how FAFI, GHG emissions disclosure, ESG, competitiveness, and COGO connect in ASEAN. The paper has clarified that GHG emissions disclosure acts as a mediator, and ESG activities have a moderating effect. The research has demonstrated how certain COGO mechanisms affect the strength of that moderating effect.\n"]

  February 11, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70088   open full text
• Mitigating Cultural Constraints on Environmental Performance With Women on Boards During Crises.
  Aranthy Sabaratnam, Vikkram Singh, Sui Sui, Anjali Chaudhry.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 09, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nExisting management literature has acknowledged the intricate interplay between board gender diversity (BGD), national culture, and environmental performance (EP). However, the COVID‐19 pandemic offers an unprecedented context to reexamine these relationships. This study contributes to the discourse by investigating how specific cultural traits may impede EP during crises and how BGD mitigates these adverse effects. Drawing on a sample of 261 international pharmaceutical companies and employing Heckman's two‐stage model, the findings demonstrate a positive influence of BGD on EP improvements during the pandemic. Moreover, cultural dimensions such as high individualism and short‐term orientation are associated with slower progress in EP during this period. Notably, firms with greater BGD effectively buffer these negative cultural impacts, mitigating their detrimental influence on EP. These findings illuminate the intersection between national culture, board composition, and environmental performance, offering practical insights for fostering resilient and sustainable corporate governance in global crises.\n"]

  February 09, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70082   open full text
• Navigating Green Innovation: The Dual Influence of Environmental Ethics and Managerial Social Ties on Strategic Choices.
  Lei Zhu, Feng Zhang, Wenwen An, Xi Li, Minjing Zhu.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 09, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nAlthough corporate environmental ethics are widely recognized as catalysts for green innovation, how they guide firms' strategic choices between green product and green process innovation remains unclear. Grounded in the attention‐based view and social network theory, this study develops a contingency framework linking corporate environmental ethics and green product and process innovation, moderated by different managerial social ties. Survey data from 515 Chinese manufacturing firms show that environmental ethics foster both types of green innovation, yet exert a stronger effect on process innovation. Managerial ties moderate these effects: business ties strengthen the link between environmental ethics and green product innovation, while weakening its association with green process innovation; conversely, political ties reduce the relationship between environmental ethics and green product innovation, but enhance it with green process innovation. The main contribution of this study is the integration of the attention‐based view with social network theory, providing insights into how and when environmental ethics lead to distinct green innovation outcomes in different contexts shaped by specific managerial ties.\n"]

  February 09, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70086   open full text
• Major Customers' Geographic Dispersion and Supplier Corporate Social Responsibility: A Moderated U‐Shaped Relationship.
  Wenqian Li, Wei Gao, Xingping Jia, Hua Fan, Tingting Liu.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 05, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nPrevious studies on the antecedents of supplier corporate social responsibility (SCSR) have mainly focused on the factors in customer‐supplier relationships, leaving the influence of suppliers' customer base underexplored. To fill the gap, this study identifies major customers' geographic dispersion (MCGD) as an important characteristic of suppliers' customer base, and explores its influence on SCSR from a combined perspective of transaction cost, social control, and signaling theories. Based on data from 1873 Chinese listed suppliers during the period from 2010 to 2021, this study finds a U‐shaped relationship between MCGD and SCSR. Moreover, the results also show that the U‐shaped relationship is further moderated by supplier size (SS) and customer concentration (CC). Overall, this study advances the understanding of SCSR and provides important implications for the participants in B2B markets and researchers alike.\n"]

  February 05, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70083   open full text
• Co‐Creative Sustainability: Enacting Ethical Power.
  Masoud Karami, Grant Gillett.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 05, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nEntrepreneurship and broader business literature show a growing interest in sustainability issues, illuminating the critical role that entrepreneurship can play in addressing the issues facing economic development in diverse socioeconomic settings. This study undertakes a selective systematic literature review and synthesizes co‐creative entrepreneurship research with Foucault's conceptualizations of ethical power and human relationships to deepen our understanding of the roots of sustainability issues. It offers insights into addressing sustainability challenges in diverse social settings and provides reflections and directions for future research. As such, this study provides a philosophical ground for the further development of sustainable entrepreneurship.\n"]

  February 05, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70085   open full text
• From Feeling to Action: Exploring Emotional Arousal and Cognitive Responses to Environmental Threat Appeals.
  Melika Husić‐Mehmedović, Esmeralda Marić, Mediha Arnaut Smajlović, Maja Arslanagić‐Kalajdžić.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 02, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis exploratory study examines how emotional arousal, triggered by environmental threat appeals, relates to consumer attitudes toward sustainable brands and their willingness to pay (WTP). Grounded in Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), the research employs a multi‐method approach that integrates biometric data, specifically Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and Facial Expression Analysis (FEA), with traditional survey measures. The study was conducted with a sample of 38 undergraduate students (52.6% female; 47.4% male), aged between 21 and 25 years, who voluntarily participated in a laboratory experiment. While emotional arousal alone did not significantly predict attitudinal or behavioral outcomes, its effect was contingent upon individual differences. In particular, consumer conscientiousness was found to strengthen the relationship between emotional arousal and positive brand attitudes, while consumer dispositional CSR skepticism attenuated the role of emotions for WTP. These findings offer new insights into the emotion–cognition–behavior pathway in sustainable consumption and demonstrate the importance of trait‐based segmentation in sustainability marketing. By combining neurophysiological tools with established psychological theory, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how consumers process, interpret, and act upon emotionally charged environmental messaging.\n"]

  February 02, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70079   open full text
• Beyond CSR: Corporate Digital Responsibility and Sustainable Performance in the AI Era.
  Fengwen Wang, Eugene Cheng‐Xi Aw.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 02, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study investigates how corporate digital responsibility (CDR) enhances artificial intelligence (AI)‐based partner relationship management to drive sustainable firm performance. Drawing on stakeholder, institutional and dynamic capabilities theories, data were collected from bank managers and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS‐SEM) and combined importance‐performance analysis (cIPMA) techniques. Results show that environmental, economic and technological digital responsibility strengthen AI‐based partner relationship management, which in turn improves sustainable performance, while social digital responsibility is non‐significant. Contrary to expectations, coercive and normative pressures moderate the link between CDR and AI‐based partner relationship management. cIPMA further reveals a necessity–performance paradox: AI‐based partner relationship management emerges as the most critical performance driver, yet all four CDR dimensions and all three institutional pressures are necessary conditions for achieving sustainable performance. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the differentiated roles of CDR dimensions in shaping AI‐enabled dynamic capabilities for sustainable development.\n"]

  February 02, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70084   open full text
• Environmental Legitimation in A Global Context: Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises Versus Developed Market Multinational Enterprises.
  Nuria Esther Hurtado‐Torres, Eulogio Cordón‐Pozo, Efrén Gómez‐Bolaños, Maria Ruiz‐Castillo.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 02, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe purpose of this paper is to study the differences and similarities between emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) and developed market multinationals (DMNEs) in their levels of adoption of environmental management policies and environmental disclosure practices when they increase their international diversification. This paper builds on a panel dataset consisting of 227 MNEs from 44 countries over the period 2010–2024, employing fixed‐effects panel regression models to test our hypotheses. Our findings reveal that EMNEs and DMNEs exhibit both similarities and differences in their environmental strategies within a global context. Although EMNEs show levels comparable to DMNEs in terms of environmental management policies and environmental disclosure practices, DMNEs exhibit a sharp increase in both environmental strategies as they increase their international diversification. These differences are particularly evident in environmental disclosure, with DMNEs showing a stronger response to transparency demands from home‐country stakeholders. This study contributes to the literature on environmental sustainability in EMNEs and DMNEs by providing a comprehensive understanding of how MNEs address climate change challenges to achieve environmental legitimation in foreign markets. Furthermore, it offers managerial and policy implications, suggesting that policymakers should implement supranational sustainability measures targeting the global operations of MNEs, particularly EMNEs. It also advocates for incentivizing higher levels of international diversification, as this enhances MNEs' environmental management policies and disclosure practices.\n"]

  February 02, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70081   open full text
• Protective Role of ESG Disclosure in Firm Valuation During Global Crisis: Evidence From Institutional Investor Ownership.
  Jingxin Xue, Rui Zhang, Yue Wang, Dongxue Li, Yingzhe Xing, Jiasheng He.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 30, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study investigates crisis‐period environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure research by examining how ESG disclosure protects firm value during major global public crises. The pandemic is a severe exogenous shock generating synchronized global uncertainty. Using panel data regression analysis of U.S. public firms, we find that superior ESG disclosure significantly enhances firm value during systemic crisis. This protective impact is amplified in companies that have a greater proportion of long‐term institutional ownership, confirming investor time horizons as critical moderators. In addition, economic policy uncertainty (EPU) systematically dampens ESG disclosure's value‐protective capacity through resource constraints and market sentiment channels. These results reconceptualize ESG disclosure as a conditional strategic asset whose efficacy depends on institutional investor composition and macroeconomic uncertainty levels. This study advances ESG literature by demonstrating that the value‐protective role of ESG disclosure during crisis is intensified by long‐term institutional ownership, while EPU serves as a catalyst for reversing the insurance effects of ESG disclosure. Our work pioneers invest in temporal heterogeneity and EPU as critical boundary conditions. The findings challenge generalized ESG benefit assumptions while offering actionable guidance for embedding ESG disclosure within crisis resilience frameworks.\n"]

  January 30, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70078   open full text
• From Sociability to Associability: Understanding Affective Tensions in Stakeholder–Organization Relationships During COVID‐19.
  Fabien Martinez.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 28, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis paper conceptualizes stakeholder associability as a distinct form of episodic, affect‐driven tension in organizational life that disrupts stakeholder–organization relationships and undermines trust. While such tensions are widely observed in practice, they remain undertheorized in management and organization studies. Drawing on a micro‐ethnographic study of a COVID‐19 drive‐in testing center in the UK, complemented by social media commentary, the analysis identifies three antecedents of associability: (i) altered relational contexts, (ii) limited organizational agility and responsiveness, and (iii) managerialist decision‐making logics that deprioritize emotional attunement. Integrating affective atmosphere theory and Simmel's sociology of sociability, the study advances scholarship on stakeholder engagement, affect, and crisis management by theorizing associability as a situational, relational breakdown that emerges from the interplay of affective and structural dynamics. For managers, the findings emphasize the need to embed emotional intelligence and real‐time responsiveness into stakeholder strategies, shifting from retrospective damage control to proactive trust‐building. For policymakers, the study highlights the importance of human‐centered crisis management frameworks that prioritize empathy, transparency, and frontline sensitivity alongside operational efficiency. Together, these insights position stakeholder associability as a critical yet overlooked lens for understanding organizational legitimacy in times of uncertainty and lay a foundation for future research on affective dynamics in organizational life.\n"]

  January 28, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70077   open full text
• A Farewell to Arms… Manufacturing: Learning From a Landmine Producer Who Became a Deminer.
  Marco Guerci, Luca Carollo.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 21, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nCertain industries—labeled “dirty,” “sinful,” “stigmatized,” or “controversial”—are under public scrutiny because of the ethical, social, and environmental concerns that they raise. Previous research has typically focused on the industry or organizational level of analysis, examining how companies in controversial industries can enhance their legitimacy by reforming the way they operate, for example by means of specific CSR and communication strategies. This article challenges that approach by adopting an individual‐level lens and presenting a life‐story interview with the former owner of a company involved in the arms industry, specifically the production of anti‐personnel landmines, who refused to reform his business to make it appear less controversial. After a difficult period, he decided to close the family business. He then redirected his technical expertise by joining the social movements supporting the global campaign against landmines and by working as a deminer, thus trying to act as an individual change agent and to repair the damage to which he had contributed. This heterodox individual‐level analysis challenges the conventional wisdom that controversial industries should seek only incremental improvements, and it sparks provocative reflections on the possibility of exiting them and contributing to their outright closure.\n"]

  January 21, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70076   open full text
• Fostering Social Connection Responsibility in Value Creation: Lessons From the Assessment of a Local Participatory Guarantee System.
  Silvana Signori, Francesco Vittori.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 16, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis paper builds on the call for further research on stakeholder engagement as a relational and contextual process for value creation by examining a Participatory Guarantee System for organic agriculture in Lombardy (Italy). It emphasises that value creation is a collaborative effort within a stakeholder network, requiring the shared and ongoing responsibility of all actors beyond their specific interests. To explore how such shared responsibility unfolds, data collected through participant observation are analysed using Iris Marion Young's social connection responsibility approach. Specifically, the study investigates factors shaping stakeholder relationships, focusing on four parameters: power, privilege, interest and collective ability. Findings reveal that while the project aimed to foster a sustainable agricultural system, differing stakeholder positions complicate the engagement process, highlighting contradictions between collective goals and individual decisions. Power dynamics and privileges significantly shape stakeholder involvement, affecting motivations and commitment. Additionally, the analysis illustrates tensions between stakeholders' economic roles and their contributions to a shared purpose, revealing how functional or self‐interested logics can overshadow relational goals. Theoretically, the study extends stakeholder theory by empirically applying Young's social connection model, demonstrating how power, privilege and interest operate both within and across stakeholder groups, shaping responsibility and collective value creation. Practically, it offers insights for designing and managing multi‐stakeholder initiatives through inclusive, deliberative processes that balance power asymmetries, strengthen mutual understanding and sustain engagement across diverse contexts and settings. Indeed, the study underscores the importance of contexts and places in fostering effective engagement and responsibility.\n"]

  January 16, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70075   open full text
• CEO Power and Circular Economy Disclosure: The Moderating Role of Institutional Forces.
  Saudi‐Yulieth Enciso‐Alfaro, Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez, Filippo Vitolla, Nicola Raimo.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 14, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study investigates the impact of CEO power on circular economy disclosure (CED), highlighting the moderating role of institutional pressures on CEO discretion. The analysis draws on a sample of 8354 multinational companies from the Refinitiv database, covering the period 2013–2022. The sample includes companies from 74 countries and 11 economic sectors. By developing a novel indicator to measure CED, the research shows that CEO power negatively affects transparency, particularly in waste management and resource circularity. This study also examines how coercive and normative pressures—stemming from regulatory frameworks and societal expectations—influence CEO decision‐making. The findings advance the literature by integrating three theoretical perspectives: (i) agency theory, which explains how concentrated CEO power reduces disclosure by sustaining information asymmetry; (ii) stakeholder capitalism theory, which demonstrates that CED responds to the expectations of diverse social and economic groups; and (iii) institutional theory, which shows how these expectations are reinforced through coercive and normative pressures that enhance accountability.\n"]

