The Influence of Love of Money and Religiosity on Ethical Decision-Making in Marketing

The impact of “love of money” on different aspects of consumers’ ethical beliefs has been investigated by previous research. In this study we investigate the potential impact of “love of money” on a manager’s ethical decision-making in marketing. Another objective of the current study is to investigate the potential impacts of extrinsic and intrinsic religiosity on ethical marketing decision-making. We also include ethical judgments as an element of ethical decision-making. We found “love of money”, both dimensions of religiosity, and ethical judgment to have significant impacts on ethical intentions in a marketing situation. In addition to providing an important contribution to the business ethics literature, the findings also have important managerial implications.     

组织承诺与知识型人才激励研究

有效的激励机制能激发知识型人才的潜能,本文透过组织承诺理论分析知识型人才激励影响因素,主要包括工作本身、个人成长、成就需要等内在动机因素和薪酬、高度自主、他人认可等外在动机因素,提出知识型人才激励的"硬核"理论;通过构建基于组织承诺的知识型人才激励模型,提出通过强化内、外在动机的措施,可激励知识型人才、提高知识型人才组织承诺,进而推动组织发展。     

Feeling Good by Doing Good: Employee CSR-Induced Attributions, Job Satisfaction, and the Role of Charismatic Leadership

Interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) is gaining momentum in academic and managerial circles. However, prior work in the area has paid little attention to how CSR initiatives should be implemented inside the organization. Against this backdrop, this study examines the impact of CSR initiatives on an important stakeholder group—employees. We build and test a comprehensive multilevel framework that focuses on whether employees derive job satisfaction from CSR programs. The proposed model predicts that a manager’s charismatic leadership influences employees’ interpretations about the motives underlying their companies’ engagement in CSR initiatives (intrinsic and extrinsic CSR-induced attributions) which, in turn, influence employee job satisfaction. Hierarchical linear modeling of data from 47 organizational units comprising 438 employees from three world-leading manufacturing organizations shows that when employees think that their manager possesses charismatic leadership qualities, they tend to attribute the organization’s motives for engaging in CSR activities to intrinsic values, which, in turn, are positively associated with job satisfaction. Also, the extent to which managers are perceived as charismatic leaders relates positively to job satisfaction. Interestingly, CSR-induced extrinsic attributions are neither explained by charismatic leadership nor do they predict job satisfaction. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed.     

The effect of incentives on intrinsic motivation and employee attitudes: A multilevel study across nations and cultural clusters

In a study of employees across 29 nations and 9 of the 10 Global Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (GLOBE) cultural clusters, the association between economic and psychological incentives and intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment were examined. Self‐Determination Theory (SDT) is utilized to develop a theoretical model and then compare structural relationships across nations and cultural clusters. Results confirm the positive relationship between basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation across all nations and cultures. However there is an effect of cultural cluster on the relationships between incentives and motivation, wherein external incentives are intrinsically motivating in Southern and Confucian Asian clusters. The implications for the design of incentive systems are discussed.     

I’m Number One! Does Narcissism Impair Ethical Judgment Even for the Highly Religious?

Can an assessment of individuals’ narcissism help explain the quality of a respondent’s ethical judgment? How is the relationship between religiosity and ethical judgment moderated by the effects of narcissism? With a sample of 385 undergraduate business majors, this study uses a taxonomic approach to examine the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity as well as orthodox Christian beliefs on ethical judgment. Three distinct clusters were identified: Skeptics, Nominals, and Devouts. Surprisingly, of the three clusters, Nominals and Devouts were the only groups impacted by narcissism, although Skeptics overall demonstrate the worst ethical judgment.     

Social capital,user motivation,and collaborative consumption of online platform services

Collaborative consumption is broadly defined as sharing, obtaining, and giving access to products and services through peer networks online. As it is expected to resolve the societal and environmental problems, quite a few studies investigated consumers’ motivations that lead to positive attitudes and intention for collaborative consumption. This paper aims to study the determinants that motivate participants to perceive a positive attitude towards collaborative consumption focusing on three salient traits of social capital (shared goal, social interaction tie, and norms of reciprocity). The study found that social capital exerts a more substantial influence on intrinsic motivation (enjoyment and sustainability) than extrinsic motivation (economic benefit). The study also found that different social capital traits display different effects on motivation. In particular, the shared goal was a key determinant of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. And all three motivations positively affect collaborative consumption attitudes.     

