Scoring Firms’ Codes of Ethics: An Explorative Study of Quality Drivers

Research in the field of management has increasingly focused on strategies and tools related to corporate sustainability. Of the tools examined, codes of ethics have been found to play a primary role. Many studies have investigated the content of such codes, as well as their capacity to condition th...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Garegnani, Giovanni Maria (Author) ; Merlotti, Emilia Piera (Author) ; Russo, Angeloantonio (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2015
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2015, Volume: 126, Issue: 4, Pages: 541-557
Further subjects:B Industry
B Firm Size
B Code of ethics quality
B Scoring model
B Internationalization
B code of ethics
Online Access: Volltext (JSTOR)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Research in the field of management has increasingly focused on strategies and tools related to corporate sustainability. Of the tools examined, codes of ethics have been found to play a primary role. Many studies have investigated the content of such codes, as well as their capacity to condition the behaviour of people within organizations. However, few studies have considered the intrinsic quality of codes of ethics. This study aims to investigate the impact that specific factors—firm size, degree of internationalization and industry effect—can have on the quality of codes of ethics. Based on a sample of 248 listed Italian companies, the results of the empirical analysis show that the quality standard is particularly high in larger companies and in those firms operating in industries in which relationships established with critical stakeholders—and disclosure to those stakeholders—play a crucial role. These results have interesting implications for both researchers and practitioners.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1968-8