  January 14, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70072   open full text
• When More Isn't Better: The Curvilinear Effects of ESG on Firm Performance.
  Joel Victor Dossa, Aamir Ali Gopang, Tony Osborn Kapola, Chiagoziem C. Ukwuoma, Dara Thomas, James Mhoja Dossa.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 05, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study examines the non‐linear effects of ESG performance on firm value in Chinese A‐share listed firms from 2009 to 2023, addressing a gap in emerging‐market ESG research that often assumes a linear, universally positive relationship. Using 29,439 firm‐year observations and performance measures including Tobin's Q, ROA, and ROE, the study applies two‐way fixed‐effect, Lind‐Mehlum U‐tests, and robustness checks with alternative ESG ratings (Bloomberg and Huazheng) and by excluding extreme market shocks (the 2015 stock market crash and COVID‐19). The findings reveal a robust inverted U‐shaped relationship, demonstrating that moderate ESG engagement enhances firm performance, whereas excessive ESG investment results in diminishing or even negative returns. Heterogeneity analyses show that this effect is strongest in non‐state‐owned, financially unconstrained, and high‐polluting firms, while SOEs and constrained firms exhibit weaker or more linear effects. Pillar‐level analysis highlights environmental and governance dimensions as primary drivers, whereas social initiatives have limited impact. The study's novelty lies in providing empirical evidence for the curvilinear ESG‐performance link in an emerging market context, advancing theory by showing that ESG investments create intangible assets such as legitimacy, trust, and innovation only up to an optimal threshold, with institutional and financial contexts shaping the relationship. These insights inform policymakers and managers to calibrate ESG strategies strategically, and motivate future research across other markets, ESG ratings, and causal designs.\n"]

  January 05, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70074   open full text
• Road to Sustainable Development: How Can Green Institutional Investors Improve Corporate ESG Performance in China?
  BingHong Lin, BingXiang Li, Tao Zhang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 05, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study mainly explores how green institutional investors affect corporate ESG performance and conducts empirical analysis using Chinese A‐share listed companies from 2014 to 2021 as research samples. The research results show that green institutional investors can promote corporate ESG performance by alleviating financing constraints, enhancing green management capabilities, and improving corporate governance levels. This promoting effect is more pronounced in non‐state‐owned enterprises, high‐tech enterprises, and enterprises with high analyst attention. Further research has found that green institutional investors have a more prominent promoting effect on the performance of S and G dimensions, while the promoting effect on the performance of E dimension is relatively small. Meanwhile, insufficient market competition and environmental uncertainty will weaken the promoting effect of green institutional investors on corporate ESG performance. The research conclusion clearly presents the intrinsic relationship between green institutional investors and corporate ESG performance, providing new theoretical insights for promoting sustainable development of enterprises.\n"]

  January 05, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70067   open full text
• Individual Personality, Values, and Tax Morale Among the Self‐Employed: The Moderating Role of Institutional Context.
  Kristine Velasquez Tuliao.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 02, 2026
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study examines the tax morale of the self‐employed using a multilevel model grounded in the socio‐psychological framework. It aims to demonstrate that individual personality and values influence tax morale among the self‐employed. Additionally, the moderating role of institutional context on the influence of personality and values on tax morale was explored. Findings from hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) indicate that conscientiousness and altruism are positively associated with tax morale, whereas egoism is negatively related to tax morale. Furthermore, the institutional context, including governance quality and education level, moderates the impact of individual personality and values on tax morale. These findings provide a broader understanding of tax morale by integrating personal and contextual characteristics. Alongside this theoretical contribution, this paper offers valuable insights for tax authorities in devising policies and programs to foster tax compliance among the self‐employed.\n"]

  January 02, 2026   doi: 10.1111/beer.70063   open full text
• From Rating System to Thought Leadership: The Evolution of the Canada Green Building Council.
  J. J. McArthur, Stephen Dunne, Sarah Birrell Ivory.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 31, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nGreen Building Social Movement Organizations encourage the adoption of green buildings, primarily by promoting sustainability rating tools. While numerous papers have explored the market impact of these sustainability rating tools, very few have examined either the lengthy and protracted process of their selection and enrollment by organizations, or even their impact upon the structure and governance of organizations. This paper fills these gaps by presenting a 20‐year case study of organizational evolution. It identifies five distinct periods through which the chosen organization variously selected, developed, established, lost control, and transcended its relationship with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design; a ‘green building’ rating tool) in Canada. Conceptually, our analysis has roots within the Sociology of Translation and (Scandinavian) Institutional Theory. In this, we treat the technical mediation of sustainability rating tools as institutional work activities to understand their role(s) in organizational evolution. The empirical basis for our analysis is data acquired through 21 semi‐structured interviews with organization founders and key personnel in each period, as well as a comprehensive analysis of archival records. Our findings offer significant insights for organizations that have bound themselves to a tool, certification, or standard as their means of market or societal transformation. We close by recognizing our study's limitations before underlining the crucial managerial and policy consequences of our analysis.\n"]

  December 31, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70070   open full text
• Corporate Leadership and Disability Employment Disclosure: The Role of Board Structure in Promoting Inclusion.
  Hamzeh Al Amosh.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 31, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study examines how board structure influences disability employment disclosure (DED) among 192 nonfinancial FTSE 350 companies from 2015 to 2022. It investigates six board attributes—gender diversity, independence, size, CEO duality, tenure, and expertise—to determine how governance design affects transparency on disability inclusion. The results show that firms with more diverse, independent, and skilled boards are significantly more likely to disclose quantifiable information about disability employment, reflecting stronger ethical and social accountability. In contrast, companies led by CEOs who also serve as board chairs disclose less, suggesting that concentrated leadership weakens independent oversight and transparency. These findings align with stakeholder and legitimacy theories, showing that inclusive and well‐balanced boards pursue substantive legitimacy through genuine commitments to diversity, while less independent boards tend toward symbolic disclosure. This study is among the first to explicitly link board governance to disability employment disclosure, highlighting the role of board composition as a key driver of transparency, accountability, and inclusive corporate governance. The results provide valuable implications for policymakers and business leaders seeking to promote ethical reporting and workplace inclusion.\n"]

  December 31, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70071   open full text
• Between Cryptocurrencies' Risk and Crypto Environmental Attention: The Crypto Environment Attention Index and Volatility in the Cryptocurrencies Market Nexus.
  Ines Ghazouani, Zaineb Hlioui, Marwa Zouawi.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 27, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study investigates the impact of environmental attention on cryptocurrency market volatility by introducing the Crypto Environmental Attention Index (CEAI), a new metric inspired by Wang et al. (2022) and constructed using daily web search data. Environmental concerns can significantly impact the popularity and volatility of cryptocurrencies, influencing risk perceptions, and shaping market dynamics. Using vector autoregression (VAR), vector error correction models (VECM), and Granger causality tests on data from 2014 to 2022, the study finds that Ethereum's volatility is strongly influenced by the CEAI in both the short and long‐term, whereas Bitcoin volatility has a short‐term unidirectional effect on environmental attention and a bidirectional relationship in the long term. This study is situated within a broader economic framework of sustainable finance, the transition to greener blockchain technologies, and regulatory responses to environmental issues. It offers actionable insights for risk management, policy formulation, and cryptocurrency valuation using environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria.\n"]

  December 27, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70068   open full text
• Building a World Through Binding Ethics and Moral Traditions: Catholic Social Teaching and Virtue Ethics in Business Ethics.
  Vidya S. Athota, Ignacio Ferrero, Priyan Max Jeganathan.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 25, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nBusinesses today face the dual challenge of achieving organizational effectiveness while fostering human flourishing in a morally pluralistic world. Moral systems offer guidance, yet differ widely in their precepts and societal impact. This paper argues that contemporary business ethics requires more than ad hoc value statements or profit‐driven codes of conduct; it calls for a robust ethical framework capable of uniting diverse stakeholders and sustaining long‐term success. Engaging with a range of moral traditions, we propose Catholic Social Teaching (CST) as a particularly rich development of virtue ethics that integrates classical insights with actionable principles for organizational life. Grounded in human dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity, participation, and the common good, CST offers a normative system that not only enhances business performance but also strengthens the social bonds on which thriving economies depend. By demonstrating how CST's virtue‐based approach aligns organizational practices with universal human values, this paper presents a pathway toward a more ethically grounded and human‐centered business paradigm—one that builds community, inspires purpose, and contributes to the common good.\n"]

  December 25, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70069   open full text
• Managerial Cognition and Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy: An Abductive Study of Integrative Complexity and Temporal Orientation.
  Binqi Tang, Alan Muller.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 15, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nGiven the growing importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to business, firms are increasingly taking a strategic approach to their CSR efforts. This study aims to explore how elements of managerial cognition interact to underpin firms' choices for specific CSR strategies. Following an abductive approach, we conduct qualitative research among six small and medium‐sized enterprises in China to develop a cognition‐based framework for CSR strategy. We discover that integrative complexity and temporal orientation work together to shape managers' strategic goals with respect to CSR, thereby leading to distinct CSR strategies. Based on our analysis, we develop a set of testable propositions that improve our understanding of CSR strategies and their cognitive foundations. Our findings contribute to the CSR literature by advancing knowledge of how different patterns of managerial cognition shape specific CSR strategies, with important implications for managers and policymakers aiming to foster CSR strategies that create shared value for business and society.\n"]

  December 15, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70065   open full text
• Effects of Combining Eco‐ and Social Labels on Consumer Value—Additive, Neutral or Cannibalizing? Insights From a Conjoint Analysis.
  Lamia Arslan, Samanthi Dijkstra‐Silva.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 14, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nDespite research on sustainable labels, little is known about combining eco‐ and social labels and the effects on consumers. Although consumers are increasingly confronted with both socially oriented, e.g., fair trade, as well as environmentally oriented eco‐labels such as certified organic cotton, the effect on consumer value has not been explored. To address this gap, this paper theorizes that the effects of combining a social and an eco‐label could be additive, neutral, or – in the worst case – cannibalizing. This study employs a choice‐based conjoint analysis to investigate the interaction effect of social and eco‐labelling for apparel. The study also examines which attributes (quality, price, social and eco‐label) consumers prefer. We contribute to the literature in two ways: First, we discuss the need to differentiate between social and environmental labels and hypothesize about the potential effects of combining both. Second, we show that combining social and eco‐labels has a neutral – not additive or cannibalizing – effect although consumers value the presence of a sustainability label, i.e., an eco‐ or social label, on apparel. While consumers appreciate the consideration of sustainability in the supply chain of the product, clarity on what elements are important and are reflected in the labels requires further research.\n"]

  December 14, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70039   open full text
• Demand Meets Supply: The ESG Impact of Green Procurement and Green Subsidy.
  Lei Cheng, Xiaohong Wang, Meilin Zhao.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 14, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nDrawing on China's policy practices under the “dual carbon” goal, this study examines how green procurement (GP), a demand‐side policy, and green subsidies (GS), a supply‐side policy, jointly affect corporate ESG performance. Using panel data of A‐share listed industrial firms from 2015 to 2022 and a two‐way fixed effects model, the findings show: (1) the GP–GS policy mix significantly enhances ESG performance through complementary “market‐locking” and “resource‐matching” effects; (2) mechanism analysis identifies three channels—greater information transparency, stronger market competition, and higher green innovation; and (3) heterogeneity tests reveal stronger impacts among heavily polluting firms and in regions with robust institutional environments. By moving beyond single‐policy analyses, this study provides evidence on the synergistic optimization of demand‐ and supply‐side environmental policies and offers micro‐level insights to refine China's green governance toolkit and strengthen ESG drivers.\n"]

  December 14, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70056   open full text
• Exploring the Nexus of Organizational Culture and Corruption Reporting: Evidence From the Australian Public Service.
  Bridget Rice, Peter Fieger, Nigel Martin, Muhammad Mustafa Raziq, John Rice.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 12, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study utilizes a large Australian government employee survey dataset to investigate the relationship between organizational culture, employee demographic attributes, and whistleblowing behaviors. The survey gathered data on employee engagement, leadership perceptions, job satisfaction, and other matters. Organizational culture was assessed by linking questionnaire items with a framework developed by Zammuto and colleagues. This framework suggested a competing values framework of group, developmental, hierarchical, and rational cultures. Factor analyses identified individual scores for these dimensions, which were then examined alongside demographic variables using logistic regression. The analysis suggests that a positive developmental culture, characterized by tolerance and support for innovation and risk management, increases the likelihood of corruption reporting, with this effect amplified by the presence of a strong rational culture. Gender, agency size, cultural/linguistic background, and job role were also identified as significant predictors of reporting behaviors.\n"]

  December 12, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70064   open full text
• True Green or Fake Green? The Impact of ESG Rating Disagreement on Corporate Greenwashing Behavior.
  Guangqian Ren, Man Jing, ZiMing Wang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 08, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nESG rating disagreement (ESGRD) is derived from ESG ratings. Research on its impact on corporate sustainable development strategies can help better understand and promote the development of the Chinese ESG industry, thus providing useful references for developing countries worldwide. This study uses data from Chinese A‐share listed companies from 2015 to 2023 as the sample, applies the fraud triangle theory to analyze the impact of ESGRD on corporate greenwashing behavior, and examines the moderating effects of media attention and environmental regulation based on institutional theory. The results reveal that ESGRD exacerbates corporate greenwashing behavior. The mechanism analysis indicates that ESGRD induces corporate greenwashing behavior through increasing financing constraints, enhancing information asymmetry, and exacerbating managerial myopia. The moderating effect analysis finds that both media attention (an informal institution) and environmental regulation (a formal institution) have negative moderating effects, which can weaken the positive impact of ESGRD on corporate greenwashing behavior. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive impact of ESGRD on greenwashing is more significant in non‐heavily polluting industries and enterprises with low foreign investor shareholdings. An extended analysis reports that ESGRD exhibits significant spillover effects, exacerbating the greenwashing behavior of other firms in the same industry and province. The conclusions not only expand the research scope on the economic consequences of ESGRD but also hold significant implications for standardizing ESG rating criteria, driving corporate green transformation, and fostering sustainable development.\n"]

  December 08, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70058   open full text
• The Impact of Greenwashing on Stock Price Synchronicity.
  Yirong Lu, Yusuf Karbhari, Xin Yang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 05, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study investigates the influence of greenwashing on the alignment between firm‐level stock returns and broader market trends, with particular attention to the mediating roles of investor sentiment, media coverage and sustainable fund ownership. The findings reveal that greenwashing significantly reduces return synchronicity by embedding unreliable firm‐specific environmental signals into stock prices, thereby impairing market efficiency. The results demonstrate that greenwashing amplifies sentiment‐driven trading among investors, attracts increased media coverage that further disseminates and legitimizes biased environmental narratives, and influences institutional investment decisions—particularly by sustainable funds, which tend to rely on superficial environmental disclosures. Additionally, the heterogeneous analysis indicates that the influence of greenwashing on stock price synchronicity is insignificant in heavily polluting industries due to heightened regulatory oversight and stakeholder scrutiny. This research adds to existing knowledge by linking greenwashing to stock price synchronicity, providing new insights into how selective environmental disclosures influence market behavior. By exposing the negative consequences of biased environmental disclosures, this study highlights the urgent need for stronger accountability standards, robust environmental reporting frameworks, and stricter regulatory oversight. Such measures are essential to ensure transparency, uphold market integrity, and protect investors from the adverse effects of deceptive corporate practices.\n"]