Theory of Monetary Intelligence: Money Attitudes—Religious Values,Making Money,Making Ethical Decisions,and Making the Grade

This study explores (1) the effect of a short ethics intervention—a chapter of business ethics in a business course—on perceptions of business courses and personal values toward making money and making ethical decisions and (2) Monetary Intelligence (MI). Since attitudes predict intentions and behaviors, Monetary Intelligence, a form of social intelligence, is defined as the extent to which individuals monitor their own monetary motive, behavior, and cognition; apply the information to evaluate critical concerns and options; select strategies to achieve financial goals; and reach ultimate success and subjective well-being. I theorize that the affective (love of money motive) aspect of MI is unrelated to perceptions of “course work,” yet it is positively related to their “personal values” toward making money, but negatively related to making ethical decisions. Individuals with high MI (low affective love of money motive) have low interests in making money, but high levels of intrinsic religiosity and recall of the Ten Commandments and high interests in making ethical decisions and making the grade (objective academic performance). Based on data from multiple panels and multiple sources, this study provides the following discoveries. Contrary to expectations, there are no differences in students’ perceptions of course work and their personal values toward making money and making ethical decisions between two measures—before and after the ethics intervention. Results of this study not only provide empirical supports for the bright side of theory of Monetary Intelligence (MI, Monetary Quotient, MQ) but also reveal a new paradox—recall of the Ten Commandments (the priming effect) is positively related to making ethical decisions, but negatively related to making money. Results illustrate important theoretical, empirical, and practical implications to the literature of money attitudes, religiosity, intrinsic motivation, and business ethics.     

The Evolution and Challenges of the Concept of Organizational Virtuousness in Positive Organizational Scholarship

This study considers the potential for influencing business students to become ethical managers by directing their undergraduate learning environment. In particular, the relationship between business students’ academic cheating, as a predictor of workplace ethical behavior, and their approaches to learning is explored. The three approaches to learning identified from the students’ approaches to learning literature are deep approach, represented by an intrinsic interest in and a desire to understand the subject, surface approach, characterized by rote learning and memorization without understanding, and strategic approach, associated with competitive students whose motivation is the achievement of good grades by adopting either a surface or deep approach. Consistent with the hypothesized theoretical model, structural equation modeling revealed that the surface approach is associated with higher levels of cheating, while the deep approach is related to lower levels. The strategic approach was also associated with less cheating and had a statistically stronger influence than the deep approach. Further, a significantly positive relationship reported between deep and strategic approaches suggests that cheating is reduced when deep and strategic approaches are paired. These findings suggest that future managers and business executives can be influenced to behave more ethically in the workplace by directing their learning approaches. It is hoped that the evidence presented may encourage those involved in the design of business programs to implement educational strategies which optimize students’ approaches to learning towards deep and strategic characteristics, thereby equipping tomorrow’s managers and business executives with skills to recognize and respond appropriately to workplace ethical dilemmas.     

Religiosity and Moral Identity: The Mediating Role of Self-Control

The ethics literature has identified moral motivation as a factor in ethical decision-making. Furthermore, moral identity has been identified as a source of moral motivation. In the current study, we examine religiosity as an antecedent to moral identity and examine the mediating role of self-control in this relationship. We find that intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions of religiosity have different direct and indirect effects on the internalization and symbolization dimensions of moral identity. Specifically, intrinsic religiosity plays a role in counterbalancing the negative impact of extrinsic religiosity on the internalization of moral identity. Further, intrinsic religiosity also counterbalances the negative and indirect impact of extrinsic religiosity on symbolization of moral identity via self-control. Lastly, self-control does not play a mediating role in the impact of religiosity on the internalization dimension of moral identity. We conclude that this study presents important findings that advance our understanding of the antecedents of moral identity, and that these results may have implications for the understanding of ethical decision-making.     

