Society for Business Ethics 2024 Annual Meeting

Paper Abstracts: Session 3

Session 3A: Hybrid Session 1

• Toward Reconciliation: A Virtue Stakeholder Response To Declining Normativity In Business Ethical And Sustainability Scholarship
  • Normativity within business ethics research, specifically within the context of grand challenges such as sustainable development, seems to be diminishing in favour of empirically focused research. This decline of normativity is problematic given the significant and complex ethical dilemmas raised in relation to challenges like sustainable development. This conceptual article examines the suggestion that prevailing management theories typically applied in sustainability-related research may, in some ways, contribute to the matter of diminishing normativity owing to a lack of robust normative foundations. We argue that utilising a traditional management theory, stakeholder theory, in conjunction with a traditional ethical theory, virtue ethics, can provide business ethics scholars with a stronger theoretical basis to address the critical normative implications stemming from business ethics and sustainability-related research. Moreover, such a dual-theoretical approach may foster a dialog between normative and descriptive considerations. The article extends scholarly knowledge by providing a comprehensive analysis of the use of these theories as a dual-theoretical lens, by explaining the normative explanatory power gained through utilising a virtue stakeholder approach, and by developing understanding of how such an approach can be used to address the decline of normativity in business ethical and sustainability-related research.
• Measuring The Social Involvement Of Credit Institutions
  • This paper analyses the limitations and challenges of measuring the social involvement of financial institutions. We discuss the concept of social banking in the framework of the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the subsequent calls for the banking sector to assume responsibility that led financial institutions to adopt social and sustainable practices. We propose the use of cluster and machine learning methodologies to analyse the social characterisation of their banking practices, using a representative sample of the Spanish banking system between 2005 and 2020. The main contribution of our research is the development of a dynamic characterisation to define and measure the social commitment of credit institutions.
• Is It All Sunshine And Roses? The Surprising Dark Side Of Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility Influencing Employees’ Work Behavior
  • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is on everyone’s lips. No other organizational behavior influences the subsequent behavior of employees as much as their perception of CSR. In general, employee perceptions of CSR promote positive and minimize negative behaviors and attitudes. However, the controversial downsides of CSR are rarely considered. We investigate whether mere CSR perceptions not only prevent but also promote counterproductive work behavior (CWB) by employees. The analysis of survey data from 1,090 employees in over 400 companies in Germany supports the established view that CSR reduces CWB, partly mediated by organizational identification. However, by applying moral licensing theory, we introduce the construct of moral credits as an opposing mediator and show that employee perceptions of CSR can in fact promote CWB. Furthermore, we distinguish between internal and external CSR. Finally, we demonstrate that task importance, substantive CSR attributions, and symbolic CSR attributions as moderators enhance the mediation effect of moral credits and, thus, further strengthen negative employee behavior. As one of the first studies with an integrative approach that shows the good and the dark sides of CSR perceptions side by side, we make three important theoretical contributions to the micro-CSR literature. First, we uncover a new dark side of CSR perceptions by being one of the first studies to apply the mechanism of moral licensing to employees’ CSR perceptions. Second, we empirically confirm the multifaceted nature of CSR by distinguishing between internal and external CSR. Third, we contribute to the under-researched moderators of employee perceptions of CSR.