  December 05, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70060   open full text
• Interlocking Directorates, Government Capital, and CSR Disclosure: Networked Drivers in Chinese Firms.
  Chao Liu, Yuejie Pan, Li Zhu, Dehuai Jiang, Yi Man.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 03, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a key basis for organizational legitimacy and competitive advantage, yet the meso‐level mechanisms by which CSR disclosure practices diffuse through interconnected corporate networks remain poorly understood. In particular, it is unclear how CSR influence cascades across both direct and indirect ties in interlocking directorate networks and how political embeddedness moderates this process in emerging economy contexts such as China. Using data from 2941 firm‐year observations of 722 publicly listed Chinese firms between 2008 and 2017, we employ a network approach grounded in social network theory and upper echelons theory to investigate how interlocking directorates facilitate CSR diffusion and how political embeddedness shapes this dynamic. Our results reveal that CSR practices are influenced not only by direct ties within interlocking directorates but also propagate through indirect connections, with influence extending up to three degrees of separation in the network. This study makes three distinct contributions: (1) to academic literature, we empirically extend CSR and upper echelons theory by integrating the “three degrees of influence” rule into the corporate context; (2) to managers, we identify interlocking directorates as cost‐effective channels for learning and adopting CSR practices; and (3) to policymakers, we provide actionable insights for designing network‐based interventions to accelerate diffusion. By highlighting the roles of government‐related social capital and network structures, our research offers novel theoretical foundations and practical implications for both practitioners and regulators seeking to promote CSR adoption and diffusion across interlocking‐directorate networks.\n"]

  December 03, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70061   open full text
• Overall Organizational Justice Trajectories Among Newcomers: How Do Justice Perceptions Develop and Why Does It Matter?
  Constanze Eib, Yannick Griep, Deborah E. Rupp, John Trougakos, Jing Guo.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 03, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nWhile organizational justice perceptions are often thought to be stable, empirical evidence highlights substantial within‐person fluctuations over time. The development of these justice fluctuations may have important implications for newcomers' enactment of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). Building on fairness heuristics theory to consider the perception of justice as a dynamic phenomenon, we predict that the developmental nature of overall organizational justice (OOJ) perceptions varies between people following three trajectories. A Canadian sample of 103 participants responded to weekly surveys across 17 weeks, resulting in 986 observations. By means of latent class growth modeling, we identified one stable and two dynamic OOJ trajectories. These OOJ trajectories were differentially related to the enactment of OCB. Respondents characterized by the major negative change trajectory (decreasing levels of OOJ) had the lowest levels of OCB enactment, whereas respondents characterized by the stable and minor negative change OOJ trajectory had equally high levels of OCB enactment. Even when accounting for variable‐centered between‐person elements (primacy, recency and halo effects) when predicting OCB enactment at the end of the study, we found significant effects for the developmental nature of one's OOJ. We discuss the importance of these findings for organizational justice theory as well as their implications for practice.\n"]

  December 03, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70062   open full text
• Does Environmental Embeddedness Reinforce or Undermine: Effects of Network Embeddedness on Unethical Behavior in Buyer–Supplier Relationships.
  Wei Yang, Fenglei Han, Yin Zhou, Liping Qian, Qipeng Sun.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 27, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nDrawing on social network theory, we develop a moderated model in which network embeddedness is an informal governance mechanism to inhibit suppliers' unethical behaviors. Since the relational network is also embedded in a specific business environment and institutional context, we explore the mutually nested role of environmental embeddedness and network embeddedness. We test the model using dyadic data on the buyer–supplier relationship drawn from Chinese household electronics, automotive, and communications suppliers and buyers. The results show that regarding the relational aspect, network embeddedness has an inhibitive role on suppliers' deceitful and subtle practices, and political ties strengthen the inhibitive role of network embeddedness on unethical behaviors, while competitive intensity exerts contingency effects on this role. Our findings prove the value of network embeddedness in managing unethical behavior. We provide evidence for the mutually nested view of embeddedness. Specifically, we reveal that competitive intensity reinforces the inhibited effects of network embeddedness on deceitful practices. In addition, our study reveals that in the Chinese institutional environment, political ties reinforce the inhibited effects of network embeddedness on deceitful and subtle practices.\n"]

  November 27, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70052   open full text
• A Multi‐Stage Efficiency Analysis of Taiwan's Semiconductor Industry: Integrating ESG and Artificial Intelligence Perspectives.
  Shih‐Yung Chiu, Chia‐Pin Huang, Yung‐Ho Chiu, Kae‐Yih Tzeng.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 24, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe semiconductor industry is central to global technological progress but increasingly faces the challenge of balancing financial performance with rising environmental, social, and governance (ESG) expectations. While ESG and artificial intelligence (AI) are widely regarded as strategic priorities, limited empirical research has investigated their combined influence on firm‐level efficiency in high‐tech, capital‐intensive sectors. This study addresses this gap by applying a three‐stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate the performance of 33 publicly listed semiconductor firms in Taiwan across profitability, sustainability, and market value. The model reflects the sequential value‐creation process: the Profit stage measures how R&D and labor are transformed into innovation output (intangible assets and income); the Sustainability stage assesses how governance and environmental inputs shape ESG scores; and the Market stage examines how ESG performance and capital investment affect market valuation. Stage‐specific efficiency is measured using ESG and structural variables aligned with the semiconductor sector's vertically disintegrated and interdependent value chain. AI‐driven innovation is proxied by patent activity. Results reveal performance disparities across stages: Market stage efficiency ranks highest (0.9664), followed by Profit stage, while Sustainability stage lags—highlighting an ESG implementation gap in otherwise competitive firms. Tobit regression analysis shows that AI‐driven innovation enhances sustainability efficiency, whereas firm size and leverage are more closely linked to profitability. This study proposes a multi‐stage framework integrating ESG and AI to evaluate sustainable innovation in high‐tech sectors, offering insights into how firms can balance competitiveness with long‐term sustainability.\n"]

  November 24, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70054   open full text
• Analysing Higher Education Institutions' Role in Sustainable Development Goals: A Systematic Literature Review Analysis and Future Directions.
  Pasquale Latella, Stefania Veltri.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 24, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis paper examines the current state of the art regarding the contribution of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We conducted a Systematic Literature Review Analysis (SLRA), which integrates a traditional Systematic Literature Review (SLR) with Bibliographic Analysis (BA), on a final sample of 78 articles retrieved from the Scopus database. Using MySLR, a digital platform designed to assist researchers in carrying out SLRs, we categorized the articles into clusters based on the most frequently occurring words. Our analysis identified three primary research clusters reflecting how SDGs are addressed within the context of HEIs. The first cluster includes studies focusing on the implementation of SDGs through academic research. The second encompasses analyses evaluating the integration of SDGs into university curricula. The third cluster concerns universities' contributions to SDGs via initiatives aimed at fostering environmentally sustainable campuses. The study provides valuable indications on the need for integrated, context‐specific frameworks to guide SDG implementation in HEIs, highlighting their multi‐mission role in sustainability. It also offers practical strategies to incentivize and align institutional efforts across teaching, research, and operations.\n"]

  November 24, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70053   open full text
• Intensity of Corporate Social Responsibility Implementation in Czech Companies: The Moderating Role of Nonprofit Organizations.
  Vriti Sharma, Oto Potluka, Martin Viktora.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 24, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nNonprofit organizations (NPOs) promote themes closely relating to corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, only a few companies implement CSR. Hence, the internal and external factors that influence companies to implement CSR are worth exploring. Using a sample of 951 mid‐ and large‐sized Czech companies, we examine the internal and external factors that drive CSR implementation. By applying a partial least‐squares structural equation model, we test the role of perceived awareness about CSR, knowledge and skills, and willingness to implement CSR and the interactions between companies and NPOs. Results indicate that willingness, awareness, and skills increase the intensity of CSR implementation, while skills and knowledge are the most influential factors. The relationships between companies and NPOs underline the independence of companies and the limited impact of NPOs on Czech companies' CSR decisions.\n"]

  November 24, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70057   open full text
• Navigating ESG Performance Through Management Ability, Innovation, and Stakeholder Pressure. A Novel Moderation Analysis.
  Timothy Masuni Nagriwum, Naiping Zhu, Ummar Faruk Saeed.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 21, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nCan firms operating in institutionally fragile environments successfully advance Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals? This question is particularly urgent in the context of the energy sector of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), a region marked by regulatory inconsistencies, sustainability pressures, and growing stakeholder scrutiny. This study addresses the research questions: (1) Does management ability influence ESG performance? (2) To what extent do technological innovation and stakeholder pressure moderate the relationship between management ability and ESG performance? Grounded in the resource‐based view, upper‐echelon, and legitimacy theories, the study analyzed panel data from 283 energy firms across 18 LAC countries for the period 2010–2022. Methodologically, it employed common correlated effects mean group and pooled mean group estimators, alongside dynamic GMM and IV‐2SLS techniques to account for potential endogeneity and ensure causal robustness. The findings revealed that management ability has a strong positive impact on ESG performance, and this effect is significantly amplified by technological innovation and stakeholder pressure. Academically, the study advances theoretical discourse and literature by integrating multiple theoretical frameworks to explain ESG performance in emerging markets, demonstrating that the synergy of internal leadership and contextual forces drives sustainability. Practically, the results offer actionable guidance for firms and policymakers. For managers, the findings demonstrated that cultivating ESG‐oriented leadership skills, strategically aligning technological innovation with sustainability goals, and proactively engaging with stakeholders enhance corporate legitimacy and competitive advantage. Policy‐wise, the results underscore the importance of designing regulatory frameworks, incentive mechanisms, and innovation‐support policies that reinforce corporate sustainability practices.\n"]

  November 21, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70055   open full text
• See and Sing: How and When Does Frontline Employee Green Behavior Influence Consumer Evangelism?
  Shujie Zhang, Xingyuan Wang, Guiyao Tang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 21, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nDrawing upon the service encounter perspective and attribution theory, this study develops an integrated model linking frontline employees' green behavior with consumer evangelism, incorporating the serial mediating role of consumer positive generalization and satisfaction, as well as the moderating role of consumer attribution. To test our theoretical model, we conducted three experiments and recruited a total of 500 participants. The results reveal a significant positive impact of frontline employee green behavior on consumer evangelism. This effect is mediated by consumer positive generalization and satisfaction. Furthermore, consumer attribution about frontline employee green behavior moderates the serial mediating effect such that the mediating effect is stronger under the condition of substantive attribution (vs. symbolic attribution). This study contributes to the literature on green services and green marketing. Additionally, it offers valuable practical insights for companies looking to build a green reputation and enhance customer loyalty by implementing sustainable practices.\n"]

  November 21, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70047   open full text
• Are Politically Connected Directors Greener? Evidence From Non‐State‐Owned Firms in China.
  Muhammad Usman, Muhammad Abubakkar Siddique, Muzhar Javed, Muhammad Haris‐ul‐Mahasbi.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 17, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study investigates the impact of politically connected directors on the green innovation propensity of non‐state‐owned firms. We also examine the moderating effect of CEO characteristics, such as gender, age, and role duality, on the relationship between politically connected directors and green innovation. Analyzing data from A‐share non‐financial non‐state‐owned firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2008 to 2021, we find robust evidence that politically connected directors enhance a firm's inclination towards green innovation. Notably, this effect is more pronounced in firms led by female CEOs, younger CEOs, and those without CEO role duality. After addressing potential endogeneity concerns, our results remain consistent. This research has significant implications for various stakeholders, including managers, investors, and policymakers at both national and global levels, offering valuable insights into the role of corporate governance and leadership in driving sustainable innovation.\n"]

  November 17, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70050   open full text
• Strategic Tone Shifting in Corporate Reporting: Analyzing MD&A and CSR Disclosures in Socially Responsible Firms.
  Sibei Yan, Iny Hwang, Hyung‐Rok Jung, Taejin Jung.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 16, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis paper examines whether managers of socially responsible firms strategically manage the tone of disclosure across different communication channels, with a focus on Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports. Drawing on impression management theory, we argue that managers adjust the tone of narrative disclosures to maintain favorable perceptions among stakeholders while navigating varying levels of regulatory scrutiny. Using data from Chinese listed firms between 2010 and 2019, we find that socially responsible firms tend to adopt a more positive tone in MD&A than in CSR reports. However, when financial performance weakens, they reduce the positivity in MD&A—where litigation risk is higher—and instead emphasize a more positive tone in CSR reports, where disclosure regulation is less stringent. These results suggest that socially responsible firms shift their tone strategically across channels to balance impression management objectives with regulatory considerations. Our findings contribute to the literature on narrative disclosure and CSR communication strategies.\n"]

  November 16, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70051   open full text
• A Meta‐Analysis of Employees' Corporate Social Responsibility Attributions: Examining Demographic Antecedents, Outcomes, and Theoretical Correlates.
  Yuxiang Luan, Zheyuan Wang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 12, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nCorporate social responsibility (CSR) attribution is the process by which individuals infer the reasons behind CSR initiatives. We present a comprehensive meta‐analysis of employees' CSR attributions. Based on attribution theory, we categorized CSR attributions into two types—CSR intrinsic attribution (CSR‐IA) and CSR extrinsic attribution (CSR‐EA). First, we investigated demographic antecedents and found that age, education, gender, and tenure do not significantly correlate with either CSR‐IA or CSR‐EA. Second, in terms of theoretical correlates, we found both leader‐member exchange (LMX) and perceived organizational support (POS) were positively correlated with CSR‐IA, but not with CSR‐EA. Third, in examining the outcomes of CSR attributions, we found CSR‐IA positively related to organizational identification, organizational trust, and work meaningfulness, whereas CSR‐EA showed no significant associations with these variables. Finally, we found that organizational identification mediated the positive relationship between CSR‐IA and several important outcomes, including task performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the distinct roles of CSR attributions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.\n"]

  November 12, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70042   open full text
• Sustainability Reporting in Higher Education: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis for Strategic Decision‐Making.
  Valerio Brescia, Lorenzo Coronella, Silvana Secinaro, Alessandro Mechelli.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 09, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThe communication of sustainable development is essential for higher education institutions (HEIs), which voluntarily prepare sustainability reports (SRs) to demonstrate commitment and inform strategic decision‐making. This study conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify and analyze the challenges associated with implementing SRs in HEIs and their implications for strategic management. Some key challenges include publication practices, accessibility, comparability, sustainability assessment, limited stakeholder engagement, and an underdeveloped sustainability culture. Proposed solutions involve adopting HEI‐specific SR guidelines, strengthening sustainability culture across institutional levels, and enhancing stakeholder participation. A bibliometric analysis of existing literature supplements the SLR to identify emerging trends, research gaps, and future opportunities. This study offers practical recommendations to improve SR practices in HEIs and enhance their value for academic decision‐makers, while also providing theoretical insights for future research.\n"]

