Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility最新文献

{"title":"Meaningful work and unethical work: The crisis in Australian financial advice","authors":"Andrew West","doi":"10.1111/beer.12531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12531","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Recurrent scandals in business ethics demonstrate that work is, on occasion, unambiguously unethical. It is not clear, however, exactly how the concept of ‘meaningful work’ can be applied to such work, and whether, for example, work can be both unethical and meaningful. This article explores three different conceptualisations of meaningful work: where meaningful work is considered to be subjective, primarily subjective but with objective constraints or primarily objective (adopting Alasdair MacIntyre's neo-Aristotelian framework). These competing conceptualisations are examined in relation to the ethical failures in the Australian financial advice industry. From 2009, a range of parliamentary inquiries, including a Royal Commission, documented significant ethical failures at both individual and institutional levels across the industry, which caused substantial hardship to tens of thousands of clients. Among the subsequent reforms was a drive towards the professionalisation of financial advice through enhanced educational standards, a code of ethics and the development of a professional identity. This case demonstrates the different ways in which the conceptualisations of meaningful work can be applied. However, Alasdair MacIntyre's scheme of practices, institutions, internal and external goods is presented as a preferred conceptualisation of the case, accommodating considerations of both ethics and meaningful work and contributing towards a theory of good work in general.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"32 3","pages":"882-895"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12531","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50153114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Changes in corporate social responsibility activity during a pandemic: The case of COVID-19","authors":"Kamel Mellahi,&nbsp;Belaid Rettab,&nbsp;Sangeeta Sharma,&nbsp;Mathew Hughes,&nbsp;Paul Hughes","doi":"10.1111/beer.12527","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12527","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) during COVID-19. Little is known about how organizations practice CSR during acute exogenous crises. Overlooking how CSR practices change during a crisis matters because organizations are compelled into trade-offs that carry implications for their CSR initiatives. Analysis of interview data with CSR managers, from 21 Dubai-based business organizations during COVID-19, uncovers changes in the content and process of CSR during the pandemic. The results show that the practice of CSR underwent a fundamental change in focus as organizations shifted to an employee-centric model of CSR and away from an environmental one. Measures placed on organizations and society to combat the pandemic also led to a recalibration of stakeholder and issue salience, with notable effects on CSR that challenge the capability of the power–legitimacy–urgency framework to anticipate these shifts. We consider the impacts associated with the shift in the content of CSR initiatives and process of their implementation and discuss the implications of the findings for CSR theory, research, policy, and practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"32 S3","pages":"270-290"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12527","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50122978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Calm after the storm? The role of social and environmental practices on small and medium enterprises resilience throughout COVID-19 crisis","authors":"Vera Ferrón-Vílchez,&nbsp;Dante I. Leyva-de la Hiz","doi":"10.1111/beer.12528","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12528","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study aims to analyze whether resilient SMEs have been able to overcome the bump of the COVID-19 crisis in terms of profitability. When facing such unforeseen crises, SMEs require resilience, and one of the factors that positively affect resilience generation is the adoption of social and environmental practices (SEPs). Using survey data on the managerial perceptions of 259 SMEs, this study reveals the positive association between resilience and improvements in business performance, and how the adoption of SEPs is an essential prerequisite for developing a higher level of resilience. We corroborate these associations for SMEs at two moments of the pandemic: November 2020 and October 2021. Our findings show that more resilient SMEs exhibit better results in terms of business performance, and the prior adoption of SEPs is positively associated with the development of resilience in the crisis context of COVID-19.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"32 S3","pages":"179-195"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12528","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50116853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Business ethics: Between Friedman and Freeman? A response to A Puzzle about Business Ethics","authors":"Matthias P. Hühn","doi":"10.1111/beer.12523","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12523","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The biggest research programme within business ethics is arguably Corporate Social Responsibility and all its related streams (Corporate Citizenship, Social Justice, etc.) While there seems to be widespread agreement that business ethics is situated between the amoral or even immoral view of Milton Friedman as explicated in his 1970 New York Times paper, and the moral view expounded by R. Edward Freeman, this essay challenges that view. Friedman, maybe owed to his flamboyant writing style and crude and purely rhetorical oversimplifications has been misinterpreted to advocate for managers to be completely amoral maximisers of profitability. This misinterpretation has become common wisdom, despite him clearly stating that the law and the moral standards of surrounding society must limit profit-seeking behaviour. Freeman's stakeholder theory, on the other hand, is seen as being on the other end of the continuum, arguing for selflessness—another misinterpretation, as I argue with Ed Freeman's help. Instead, I suggest that both Friedman and Freeman represent the virtuous mean of the business ethics continuum and not its extremes because they both base their theories on the idea of the free and socially embedded individual. The two vicious ends of the continuum are inhabited by the unreal, atomised, completely a-social and selfish individual on the one end, and by the equally unreal collectivised self-less individual on the other. The mainstream in business ethics has declared the collective and selfless end to be the ideal that must guide practice and research. The selfish and the selfless strawmen have prevented a proper debate in business ethics for too long.