Session 3B: Meta, Rawls, and Constitutional Stakeholder Governance

• Is Meta’s Oversight Board More Church Than State? Canon Law As A Normative Model For Platform Governance
  • In perhaps the most high-profile experiment in platform governance, Meta (née Facebook) established the Oversight Board (OSB) as a quasi-judicial body, with its own corporate charter and trust, charged with the power to adjudicate appeals regarding Meta’s content moderation decisions. Noting the similarities between the corporate power of Meta and the political power of states, many thinkers turn to the model of constitutional law as a way of appraising this scheme. But is constitutionalism the proper analogy to use for corporations like Meta? In this paper, we suggest an alternative. Instead of analogizing corporations like Meta to constitutional states, we argue that Meta’s governance—and the OSB’s legitimacy—is better understood as a part of a growing pluralistic order using a legal logic best analogized to canon law, the centuries-old legal system governing the Catholic Church and its offshoots. Canon law differs from state or constitutional law because it neither has nor aspires to national or popular sovereignty. The Church, like Meta, is a non-territorial organization with global reach. As with Meta, membership in the Church is voluntary. Importantly, however, this “voluntary” membership is complicated by characteristics—like network effects and affective attachments—that make membership ‘thicker’ and exit more socially difficult, notwithstanding one’s formal ability to leave. Because of these similarities, we argue, canon law offers a more realistic perspective on the legitimacy of Meta and the OSB, and their appropriate role in public life.
• The Corporate Governance Of A Responsible Firm: Institutionalist And Agent-Centered Perspectives
  • This article reviews the debates surrounding the critical potential of Rawlsian conception of justice for corporate governance, and the ways in which this potential has been exploited over the last twenty years. It highlights two Rawlsian-inspired approaches to the question of governance, one institutionalist, the other centred on the idea of the firm as an agent with obligations of justice. In each case, it identifies the elements of continuity and those critical of Rawls’s conception of justice. Importantly, these two approaches seem to lead to different practical recommendations for corporate governance. The institutionalist approach would favour employee participation in governance bodies. The approach that views the firm as an agent with obligations of justice would be more in favour of introducing some form of public reason into the firm, for example, by integrating independent external members into a new supervisory board. The article presents these options and whether they might be articulated, issues that are at the heart of contemporary debates on corporate governance.
• The Necessity Of Constitution: Authority, Rules, & Stakeholder Corporate Governance
  • I argue that the dominant property rights approach to stakeholder corporate governance is challenged by normative and descriptive issues, and I therefore articulate an alternative understanding of stakeholder corporate governance rooted in the idea of a constitution. I argue that corporate constitutions are required to legitimate the authority which canonically differentiates the firm from markets, and also that the emergence of firm corporate governance, in terms of both incentives and process, descriptively resembles constitutional choice rather than contractual choice. I therefore argue that much of ethics of corporate governance must consist in laying out the requirements of corporate constitutional design. I propose that the formally codified designation of claimants on the firm (of ‘normative stakeholders’) is one such prescription that most existing firms fail to fulfill.

Session 3C: Corporate Purpose, A Commune Corporation, And Humanitarian CSR

• A Trend Or A Fad? An Outlook On The Future Of Corporate Purpose
• Vulnerable Solo Mothers And Their Children: A Mommune Corporate Partnership Model Employing Transformational Leadership
  • Solo mothers and their children are a population that appears consistently in vulnerability assessments (Carrazana, 2021). PEW Research Center identifies that in the U.S., 23% of children 18 years old and younger live in single-parent households. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 8.5 million (80%) of those single parent households are solo mothers and their children who together comprise 90% of welfare recipients (Ahlberg, n.d.). Nearly one-third live under the U.S. poverty level and 60% of the mothers report domestic abuse (Caragata et al., 2021; Truu, 2022).
    In this conceptual analysis, we first consider the potential of solo mothers self-organizing to improve the quality of life for their children and themselves. Then, we suggest a mommune corporate model to aid solo mother households in achieving equality. For this novel pairing, we then propose a restorative transformational leadership model grounded in shared values and ethical decision-making.
    The critical questions we explore are, “How might commoning provide a self-organizing social structure for solo mother households that restores their dignity and promotes well-being leading them to a more equitable place in society?” Secondly, in the context of corporate social responsibility and social citizenship theory, “How might solo mother households and corporations benefit from this cooperative relationship?”
    Several social commons in the U.S. and other countries have been shown to transform lives. That is, indeed, the ultimate goal sought for one of the most vulnerable groups among us.
• CSR As Business’ Primary Motivation In Humanitarian Action Engagement: Inappropriate At Best, Harmful At Worst
  • It is widely held that businesses are required to deliver goods and services beyond profitable management of business activities. In view of the pervasive disasters and crises in recent years, based on Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR), this line of reasoning goes as far as encouraging the private sector to engage in humanitarian action. In this article, I aim to normatively develop and defend the following view: a set of principles of corporate humanitarianism (CH Principles) delineating corporate humanitarian responsibility (CHR) is fundamental and necessary for firms intending to intervene in extreme emergencies, either through direct intervention or through partnering with relevant humanitarian actors. The twofold aim is this: first, to examine key theories of CSR and demonstrate their inadequacy in protecting the rights of the affected population in crises; second, to develop and establish the necessity of CH Principles defining CHR to be upheld by firms engaging in humanitarian action. To this end, this article makes novel contributions to debates in CSR studies by revealing its deficiency in addressing needs arising in extreme emergencies and adds value to the existing literature on humanitarian emergencies and disasters by highlighting the underlying harm business engagement can inflict on those they intend to serve if without principled intervention dictated by humanitarianism.

