Are Politically Endorsed Firms More Socially Responsible? Selective Engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility

Journal of Business Ethics - The state plays a major role in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in emerging and transitional economies and often influences firms through political connection,...     

Social Media for Socially Responsible Firms: Analysis of Fortune 500’s Twitter Profiles and their CSR/CSIR Ratings

The instrumental benefits of firm’s CSR activities are contingent upon the stakeholders’ awareness and favorable attribution. While social media creates an important momentum for firms to cultivate favorable awareness by establishing a powerful framework of stakeholder relationships, the opportunities are not distributed evenly for all firms. In this paper, we investigate the impact of CSR credentials on the effectiveness of social media as a stakeholder-relationship management platform. The analysis of Fortune 500 companies in the Twitter sphere reveals that a higher CSR rating is a strong indicator of an earlier adoption, a faster establishment of online presence (followers), a higher responsiveness to the firm’s identity (replies and mentions), and a stronger virality of the messages (retweets). Incidentally, the higher CSIR rating is also found to be associated with the stronger virality. Our findings also suggest that socially responsible firms can harvest proactive stakeholders’ participation (user-driven communication) without investing more resources (firm-driven communication). As the first study that conceptualizes the social media as a proponent of CSR, this paper contends that “being socially responsible” makes more practical sense for firms with the rise of social media.     

Are You Still with Us? A Study of the Post-Adoption Determinants of Sustained Use of Mobile-Banking Services

This research develops and empirically tests a theoretical model that explains sustained use of mobile banking services. While an extensive array of research has examined various theoretical antecedents of the intention to adopt and use new technologies, only a handful of studies have examined the extent of current usage of a system. Moreover, despite the huge market potential of and recent technological advancements seen in the mobile-commerce market, little is known about the factors that can influence sustained use of integrated mobile financial services after adoption. The present research examines the extent of mobile banking service usage of 370 Korean mobile-baking users in the post-adoption stage. The results of the study indicate that perceived usability, channel preference, and perceived value are three major determinants of sustained mobile banking use. The model further extends and explains that good menu design is a dominant factor in perceived usability of m-banking services, while low monetary costs (i.e., charges and fees) and provision of various banking functions can improve m-banking users' perception of the value of m-banking services. Along with the suggested model, the presented case of factors promoting successful m-banking services will help many mobile industries around the world envisage a successful and stable mobile–financial services market and accelerate their development. Implications of the findings and future research directions are also discussed.     

Do Consumers Expect Companies to be Socially Responsible? The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Buying Behavior

Companies are facing increasing pressure to both maintain profitability and behave in socially responsible ways, yet researchers have provided little information on how corporate social responsibility impacts profitability. This paper reports the findings from in‐depth interviews of consumers to determine their views concerning the social responsibilities of companies. A typology of consumers whose purchasing behavior ranges from unresponsive to highly responsive to corporate social responsibility was developed from the analysis.     

Who Do Start‐Up Firms Imitate? A Study of New Market Entries in the CLEC Industry

Institutional theory contends firms imitate other firms with ideal traits, whereas the strategic groups literature on imitation suggests firms imitate similar firms. We address this debate by studying 1,067 market entries by founder‐managed start‐ups in the U.S. Competitive Local Exchange Carrier industry from 1996 to 2004. In support of the strategic groups literature, start‐ups imitate entry decisions of and gravitate toward markets that are densely populated by other start‐ups. Though start‐ups avoid markets already densely populated by corporate ventures, they imitate the market entries of corporate ventures. Our discussion of these and other findings provide insights for start‐ups navigating new industries.     

How Can a Ratings-based Method for Assessing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Provide an Incentive to Firms Excluded from Socially Responsible Investment Indices to Invest in CSR?

Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) indices play a major role in the stock markets. A connection between doing good and doing well in business is implied. Leading indices, such as the Domini Social Index and others, exemplify the movement toward investing in socially responsible corporations. However, the question remains: Does the ratings-based methodology for assessing corporate social responsibility (CSR) provide an incentive to firms excluded from SRI indices to invest in CSR? Not in its current format. The ratings-based methodology employed by SRI indices in their selection processes excludes many corporations by creating limited-membership lists. This received ratings-based structure is yet to offer an incentive for most of the excluded corporations to invest in improving their levels of CSR. We, therefore, ask under what circumstances a ratings-based method for assessing CSR could provide an incentive to firms excluded from SRI indices to invest in CSR. In this article, we attempt to offer a theoretical reply to this question. We show that when all firms are publicly ranked according to SRI index parameters, such indices can indeed create a market incentive for increased investment by firms in improving their performance in the area of social responsibility. We further show that this incentive tapers off as the amount of investment required exceeds a certain point or if the amount of payback on that investment fails to reach a certain threshold.     