Business Ethics versus Economic Incentives:<Emphasis Type="Italic">Contemporary Issues and Dilemmas</Emphasis>

Contemporary economic thought presumes that individuals in a society always act according to their self-interest or private economic incentives, while important ethical motivations for action, such as a concern for others and public interest, are largely ignored. This paper is based on my experience of teaching an undergraduate course that highlighted the divergence between economic incentives and ethical motives for action in present-day life and business. Teaching tools such as lectures, case and group discussions were employed to address important ethical dilemmas of individuals and managers in contemporary societies. Readings underscored the evolving relationship of business ethics and economic incentives, and the relevance of ancient ethical principles (e.g., Ethics of Interdependence, and Ethics of Prudence and Self-Development) to present-day business ethics. The course emphasized the imminent need in contemporary societies to reduce the divergence between economic incentives and ethical motives for action, and called for a greater understanding of business ethics today, given the complex ethical concerns that managers confront in the current global environment.     

高管薪酬、董事会治理与分类转移

本文研究了高管薪酬和董事会治理对分类转移的影响。研究表明,货币薪酬会诱使高管向上转移利得,股权激励和缺乏区分度的薪酬制度会诱使高管同时向下转移费用和向上转移利得;而勤勉、独立和两职分离的董事会能够在一定程度上识别并抑制这两种不同方式的分类转移;但董事会对分类转移的抑制程度小于高管薪酬对分类转移的诱发程度。进一步地,良好的市场、法制和媒体监督环境能够有效缓解高管薪酬对分类转移的诱发作用,而董事会能够有效弥补法制建设和媒体监督不足导致的分类转移治理缺陷,并在较高质量的审计环境下对分类转移发挥更强的抑制作用。本文首次结合制度背景和媒体监督研究了公司核心治理机制对不同分类转移方式的影响和原因,并创新性地对向上转移利得的程度进行了衡量,为监管部门及公司治理机制、会计准则的制定者提供经验证据。     

Executive Pay and Legitimacy: Changing Discursive Battles Over the Morality of Excessive Manager Compensation

How is the (il)legitimacy of manager compensation constructed in social interaction? This study investigated discursive processes through which heavily contested executive pay schemes of the Finnish energy giant Fortum were constructed as (il)legitimate in public during 2005–2009. The critical discursive analysis of media texts identified five legitimation strategies through which politicians, journalists, and other social actors contested these schemes and, at the same time, constructed subject positions for managers, politicians, and citizens. The comparison of two debate periods surrounding the 2007–2008 financial crisis revealed significant differences in the discursive strategies and the corresponding moral struggles linked to legitimation of executive compensation. The analysis highlights a change in moral reasoning by social actors as they adapt their justifications to a changing social context. This study has important implications for our understanding of the ethical aspects and socio-political embeddedness of manager compensation. In particular, it adds to our knowledge of organizational legitimacy by showing how discursive strategies and the corresponding morality constructions used to (de)legitimate business activities can shift quickly as a result of a change in the social and political climate surrounding the legitimation struggle.     

Can “Real” Men Consume Ethically? How Ethical Consumption Leads to Unintended Observer Inference

Based on social cognitive theory, this paper explored the cognitive mechanism between ethical leadership and the followers’ extra-role performance. We tested a moderated mediation model in which general self-efficacy mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and the employee extra-role performance, while intrinsic motivation moderated the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinate’s general self-efficacy. Data were collected in two waves from 208 dyads. Results supported the time-lagged effect of ethical leadership on individual extra-role performance and the mediating role of general self-efficacy. Moreover, our findings revealed that intrinsic motivation positively moderated the effect of ethical leadership on general self-efficacy. Furthermore, intrinsic motivation also moderated the indirect effect of ethical leadership on extra-role performance via general self-efficacy. Theoretical and practical implications were further discussed.     