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"32 2","pages":"868-876"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50144957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Technology ethics assessment: Politicising the ‘Socratic approach’","authors":"Robert Sparrow","doi":"10.1111/beer.12518","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12518","url":null,"abstract":"<p>That technologies may raise ethical issues is now widely recognised. The ‘responsible innovation’ literature – as well as, to a lesser extent, the applied ethics and bioethics literature – has responded to the need for ethical reflection on technologies by developing a number of tools and approaches to facilitate such reflection. Some of these instruments consist of lists of questions that people are encouraged to ask about technologies – a methodology known as the ‘Socratic approach’. However, to date, these instruments have often not adequately acknowledged various political impacts of technologies, which are, I suggest, essential to a proper account of the ethical issues they raise. New technologies can make some people richer and some people poorer, empower some and disempower others, have dramatic implications for relationships between different social groups and impact on social understandings and experiences that are central to the lives, and narratives, of denizens of technological societies. The distinctive contribution of this paper, then, is to offer a revised and updated version of the Socratic approach that highlights the political, as well as the more traditionally ethical, issues raised by the development of new technologies.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"32 2","pages":"454-466"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12518","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50142732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Top management teams' foreign experience, environmental regulation, and firms' green innovation","authors":"Xuejiao Zhang,&nbsp;Qingyang Zhao,&nbsp;Wanfu Li,&nbsp;Yu Wang","doi":"10.1111/beer.12526","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12526","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this study, we examine how top management teams' foreign experience affects firms' green innovation performance and what role environmental regulation plays in their association. Using a large data set on firms' green patents and foreign work or education experience of top management teams from China, we find robust evidence that firms whose top management team members have foreign experience achieve significantly more green patents, and this positive relationship is more pronounced for firms subject to strong environmental regulation. Our findings indicate that via enhancing firms' green innovation performance, top management teams' foreign experience has a positive corporate governance effect on advancing sustainable social development, and environmental regulation is helpful to promote this effect.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"32 2","pages":"819-835"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50140832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Capitalism & ethics","authors":"Gabriel Flynn,&nbsp;Michael Aßländer,&nbsp;Daryl Koehn","doi":"10.1111/beer.12509","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12509","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Capitalism is “often thought of as an economic system in which private actors own and control property in accord with their interests, and demand and supply freely set prices in markets in a way that can serve the best interests of society” (Sarwat &amp; Ahmed, &lt;span&gt;2015&lt;/span&gt;, p. 2). As a financial system, capitalism continues to wield titanic social, cultural, and political influence globally. Since the nineteenth century, it has been the dominant economic system in the world. “It could be said that, during the nineteenth century, capitalism took over the world. Developments in trade, finance, manufacturing, farming, energy sources and population growth in Western Europe converged to create a new kind of economy whose rhythms were no longer primarily dictated by pestilence, the seasons, climatic cycles or wars of religion and of succession” (Tribe, &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;, p. 123; see also Akrivou &amp; Sison, &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;; Collier, &lt;span&gt;2018&lt;/span&gt;). Almost two centuries later, the world is dominated by the dual powers of information and communications technologies, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the clash between capitalism and various socialist-inspired economic systems, in an increasingly sophisticated and normally stealthy battle for global dominance. In addition, pestilence, weather, medical pandemics, antibiotic-resistant diseases, and the interruption of production and supply chains in energy, food, goods, medicine, and medical devices, as well as new threats to peace and democracy, to mention some of the most important, continue to wreak havoc on a grand scale as the power of justice and peace is trammelled or corralled (Weiner et al., &lt;span&gt;2017&lt;/span&gt;). To these grave concerns must be added the long-term consequences of the global financial crashes of recent decades which continue to engender ever-expansive insecurity and a corresponding deep suspicion directed towards those at the top.