  November 09, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70044   open full text
• Overwhelmed or Withdrawn? How Job Demands and Unfairness Drive Alienation, Quiet Quitting, Knowledge Withholding.
  Fathyia Yousif Almarzoqee, Shaker Bani‐Melhem, Faridahwati Mohd‐Shamsudin, Muhammad Usman, Asmaa Nusairi.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 07, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nWhen employees engage in counterproductive work behaviours, such as knowledge withholding and quiet quitting, questions arise regarding the ethical implications of these actions. While these behaviours are often seen as intentional, the role of organisational factors remains underexplored. This study investigates two counterproductive behaviours—knowledge withholding, typically directed at colleagues and quiet quitting, which involves disengagement from job tasks and organisational commitment. We propose that these behaviours are not solely driven by individual intent but by organisational factors such as job demands and perceived effort‐reward unfairness. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to examine how high job demands lead to both knowledge withholding and quiet quitting, both directly and indirectly through work alienation. Additionally, the study anticipates that the relationship between job demands, and these behaviours is moderated by employees' perception of effort‐reward unfairness, meaning that the relationship is expected to be stronger when such perceptions are present. A time‐lagged survey of 340 healthcare professionals in the UAE, including nurses, physicians and administrative staff, was conducted. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesised models. The results show that job demands are positively associated with both quiet quitting and knowledge withholding. Employees engage in these behaviours not out of unwillingness, but because they are overwhelmed with tasks, leaving them with little time for extra effort or sharing knowledge. Alienation was found to mediate these relationships, with employees feeling disconnected being more likely to engage in these behaviours. Perceived unfairness further amplifies these effects. This study offers a new perspective by demonstrating that organisational factors, such as excessive job demands and unfair reward systems, contribute to knowledge withholding and quiet quitting. Implications for management and future research are discussed.\n"]

  November 07, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70049   open full text
• Can Technological and Customer Competencies Enable the Firm to Be Greener? Simultaneous Consideration of Resource‐Based View and Social License to Operate.
  Tongkyu Kim, Hyeonyu Son, Yu Ri Kim, Jiyeon Han, Yunze Cho, Taewoo Roh.
  Business Ethics A European Review. November 07, 2025
  ["Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis research explores the contribution of firm competencies and green management practices to enhancing a firm's sustainable performance. It examines the effects of technological competencies (TC) and customer competencies (CC) through the lens of a competence‐based view (CBV) framework, particularly focusing on their influence on green supply chain management (GSCM) and green innovation (GI), along with the subsequent impact on environmental performance (EP). Additionally, the study examines the moderating role of the social license to operate (SLO) in the relationship between firm competencies, green management practices, and sustainable performance, highlighting its strategic necessity in mitigating conflicts and sustaining moral legitimacy within a developed country context. Utilizing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM), the study analyzes data from 213 Korean companies. The results demonstrate that both TC and CC have a positive effect on green management practices. Furthermore, both GI and GSCM contribute to improved EP. Although it is theorized that SLO can play a moderating role within this dynamic, the results find insignificant effects, with the exception of the relationship between TC and GSCM. These findings provide valuable insights to both policymakers and business managers by highlighting the role of firm competencies and SLO.\n"]

  November 07, 2025   doi: 10.1111/beer.70045   open full text
• The ethical use of crowdsourcing.
  Susan Standing, Craig Standing.
  Business Ethics A European Review. October 10, 2017
  Crowdsourcing has attracted increasing attention as a means to enlist online participants in organisational activities. In this paper, we examine crowdsourcing from the perspective of its ethical use in the support of open innovation taking a broader system view of its use. Crowdsourcing has the potential to improve access to knowledge, skills, and creativity in a cost‐effective manner but raises a number of ethical dilemmas. The paper discusses the ethical issues related to knowledge exchange, economics, and relational aspects of crowdsourcing. A guiding framework drawn from the ethics literature is proposed to guide the ethical use of crowdsourcing. A major problem is that crowdsourcing is viewed in a piecemeal fashion and separate from other organisational processes. The trend for organisations to be more digitally collaborative is explored in relation to the need for greater awareness of crowdsourcing implications.

  October 10, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12173   open full text
• How can mindfulness enhance moral reasoning? An examination using business school students.
  Ashish Pandey, Rajesh Chandwani, Ajinkya Navare.
  Business Ethics A European Review. October 10, 2017
  Given the comprehensive influence of mindfulness on human thought and behavior, and the importance of moral reasoning in business decisions, we examine the role of mindfulness as an antecedent to moral reasoning through two studies. In Study 1, we propose and test a theoretically derived model that links mindfulness and moral reasoning, mediated by compassion and egocentric bias using a survey design. In Study 2, we examine whether mindfulness training enhances moral reasoning using an experimental design with graduate students of business management. The findings of Study 1 substantiate the positive association of mindfulness with moral reasoning. We found that this relationship is fully mediated by compassion and egocentric bias. The results of Study 2 suggest that mindfulness meditation training has a positive impact on individuals' states of mindfulness, compassion, and moral reasoning, and decreases egocentric bias. We relate the findings of the study with contemporary neurological research and discuss the theoretical, pedagogical, and managerial implications.

  October 10, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12171   open full text
• Brands as labour rights advocates? Potential and limits of brand advocacy in global supply chains.
  Chikako Oka.
  Business Ethics A European Review. October 05, 2017
  There is a growing phenomenon of brand advocacy, where brands pressure a producer country government to take pro‐worker actions such as respecting the rights of activists and raising minimum wages. This article examines the potential and limits of brand advocacy by developing a conceptual framework and analysing three recent cases of brand advocacy in Cambodia's garment industry. The study shows that brands' action and influence are shaped by issue salience, mobilization structures, political opportunities/contexts, and resource dependency. This article makes both empirical and theoretical contributions. This is one of the first studies delving into the advocacy role of brands in promoting labour rights and conditions vis‐à‐vis government. Moreover, the article develops a testable framework specifying the conditions under which brands are likely to respond, act collectively, and influence government for pro‐worker change. It also offers novel insights by applying social movement lenses and casting brands as social movement actors.

  October 05, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12172   open full text
• Effects of responsible human resource management practices on female employees’ turnover intentions.
  Dan Nie, Anna‐Maija Lämsä, Raminta Pučėtaitė.
  Business Ethics A European Review. September 19, 2017
  This study focuses on the effects of socially responsible human resource management (SR‐HRM) practices on female employees’ turnover intentions and the moderating effect of supervisor gender on this relationship. With a sample of 212 female employees from eight different industries in Finland, the results indicate that SR‐HRM practices promoting equal career opportunities and work–family integration play a significant role in reducing women's turnover intentions. The study adds to the academic discourse of corporate social responsibility by highlighting the impact of the organizational‐level HRM determinants on the individual‐level outcome. In addition, supervisor gender makes a difference in the studied relationship: female supervisors have a stronger and more significant impact on the relationship than male supervisors. Our findings suggest that organizational measures which support work–family integration should be taken seriously to decrease female employees’ turnover intentions. Male supervisors could adopt some gender‐incongruent leadership behaviors, such as individualized emotional concern and caring when dealing with female employees. In the future, other gender combinations in the supervisor–employee relationship would merit research.

  September 19, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12165   open full text
• Machiavellianism, social norms, and taxpayer compliance.
  William E. Shafer, Zhihong Wang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. September 19, 2017
  This study is the first to examine the relationships among Machiavellianism, social norms and taxpayer intentions to fraudulently overstate their deductions. We theorize and empirically document that (a) high Machiavellian taxpayers report significantly less ethical social norms, suggesting that reported social norms are influenced by cognitive biases such as social projection and Machiavellian cynicism; (b) reported social norms are, in general, significantly associated with tax evasion intentions; (c) social norms partially mediate the relationship between Machiavellianism and evasion intentions. Our findings imply that experimental research that controls for key personality traits such as Machiavellianism will be necessary to test the effectiveness of potential interventions designed to enhance social norms and tax compliance. Our findings also raise questions regarding the validity of certain social norm measures used in recent studies, particularly in the case of high Machiavellians. In contrast to much prior research, gender was not associated with the likelihood of committing tax fraud in our multivariate models, suggesting that the higher levels of tax compliance often associated with females may be eroding.

  September 19, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12166   open full text
• Family firms and the interests of non‐family stakeholders: The influence of family managers' affective commitment and family salience in terms of power.
  María de la Cruz Déniz‐Déniz, María Katiuska Cabrera‐Suárez, Josefa D. Martín‐Santana.
  Business Ethics A European Review. August 08, 2017
  The goal of this research is to analyze the heterogeneity of family firms in the normative attention to their non‐family stakeholders. With this aim, we suggest that the psychological process of top family managers in terms of individual affective commitment to their firms is a key variable to explain that heterogeneity. However, we also suggest a moderator effect of the family stakeholder salience in the relationship between the managers' affective commitment to the firm and the establishment of firm goals toward non‐family stakeholders. The results of a hierarchical regression analysis on data obtained from 207 family executives show a significant positive influence of managers' affective commitment on the establishment of goals related both to internal (employees) and external (customers and community) non‐family stakeholders. In addition, we can observe a negative moderator effect of the family utilitarian power—as an indicator of the family stakeholder salience—on the relationship between the family managers' affective commitment and the goals related to non‐family employees.

  August 08, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12155   open full text
• Sense and sensibility: Testing an attention‐based view of organizational responses to social issues.
  Luciana Carvalho de Mesquita Ferreira.
  Business Ethics A European Review. August 02, 2017
  According to attention‐based theories, to explain organizational attention is to explain organizational behavior. In our study, we test the model of situated attention and firm behavior by examining the effects of attention structures and allocation of attention on organizational outcomes. We hypothesize a positive relationship between attention structures and the allocation of organizational attention that, in turn, has an effect on financial performance. Using a unique data set composed of indicators of social responsibility published by 338 Brazilian organizations between 2001 and 2007, we find support for our hypotheses. Our findings suggest that organizational attention to social issues fully mediates the relationship between attention structures and financial performance.

  August 02, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12156   open full text
• Investigating critical organizational factors toward sustainability index: Insights from the Taiwanese electronics industry.
  Chia‐Wei Hsu, Dong‐Shang Chang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. August 02, 2017
  To improve sustainable practices and attract investors, companies in emerging markets have increasingly embraced strategies for inclusion in rapidly expanding sustainability indices. However, most early studies on socially responsible investment or sustainability investment have only focused on exploring the relationship between corporate sustainability and firm value. Moreover, little has been done to explore the practices of emerging market companies for engaging with a sustainability index. To address this research gap, we employed the decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method to identify critical factors that influence the inclusion of emerging market companies in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). Five critical factors and best practices were identified based on the analysis of seven Taiwanese electronics companies that have been listed in the DJSI for several consecutive years. Our results provide insights on the critical factors and best practices that reinforce the sustainable practices of emerging market companies for inclusion in the DJSI. This study also contributes to the literature by investigating the engagement of emerging market companies with the DJSI.

  August 02, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12154   open full text
• A complementary perspective on business ethics in South Korea: Civil religion, common misconceptions, and overlooked social structures.
  Sven Horak, Inju Yang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. July 27, 2017
  Following the recent call for advancement in knowledge about business ethics in East Asia, this study proposes a complementary perspective on business ethics in South Korea. We challenge the conventional view that South Korea is a strictly collectivist country, where group norms and low trust determine the norms and values of behavior. Using the concept of civil religion, we suggest that the center of the South Korean civil religion can be seen in the affective ties and networks pervading the economic, political, and social institutions, embedded in and guided by Confucian ideals. We argue that South Korea should be seen not as a collectivist low‐trust society, but rather as an affective‐relational society, in which the relational context determines whether collectivism or individualism prevails. Further, we assert that trust, the cohesive factor of affective ties and networks, has until now been inadequately captured by conventional surveys. Our proposed perspective contributes to a more holistic picture and a more firmly grounded understanding of business ethics in South Korea.

  July 27, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12153   open full text
• Aligning responsible business practices: A case study.
  Angeli E. Weller.
  Business Ethics A European Review. July 06, 2017
  This article offers an in‐depth case study of a global high tech manufacturer that aligned its ethics and compliance, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability practices. Few large companies organize their responsible business practices this way, despite conceptual relevance and calls to manage them comprehensively. A communities of practice theoretical lens suggests that intentional effort would be needed to bridge meaning between the relevant managers and practices in order to achieve alignment. The findings call attention to the important role played by employees who broker understanding between managers and practices, and the boundary objects used to create shared meaning and engagement. They also highlight that an organizing logic is necessary but not sufficient to align practices. This study describes the dynamics of alignment and provides a practical road map for scholars and managers interested in understanding how responsible business practices may be collectively organized.

  July 06, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12150   open full text
• Green intentions under the blue flag: Exploring differences in EU consumers’ willingness to pay more for environmentally‐friendly products.
  Diana Gregory‐Smith, Danae Manika, Pelin Demirel.
  Business Ethics A European Review. June 14, 2017
  Recent research on consumer social responsibility highlights the need to examine psychological drivers of environmentally‐friendly consumption choices in a global context. This article investigates consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) more for environmentally‐friendly products across 28 European Union (EU) countries, using a sample of 21,514 consumers. A multigroup structural equation modeling analysis reveals significantly different patterns and relationships, in how (a) subjective knowledge about the product's environmental impact, (b) environmental product attitudes, and (c) the perceived importance of the products’ environmental impact influence consumers’ WTP more for environmentally‐friendly products across countries. The hypothesized model predicts WTP for 20 out of 28 countries and the findings show that a “one‐size‐fits‐all” approach is inadequate in capturing the heterogeneity of EU consumers. Hosfstede's cultural dimensions of uncertainty tolerance and individualism explain differences in WTP for environmentally‐friendly products across EU countries. Business, marketing communications, and policy making implications are discussed.

  June 14, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12151   open full text
• Sustainability assurance and cost of capital: Does assurance impact on credibility of corporate social responsibility information?
  Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero, Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez.
  Business Ethics A European Review. June 14, 2017
  This paper aims to examine the credibility value of sustainability assurance and the type of assurance provider on cost of capital. A large sample of international companies from the period 2007–2014 was used to develop our models of analysis. We find a greater decrease in cost of capital for companies that publish and assure their social and environmental reports. Thus, voluntary sustainability disclosures decrease the cost of capital. However, companies also have the opportunity to reinforce this decrease by providing an assurance statement, so increasing the credibility of corporate social responsibility information. In addition, the decrease in the cost of capital is significantly higher when such assurance is provided by a top‐tier accountancy firm instead of by engineering or consultancy firms; this result supports also the reputational capital of accountancy firms.