Imperfect markets: Business ethics as an easy virtue

This paper marks a radical diversion from the large body of prevailing literature in business ethics which primarily views the issue in individual-personal terms, i.e., corporate executive and employee, and suggests that making corporations more ethical would primarily come through changes in executive behavior. While this approach has strong intellectual roots in moral philosophy and religion, it fails in explaining the persistence of unethical and illegal behavior among corporations of all sizes, financial health, competitive market conditions, and, level of individual executive compensation. This paper argues for a fundamentally different approach to understanding ethical behavior, or lack thereof, among corporations and their executives. It is asserted that an overwhelmingly large rationale and/or inducement for proactive ethical business behavior is rooted in competitive aspects of particular markets, and industry structures prevailing in those markets. Furthermore, while highly competitive markets may promote efficiency, they do not guarantee ethical behavior and may indeed provide greater opportunities and incentives for unethical business behavior. Thus, by following the current prognosis, we could be wasting enormous resources in terms of teaching business ethics, and creating and imposing corporate codes of conduct. We assert that these approaches would at best make a marginal improvement in the ethical performance of corporations while at the same time exacerbate the problem by ignoring more fundamental, structural issues. Imperfect markets, with their above-market profits, are a necessary but insufficient condition for corporations to behave ethically. It is only under conditions of imperfect markets that individual executives can play an important role in guiding their corporations toward greater ethical norms. These are undertaken for a variety of reasons, including, protecting a corporation's good name, public expectations, competitive norms, and, corporate culture and individual executive's predilections, to name a few.S. Prakash Sethi is Professor and Acting Director, Center for Management, Baruch College, The City University of New York. He has widely published in the areas of corporate social responsibility, international business, business ethics, and corporate strategy and public policy. His most recent publication isMultinational Corporations and the Impact of Public Advocacy on Corporate Strategy: Nestle and the Infant Formula Controversy (Kluwer, 1994).     

Unintended effects of incentivizing consumers to recommend a favorite brand

Marketers often use incentives such as coupons, rewards or special membership discounts in order to motivate consumers to purchase or recommend a particular brand. This practice is based on the underlying assumption that an increase in incentives will lead to an increase in consumer response – an idea which has been at the core of traditional economic thinking for decades. Some psychologists have claimed, however, that under specific conditions an increase in incentives can reduce (rather than increase) one's willingness to perform the behavior which is being incentivized. If materialized, the possibility that extrinsic incentives may diminish consumer willingness to recommend a favorite brand could have important theoretical and practical consequences in the context of word-of-mouth or buzz marketing. This study tests that possibility in the context of an experiment about Apple computers, a favorite brand among US college students. Participants were asked to recommend the brand to a friend (1) in absence of any monetary reward and (2) for a small monetary incentive. Students who were promised a small monetary reward experienced a decrease in intrinsic motivation and wrote shorter recommendations than those who were not promised any incentives. Data also suggest that the quality of the recommendation may decrease when incentives are offered. The results are discussed in line of their possible theoretical and practical significance.     

Why do people buy organic food? The moderating role of environmental concerns and trust

Although consumer interest in organic food has risen over time, resulting in a generally positive attitude toward these organic food products, scholarly research suggests a comparatively low volume of its consumption in the market. This has resulted in an urgent need to study the motivations which enhance consumers’ proclivity to purchase food items produced organically. The current research attempts to understand potential associations between motivations (intrinsic and extrinsic), attitude, and buying behaviour towards organic food. Self-determination theory (SDT) was applied to develop a theoretically grounded framework which was evaluated with 378 organic food consumers. The hypotheses were tested by analyzing the data through structural equation modelling (SEM), wherein environmental concerns and trust were the moderating variables. The study results demonstrate the significant influence of intrinsic motivation, integrated and external regulation on consumer attitude, and buying behaviour. But, attitude had no significant association with buying behaviour. The findings indicate consumers’ motivation may be stimulated to encourage higher frequencies of purchasing organic food by emphasizing values that reflect motivations arising from ethical or green consumerism, health, and social benefits. Furthermore, policymakers should focus on avenues to integrate organic food as permanent parts of individual lives and a socially exalting behavioral action.     

Determinants and Performance Effects of Social Performance Measurement Systems

This study investigates the performance measurement systems adopted by companies to manage their social responsibility activities, a theme that remains under-researched despite the important role that these mechanisms may play in helping firms control and improve their social performance. An integrative model is developed to examine how the three fundamental drivers of corporate social strategies, i.e., business motivations, perceived stakeholder pressures, and top management’s social commitment, influence the use of social performance indicators for internal decision-making and control and how such use impacts companies’ social and economic performance. The results from a survey of 97 Italian companies suggest that economic motivations and top management’s commitment are associated with a more intensive use of social performance indicators for decision-making and control, whereas perceived pressures from stakeholders do not represent a significant determinant of such use. The use of social performance indicators, in turn, is found to directly influence a firm’s social performance and, indirectly, its bottom line.     