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During the 1970s, Keynesian principles associated with the theories of John Maynard Keynes lost ground and yielded to neoclassical doctrines as the dominant orientation in economic policy. Later with “Reaganomics” and “Thatcherism” the rationale of economic liberalisation took root in Western economies and became the mantra of success and economic development. In this vein, supply-side economics, as the dominant theory, urged Western governments to foster free trade, allow for a tax reduction of industries, and to deregulate financial markets. The dismantling of trade barriers and advanced globalisation triggered an unexpected production shift to low-cost countries with less regulated labour and fewer environmental requirements. Although these developments with their concomitant evils such as sweatshop labour, environmental degradation, and unfair distribution of wealth have been criticised from different angles (e.g. Piketty, &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Savage, &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;), globalisation has been lauded by neo-classical economists ","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"32 S1","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12509","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50139820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Board gender diversity, government subsidies, and green vehicles sales: Evidence from China","authors":"Vik Singh,&nbsp;Sui Sui,&nbsp;Xiaodan Guo","doi":"10.1111/beer.12524","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12524","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article investigates whether increased female representation on a board improves firm performance in terms of electric vehicle (EV) sales in China when government subsidies are available. The increase in EV sales in China is a direct result of the sustainability efforts spearheaded by the various levels of local and state governments. This area is of importance due to the rising Chinese footprint in global EV sales, the increasing role of subsidies, and a transformation from State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to market-driven firms that are more likely to pay attention to corporate governance issues such as board diversity. Using the instrumental variable (IV) approach, we estimate a two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression to control for more women representation on EV boards using firm-level data. The results indicate that board gender diversity (BGD) positively impacts firm performance in terms of EV sales. Furthermore, the effect amplifies in the presence of government subsidies. The insights provide valuable contributions to bridge the critical literature gap on how board diversity impacts firm performance in the presence of subsidies and offer valuable insights into corporate governance and policymaking.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"32 2","pages":"790-801"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12524","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50137748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The state of ethical decision-making research in accounting: A retrospective assessment from 1987 to 2022","authors":"Godfred Matthew Yaw Owusu,&nbsp;Gabriel Korankye","doi":"10.1111/beer.12519","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12519","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study employs the bibliometric analysis approach to examine research on ethical decision-making (EDM) of accountants from 1987 to 2022. The study specifically examines the developments in EDM research and evaluates the intellectual structure of the research field. Employing citation, co-authorship, co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling analyses, bibliometric data on 908 publications from the Scopus database was analysed. The results indicate that there has been a significant increase in the rate of publication on EDM of accountants following the spate of ethical breaches in the early 2000s. Further, we find that a large proportion of EDM in accounting research originates from developed countries like USA, Australia and UK. Our cluster analysis suggests that two main research streams have evolved over the period. Prior to 2012, researchers in this field mainly focused on individual level issues, particularly, on the determinants of the EDM process of individuals. Research, post 2012, however, has focused on firm-level EDM issues including organisational ethics, culture, and corporate governance. The study further discusses the themes in detail andproposes a future research agenda.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"32 2","pages":"419-434"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50150672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conflicts between mining companies and communities: Institutional environments and conflict resolution approaches","authors":"Chang Hoon Oh,&nbsp;Jiyoung Shin,&nbsp;Shuna Shu Ham Ho","doi":"10.1111/beer.12522","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12522","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although companies recognize the importance of social responsibility and community engagement, conflicts between companies and communities have been noticeably increasing. To better understand the role of institutional environments in company–community conflicts, we analyze two mining conflicts—Minera Yanacocha's Minas Conga extension project in Peru and Minera Los Pelambres' El Mauro Tailings Dam in Chile. Our findings imply that, to prevent negative consequences and alleviate company–community conflicts, mining companies should address underlying structural causes and pursue informal approaches in order to obtain and maintain their social license. We find that better formal institutional environments not only alleviate conflict intensity but also facilitate informal approaches through which companies and communities can cooperate to resolve conflicts. The best practice would be to start and continue dialogs between communities and companies, mediated by impartial governments, to understand the concerns of the counterparty and find means by which to address the causes.</p>","PeriodicalId":29886,"journal":{"name":"Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility","volume":"32 2","pages":"638-656"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/beer.12522","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50139039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}