  June 14, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12152   open full text
• Corporate volunteering: A bibliometric analysis from 1990 to 2015.
  Suska Dreesbach‐Bundy, Barbara Scheck.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 29, 2017
  This article describes a quantitative examination of corporate volunteering research in the form of a bibliometric analysis. Using author, journal, geography, epistemological, and industry data from 115 refereed and 445 non‐refereed publications published during 1990–2015, we identify corporate volunteering as a rather young research field. Although the field has progressively developed, it is still limited in magnitude, with recent signs of stagnation. The current state is characterized by moderate publication and author activity rates, with a shift toward more peer‐reviewed publications conducted in coauthorship, mostly in the disciplines of business, management, and ethics; a focus on financial services as well as the professional service sector; few high‐impact studies; and a narrow geographic spread, with North America as the market leader and a rising interest in Western European countries. Findings on the field's prevalent research orientation further indicate a strong employee‐centered focus emphasizing the underlying business case. However, in contrast to the overarching concept of corporate social responsibility research, a relatively large share of the corporate volunteering literature also addresses society‐related issues, namely, corporates' relationship with non‐profits.

  March 29, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12148   open full text
• Assessing mission drift at venture capital impact investors.
  Dilek Cetindamar, Banu Ozkazanc‐Pan.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 13, 2017
  In this article, we consider a recent trend whereby private equity available from venture capital (VC) firms is being deployed toward mission‐driven initiatives in the form of impact investing. Acting as hybrid organizations, these impact investors aim to achieve financial results while also targeting companies and funds to achieve social impact. However, potential mission drift in these VCs, which we define as a decoupling between the investments made (means) and intended aims (ends), might become detrimental to the simultaneous financial and social goals of such firms. Based on a content analysis of mission statements, we assess mission drift and the hybridization level of VC impact investors by examining their missions (ends/goals) and their investment practices (means) through the criteria of social and financial logic. After examining eight impact‐oriented VC investors and their investments in 164 companies, we find mission drift manifest as a disparity between the means and ends in half of the VC impact investors in our sample. We discuss these findings and make suggestions for further studies.

  March 13, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12149   open full text
• CSR and the workplace attitudes of irregular employees: The case of subcontracted workers in Korea.
  Mohammad A. Ali, Heung‐Jun Jung.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 07, 2017
  In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in organizational trends to hire irregular workers. This inclination, in a time of great flux and uncertainty, exacerbates human resource issues faced by firms. We argue that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be an important antecedent to improve the workplace attitudes of irregular workers and as a result reduce the negative impact on organizations of the increased use of an irregular workforce. Hence, we explore the relationship between perceived CSR (composite and disaggregated) and unfairness perception and social relations of subcontracted workers with regular workers. We further attempt to explain these relationships through the mediating effects of psychological contract violation and organizational identity, respectively. Our analysis supports a negative effect of composite and external CSR on unfairness perception and positive effect on social relations. Additionally, our results support partial mediating roles of psychological contract violation and organizational identity. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are also discussed.

  March 07, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12146   open full text
• Desire to be ethical or ability to self‐control: Which is more crucial for ethical behavior?
  Tuvana Rua, Leanna Lawter, Jeanine Andreassi.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 23, 2017
  Promoting ethical decisions and behaviors is challenging for any organization. Yet managers are still required to make ethical decisions under conditions which deplete their self‐control resources, such as high stress and long hours. This study examines the relationships among symbolic and internal moral identity, self‐control, and ethical behavior, and investigates whether self‐control acts as the mechanism through which moral identity leads to ethical behavior. Findings indicate that internal moral identity overrides symbolic moral identity in the relationship with self‐control and that self‐control fully mediates the relationship between internal moral identity and ethical behavior. The implications for organizations is that while rules, procedures, and ethics training are useful, managers with a strong moral compass will be more likely to practice self‐control leading to more ethical behaviors.

  February 23, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12145   open full text
• When organizations are too good: Applying Aristotle's doctrine of the mean to the corporate ethical virtues model.
  Muel Kaptein.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 22, 2017
  Aristotle's doctrine of the mean states that a virtue is the mean state between two vices: a deficient and an excessive one. The Corporate Ethical Virtues (CEV) Model defines the mean and the corresponding deficient vice for each of its seven virtues. This paper defines for each of these virtues the corresponding excessive vice and explores why organizations characterized by these excessive vices increase the likelihood that their employees will behave unethically. The excessive vices are patronization, pompousness, lavishness, zealotry, overexposure, talkativeness, and oppressiveness.

  February 22, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12147   open full text
• Institutional investors as stewards of the corporation: Exploring the challenges to the monitoring hypothesis.
  Mila R. Ivanova.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 03, 2017
  The study explores the challenges UK‐based institutional investors face when trying to monitor investee companies and influence their social, environmental, and governance practices. Consistent with previous research, I find that misalignment of interests within the investment chain and dispersed ownership are factors which inhibit investor activism. However, other underexplored challenges include lack of investee company transparency and investor experience in activism, as well as low client demand for engagement and internal conflicts of interest. The results contribute to the literature on institutional investor activism by using direct empirical evidence to systematically discuss the challenges to stewardship. Given the intensification of media and regulatory attention on shareholders in the post‐global financial crisis era, coupled with investors’ growing awareness and practice of stewardship, the research opens new avenues for enquiry which go beyond the on‐going debate about the monitoring versus short‐termism roles of institutional investors.

  February 03, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12142   open full text
• Political dependence, social scrutiny, and corporate philanthropy: Evidence from disaster relief.
  Yongqiang Gao, Taïeb Hafsi.
  Business Ethics A European Review. February 02, 2017
  This study explores why and how firms respond to social demands through philanthropic giving in the context of a severe natural disaster. Drawing on Marquis and Qian's organizational response model to government signals, we integrate resource dependence theory and institutional theory to build a two‐step model of organizational response to social needs, in situations of disaster relief. We argue that firms depending more on the government for support are more likely to donate in disaster relief, while firms who receive more scrutiny from the government and the general public and firms having more slack resources are likely to donate more. Evidence from Chinese listed companies' donations to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake largely supports our predictions. This study provides a more precise understanding of the corporate philanthropic decision process, decoupling the drivers of philanthropic giving, and those determining the amount given. Theoretical and practical implications are suggested.

  February 02, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12144   open full text
• The influence of media, positive perception, and identification on survey‐based measures of corruption.
  Heungsik Park, Jimoon Lee.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 25, 2017
  This study examines the influence of some suspected sources of bias on perceptions of public sector corruption. These sources include dependence on two types of media as information sources about corruption: traditional and social media, positive perception of public employees, and social identification with public employees. Data were collected through a face‐to‐face survey of the general public in South Korea. The sample comprised 472 respondents evenly dispersed across the country. Through regression analysis, we found that dependence on traditional media—but not social media—significantly increased the perceived level of corruption. However, positive perceptions of and social identification with public employees were negatively associated with it, showing that these factors may skew respondents' perceptions of corruption. The results have implications for practitioners and researchers who design, implement, or evaluate anti‐corruption policies, suggesting the need for caution when making use of survey results.

  January 25, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12143   open full text
• Business ethics searches: A socioeconomic and demographic analysis of U.S. Google Trends in the context of the 2008 financial crisis.
  Christophe Faugère, Olivier Gergaud.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 23, 2017
  A socioeconomic and demographic analysis of U.S. Google Trends for queries about Business Ethics and Greed is proposed in the context of the 2008 financial crisis. The framework is grounded in the ethical decision‐making literature. Two models using micro and macro‐type variables are tested using GLM and GEE regression techniques. The frequency of these Google queries varies positively with the ratio of females, educational attainment, younger adult age, some measures of economic hardship or inequalities, and the lesser the weight of the finance industry represented in each State. The frequency of queries intensifies for these same socioeconomic and demographic categories, in the aftermath of the financial crisis. This article is the first to study the salience of business ethics as an issue in the empirical literature using a nationwide database. It also provides a first empirical study in the specialized literature on “ethics in a time of crisis”. This study lays a preliminary groundwork to identify pro‐ethical reform segments of the population, with practical use for financial regulatory agencies.

  January 23, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12138   open full text
• Engaging with environmental stakeholders: Routes to building environmental capabilities in the context of the low carbon economy.
  Polina Baranova, Maureen Meadows.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 18, 2017
  The transition to a low carbon economy demands new strategies to enable organizations to take advantage of the potential for “green” growth. An organization's environmental stakeholders can provide opportunities for growth and support the success of its low carbon strategies, as well as potentially acting as a constraint on new initiatives. Building environmental capabilities through engagement with environmental stakeholders is conceptualized as an important aspect for the success of organizational low carbon strategies. We examine capability building across a range of sectors affected by the sustainability agenda, including construction, rail, water, and health care. We identify a number of emergent environmental stakeholders and explore their engagement with the development of environmental capabilities in the context of the transition toward a low carbon economy. Our conceptual framework offers a categorization of environmental stakeholders based on their position in relation to a focal organization and the potential for the development of environmental capabilities.

  January 18, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12141   open full text
• The role of female directors in promoting CSR practices: An international comparison between family and non‐family businesses.
  Lázaro Rodríguez‐Ariza, Beatriz Cuadrado‐Ballesteros, Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero, Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 10, 2017
  This article analyzes a panel of 550 international firms, for the period 2004 to 2010, to compare the role of female directors in family and non‐family firms in promoting responsible practices. Many studies have associated the presence of women on the board with a higher degree of socially responsible commitment. However, we found that this is much less so in family firms than in non‐family firms. In family firms, corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment does not vary significantly with the presence of female directors, as the latter tend to behave in accordance with the family orientation toward CSR. This orientation depends on the stakeholders being addressed, with greater social responsibility shown toward external stakeholders than internal ones.

  January 10, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12140   open full text
• Leadership styles and corporate social responsibility management: Analysis from a gender perspective.
  Maria del Mar Alonso‐Almeida, Jordi Perramon, Llorenc Bagur‐Femenias.
  Business Ethics A European Review. January 05, 2017
  Companies' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been only partially analyzed from an individual perspective that focuses on personal characteristics and professional backgrounds. However, a gap exists in the research on manager leadership styles and CSR perceptions from a gender perspective. Therefore, this article analyzes differences in attitudes toward various dimensions of CSR by focusing on the leadership styles—transformational, dominance, and dual perspectives—of male and female managers in Spain. A total of 391 respondents in top management positions in Spain were surveyed. The findings revealed similarities and differences between genders with respect to leadership styles and CSR perceptions by dimension using a univariate analysis. A causal model that employed structural equation modeling was also estimated. The findings suggest that for transformational and dual leadership styles, Spanish women may be more adaptable and effective at pursuing company sustainability than Spanish men. However, dominance leadership was found to be the worst leadership style for deploying a CSR strategy. A number of conclusions for business management can be drawn, and some directions for future research are provided.

  January 05, 2017   doi: 10.1111/beer.12139   open full text
• Bridging the gap: How sustainable development can help companies create shareholder value and improve financial performance.
  Fernando Gómez‐Bezares, Wojciech Przychodzen, Justyna Przychodzen.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 08, 2016
  This study examines the effect of integrating sustainability into corporate strategy on various aspects of shareholder value creation and financial performance in the British capital market. The employed method is based on the content analysis of corporate disclosures and a new technique for assessing the adoption of the corporate sustainability concept (embracing the environmental, social, and financial aspects of a company's policies at the same time). Using extensive data of FTSE 350 firms covering the years 2006–2012, 65 companies were selected as meeting corporate sustainability criteria. For the above period, we find that these firms were characterized by higher financial risk exposure, lower asset growth rates, lower BV/MV ratios, lower EVA ratios, and higher MVA ratios. Such relations were generally present among different size and industry groupings. The results support the thesis that firms that incorporate sustainability issues into their business operations are better able to leverage their resources toward stronger financial performance and shareholder value creation than other companies. The paper contributes to the literature by offering a more holistic approach to corporate sustainable performance measurement and shedding additional light on its relation to financial performance in the context of the recent global financial crisis and its direct aftermath.

  December 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12135   open full text
• Green governance? Local politics and ethical businesses in Great Britain.
  Tony Bradley, Curtis Ziniel.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 08, 2016
  One of the least understood aspects of the world‐wide “greening of markets” is the emergence of local “ethical marketplaces” and the subset of alternative business models described as “ethical businesses.” But previous research has demonstrated the ability of local politicians to encourage their regions toward more ethical marketplaces. This paper explores the impact radical centrist third party representation has on the emergence of ethical businesses across Great Britain. To understand this relationship, we utilize a novel data set of organizations with membership in Ethical Junction, the United Kingdom's largest network for ethical businesses. We use a zero‐inflated Poisson regression to model the connection, and find a meaningful relationship, between third‐party political representation on British local councils and the presence of ethical businesses within local authorities. This presents an example of the way in which radical political change may be part of a wider social movement toward greening markets.

  December 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12134   open full text
• The assessment of individual moral goodness.
  Raymond B. Chiu, Rick D. Hackett.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 08, 2016
  In a field dominated by research on moral prescription (business ethics) and moral prediction (behavioral ethics), there is poor understanding of the place of moral perceptions in organizations alongside philosophical ethics and causal models of ethical outcomes. As leadership failures continue to plague organizational health and firms recognize the wide‐ranging impact of subjective bias, scholars and practitioners need a renewed frame of reference from which to reconceptualize their current understanding of ethics as perceived in individuals. Based on an assessment and selection perspective from the field of human resource management, an alternative to conventional deductive‐prescriptive approaches is proposed based on a pluralistic concept referred to as moral goodness. An inductive‐descriptive theory‐building framework is constructed based on three interrelated streams of inquiry to yield insight concerning both formal and informal instances of assessment. Recommendations are proposed for the application of the framework to future research and practice.

  December 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12137   open full text
• Intra‐stakeholder alliances in plant‐closing decisions: A stakeholder theory approach.
  Yves Fassin, Simone de Colle, R. Edward Freeman.
  Business Ethics A European Review. December 06, 2016
  This article discusses plant‐closing decisions by multinational enterprises (MNEs) applying a stakeholder theory approach. In particular, we focus on the emergence of “intra‐stakeholder alliances,” that is, alliances among the various stakeholder groups of a specific corporation. We analyze the emergence of stakeholder alliances in reaction to MNEs' decisions to terminate production locally and discuss their influence on the outcomes of such decisions. Our research is inspired by two exceptional case studies of two multinational breweries that announced their decisions to close niche breweries in small towns in Italy and Belgium. In both cases, the initial decision was ultimately reversed through the actions of intra‐stakeholder alliances. We combine insights from stakeholder theory and the social movement literature to analyze the action and influence of intra‐stakeholder alliances in seven cases of plant‐closing decisions. We conclude by formulating four general propositions that can provide guidance to MNE management in plant‐closing decisions. Our findings extend managerial stakeholder theory, show how this approach can improve strategic management analysis, emphasize the importance of the relationships among (local) stakeholders in the (global) value‐creation process, and shed light on the collective action and influence of intra‐stakeholder alliances.