Religiosity, Attitude Toward Business, and Ethical Beliefs: Hispanic Consumers in the United States

Growth of the Hispanic consumer population in America is changing the marketplace landscape. Due to their considerable buying power, a better understanding of Hispanic consumer behavior has become a necessity. The marketing literature has examined issues regarding religiosity and attitude toward business in regards to consumer ethical beliefs as well as research differentiating consumers on the basis of ethnicity due to their inherently different religious principles. Therefore, the present study contributes to the existing consumer ethics literature by examining the roles of religiosity and attitude toward business in determining consumer ethical beliefs. Furthermore, this study compares the relationships among religiosity, attitude toward business, and ethical beliefs at the sub-cultural level (i.e., between Hispanic and Anglo-American consumers). Survey data compare a sample of 187 predominately Catholic Hispanic consumers with a sample of 127 predominately protestant Anglo consumers. Results suggest a positive relationship between intrinsic religiousness and beliefs that questionable consumer activities are unethical. However, extrinsic religiousness does not impact consumer views as to the ethicality of consumer practices. Hispanics exhibit higher levels of extrinsic religiousness than Anglos, but no difference in terms of their intrinsic religiousness. Results also suggest that Hispanics have a more negative attitude toward business than Anglos do. Implications of these results are discussed.     

The Effects of Religiosity on Ethical Judgments

The relationship between religiosity and ethical behavior at work has remained elusive. In fact, inconsistent results in observed magnitudes and direction led Hood et al. (The psychology of religion: An empirical approach, 1996) to describe the relationship between religiosity and ethics as “something of a roller coaster ride.” Weaver and Agle (Acad Manage Rev 27(1):77–97, 2002) utilizing social structural versions of symbolic interactionism theory reasoned that we should not expect religion to affect ethical outcomes for all religious individuals; rather, such a relationship likely depends on specific religious attitudes including religious motivation orientation (intrinsic RMO vs. extrinsic RMO), perceived sacred qualities of work (job sanctification), and views of God (VOG, loving vs. punishing). We examined the effects of these three religious attitudes on participants’ judgments of 29 ethically questionable vignettes. Consistent with symbolic interactionism theory, intrinsic RMO and having a loving view of God were both negatively related to endorsing ethically questionable vignettes, whereas extrinsic RMO was positively related to endorsing the vignettes. Unexpectedly, job sanctification was positively related to endorsing the vignettes. However, both intrinsic and extrinsic RMO moderated this relationship such that sanctifying one’s job was related to ethical judgments only for those who were: (a) low in intrinsic RMO or (b) high in extrinsic RMO. We reasoned based on symbolic interactionism theory that intrinsically motivated participants, in contrast to extrinsically motivated participants, may have utilized their religious beliefs as a guiding framework in making ethical judgments.     

The Role of CEO’s Personal Incentives in Driving Corporate Social Responsibility

In this study, we explore the role of Chief Executive Officers’ (CEOs’) incentives, split between monetary (based on both bonus compensation and changes in the value of the CEO’s portfolio of stocks and options) and non-monetary (career concerns, incoming/departing CEOs, and power and entrenchment), in relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR). We base our analysis on a sample of 597 US firms over the period 2005–2009. We find that both monetary and non-monetary incentives have an effect on CSR decisions. Specifically, monetary incentives designed to align the CEO’s and shareholders’ interests have a negative effect on CSR and non-monetary incentives have a positive effect on CSR. The study has important implications for the design of executive remuneration (compensation) plans, as we show that there are many levers that can affect the CEO’s decisions with regard to CSR. Our evidence also confirms the prominent role of the CEO in relation to CSR decisions, while also recognizing the complexity of factors affecting CSR. Finally, we propose a research design that takes into account endogeneity issues arising when examining compensation variables.