Tanusree Jain

Having a Code of Ethics (COE) has become a common practice within large companies since the 1980s. A COE serves multiple functions for organizations: as an internal control mechanism to guide employees during ethical dilemmas, a benchmark for fostering ethical corporate culture, and as a communication tool to signal organizational commitment to stakeholders. Four major theoretical frameworks underpin the extant academic scholarship on COEs. In particular, organizational justice and stakeholder theories highlight the role of individuals in adopting and shaping a COE, and the institutional theory emphasizes the influence of the exogenous environment on the convergence and/or divergence of COEs across firms and contexts. Integrative social contracts theory captures the significance of both individuals and the institutional environment and views COEs as a contractual obligation that guides managers and employees to manage contradictions between local and global norms. Within these theor...

To commemorate 40 years since the founding of the Journal of Business Ethics, the editors in chief of the journal have invited the editors to provide commentaries on the future of business ethics. This essay comprises a selection of commentaries aimed at creating dialogue around the theme Ethics at the centre of global and local challenges. For much of the history of the Journal of Business Ethics, ethics was seen within the academy as a peripheral aspect of business. However, in recent years, the stakes have risen dramatically, with global and local worlds destabilized by financial crisis, climate change, internet technologies and artificial intelligence, and global health crises. The authors of these commentaries address these grand challenges by placing business ethics at their centre. What if all grand challenges were framed as grand ethical challenges? Tanusree Jain, Arno Kourula and Suhaib Riaz posit that an ethical lens allows for a humble response, in which those with greate...

El proposit de l'empresa ha estat motiu d'extenses deliberacions academiques en relacio amb l'orientacio de l'empresa cap als seus grups d'interes interns i externs. Els creixents desafiaments socials i mediambientals requereixen que l'empresa adopti un enfocament mes ampli incloent diferents grups d'interes (stakeholders) en els seus comportaments i practiques. No obstant aixo, la majoria de les grans empreses sovint queden lluny d'aconseguir aquest objectiu. Encara que l’ investigacio sobre la orientacio corporativa cap als stakeholders ha rebut considerable atencio academica, sabem molt menys sobre les raons per les quals les empreses adopten orientacions especifiques i si s'ha abordat, tendeix a ser de manera mes aviat fragmentada. El concepte de l'orientacio corporativa cap als stakeholders no s'ha desenvolupat teoricament i el seu analisi empiric es complex perque sovint les propies empreses manipulen l'orientacio i generen una d...

Abstract This systematic literature review integrates the Varieties of Institutional Systems (VIS) framework and Patchwork Institutions lens to unpack how institutional heterogeneity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) impacts the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Our review of 154 articles published between 1995–2017 extracts the variegated nature of institutions in MENA countries and sheds light on how country-specific institutional forces affect CSR. Doing so, we take the first step to move away from a monolithic understanding of the institutional effects on CSR in MENA, acknowledging the role that collective actors play in shaping the institutional realities affecting CSR.

Manuscript Type Review Research Question/Issue This study provides a systematic multi-level review of recent literature to evaluate the impact of corporate governance mechanisms (CG) at the institutional, firm, group, and individual levels on firm level corporate social responsibility (CSR) outcomes. We offer critical reflections on the current state of this literature and provide concrete suggestions to guide future research. Research Findings/Insights Focusing on peer-reviewed articles from 2000 to 2015, the review compiles the evidence on offer pertaining to the most relevant CG mechanisms and their influence on CSR outcomes. At the institutional level, we focus on formal and informal institutional mechanisms, and at the firm level, we analyze the different types of firm owners. At the group level, we segregate our analysis into board structures, director social capital and resource networks, and directors' demographic diversity. At the individual level, our review covers CEOs' demography and socio-psychological characteristics. We map the effect of these mechanisms on firms' CSR outcomes. Theoretical/Academic Implications We recommend that greater scholarly attention needs to be accorded to disaggregating variables and yet comprehending how multiple configurations of CG mechanisms interact and combine to impact firms' CSR behavior. We suggest that CG-CSR research should employ a multi-theoretical lens and apply sophisticated qualitative and quantitative methods to enable a deeper and finer-grained analysis of the CG systems and their influence on CSR. Finally, we call for cross-cultural research to capture the context sensitivities typical of both CG and CSR constructs. Practitioner/Policy Implications Our review suggests that for structural changes and reforms within firms to be successful, they need to be complemented by changes to the institutional makeup of the context in which firms function to encourage/induce substantive changes in corporate responsible behaviors.