Mistaking an Emerging Market for a Social Movement? A Comment on Arjaliès’ Social-Movement Perspective on Socially Responsible Investment in France

In a recent contribution to this journal, Arjaliès (J Bus Ethics 92:57–78, 2010) suggests that the emergence of socially responsible investment (SRI) in France can be best described as a social movement with a collective identity that aimed to challenge the dominant logic of the financial market. Such an account is at odds with a body of empirical studies that approaches SRI in the French context as a process of market creation led by loosely coordinated actors with contradictory and conflicting interests and values, who have mainly complied with—rather than opposed—the existing dominant financial logic of the asset-management field. In this comment, we build on this prior research to contest Arjaliès’ perspective on both theoretical and empirical grounds, with the aim of highlighting the shortcomings of conflating social movements and other forms of collective actions in understanding the building of new markets in organization theory and SRI studies. We contend that in mistaking for social movement forms of collective actions that underpin the emergence of markets, scholars of organization theory may confuse distinct mechanisms in their explanation of SRI emergence across countries, overlook the complex dynamics and interactions of markets and social movements, and, most importantly, fail to evaluate the real political significance of SRI as an empirical phenomenon. We propose that future research on SRI distinguishes carefully “social-movement research as a theoretical framework” from “social movement as an empirical phenomenon” in order to avoid such drawbacks while benefiting from recent advances in social-movement research.     

What Happens Next? A Qualitative Study of Founder Succession in Social Enterprises

In the organizational context of social enterprises, the viability of the primary social mission is put to the test when the founder leaves the organization. Yet the literature has remained silent on this important stage in the life of a social enterprise. We address this gap by conducting in‐depth case studies in the unexplored setting of India. Based on multiple interviews, field observations and archival data, we develop insights into the significance of “social entrepreneur centrality” in social enterprise founder succession, discuss its consequences, and review the effects of contextual influences. Contributions to social entrepreneurship research and practice are discussed.     

Are Sustainable Consumers Health Conscious? A Segmentation Study of Wine Consumers

As a result of consumers’ increasing concerns with ethical, environmental, and health issues, sustainable consumption and production have become a popular topic of recent academic research and industry practices. The current study sought to provide in-depth insights into consumers’ views on sustainability by simultaneously examining their environmental and social awareness and behavior, health-conscious lifestyles, and diets; as well as the perceived importance of social and nutrition information on wine labels. Based on empirical data obtained through a web-based survey distributed to consumer panels in three markets – the US, the UK, and Germany – this research segmented wine consumers into four categories: Apathetic Consumers; Health-Conscious Diners; Holistic Perfectionists; and Ethical Advocates. The findings indicate that in general wine consumers are mindful about the environmental problems, social responsibility of companies, ethically produced and sustainably sourced products. The majority adhere to healthy lifestyles and watch their diets. Nevertheless, with the exception of only one cluster (Holistic Perfectionists), wine consumers do not actively seek social, environmental, or nutritional information on wine labels. This study shows that, at least currently, the preferences for the social factors are unlikely to outweigh dominating traditional wine purchase drivers, such as price, brand, country of origin, and grape variety. Industry implications for tailored marketing strategies are discussed.     

A Fair Trade-off? Paradoxes in the Governance of Fair-trade Social Enterprises

This paper explores how fair trade social enterprises (FTSEs) manage paradoxes in stakeholder-oriented governance models. We use narrative accounts from board members, at governance events and board documents to report an exploratory study of paradoxes in three FTSEs which are partly farmer-owned. Having synthesized the key social enterprise governance literature and framed it alongside the broader paradox theory, we used narratives to explore how tensions are articulated, how they can be applied within an adapted paradox framework, and how governance actors seek to mitigate paradoxes. The paper contributes to current debates in social enterprise scholarship concerning hybridity (Pache and Santos, Acad Manag Rev 35(3):455–476, 2010; in Institutional logics in action, Part B (Research in the sociology of organizations), 2012), hybrid organizing (Battilana and Lee, Acad Manag Ann 8(1):397–441, 2014) and operational tensions (Smith et al., Bus Eth Q 23(3):407–442, 2013) by illustrating empirically how the central social/enterprise paradox manifests in FTSEs governance arrangements. We build on the paradox categories proposed by Lüscher and Lewis (Acad Manag J 51(2):221–240, 2008) and adapted in Smith et al. (Bus Eth Q 23(3):407–442, 2013) by developing a recursive model of legitimacy-seeking governance processes, conceptualizing how boards seek to mitigate, but not necessarily resolve, paradoxes.     

