Ethics and entrepreneurs (original) (raw)
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Cultural Values and International Differences in Business Ethics
Journal of Business Ethics, 2007
We analyze ethical policies of firms in industrialized countries and try to find out whether culture is a factor that plays a significant role in explaining country differences. We look into the firm's human rights policy, its governance of bribery and corruption, and the comprehensiveness, implementation and communication of its codes of ethics. We use a dataset on ethical policies of almost 2,700 firms in 24 countries. We find that there are significant differences among ethical policies of firms headquartered in different countries. When we associate these ethical policies with Hofstede's cultural indicators, we find that individualism and uncertainty avoidance are positively associated with a firm's ethical policies, whereas masculinity and power distance are negatively related to these policies.
Business ethics across cultures: A social cognitive model
Journal of World Business, 1997
This article presents a social cognitive model that identifies, defines and relates key comprehensive factors that impact on business ethical standards and conduct across cultures. In particular, national cultures serve as the social foundation for generating and shaping in a triadically interacting manner institutional, organizational, and personal factors. The model predicts that these three antecedent factors combine to influence the perceptions of business ethical standards uniquely in each culture. The model also predicts that the consequences of the resulting ethical or unethical behaviors feed back to mod@ the subsequent ethical standards and conduct. Examples and implications of this social cognitive model are provided throughout.
The value of country-level perceived ethics to entrepreneurs around the world
The European Journal of Finance, 2012
The actions behind the “Great Recession” have done a lot of damage to the ability of the average investor to trust both corporate executives and Wall Street. Given the riskiness of investing in private equity, private firms are particularly vulnerable to the risk aversion of investors. For this reason, maintaining trust may be particularly useful to private firms. Using a dataset that spans 33 countries from 1998-2004, this paper examines the impact of the perception of ethical behavior at the country level on the performance and outcome of private firms. Using two separate sources for country-level perception of ethics, this paper finds that both the performance and the outcome of the private firm are positively influenced by the level of perceived ethics in their country. The paper further finds that these benefits come without adding cost to the entrepreneurial firm (as well as its pre-issue investors) when it goes public.
The Status of Ethics in the Entrepreneurial Process
International Journal of Business and Management, 2014
Operationalising the notion of ethics, along with its applications in the field of entrepreneurship, has made possible the investigation of the influence exerted by the socio-cultural, economic, and legal environment on entrepreneurs' ethical behavior while they engage in the process of entrepreneurship. The purpose of this research is to analyze the impact of socio-cultural, economic, and legal factors on the development of business ethics. On the other hand, we analyze the influence of the development of business ethics on the entrepreneurial process. The population of the study contained 57 Tunisian young entrepreneurs in different sectors. In order to gathering the data required for measuring the study variables a questionnaire was developed. The results of the study showed that some personal traits as well as certain socio-cultural, economic, and legal factors influence their decision during the entrepreneurial process. It has been noticed that there are significant differences between the levels of development in the ethical orientation characterizing each phase of the entrepreneurial process. These differences are related to the entrepreneur's strategy, the organizational environment, and stakeholders' strategies.
Attitudes Towards Business Ethics: A Five Nation
2004
ABSTRACT. Increasingly the business environmentis tending toward a global economy. The currentstudy compares the results of the Attitudes TowardsBusiness Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) reported inthe literature for samples from the United States ofAmerica, Israel, Western Australia, and South Africato a new sample ( n = 125) from Turkey. The resultsindicate that while there are some shared viewstowards business ethics across countries, significantdifferences do exist between Turkey and each of theother countries in the study. Similarities and differ-ences are discussed in terms of the countries’ ratingson the Corruption Perceptions Index (as reported bythe Internet Center for Corruption Research) andHofstede’s Theory of International Cultures.Recommendations for managers interacting withemployees from differing countries are provided. KEY WORDS: ATBEQ, business ethics, cross-cultural 1. Introduction Increasingly the business environment is tendingtoward a global economy. With this tre...
Journal of Business Ethics, 2003
is used in a cross-cultural comparison of U.S. and Taiwanese business practitioners. Results indicate that Taiwanese practitioners exhibit lower perceptions of an ethical issue in a scenario based on bribery, as well as milder deontological evaluations and ethical judgments relative to their U.S. counterparts. In addition, Taiwan respondents showed higher likelihood of making the payment. Several of the paths between variables in the theory are confirmed in both U.S. and Taiwan samples, with summary data suggesting the Hunt and Vitell theory performs well in both U.S. and Taiwan. Some unanticipated linkages within the model were uncovered in the samples. Results and implications are discussed.
Moderator variables in cultural values and business ethics research: important to external validity
Southwest Bus Econ J, 2004
This paper examines existing models relating national cultural values to individual ethical behavior and proposes the inclusion of demographic moderator variables such as gender, age, work experience, religiosity, and immigration to increase external validity of studies based on the models. Israel is used to illustrate the potential importance of the demographic moderators in studies whose purpose is to characterize national cultural values or national ethical orientations. Moral intensity and ethical perception are also discussed as situational moderators which potentially affect the relationship between ethical intention and ethical behavior.
Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Business Ethics: Evidence from the United States and China
A number of empirical studies have examined business ethics across cultures, focusing primarily on differences in ethical profiles between cultures and groups. When managers consider whether or not to develop a business relationship with those from a different culture, their decision may be affected by actual differences in ethical profiles, but potentially even more so by their perceptions of ethicality in the counterpart culture. The latter issue has been largely ignored in extant empirical research regarding cross-cultural ethical profiles. In this study, we employ a design that allows for a more complete analysis of cross-cultural perspectives, examining both the manner in which selected cultures view themselves and the manner in which those same cultures perceive the ethical profiles of others. To this end, we surveyed master's students in business fields at several universities in the United States and China-two countries/cultures that engage in a significant amount of business transactions-and examined differences in personal ethical profiles across cultures, differences in one group's ethical profile and the way it is perceived by the other group, and differences in perceived ethical profiles across cultures; that is, differences in how groups view each other. Findings suggest meaningful discrepancies in the ethical perceptions formed toward the counterpart culture. Results support a role for ethical perceptions in future research, and further examination and inquiry into the development and adaptation of ethical perceptions in cross-cultural business dealings.
Attitudes towards business ethics: a five nation comparative study
Journal of Business Ethics, 2004
Increasingly the business environment is tending toward a global economy. The current study compares the results of the Attitudes Towards Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) reported in the literature for samples from the United States of America, Israel, Western Australia, and South Africa to a new sample (n = 125) from Turkey. The results indicate that while there are some shared views towards business ethics across countries, significant differences do exist between Turkey and each of the other countries in the study. Similarities and differences are discussed in terms of the countries' ratings on the Corruption Perceptions Index (as reported by the Internet Center for Corruption Research) and Hofstede's Theory of International Cultures. Recommendations for managers interacting with employees from differing countries are provided.
Attitudes towards business ethics: a cross-cultural comparison of students in Iran and Malaysia
International Journal of …, 2011
Study about the business ethical attitude would help to understand the specific behavioural practices of a country, resulting in minimising the cost of doing business in that country through avoiding misunderstanding and conflicts. With the rapid globalisation of companies around the world, such studies on business ethical attitude would definitely help to understand the cultural differences across nations. This knowledge will help in reducing misunderstandings, aiding negotiations, and building trust and respect. Therefore, this study seeks to continue the investigation of cross-cultural differences in attitudes towards business ethics by comparing samples from Iran and Malaysia (n1 = 120, n2 = 100).