"Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility"

Hargrave, Timothy; Smith, Jeffery

2025 "Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility"

doi: 10.1111/beer.12774

The term “stakeholder capitalism” has become part of our shared business lexicon. This is due in large part to the work of R. Edward Freeman and his collaborators who conceive of stakeholder theory not simply as an approach to ethics in business but also of a new narrative for the ethics of capitalism. We argue that stakeholder thought as it is developed in this literature remains deficient as an ethics of capitalism because it fails to fully appreciate the distinction between business firms as one institution of capitalism and capitalism as an interrelated network of institutions. Failing to appreciate this distinction thwarts any facile movement between the theory's account of the ethics of business, which is concerned with the aims that guide business management, and the ethics of capitalism, which is concerned with how various institutions should be designed as a system with an internal division of moral labor. This difference suggests a prospective way forward for stakeholder theory that focuses more attention on the responsibilities that business firms owe to support the legal and economic institutions of capitalism.

Yuan, Yiwei; Zhu, Li; Li, Qiao; Liu, Jun; Liu, Chao; Chen, Chunhua

2025 "Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility"

doi: 10.1111/beer.12778

Although considerable efforts have been made to summarize the behavioral ethics literature, a quantitative visualization is necessary to generate an overall understanding of research on unethical behavior in organizations. Using CiteSpace, this study conducts a bibliometric review and visualizes the intellectual base of the unethical workplace behavior field. Based on a dataset of 8765 unethical‐behavior‐related publications collected from the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) database from 1993 to 2023, we identify landmark studies, analyze key research themes, visualize the network of major theories, and track the evolution of research on unethical behavior in organizations via co‐citation and co‐occurrence analysis. After tracking the developmental trajectory and outlining the current state of the art, we identify potential trends in research on unethical workplace behavior and suggest some important research directions. Our bibliometric review generates a clear visualization of unethical behavior in organizations, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of this body of literature. These findings also offer valuable insights for managers seeking to address unethical behavior in their organizations and highlight implications for policymakers aiming to promote ethical workplace environments.

Nawaz, Asif; Soomro, Shuaib Ahmed; Talpur, Qurat‐ul‐ain

2025 "Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility"

doi: 10.1111/beer.12777

This study applies signaling theory to investigate how an organization's environmental actions, in the form of symbolic (Sym) and substantive (Sub) pro‐environmental behavior (PEB), impact the perceptions of organizational hypocrisy and perceived integrity of its leaders. The authors collected data from a sample of 211 employees working in various industries at three different points with a 1‐month interval and used AMOS‐SEM for data analysis. We found a positive relationship between Sym‐PEB and organizational hypocrisy, while Sub‐PEB was negatively associated with organizational hypocrisy. Findings for mediation analyses revealed that organizational hypocrisy mediated between (a) Sym‐PEB and leaders' integrity, and (b) Sub‐PEB and leaders’ integrity. We contribute to the leadership and workplace ethics literature by highlighting important paths through which organizational environmental action impacts perceptions of organizational hypocrisy and leaders' integrity. The study reveals the multifaceted nature of organizational pro‐environmental behavior and its impact on the integrity of leaders. Our study has important implications for theory and practice.

Yang, Xiaotong; Tian, Jinfang; Yan, Hao; Qin, Peng

2025 "Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility"

doi: 10.1111/beer.12775

Addressing the productivity challenge of climate technology (ClimTECH) firms and avoiding the “green trap” is crucial for decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions and achieving sustainable development. This study uses the establishment of green finance reform and innovation pilot zones as a quasi‐natural experiment and employs a difference‐in‐differences model to explore the impact of green finance policies on the total factor productivity (TFP) of ClimTECH firms and its spillover effects. The results show that (1) Green finance policies significantly increase TFP, especially in state‐owned firms, firms that actively disclose environmental information, firms led by long‐tenure CEOs, and those in regions with strong intellectual property protection. (2) The channel analysis shows that green finance policies enhance firms' TFP by easing financing constraints, encouraging green technology improvements, and improving capital allocation efficiency. (3) The spillover effect analysis shows that the TFP increase driven by green finance policies not only enhances firm value but also stimulates local green innovation and reduces regional carbon emissions. This research offers theoretical insights and policy implications for strengthening green finance frameworks and enhancing the environmental responsibility of ClimTECH firms.