Attitudes Toward Business Ethics in Different Contexts: a Cross-Cultural Comparison between professionals in Jordan and UK

Understanding the attitude and perception of business professionals towards ethics, in an era of dynamic globalisation is important for investors to make strategic decisions. We explore this manifestation of business ethics across cultures in terms of ethical perceptions, moral philosophies and ethical judgments, by focusing upon the attitudes of professionals towards ethics, in two culturally and institutionally different countries: Jordan and the UK. We base our theorisation on Hofstede's Theory of International Cultures, selected business philosophies and incorporate individual and situational factors influencing ethical perception to develop our hypotheses, which were then tested by applying ATBEQ and EPQ. Our findings show significant differences in between in professionals’ views to Social Darwinism and ethical relativism in Jordan and UK. This difference was detected in based on variations between Muslims in UK and Jordan in their views to business ethics. Collectively our study shows that but the culture and societal factors have the higher effect when compared to religion. Moreover, weighing the views toward Ethical Relativism by using of Attitudes Toward Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) and Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) is inconsistent in the current research, which can be an opportunity to develop a new measures for attitude toward business ethics

Determinants of Corporate Environmental Disclosures in Sri Lanka: the role of Corporate Governance

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Purpose – This study explores the levels of, and trends in corporate environmental disclosure (CED) among a sample of Sri Lankan listed companies from 2015 to 2019. Further, this article examines the firm-level determinants of CED, including corporate governance (CG) mechanisms, in Sri Lanka from a multi-theoretical perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Using a sample of 205 firm-year observations, this paper distinctively applies a panel quantile regression (PQR) model to examine the determinants of CED in Sri Lanka. This method was supported by estimating a 2-step generalised method of moment (GMM) model to tackle any possible existence of endogeneity concerns. Findings – Our findings indicate an increasing trend in CED practice among the sampled companies (i.e., 41 firms, the only adopters of the GRI framework) in Sri Lanka from 2015 to 2019. However, it is still considered at an early stage compared with other developed counterparts. Furthermore, this study suggests that board size, board independence, board meetings, industry type, profitability and firm size are positively associated with CED level. In contrast, and consistent with our expectation, CEO duality is negatively attributed to the disclosed amount of environmental information in the Sri Lankan context. Research limitations/implications– Our empirical evidence reiterates the crucial need to propagate and promote further substantive CG reforms, mandating CED in Sri Lanka. Originality/value – Our findings provide much-needed insights for indigenous companies, operating across similar emerging economies, to understand how CED can be incorporated into their reporting process based on the GRI framework in order to enhance their firm value, reduce legitimacy gaps and mitigate other operational risks

Embedding Responsible Management Education – Staff, Student and Institutional Perspectives

There is a resurgence in responsible management education, with business schools’ considering its adoption as vital for business courses. Nevertheless, initiating institution-wide changes for responsible management education is an inherently complex activity in business schools, requiring not only revisions in their curriculum, but also sustained faculty and institutional support. This paper explores this complexity in one UK business school, a signatory to the Principles of Responsible Management Education, who have commenced a programme of change in RME. Based on primary data obtained from two workshops with the business schools’ faculty, a student survey and a systematic analysis of the curriculum of four undergraduate degrees and two post-graduate degrees, we find that misalignment between faculty skills and institutional bureaucracy, together with an inconsistent focus on responsible management across the curriculum raises key challenges for its adoption. We extend the premise that significant change in RME, requires fundamental changes of a business school’s own ethos of what responsibility means to itself. Ke

Towards Sustainable Development in the Arab Middle East and North Africa Region: A Longitudinal Analysis of Environmental Disclosure in Corporate Annual Reports

open access articleThis paper presents the first comprehensive analysis of corporate environmental disclosure (CED) in the Arab MENA region. Using a detailed research instrument containing 55 items, content analysis of the annual reports of 180 non-financial companies listed on nine major stock markets was conducted over a five-year period. The calculation of an unweighted disclosure index indicates that, although the level of disclosure might be considered relatively low by international standards, it varies by country. Perhaps of greater significance for the future of sustainable development in the region, disclosure is shown to have increased significantly over the period 2010-2014. Further analysis shows that, although there are some differences relating to categories of disclosure, this is a region-wide phenomenon not driven by a subset of countries or types of company. This benchmark study provides a systematic picture for policy makers in the region and, for future researchers, both substantive findings and methodological insight

Seeking legitimacy through CSR: Institutional Pressures and Corporate Responses of Multinationals in Sri Lanka

Arguably, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) are influenced by a wide range of both internal and external factors. Perhaps most critical among the exogenous forces operating on MNEs are those exerted by state and other key institutional actors in host countries. Crucially, academic research conducted to date offers little data about how MNEs use their CSR activities to strategically manage their relationship with those actors in order to gain legitimisation advantages in host countries. This paper addresses that gap by exploring interactions between external institutional pressures and firm-level CSR activities, which take the form of community initiatives, to examine how MNEs develop their legitimacy-seeking policies and practices. In focusing on a developing country, Sri Lanka, this paper provides valuable insights into how MNEs instrumentally utilise community initiatives in a country where relationship-building with governmental and other powerful non-governmental actors can be vitally important for the long-term viability of the business. Drawing on neo-institutional theory and CSR literature, this paper examines and contributes to the embryonic but emerging debate about the instrumental and political implications of CSR. The evidence presented and discussed here reveals the extent to which, and the reasons why, MNEs engage in complex legitimacy-seeking relationships with Sri Lankan institutions

Ethical lobbying? Explaining foreign firms’ politically-oriented CSR activities in emerging economies

No description supplie