This study examines the variations in corporate social orientations (CSOs) across developed and developing countries in the context of a legitimacy threat. Conceptualizing CSO as signals, the author develops and validates a seven-code index of CSO that identifies executive orientations toward multiple stakeholders. Using this index on CEO shareholder letters from the United States, Germany, and India, the author finds that firms signal a multi-stakeholder image toward employees, communities, and environment during good times to enhance their social license to operate, and yet such signals are not carried through during the threat period. This disconnect in signaling in the wake of a legitimacy threat is indicative of decoupling in corporate orientations and exposes the multi-dimensionality of the CSO concept. By adding a cross-national and temporal dimension, this research contributes toward better understanding the complexity behind CSOs and opens new areas for future research.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) , historically, has been referred to as voluntary responsibility of corporations. However, the recent move of making it mandatory in some countries raises some important questions about the way forward for CSR. At the same time, theorists present a bi-polar vision for the future of CSR ranging from it being completely replaced by a new idea to CSR becoming the basis for expanding the development role of corporations. We have also witnessed an inadequate response of corporations towards becoming partners in community development. In this paper, we discuss the CSR controversy by means of a comprehensive literature review. We establish that it is in fact the lack of incentive to invest in CSR that has been creating roadblocks in the way forward. We propose ways of creating such an incentive which is the key for continuance of CSR activities. Further, we prove that businesses cannot afford to shun community development initiatives due to their inher...

The fields of Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have attracted increasing scholarly interest and yet the nature of their relationship remains contested. These two areas of knowledge and practice are closely inter-related, particularly as firms seek to gain long-term sustainability. Corporate governance and CSR interface gains traction particularly in the context of multinational and transnational corporations, which by their very nature function in multiple countries and face differentiated pressures to adopt particular governance structures, stakeholder responsibilities, and disclosure requirements in relation to these two ascending trends. In this session, we propose to open governance by exploring and incorporating the long term-sustainability agenda integral to CSR. Specifically, by concentrating on the inter-linkages of Corporate Governance and CSR this panel will explore the role of business leaders and corporate boards in steering the CSR and sustainability in businesses.

Despite ample research on corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR), there is a lack of consensus on the nature of the relationship between these two concepts and on how this relationship manifests across institutional contexts. Drawing on the national business systems approach, this article systematically reviews 218 research articles published over a 27-year period to map how CG–CSR research has evolved and progressed theoretically and methodologically across different institutional contexts. To shed light on the full gamut of the CG–CSR relationship, we categorize and explore the nature of this relationship along two strands: (a) CSR as a function of CG and (b) CG as a function of CSR. Through this review, we identify key themes where CG–CSR research has lagged and account for under-explored contexts in this domain. Finally, we put forth a comprehensive agenda for progressing future research in the field.

Numerous high-profile ethics scandals, rising inequality, and the detrimental effects of climate change dramatically underscore the need for business schools to instill a commitment to social purpose in their students. At the same time, the rising financial burden of education, increasing competition in the education space, and overreliance on graduates’ financial success as the accepted metric of quality have reinforced an instrumentalist climate. These conflicting aims between social and financial purpose have created an existential crisis for business education. To resolve this impasse, we draw on the concept of moral self-awareness to offer a system-theoretical strategy for crowding-in a culture of ethics within business schools. We argue that to do so, business schools will need to (1) reframe the purpose of business, (2) reframe the meaning of professional success, and (3) reframe the ethos of business education itself.

The uncertainty created by COVID-19 requires agile adaptations from both employees and employers. The Covid-19 pandemic has organisations grappling with the future of back to work. As they do so, they need to embrace new thinking to answer the many questions posed by the new normal. We enumerate the questions that organisations need to address. We propose that hybrid systems thinking entails an approach by which organisations can help to successfully manage the radically transforming world of work.

The true test of leadership comes during times of crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic has led business organizations into uncharted territory. Navigating this crisis has created new challenges for corporate leadership - solutions to which do not readily exist in the current toolkit of leadership focused at the C-suite. We present the essentials of what good leadership entails in today’s troubled times and provide solutions to managers at middle levels and below in organizations.