Session 3D: Emerging Scholars

• AI-Induced Discrimination — Trusting And Following Harmful AI Advice
• The Missed Human Factor In Counterfactual Explainable AI – An Experimental Exploration Of The Shortcomings Of CFXAI As A Solution To Black Box Transparency
• Algorithmic Versus Human Ethics Agent And Its Influence On Employee Dishonesty: An Experimental Online Study
• Algorithms, Corporations And Self-Respect

Session 3E: Organizational Anthropomorphism, Purpose, And ESG

• Is My Organization “Good” Or “Bad”? An Examination Of Ethical Organizational Anthropomorphism
  • Organizational anthropomorphism increases organizational resilience by strengthening relations with employees and promoting stronger organizational identification. Organizational anthropomorphism thus offers a valuable lens to understanding how organizations develop and maintain their identities in the face of change, automation, and lack of meaning. Yet, organizational anthropomorphism can be misleading due to its visceral nature and its association with biased forms of identification. We define ethical organizational anthropomorphism (“ethical OA”) and explore its “believability” by drawing from research on organizational legitimacy, organizational virtuousness, organizational overidentification (Caprar et al.. 2022)), and the organizational identity orientation. We adopt a contingency lens by examining the believability of organizational anthropomorphism along the instability – stability continuum of market competition and the three organizational identity types. This enables researchers to better interpret how organizational anthropomorphism helps shape organizational identities in the face of external and internal change.
• The Life And The Quality Of Corporate Purpose: Critical Commentary On A Thick Construct
  • We review the state of the art in management scholarship on corporate purpose, relying on a 2023 Special Issue on corporate purpose in Strategy Science, and find a division between scholars who conceive of corporate purpose as a thick construct involving facts and values and scholars who align with the New Stakeholder Theory movement and limit their theorizing to description. Building upon the Harvard Business Policy tradition that catapulted strategy into the capstone course of business schools everywhere, we argue in favor of a thick construct of fact and value, operationalizing a two-dimensional corporate purpose construct that distinguishes between the life of purpose and the quality of purpose. Based on this conceptualization, we offer recommendations to management scholars studying corporate purpose empirically.
• Board Directors’ Perceptions Of ESG Factors As Sustainability: An Evaluation Framework
  • Board director perceptions of sustainability are essential to their decision-making. Each director engages with other board members and executives in and out of board meetings, for agenda items or being immersed in private and group discussions. A director’s perception of sustainability priorities can bring about high-quality board consensus and facilitate organizational decision-making for optimal performative outcomes. Businesses’ and service organizations’ accountabilities are increasingly critical to ensuring collaborative investments and equitable transition toward achieving environmental and social sustainability. Yet each board and organizational context is unique. This study captures insights from 24 one-to-one interviews with board directors about their understanding of ESG (environmental, social, governance) as sustainability. Interpretive thematic analysis is used to analyze 516 themes and develop an evaluation framework of board director perceptions of sustainability with five characteristics at individual, board, and stakeholder levels. This novel framework is a step toward filling the gap for board evaluations to more formally incorporating sustainability accountabilities. The findings offer propositions for better aligning directors’ perceptions toward a shared understanding of ESG as sustainability. In conclusion, directors do have very different perspectives of ESG as sustainability priorities in their organizations and there remain opportunities for achieving multi-level integrated holistic understanding and accountability.

