A perspective on the influence of national corporate governance institutions and government's political ideology on the speed to lockdown as a means of protection against Covid-19

This first wave study of the Covid-19 pandemic investigates why the governments of different countries proceeded to lockdown at different speeds. We draw upon the literature on Corporate Governance Institutions (CGIs) to theorize that governments’ decision-making is undertaken in the light of prevai...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Chow, Dawn Yi Lin (Author) ; Petrou, Andreas (Author) ; Procopiou, Andreas (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 2023
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2023, Volume: 185, Issue: 3, Pages: 611-628
Further subjects:B Covid-19
B Aufsatz in Zeitschrift
B Pandemic response
B National CGIs
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This first wave study of the Covid-19 pandemic investigates why the governments of different countries proceeded to lockdown at different speeds. We draw upon the literature on Corporate Governance Institutions (CGIs) to theorize that governments’ decision-making is undertaken in the light of prevailing beliefs, norms, and rules of the collectivity, as portrayed by the focal country’s CGIs, in their effort to maintain legitimacy. In addition, drawing on motivated cognition we posit that the government’s political ideology moderates this relationship because decision-makers are biased when assessing the impact of lockdown on commerce. Running negative binomial regressions on a sample of 125 countries, we find that the more shareholder-oriented the CGIs, the slower the governmental response in shutting down the economy to protect from the pandemic. Moreover, the main relationship is stronger the more right-leaning the government’s ideology. Our study contributes to the research on corporate governance institutions and political ideology and illustrates how societal and ideological biases affect government decision-making, especially when important decisions about public welfare are taken with little information on hand.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05216-9