Is the Ethical Culture of the Organization Associated with Sickness Absence? A Multilevel Analysis in a Public Sector Organization

The main aim of the present study was to examine whether an ethical organizational culture is associated with sickness absence in a Finnish public sector organization at both the individual (within-level) and work unit (between-level) levels. The underlying assumption was that employees working for organizations that are characterized by a strong ethical organizational culture report less sickness absence. The sample consisted of 2192 employees from one public sector city organization that included 246 different work units. Ethical organizational culture was measured with the Corporate Ethical Virtues scale covering eight sub-dimensions. Sickness absence was inquired by asking the participants to report how many days they had been absent from work because of their own sickness over the past year. Multilevel structural equation modelling showed that, at the individual level, perceptions of a strong ethical organizational culture were associated with less sickness absences after controlling for the background factors. This link was not found at the work-unit level. The findings indicate that an ethical organizational culture plays a significant role in enhancing employee well-being measured as sickness absence. It seems that especially supervisor’s ethical role modeling and possibilities to discuss about ethical issues are important factors in preventing sickness absence in the organizations.     

A Circle of Influence: Are All the Stakeholders Included?

Traditionally, certified public accountants (CPAs) have served a unique role in the world of commerce and the profession of accounting. They perform an attest function and thereby serve as the chief providers of relevant, high quality accounting information to the decision making public. CPAs are licensed practitioners, who as expert independent accountants express opinions about an entity'sfinancial statements. Their license provides them with the exclusive right to perform this attest function. This monoploy relies on the concept of independence that is the normative standard of accountancy. It is this perceived independence of auditors which provides credibility, reliability and trust in the financial accounting information upon which stakeholders depend to make informed decisions. Now, however, we see the environment in which CPAs operate undergoing rapid change. Both the globalization of business operations and technological advances have radically changed how and where accountants work and the speed at which things happen. The very nature of accounting information services is evolving; moving from a concentration on audits to an increasing reliance on consulting and assurance services. New ethical issues have been raised by this confluence of changes in the accounting environment. Noteworthy is that the application of the principle of independence by CPAs has been called into question by no other than the SEC. Are those stakeholders who depend upon the independence of CPAs at risk? The influence of insiders has significantly increased as accounting firms perform multiple tasks for the same clients. This paper discusses the different groups who can potentially impair the independence of auditors and the steps that are being taken to enhance the "independence" of the auditors.     

How Good Are You at Getting a Lower Price? A Field Study of the US Automobile Market

Many large ticket items, such as cars and real estate, involve extensive bargaining on the part of consumers. From a consumer protection perspective, it is thus important to understand the determinants of bargaining outcomes and identify ways in which consumers can improve their bargaining performance. This research identifies several situational factors, including the information available to the consumer, the promotional environment, and a customer??s trade-in, that may have an impact on the bargaining outcome. A unique dataset is created from the US automobile market that combines actual vehicle transaction data with survey data on buyer search and bargaining behaviour. The results show that these situational variables indeed have an impact on the price a consumer pays. Specifically, on average, consumers who used the Internet and those that were offered a manufacturer rebate saved $481 and $2,126, respectively, while consumers who traded-in their old vehicle ended up paying $159 more on the new car compared to consumers who did not trade-in. Interestingly, the impact of some of these situational variables differed depending on the consumers?? ability to bargain and their enjoyment of bargaining. For example, high ability bargainers achieved more price reductions than low ability bargainers, given more information and a more active promotional environment, but this advantage did not extend in overcoming the negative impact of a trade-in. On the other hand, while buyers who enjoy bargaining do not possess a better position in a bargaining situation, they have greater tendency to search for price information and thus are better at identifying suppliers that offer a lower initial price. From a policy perspective, these results suggest that information search should be encouraged and made easier, particularly for consumers who dislike bargaining. Furthermore, even if some consumers have a high bargaining ability, there are still circumstances where their ability to get a lower price is limited. Education that highlights these pitfalls is likely to improve the final bargaining outcome and thus enhance consumer welfare.     

Diminished or Just Different? A Factorial Vignette Study of Privacy as a Social Contract

A growing body of theory has focused on privacy as being contextually defined, where individuals have highly particularized judgments about the appropriateness of what, why, how, and to whom information flows within a specific context. Such a social contract understanding of privacy could produce more practical guidance for organizations and managers who have employees, users, and future customers all with possibly different conceptions of privacy across contexts. However, this theoretical suggestion, while intuitively appealing, has not been empirically examined. This study validates a social contract approach to privacy by examining whether and how privacy norms vary across communities and contractors. The findings from this theoretical examination support the use of contractual business ethics to understand privacy in research and in practice. As predicted, insiders to a community had significantly different understandings of privacy norms as compared to outsiders. In addition, all respondents held different privacy norms across hypothetical contexts, thereby suggesting privacy norms are contextually understood within a particular community of individuals. The findings support two conclusions. First, individuals hold different privacy norms without necessarily having diminished expectations of privacy. Individuals differed on the factors they considered important in calculating privacy expectations, yet all groups had robust privacy expectations across contexts. Second, outsiders have difficulty in understanding the privacy norms of a particular community. For managers and scholars, this renders privacy expectations more difficult to identify at a distance or in deductive research. The findings speak directly to the needs of organizations to manage a diverse set of privacy issues across stakeholder groups.     