Session 3F: CSR And Stakeholder Engagement In Brazil, China And Japan

• Driving Forces On Stakeholder Engagement In State-Owned Enterprises: Evidence From A Party-Sate-Led Country
  • Solving social challenges requires active engagement with stakeholders, and thus, building trust-based collaborative relationships is becoming increasingly vital for a company. Diverse organization types have drawn the attention of several academics and practitioners over the last 20 years. This paper focuses on state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Since the 20th century, SOEs have been present in key industrial sectors of the economy worldwide, especially in developing countries; however, the stakeholder engagement literature on this enterprise type still needs to be developed. We aim to investigate a theoretical issue in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and stakeholder engagement fields, that is, SOEs’ engagement mechanisms with external stakeholders in their CSR practices. This study used a sample set of 21 companies in China (including 11 SOEs and 10 non-SOEs), analyzed with a grounded theory approach. Remarkably, we explore the SOE sector in a party-state-led market, as most scholars have emphasized the significance of exploring the context-dependence of CSR and call for attention to specific institutional constellations and unique national configurations.
• Conforming For Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) In Japan: Understanding CSR In Japan From A Cultural Perspective
  • This article explores the interplay between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Japanese culture, challenging the prevailing trend of applying Western-centric theories in non-Western contexts. Existing cross-cultural studies often rely on quantitative methods and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, while research in Japan predominantly leans towards institutional and stakeholder theories. In response, we adopt qualitative methods, drawing on traditional Japanese history, philosophy, and thought to unveil the nuanced role of conformity (yoko-narabi) in shaping CSR practices. Leveraging 36 interviewees, including corporate executives, consultants, specialists, and academics in Japan, our findings reveal the profound influence of Japanese cultural elements, such as the adages “following suit/lead” (migini narae) and “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down” (deru kui wa utareru). Our study contributes by offering culturally grounded explanations for the drivers of CSR in Japan, extending beyond propositions of internationalization pressures and in-group-out-group distinctions, as portrayed in much of the literature. Emphasizing the non-Western aspect, we argue for a more context-specific analysis of CSR that deepens understanding in diverse cultural contexts. Such an analysis could also encourage local culturally-infused versions of sustainable business practices.
• Governance Relations Between The State, Social Movements, And Corporations For The Implementation Of Public And Corporate Policies: The Reverse Logistics Of Packaging In Brazil
  • The paper aims to understand the processes of construction and the development of governance arrangements for the implementation of public policies (Hill & Hupe, 2002; Howlett, 2019), considering the assumption of a mutual constitution (Skocpol, 1992) between the State, social movements, and corporations. The contribution of institutional fits to the institutionalization of governance arrangements for policy implementation is the theoretical gap that will be investigated. Brazilian literature has highlighted social movements as non-State actors in implementation processes (Carlos et al., 2021; Penna, 2018; Schmitt & Silva, 2016). Social movements build institutional fits in the State (Skocpol, 1992), establishing points of access characterized by greater perpetuity (Gurza Lavalle et al., 2019). Such as social movements exert greater influence on public policies, we argue that they can also influence corporate policies from these same institutional fits, building, thus, new relationships and governance arrangements. We also argue that there are also mutually constitutive relationships between corporations, social movements, and the State in the same public policy process, which will influence the formulation of public and corporate policies. The case study is adopted as a qualitative methodology (MYERS, 2013) and data analysis is based on a priori and emergent codes (CRESWELL, 2007). The empirical object is the structuring of reverse logistics service of packaging carried out by cooperatives of waste-pickers, with financial support from corporations, as established by the Brazilian National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS, in the Portuguese acronym) (Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos, 2010) and the Sectoral Agreement of Packaging (Acordo Setorial, 2015).