  December 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12136   open full text
• Corporate recidivism in emerging economies.
  Qinqin Zheng, Rosa Chun.
  Business Ethics A European Review. October 21, 2016
  Prior research on corporate misconduct pays extensive attention to single misconduct behaviors. However, little research has addressed recidivism – the repeated behaviors of corporate misconduct. Based on institutional theory and using the context of emerging economies where recidivism plays a considerable role, we propose the path dependency of corporate recidivism and suggest that three influential factors exist: internal preconditioning, inter‐organizational imitation, and the prevailing external evaluation. Our event history analysis of 1,036 listed companies in China over the period 2001–2008 statistically confirms our hypotheses. We conclude the paper by outlining the implications for both theory and practice.

  October 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12132   open full text
• Autocratic tensions, cronyism, and the opacity of business information: party newspapers and circulation figures during the Francoist dictatorship (1939–1975).
  Susana Gago‐Rodríguez, Manuel Núñez‐Nickel.
  Business Ethics A European Review. October 21, 2016
  Autocracies draw their political power from cronyism and organized repression. The opacity of business information (economic censorship) protects these regimes and their crony firms from any opposition. However, autocracies might also desire to eliminate cronyism (and therefore opacity) because it dampens economic growth. Autocracies survive through repression that engenders tensions, as evident in the Spanish newspaper industry during the Francoist dictatorship. State control over this industry was important because the press disseminated news to the public. From 1939 to 1957, the autocracy institutionalized both cronyism and the opacity of circulation figures to sustain the political powers of Franco and the single party state. Opacity concealed the economic performance of newspapers owned by sole legal party and any distribution of resources in its favor. Franco authorized voluntary disclosure of reliable circulation figures in 1964, after eliminating cronyism in favor of a freer market. Repression guaranteed support for this industry until Franco's death.

  October 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12133   open full text
• Are environmental social governance equity indices a better choice for investors? An Asian perspective.
  Ramiz Ur Rehman, Junrui Zhang, Jamshed Uppal, Charles Cullinan, Muhammad Akram Naseem.
  Business Ethics A European Review. September 06, 2016
  This article examines the risk and return profiles of stock indices composed of companies meeting environmental, social and governance (ESG) screening criteria [such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI)] and conventional composite indices of eight Asian countries from 2002 to 2014. The results indicate that there are no significant differences in the returns or risk‐adjusted returns between the ESG indices and the composite indices within countries. The results do reveal that the market volatility of the ESG indices is higher than the market volatility of the conventional indices. Market betas of DJSI and ESG equity indices are significantly lower than betas of the composite equity indices. The overall results indicate that the performance of ESG equity indices of many Asian countries is similar to the performance of conventional indices, suggesting that investors can pursue socially responsible investing objectives without a material difference in portfolio performance from conventional investing.

  September 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12127   open full text
• When deeds speak, words are nothing: a study of ethical leadership in Colombia.
  Iliana Páez, Elvira Salgado.
  Business Ethics A European Review. September 06, 2016
  Using a sample of 124 managers and 248 subordinates, this study examines the mediating effect of subordinates’ job satisfaction in the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinate organizational citizenship and counter‐productive work behaviour in the Colombian context. We additionally analyse the effect of ethical leadership on subordinates’ perception of leaders’ performance. Factor analyses of the ethical leadership scale revealed two factors, ethical person (EP) and ethical guidance (EG), which were differentially associated to the outcomes. We offer an explanation from three cultural dimensions (in‐group collectivism, institutional collectivism, and power distance) by which Colombian employees seem to be more willing to follow leaders’ ethical example as a way to strengthen their membership to the leader's group, than leaders ethical disciplining by which norms are imposed. These findings have a number of implications for organizations and managers who aim to improve their employees’ behaviour. Our advice to them is that leaders’ deeds have a greater impact than their ethical words.

  September 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12130   open full text
• The human experience of ethics: a review of a decade of qualitative ethical decision‐making research.
  Kevin Lehnert, Jana Craft, Nitish Singh, Yung‐Hwal Park.
  Business Ethics A European Review. September 06, 2016
  Qualitative studies are an important component of business ethics research. This large amount of research covers a wide array of factors and influences on ethical decision making published between 2004 and 2014. Following the methodology of past critical reviews, this work provides a synopsis of the diverse array of qualitative studies in ethical decision making within the business ethics literature. We highlight the distinct and investigative nature of qualitative research, synthesize and summarize findings, and suggest opportunities for future research. We conclude with a recommendation for developing qualitative studies in business ethics and a call for an increased openness when considering this valuable and underrepresented strategy of inquiry.

  September 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12129   open full text
• Socially responsible consumption: an application in Colombia.
  Lida Esperanza Villa Castaño, Jesús Perdomo‐Ortiz, Sebastián Dueñas Ocampo, William Fernando Durán León.
  Business Ethics A European Review. September 06, 2016
  This study constructs a measurement scale for Socially Responsible Consumption in the particular context of Colombia. It uses a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodological approach, beginning with four focus groups and ending with a quantitative validation exercise employing Exploratory Factor Analysis. The result is a Socially Responsible Consumption measurement scale consisting of four dimensions that reflect paradigms found in the existing literature. These are, however, expressed differently in Colombia. In particular, Socially Responsible Consumption involves consumer behavior that favors corporate social responsibility practices and the rational consumption of resources and products while recognizing the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle through healthcare.

  September 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12128   open full text
• Humanistic and economistic approaches to banking – better banking lessons from the financial crisis?
  Michael Pirson, Anuj Gangahar, Fiona Wilson.
  Business Ethics A European Review. September 06, 2016
  We sketch out two basic paradigms informing banking practice: the economistic paradigm focusing on profit maximization and the humanistic one, serving the common good. We then highlight paradigmatic cases to explore how each of these business models fared during the quasi‐natural experiment of the financial crisis. We find that many humanistic banks outperformed traditional economistic banks. Despite the uneven playing field humanistic banks fared remarkably well with regard to traditional financial performance judgements, muting criticisms of competitiveness. We find that overall both paradigms can provide a basis for successful banking as long as social and financial value generation are blended. We conclude by providing lessons learned for better banking.

  September 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12131   open full text
• The influence of cooperative relations of small businesses on environmental protection intensity.
  Sonia Benito‐Hernández, Manuel Platero‐Jaime, Pablo Esteban-Sánchez.
  Business Ethics A European Review. June 21, 2016
  This study examines the relationship between cooperative business relations in small businesses (fewer than 50 employees) and environmental protection, one of the most important policies of social responsibility in manufacturing. We reviewed the literature and carried out an empirical study of 930 small manufacturing firms in Spain. Results indicate that small businesses that maintain and improve their cooperative relations through business networking with universities, competitors, suppliers and customers spend more on environmental protection. The managerial, practical, research and policy implications of the obtained research findings are discussed.

  June 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12126   open full text
• Integrated reporting: an international overview.
  Natalia Vaz, Belen Fernandez‐Feijoo, Silvia Ruiz.
  Business Ethics A European Review. June 10, 2016
  This article analyses the determinants associated with the use of the Integrated Report (IR) as a corporate reporting model for sustainability information. IRs provide information regarding the use and interdependence of different company resources. The previous literature has identified determinants behind the presentation of IRs at the country level (legal system, investor protection, economic development, cultural characteristics) as well as at the company level (size, industry, verification of the sustainability report). Our work contributes to the literature by using a novel statistical approach that addresses the likelihood of the non‐independence of data: companies in the same country are more similar to one another than are companies from different countries. Our results confirm significant inter‐country variance, which may be partially explained by the existence of specific regulations and the individualism vs. collectivism dimension. Although we confirm the effect of company‐level determinants, our results do not support the role of specific variables tested as determinants.

  June 10, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12125   open full text
• Organizational attention to corporate social responsibility and corporate social performance: the moderating effects of corporate governance.
  Xiaoping Zhao, Shouming Chen, Chan Xiong.
  Business Ethics A European Review. June 09, 2016
  Many studies have explored the antecedents of corporate social performance (CSP), such as institutional forces and stakeholder pressures. However, few studies examine CSP from a socio‐cognitive perspective. To address this research void, this study adopts an attention‐based approach to examine the relationship between managers' attention to social issues and CSP. More important, this study reports that this relationship will be moderated by governance mechanisms that constrain managerial discretion. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms, this study provides empirical support for these arguments. Therefore, our study adds new insights to the literature addressing CSP from a socio‐cognitive perspective and speaks to the structural features, both inside and outside organizations, that guide managers' attention.

  June 09, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12124   open full text
• Corporate governance, female directors and quality of financial information.
  María Consuelo Pucheta‐Martínez, Inmaculada Bel‐Oms, Gustau Olcina‐Sempere.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 27, 2016
  The aim of this study is to examine whether gender diversity on audit committees (hereinafter, ACs) influences financial reporting quality by using panel data of Spanish listed firms. The financial reporting quality of firms is measured by the type of opinion received in the audit report. We estimate various panel data models of audit opinions and control for factors that are traditionally found to impact audit opinions. This study provides evidence to support the hypotheses that the percentage of females on ACs reduces the probability of qualifications due to errors, non‐compliance or the omission of information. Furthermore, the results also find that the percentage of female directors on ACs, the percentage of independent female directors on ACs and ACs chaired by females increase the likelihood of further transparency by disclosing audit reports with uncertainties and scope limitation qualifications.

  May 27, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12123   open full text
• Islamic corporate financing: does it promote profit and loss sharing?
  Marizah Minhat, Nazam Dzolkarnaini.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 23, 2016
  Islamic financing instruments can be categorised into profit and loss/risk sharing and non‐participatory instruments. Although profit and loss sharing instruments such as musharakah are widely accepted as the ideal form of Islamic financing, prior studies suggest that alternative instruments such as murabahah are preferred by Islamic banks. Nevertheless, prior studies did not explore factors that influence the use of Islamic financing among non‐financial firms. Our study fills this gap and contributes new knowledge in several ways. First, we find no evidence of widespread use of Islamic financing instruments across non‐financial firms. This is because the instruments are mostly used by less profitable firms with higher leverage (i.e. risky firms). Second, we find that profit and loss sharing instruments are hardly used, whilst the use of murabahah is dominant. Consistent with the prediction of moral‐hazard‐risk avoidance theory, further analysis suggests that users with a lower asset base (to serve as collateral) are associated with murabahah financing. Third, we present a critical discourse on the contentious nature of murabahah as practised. The economic significance and ethical issues associated with murabahah as practised should trigger serious efforts to steer Islamic corporate financing towards risk‐sharing more than the controversial rent‐seeking practice.

  May 23, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12120   open full text
• Does gender influence managers’ ethics? A cross‐cultural analysis.
  Chung‐wen Chen, Kristine Velasquez Tuliao, John B. Cullen, Yi‐Ying Chang.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 23, 2016
  The relationship between gender and ethics has been extensively researched. However, previous studies have assumed that the gender–ethics association is constant; hence, scholars have seldom investigated factors potentially affecting the gender–ethics association. Thus, using managers as the research target, this study examined the relationship between gender and ethics and analyzed the moderating effect of cultural values on the gender–ethics association. The results showed that, compared with female managers, their male counterparts are more willing to justify business‐related unethical behaviors such as bribery and tax evasion, and that the gender difference in ethics becomes more pronounced under the cultural dimensions of collectivism, humane orientation, performance orientation, and gender egalitarianism. This study used data obtained through surveying 2,754 managers in 27 nations.

  May 23, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12122   open full text
• The morals of moral hazard: a contracts approach.
  Matthew McCaffrey.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 16, 2016
  Although moral hazard is a well‐known economic concept, there is a long‐standing controversy over its moral implications. The language economists use to describe moral hazard is often value‐laden, and implies moral judgments about the persons or actions of economic agents. This in turn leads some to question whether it is actually a scientific concept, or simply a convenient tool for criticizing certain public policies. At present, there is no consensus about the moral meaning of moral hazard, or about whether the concept can be salvaged by economists. As a first step toward resolving this problem, I suggest a contracts approach to moral hazard. I use the ‘title‐transfer’ theory of contract to clarify the moral content of moral hazard, thereby increasing its value to scholars in numerous disciplines. A contracts view is useful for economic policy discussions because it does not include hidden value judgments. At the same time, however, it is also valuable for ethicists because it directly explains a moral dimension of behavior under moral hazard, namely, the violation of property rights.

  May 16, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12121   open full text
• Does it really pay to be good, everywhere? A first step to understand the corporate social and financial performance link in Latin American controversial industries.
  Pablo Rodrigo, Ignacio J. Duran, Daniel Arenas.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 10, 2016
  Most research studying the corporate social performance (CSP)–corporate financial performance (CFP) link has utilized developed country samples. Also, this literature has generally focused on a wide variety of industries, ignoring the fact that certain sectors – such as controversial industries – have graver social and environmental issues. Hence, a gap exists in this tradition when it comes to emerging markets and controversial industries. This paper attempts to fill this void by providing preliminary evidence and insight on the matter. Based on an exploration in six Latin American countries and five controversial industries, we find a negative bidirectional association (or a non‐significant one at best) between CSP and CFP. These results tend to contradict the mainstream conclusion of a positive bidirectional link, suggesting that institutional and market‐level forces play a major role in shaping this relationship.

  May 10, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12119   open full text
• The influence of ability, benevolence, and integrity in trust between managers and subordinates: the role of ethical reasoning.
  Álvaro Lleó de Nalda, Manuel Guillén, Ignacio Gil Pechuán.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 28, 2016
  Numerous researchers have examined the antecedents of trust between managers and subordinates. Recent studies conclude that their influence varies depending on whether what is being examined is a manager's trust in a subordinate or a subordinate's trust in a manager. However, the reasons given to justify this phenomenon present limitations. This article offers a new theoretical approach that relates the influence of each antecedent to Aristotelian forms of reasoning, ethical, and instrumental. The proposed approach shows that the influence of each antecedent depends on which rationality prevails in the person who trusts. The contribution of this article is to better explain the phenomenon of interpersonal trust formation and its logic, while offering at the same time several practical implications for managers interested in developing an organizational culture based on trust. The article begins with a literature review of more relevant empirical studies analyzing superior–subordinate trust formation and presents some theoretical limitations of the arguments described in these works. Then, it offers a new theorerical approach based on Aristotelian thought to explain the influence of the antecedents of trust in management–subordinate relationships. The theoretical contribution is then confirmed in an empirical study of 163 mid‐level managers in Spain.