Does Collectivism Affect Environmental Ethics? A Multi-level Study of Top Management Teams from Chemical Firms in China

This study tests the effects of top management team (TMT) member collectivistic values and TMT dissatisfaction with the financial situation on the environmental ethics of TMT members. We also examine the moderating effect of collectivistic values on the relationship between financial dissatisfaction and environmental ethics. Analyses of multi-level and source data show that financial dissatisfaction of the TMT negatively affects TMT members’ environmental ethics. However, TMT members’ individual collectivism can increase TMT members’ environmental ethics. Analyses also show that TMT members’ collectivism moderates the relationship between financial dissatisfaction and environmental ethics across individual and team levels.     

Rapidly with a Rifle or more Slowly with a Shotgun? Stretching the Company Boundaries of Internationalising ICT Firms

Small firms start operating internationally much more quickly than was previously the case. However, this requires that companies acquire resources and skills in a significantly shorter time than earlier. This paper discusses the pressures that such development puts on company boundaries from the viewpoint of Finnish ICT companies. Our findings indicate that the rapidity of internationalisation is positively correlated with the number of foreign partners but reverse to our expectations, i.e., the more partners the firm has, the slower its start of international operations. Additionally, the study confirmed that a rapidly internationalising firm has a narrowly defined core competence. Surprisingly, rapidly internationalising firms searched for partners with similar type of competence instead of complementary one. This indicates that the associations between core competence and rapid internationalisation deserves more attention.     

How Important Are CEOs to CSR Practices? An Analysis of the Mediating Effect of the Perceived Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility

Drawing on the Agency–Stewardship approach, which suggests that manager profile may range from the agent model to the steward model, this article aims to examine how important CEOs are to corporate social responsibility (CSR). Specifically, this exploratory study proposes the existence of a relationship between manager profile and CSR practices and that this relation is mediated by the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility. After applying a mediated regression analysis using survey information collected from 149 CEOs in Spain, results show that those closer to the steward model are more inclined to attach great importance to ethics and social responsibility, and to implement CSR practices in their companies. Results also provide support for the suggested mediating effect. Thus, this article extends research in understanding top managers as drivers for CSR and suggests new ways to deal with this issue empirically.     

A Case Study on Executive Leadership and Knowledge Transfer in TMT： From the Perspective of Managerial Rotation in Private Firms

This paper explores the mechanism between leadership and knowledge transfer in a top management team （TMT） via a case study of ZOJE Group, a private listed company in China. Three recently rotated executives with different leadership styles from the parent or subsidiary companies are chosen and studied. Findings show that for the visionary leadership executive, his vision incentive has a limited effect on knowledge transfer, but organization culture, especially the decentralization management culture, can greatly enhance the knowledge transfer process. For the paternalistic leadership executive, authoritarianism helps him manage the management team in disarray; while benevolence and morality improve the knowledge transfer standard. Lastly, for the servant leadership executive, his leading by example and altruism behaviors contribute to a higher level of knowledge transfer among TMT.     

Do All Emerging‐Market Firms Partner with Their Acquisitions in Advanced Economies? A Comparative Study of 25 Emerging Multinationals’ Acquisitions in France

Emerging multinationals’ acquisitions in advanced economies are a growing phenomenon that remains relatively unexplored. Although there is now a consistent body of knowledge concerning multinationals from major emerging countries such as China, empirical data encompassing a larger array of countries of origin are still lacking. This article contributes to a better, contextualized understanding of commonalities and differences among emerging multinationals in terms of how they manage their developed‐region‐based acquisitions. Adopting a comparative international management perspective, we discuss recurrent hypotheses about such multinationals’ management styles (e.g., their partnering or light‐touch integration approach following upmarket acquisitions) with empirical data on acquisitions in France by multinationals from 13 countries. While confirming some hypotheses, we refine the definition of the partnering approach and identify a new, previously overlooked integration mode. We also discuss the antecedents of integration approaches, highlighting the influence of administrative heritage and contextual factors on emerging multinationals’ international management practices. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.