  April 28, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12117   open full text
• In search of the right fusion recipe: the role of legitimacy in building a social enterprise model.
  Yung‐Kai Yang, Shu‐Ling Wu.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 18, 2016
  Social enterprises, as typical hybrid organisations, are embedded in a plural institutional environment in which some stakeholders regard achieving social goals as fundamental, while others see economic profit as the priority. A great challenge for social enterprises is dealing with the conflicts resulting from the diverse expectations of stakeholders. Based on the existing works on organisational legitimacy and the social business model, we propose a legitimacy‐based social enterprise model composed of three main phases, namely, legitimacy proposition, legitimacy strategy planning, and legitimacy strategy implementation. Our model is meant to serve as an effective legitimacy‐building tool for social enterprises of various kinds.

  April 18, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12118   open full text
• Gaining legitimacy through CSR: an analysis of Turkey's 30 largest corporations.
  Emel Ozdora‐Aksak, Sirin Atakan‐Duman.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 06, 2016
  Grounded in institutional theory, this study provides an overview of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of Turkey's 30 largest corporations through a thematic content analysis. The study focuses on the G‐20 member Turkey and investigates the influence of isomorphism mechanisms on the adoption of CSR initiatives in a developing country context. The aim of this study is to integrate Carroll's CSR dimensions, the type of CSR engagement and coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism mechanisms proposed by institutional theory. Through this integration the study makes a unique contribution to the literature by providing a different perspective. Findings reveal industry characteristics do not influence the selection of CSR initiatives. While business‐to‐business companies focus on CSR activities linked to their core business functions, business‐to‐consumer companies focus on CSR initiatives that are more discretionary, varied and philanthropic. In addition, findings show that multinational corporations implement CSR initiatives at the global level rather than focusing on local needs.

  April 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12114   open full text
• Unpacking transnational corporate responsibility: coordination mechanisms and orientations.
  Daniel Arenas, Silvia Ayuso.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 31, 2016
  This article aims to advance the discussion of how multinational companies manage the tension between global integration and local responsiveness in their corporate social responsibility (CSR). In particular, it studies the relationships between headquarters and subsidiaries in a transnational CSR strategy and the types of coordination mechanisms used. Building on a qualitative study of a multinational bank, we find that in addition to formal and informal coordination mechanisms, a transnational CSR strategy cannot be fully understood without considering lateral learning and participatory decision making. Further, we suggest that discussions about the transnational approach to CSR should not be disentangled from the question about a company's CSR orientation. Finally, we propose some characteristics of transnational CSR and discuss its theoretical and practical implications.

  March 31, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12113   open full text
• Corporate social responsibility: review and roadmap of theoretical perspectives.
  Jędrzej George Frynas, Camila Yamahaki.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 24, 2016
  Based on a survey and content analysis of 462 peer‐reviewed academic articles over the period 1990–2014, this article reviews theories related to the external drivers of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (such as stakeholder theory and resource‐dependence theory) and the internal drivers of CSR (such as resource‐based view [RBV] and agency theory) that have been utilized to explain CSR. The article discusses the main tenets of the principal theoretical perspectives and their application in CSR research. Going beyond previous reviews that have largely failed to investigate theory applications in CSR scholarship, this article stresses the importance of theory‐driven explanations of CSR and the complementarity of different theories. The article demonstrates that the current mainstream theorizing of CSR is dominated by theories related to the external drivers of CSR and is less developed with regard to the internal dynamics. The article outlines several productive avenues for future research: the need for multi‐theory studies and more research at multiple levels of analysis, particularly at the individual level of analysis. It suggests that CSR scholarship can benefit from combining theoretical insights from a range of established theoretical lenses such as institutional theory and RBV, and can gain new insights from theoretical lenses such as Austrian economics and micro‐level psychological theories.

  March 24, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12115   open full text
• The effect of CSR evaluations on affective attachment to CSR in different identity orientation firms.
  Barbara Fryzel, Nina Seppala.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 16, 2016
  The goal of the present research was to examine the way in which organisational identity orientation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) interact to produce affective attachment and related beneficial behaviours among organisational members. Using a questionnaire administered in Poland, it was shown that when CSR activity was viewed as authentic by employees, it led to affective attachment to the organisation's CSR stance, while an instrumental evaluation was correlated with a negative attachment to the CSR stance. The results suggest that CSR motives were particularly important for organisations with relational and collectivistic identity orientations because of the focus of these organisations on mutual or collective good that could be demonstrated through CSR. The results contributed to social identity literature by establishing a clear relationship between the concepts of identity orientation and CSR and showing that only authentic CSR produces affective attachment and behaviours that benefit the organisation.

  March 16, 2016   doi: 10.1111/beer.12116   open full text
• Do brokers act in the best interests of their clients? New evidence from electronic trading systems.
  Annilee M. Game, Andros Gregoriou.
  Business Ethics A European Review. June 02, 2014
  Prior research suggests brokers do not always act in the best interests of clients, although morally obligated to do so. We empirically investigated this issue focusing on trades executed at best execution price, before and after the introduction of electronic limit‐order trading, on the London Stock Exchange. As a result of limit‐order trading, the proportion of trades executed at the best execution price for the customer significantly increased. We attribute this to a sustained increase in the liquidity of stocks as a result of limit‐order trading, regardless of market capitalisation. We discuss the ethical implications of our findings and conclude that market structures that enhance market competitiveness may help reconcile broker and client interests.

  June 02, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12066   open full text
• Does integrity matter for CSR practice in organizations? The mediating role of transformational leadership.
  José M.C. Veríssimo, Teresa M.C. Lacerda.
  Business Ethics A European Review. June 02, 2014
  Scholars have long debated whether leader's integrity affects managerial decision making with respect to social responsibility. In this paper, we propose a model in which transformational leadership mediates integrity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and examine the relationship between these concepts. A survey of 170 senior managers from 50 organizations was conducted. Results indicate that integrity is a predictor of transformational leadership behavior and that transformational leaders’ behaviors are linked to CSR practices. It was also found that leaders rated with higher integrity are engaged in CSR because they exhibit more transformational leadership behaviors. These findings add to the extant literature by demonstrating that integrity is important as transformational leaders engage more actively on ‘responsible’ behaviors. Practical implications call for an understanding among corporate leaders of the benefits of integrity and how it relates to transformational leadership. Organizations can improve their selection and leadership development processes by focusing on these two dimensions.

  June 02, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12065   open full text
• What does ‘solidarity economy’ mean? Contours and feasibility of a theoretical and political project.
  Pepita Ould Ahmed.
  Business Ethics A European Review. June 02, 2014
  The market relationships are being contested. This can be seen in the increasing number of alternative social experiments in the ‘North’ and the ‘South’ which propose to think out the present market relationships in a different way, in particular in establishing exchange value and in facilitating access to trade. These practical alternatives are supported by trends in academic circles that over the past three decades have opposed neoliberal capitalism and individualism in today's commercialised society. Calling for greater solidarity and social justice in economic relationships, in particular, partisans of social and solidarity economics (SSE), identifying with these trends, demand new forms of exchange. The objective of this article is to re‐examine these demands. What exactly do the SSE mean by ‘solidarity’ and ‘solidarity‐based economy'? We would like to trace the contours of this theoretical and political project and to assess the practicability of the proposed alternative to neoliberal capitalism.

  June 02, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12063   open full text
• The ethical profile of global marketing negotiators.
  Jamal A. Al‐Khatib, Mohammed I. Al‐Habib, Naima Bogari, Najah Salamah.
  Business Ethics A European Review. June 02, 2014
  As international trade and business opportunities grow globally, insight into trading partners’ strategies is essential. One of the major strategies that impact trading partners’ relationships is negotiation strategy employed by each partner. These strategies assume even greater importance when these strategies have ethical content. This study examines the effects of marketing executives’ preferred ethical ideologies (relativism and idealism), opportunism and Machiavellianism on their perceived appropriateness of unethical negotiation tactics. Utilizing a sample of 995 marketing executives from six countries, cluster analysis and multivariate analysis of variance revealed two types of marketing negotiators: principled and corrupt negotiators. Corrupt negotiators tend to be more Machiavellian, more relativist, more opportunistic and less idealistic than their principled counterparts. Principled negotiators tend to perceive unethical negotiation tactics less favorably than their corrupt counterparts. Implications of these results for practitioners and directions for future research are discussed.

  June 02, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12062   open full text
• Sustainability reporting and corporate identity: action research evidence in an Italian retailing cooperative.
  Massimo Battaglia, Lara Bianchi, Marco Frey, Emilio Passetti.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 23, 2014
  Cooperatives are facing the challenge to be competitive in the market, without losing their traditional values of mutuality and democracy. To do that, they need to re‐construct open and participative dialogue with their employees and members based on more democratic forms of communication and engagement. From this point of view, the measurement and communication of sustainability aspects may allow a dialogue to be mobilized with shareholders and stakeholders without losing the attention on competitive factors. Based on these premises, the article analyses the experience of a 5‐year action research project (from 2006 to mid‐2011), carried out within Unicoop Tirreno, an Italian consumers' cooperative, and aimed to implement different tools for sustainability accounting and to embrace a more open dialogue with stakeholders, in particular with employees and members. In this process of change, the tools implemented for sustainability accounting played a key role in supporting the cooperative to reinterpret its own values and in stimulating a new and participative management approach. The results indicate a virtuous circle between the management and measurement of cooperative principles and the management and measurement of sustainability issues.

  May 23, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12067   open full text
• Understanding instrumental motivations for social responsibility engagement in a micro‐firm context.
  Erlend Nybakk, Rajat Panwar.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 23, 2014
  Firms engage in social responsibility activities for diverse reasons. This study focuses on understanding firms' instrumental motivations for engaging in socially responsible activities. We suggest that the instrumental motivations underlying firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement are associated with their market, learning, and risk‐related behaviors; thus, we identify market orientation, learning orientation, and risk‐taking attitudes as three constructs that influence firms' CSR engagement. This research was conducted in the Norwegian firewood sector, in which CSR expectations are high and in which we expect CSR engagement to be encouraged by both instrumental and normative motivations. The firms in this study are micro‐firms with fewer than 10 employees and represent an important but highly neglected segment of firms in CSR research. Data obtained from 230 firms were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Our results indicate that market orientation, learning orientation, and risk‐taking attitudes affect social responsibility toward different stakeholder groups in different ways. In some cases, the size and age of firms also affect these relationships.

  May 23, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12064   open full text
• Practicalities bottleneck to pension fund responsible investment?
  Riikka Sievänen.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 01, 2014
  We found that pension funds may face a bottleneck as practical impediments to engaging in responsible investment with respect to the role played by defining and implementing responsible investment. Furthermore, pension funds seek additional coherence and practical guidelines in this field to enable them to take into account ethical considerations in their investment strategies and in implementing them. These findings indicate that the availability of information may affect the stance that key decision makers of pension funds adopt towards responsible investment.

  April 01, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12048   open full text
• Critical points of CSR‐related stakeholder dialogue in practice.
  Ursa Golob, Klement Podnar.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 01, 2014
  This paper examines the roles of dialogue in the process of communication with stakeholders. The conceptual frameworks of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and stakeholder relationships frequently present the initiation of a dialogue with stakeholders as a way for an organization to respond to criticisms of its social and environmental policies and actions. The paper discusses dialogue in the stakeholder and CSR literature. This is followed by the analysis of in‐depth semi‐structured interviews in the empirical section. Theoretical discussion and empirical examples demonstrate that the role of stakeholder dialogue in implementing CSR strategy is crucial in many ways. The case examples taken from the interviews with the heads of two large companies and two non‐governmental organizations illustrate the practical difficulties that may be encountered in applying the principle and practice of dialogue to the implementation of CSR programs in the real world.

  April 01, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12049   open full text
• Three tiers of CSR: an instructive means of understanding and guiding contemporary company approaches to CSR?
  Helle K. Aggerholm, N. Leila Trapp.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 01, 2014
  Heightened concern with global issues has led to shifts in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. To capture the distinct nature of this global focus, researchers have developed a three‐generation CSR typology. In this paper, we first evaluate the usefulness of this typology for understanding corporate approaches to CSR by examining how several companies position themselves thematically in CEO introductions to sustainability reports. On the basis of this, we then evaluate the practical value of this typology for assisting those who work with CSR strategy. The analysis revealed expressions of all three CSR generations, with third‐generation thinking being apparent, but not dominant. It also verified that the three‐generation CSR typology can be an instructive means of both evaluating as well as framing a company's approach to sustainability, though with modifications. On the basis of the identified strengths and weaknesses of the typology, we develop a practitioner‐focused, three‐tiered model that can strategically guide the development of CSR programs.

  April 01, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12050   open full text
• Analyst coverage, corporate social responsibility, and firm risk.
  Hoje Jo, Maretno Harjoto.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 01, 2014
  This article examines the empirical association between analyst coverage and corporate social responsibility (CSR) by investigating their simultaneous and causal effects, and its joint effects of CSR engagement and analyst coverage on firm risk. We find a positive association between the level and change of CSR engagement and the level and change of analyst coverage after considering simultaneity and causality. Based on the first‐difference approach, we further find that the change in analyst following from the previous year affects the change in CSR in the current period, whereas the change in CSR from the previous period does not influence the change in analyst following in the current period. Furthermore, we find that the change in CSR engagement as well as the interaction effect of changes in CSR and analyst coverage reduces the change of firm risk. When we examine the CSR strengths and concerns separately, analyst following does not significantly influence firms’ CSR strength but CSR concern activities decreases significantly as firms have more analyst followings. We further find the mediating role of financial analysts between CSR concerns (but not CSR strengths) and firm risk. We maintain that analysts provide indirect but additional social pressure to the firms to eventually reduce their irresponsible activities. Taken together, we interpret these results to support the stakeholder theory‐based conflict‐resolution explanation that considers CSR engagement as a vehicle to reduce conflicts of interest between managers and noninvesting stakeholders but not the overinvestment hypothesis that views CSR as a waste of valuable resources at the cost of shareholders.

  April 01, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12051   open full text
• To blow or not to blow the whistle: the effects of potential harm, social pressure and organisational commitment on whistleblowing intention and behaviour.
  Ching‐Pu Chen, Chih‐Tsung Lai.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 01, 2014
  This study uses a rational ethical decision‐making framework to examine the influence of moral intensity (potential harm and social pressure) on whistleblowing intention and behaviour using organisational commitment as a moderator. A scenario was developed, and an online questionnaire was used to conduct an empirical analysis on the responses of 533 participants. The mean age and years of work experience of the respondents were 31 and 8.2 years, respectively. The results show, first, that while moral intensity is correlated with whistleblowing intention, only the potential harm is positively correlated with such intention. Second, potential harm and social pressure differentially affect whistleblower choice of using an internal or external channel. Third, organisational commitment has a moderated mediation effect among moral intensity, whistleblowing intention and behaviour. Fourth, whistleblowers may be grouped into four conceptual types: indifferent, rebel, mature and spoil. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.

  April 01, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12053   open full text
• Exogenously driven CSR: insights from the consultants' perspective.
  Antonis Skouloudis, Konstantinos Evangelinos.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 01, 2014
  This paper offers insights into corporate social responsibility (CSR) consulting in Greece. It sheds light on perspectives of how socially responsible business conduct is shaped by consultancies in a national business environment where such an essential aspect of organizational commitment and behavior exhibits comparatively little resonance among companies and is primarily induced by supranational and international policy schemes as well as foreign competitors. Drawing from long interviews with consulting professionals, we explore key topics: the domestic CSR (consulting) industry's characteristics, issues pertaining to the engagement with clients, the endorsement of CSR standards and initiatives, along with the consultants' perspective on institutional dynamics and their prospects with respect to the future of CSR in Greece. In this context, we aim to indicate trends on CSR implementation, pressures exerted on consultants, and managerial attitudes towards corporate responsibility. Our findings illustrate an oligopolistically structured market that encourages consultancies to compete intensely, the consultants' limited capacity to influence the business behavior of their clients, with the latter to adopt a promotional communicative approach to CSR, as well as a lack of institutional coordination and mechanisms that will materially embed social responsibility in the strategic management of business.

  April 01, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12054   open full text
• Embracing ambiguity – lessons from the study of corporate social responsibility throughout the rise and decline of the modern welfare state.
  Anselm Schneider.
  Business Ethics A European Review. April 01, 2014
  In the work of Karl Polanyi, the negative effects of a self‐regulating market economy are described as being limited by societal forces such as the policies of the welfare state. With the decline of the modern welfare state since the late 1970s, social activities of business firms are increasingly regarded as an important complement to or even as a substitute for welfare state policies by a part of the literature. However, and controversially, another stream of argumentation regards these activities as being aimed at advancing the reach of market forces. To fully grasp the ambiguous nature of the social activities of business, in this paper I provide an account of affirmative as well as of critical interpretations of these activities throughout the history of modern capitalism. On this basis, the power of critique to disentangle the diverse motivations that underlie the social engagement of business is highlighted as a condition for facilitating a role of business in society that balances economic and social considerations.

  April 01, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12052   open full text
• When idealists evade taxes: the influence of personal moral philosophy on attitudes to tax evasion – a Lebanese study.
  Yusuf M. Sidani, Abdul Jalil Ghanem, Mohammed Y. A. Rawwas.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 04, 2014
  This paper explores attitudes regarding tax evasion and the relationship between personal moral philosophy and such attitudes in a weak tax environment. The results confirm the multidimensionality of tax evasion attitudes. Idealism was negatively related to self‐interest tax evasion attitudes while relativism was positively related to such attitudes. Idealism was also positively related to tax evasion attitudes stemming from concerns about the justice of the tax system. Idealists in a weak tax environment seemingly go through a cognitive reframing process where they recognize that the tax system is unfair, and accordingly tax evasion is a way to serve a different moral absolute, that is of equity, rather than another different moral absolute, which is fulfilling obligations to governments. The results are also explained in light of the suggested low moral intensity of tax evasion among respondents. Policy implications are presented.

  March 04, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12046   open full text
• Socially responsible investment: insights from Shari'a departments in Islamic financial institutions.
  Shakir Ullah, Dima Jamali, Ian A. Harwood.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 04, 2014
  Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) are emerging as prominent players in the financial world and are increasingly known for their conservative socially responsible investment (SRI). Being the Shari'a regulators and monitors of IFIs, the Shari'a departments are expected to implement the Islamic perspective of SRI – drawn from Shari'a principles – in their respective institutions. The purpose of this paper is to develop an SRI framework applicable to IFIs and other Shari'a compliant entities and assess its applicability within Shari'a departments of two Islamic banks. This paper involves cross‐case analysis based on interviews with Shari'a department officials in two settings differentiated by their respective independence. The proposed framework consists of required, expected and desired SRI aspects as applicable to IFIs. The findings reveal that the required aspects are uniformly observed by the two cases. There are, however, variations when it comes to observing the expected and desired ethical SRI aspects that may be driven by the independence of the Shari'a boards. This inconsistency and non‐adherence of expected and desired aspects may lead to reputational risks in the long run.

  March 04, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12045   open full text
• Ethno‐cultural considerations in negotiation: pretense, deception and lies in the Greek workplace.
  Abraham Stefanidis, Moshe Banai.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 04, 2014
  A retrospect into ethos, this study examines the impact of individualism, collectivism, ethical idealism and interpersonal trust on negotiators' attitudes toward questionable negotiation tactics in Greece. A thousand survey questionnaires were administered to Greek employees, of which 327 usable responses were collected. Our findings empirically corroborated a classification of three groups of negotiation tactics, namely, pretense, deception and lies. Individualism–collectivism and ethical idealism were found to be related, and interpersonal trust was found to be unrelated, to attitudes toward questionable negotiation tactics. Emphasizing the non‐US and non‐Western European nature of the empirical data collected, the originality of this research further stems from the development of a comprehensive research framework about questionable negotiation tactics in Greece.

  March 04, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12047   open full text
• The impact of organizational pressures on environmental performance of firms.
  Ramakrishnan Ramanathan, Boonchan Poomkaew, Prithwiraj Nath.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 04, 2014
  The role of various organizational pressures in influencing performance of firms has been an interesting research topic in a variety of fields and has received the attention of researchers working in the field of environmental strategy. Although there are previous studies that have looked at the influence of various pressures in influencing firms’ environmental strategies, our study provides a more holistic analysis considering a variety of such pressures in a single framework. We discuss a research study to analyze how pressures from internal and external stakeholders of a firm, economic pressures, environmental regulations, and pressures of environmental compliance have affected environmental performance of firms using data collected from manufacturing firms in the United Kingdom. We have found that internal stakeholders provide the greatest impact in shaping environmental performance of firms, closely followed by economic pressures, environmental regulations, and external stakeholders in that order. Fears of penalties due to environmental compliance have the least impact, although this pressure also has a positive and significant impact on environmental performance.

  March 04, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12042   open full text
• Business practices and peace in post‐conflict zones: lessons from Cyprus.
  John E. Katsos, John Forrer.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 04, 2014
  Existing literature on business and peace is in need of more examples of business practices, and at a more dissaggregated level, within conflict‐sensitive regions that promote peace. This article examines whether business practices within a conflict‐sensitive region, the island of Cyprus, are consistent with existing business and peace literature and how the specific business practices promote peace. In particular, the article examines in detail two business practices: Green Line Trade and cross‐territorial joint ventures and promotions. Our findings suggest that existing business activities in Cyprus are consistent with those proposed by the literature, but their significance in promoting peace was limited. We propose an alternative explanation for why such business practices were pursued in Cyprus at the time, drawing on studies of identity‐based conflicts. And we suggest that business has a unique role to play compared with other public institutions when addressing identity conflict. Finally, we suggest that both theoretical and empirical studies of business and peace should include consideration of how business practices might help alleviate identity‐related issues in conflict‐sensitive regions.

  March 04, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12044   open full text
• Determinants of corporate social responsibility and business ethics education in Spanish universities.
  Manuel Larrán Jorge, Francisco Javier Andrades Peña.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 04, 2014
  The current economic crisis, unsustainable growth, and financial scandals invite reflection on the role of universities in professional training, particularly those who have to manage businesses. This study analyzes the main factors that might determine the extent to which Spanish organizational management educators use corporate social responsibility (CSR) or business ethics stand‐alone subjects to equip students with alternative views on business. A web content analysis and non‐parametric mean comparison statistics of the curricula of undergraduate degrees in all universities in Spain were conducted. The main conclusion of this paper is related to the Bologna effect in Spanish universities. Comparing our results with prior research in this matter, it is demonstrated that the main reason that explains the increase of CSR and ethical education in Spain is the Bologna process and its adaptation to the European Higher Education Area. Also, private universities in Spain are more likely to require an ethics course than public universities. Other factors, such as size, political orientation, or related to CSR chairs are not statistically explanatory of CSR and ethical education.

  March 04, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12041   open full text
• Corporate governance reform: character‐building structures.
  Patricia Grant, Peter McGhee.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 04, 2014
  This paper argues that corporate governance reformers in Anglo‐American jurisdictions should consider a different approach in their quest for better corporate governance. Traditionally, corporate governance reform has taken a structural approach, tightening the rules around the number of independent directors required on boards and committees and fine‐tuning the definition of independence. However, such an approach has failed to achieve effective corporate governance. Moreover, this approach is informed by the arguably discredited assumption that individuals are rational self‐interest utility maximizers. This conceptual paper questions why corporate governance scholars and regulators remain uncritical of this assumption and suggests an approach to reform inspired by a different view of human nature. Indeed, incorporating an actor‐based approach to reform into existing structures may better achieve effective corporate governance while addressing an unjustified adherence to this flawed assumption.

  March 04, 2014   doi: 10.1111/beer.12043   open full text
• Explaining employers' illicit envelope wage payments in the EU‐27: a product of over‐regulation or under‐regulation?
  Colin C. Williams.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 13, 2013
  The aim of this paper is to evaluate the prevalence in the 27 member states of the European Union of a little discussed illicit wage arrangement in which formal employees are paid two wages by their formal employers – an official declared salary and an additional undeclared wage, thus allowing employers to evade their full social insurance and tax liabilities. Reporting the results of a 2007 Eurobarometer survey involving 26,659 face‐to‐face interviews, the finding is that one in 18 formal employees received such an envelope wage from their formal employer and that envelope wage payments are more prevalent in member states with lower (rather than higher) levels of state intervention. The tentative conclusion is that illicit envelope wage payments are a product of under‐regulation, rather than over‐regulation, and that further research is now required to test the validity analysis of this thesis in other global regions.

  May 13, 2013   doi: 10.1111/beer.12022   open full text
• Some ethical dilemmas of modern banking.
  Philipp Bagus, David Howden.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 13, 2013
  How ethical have recent banking practices been? We answer this question via an economic analysis. We assess the two dominant practices of the modern banking system – fractional reserves and maturity transformation – by gauging the respective rights of the relevant parties. By distinguishing the legal and economic differences between deposit and loan contracts, we determine that the practice of maturity transformation (in its various guises) is not only ethical but also serves a positive social function. The foundation of the modern banking system – the holding of fractional reserves against deposits – is, however, problematic from economic, legal and ethical perspectives. Starting from a microanalysis of money's function, a reassessment of the current laws concerning the practice is encouraged, with the aim not only to rectify economic irregularities but also to realign depositors' rights with the obligations of the banking sector.

  May 13, 2013   doi: 10.1111/beer.12025   open full text
• Predominant sources and contributors of influential business ethics research: evidence and implications from a threshold citation analysis.
  Kam C. Chan, Hung‐Gay Fung, Jot Yau.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 13, 2013
  Influential or frequently cited business ethics research does not appear in a vacuum; our study reveals its predominant sources and contributors by discipline. By examining citations from articles published in three top business ethics journals (Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly and Business Ethics: A European Review) over the period 2004–2008, we document that the preponderance of influential business ethics research comes primarily from the management faculty. In addition, management journals and management books are the predominant sources for influential business ethics research. Further, among the management fields, organizational behavior and organizational structure predominate leadership and strategy as the major subject areas for influential business ethics research, suggesting that this influential body of research is focused on a micro rather than on a macro context. These empirical results lend credence to the perception that there is a silo effect in influential business ethics research and suggest that business ethics research in a micro context might have permeated to the teaching of business ethics.

  May 13, 2013   doi: 10.1111/beer.12024   open full text
• Fairness and microcredit interest rates: from Rawlsian principles of justice to the distribution of the bargaining range.
  Marek Hudon, Arvind Ashta.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 13, 2013
  This paper addresses the fairness of microcredit interest rates. Since microfinance institutions provide credit for the poor at relatively high prices, the fairness of their interest rates has been repeatedly debated. We first apply Rawls' principles of justice to the case of microcredit interest rates and suggest some limitations related to the hypothesis of rationality of the borrowers and the level of inequality. We then suggest another framework based on the analysis of the distribution of the benefits generated by the transaction to assess the fairness of interest rates. We conceptualize this as the distribution of the bargaining range between the borrowers' and the institutions' reservation price and discuss what these reservation prices could be in the context of microfinance.

  May 13, 2013   doi: 10.1111/beer.12026   open full text
• To challenge the world view or to flow with it? Teaching sustainable development in business schools.
  Fernando Lourenço.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 13, 2013
  This paper explores the fundamental question of what ‘responsibility’ means to different sets of world views adopted implicitly by business students. The exploration adopts the stakeholder theory and three subsets of the Friedman mentality to explain how individuals may value sustainability initiatives. Subsequently, it explores whether it is better to flow with the dominant economic‐driven world view as prescribed by the business school or to challenge it in order to cultivate business students with sustainability‐driven values. The conclusion highlights implications for business and management education, as well as the role of entrepreneurship to promote sustainability values.

  May 13, 2013   doi: 10.1111/beer.12021   open full text
• Corporate political activity, social responsibility, and competitive strategy: an integrative model.
  Alan E. Singer.
  Business Ethics A European Review. May 13, 2013
  Many tensions exist within the nexus of corporate social responsibility, competitive strategy, and political activity. Previously, these aspects of strategic management have been considered in relative isolation or at best in pairs. Accordingly, an attempt is made here to set out a general strategic problem of the corporation, in which all three aspects are combined. This project reveals a particular need to explicate the political assumptions held by or on behalf of the corporation. Examples might include the classical liberal model, global hypercompetition, or variants of the stakeholder model. The project also reinforces the broader notion that when one adopts the perspective of a corporate strategist, one can sometimes find potentially productive ways of reframing issues in ethics, economics, and politics.

  May 13, 2013   doi: 10.1111/beer.12023   open full text
• SMEs and environmental responsibility: a policy perspective.
  Richard Blundel, Adrian Monaghan, Christine Thomas.
  Business Ethics A European Review. March 05, 2013
  Environmental policies to promote environmentally sustainable economic activity have often concentrated on larger firms. However, increasing attention is being paid to the role of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurial actors. In this paper, we examine how policy tools are being used to improve the environmental performance of SMEs and to redirect entrepreneurial energies in more environmentally benign directions. The empirical section adopts a case‐based comparative method to examine four instances of policymaking, drawn from different countries and industry sectors. The paper argues that while some interventions have proved effective in their own terms, better integrated approaches are required to address today's complex and deep‐rooted sustainability challenges. The paper identifies several policy implications including the need to: clarify the purpose of any intervention, address potential interactions and trade‐offs; select appropriate tools based on informed reviews of the options; remain sensitive to context‐specific factors; and devise effective vehicles for the promotion and governance of entrepreneurial initiatives.

  March 05, 2013   doi: 10.1111/beer.12020   open full text