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Purpose
Leadership has a decisive role in the success of all types of businesses and firms, including small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the ethical behavior of leaders is a key component which brings a sense of respect, fulfillment, trustworthiness and acceptance among the employees, which later become visible in their job performance (JP). This study aims to check the immediate effect of ethical leadership (EL) on employee's JP (EJP) and also explore the indirect mediating effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on this EL and EJP nexus.


Design/methodology/approach
Primary data was obtained from the employees of manufacturing SMEs of Northern Italy using a cross-sectional design from the end of 2019 to the start of 2020. This paper circulated 450 self-administered questionnaires using simple random sampling, and 202 (44.88%) valid questionnaires were returned. The PROCESS macro was performed using statistical package for social sciences to ensure whether or not EL affects EJP and is there any mediation effect of CSR present in this nexus.


Findings
The results indicate that EL has a strong positive connection with EJP and CSR. Interestingly, CSR positively influences EJP. Furthermore, the results also report the strong mediating effect of CSR in the nexus of EL and EJP.


Originality/value
This scholarly work seeks to contribute not only to the literature of EL and EJP but also enriches the understanding of this EL-EJP association by highlighting the indirect effect of mediating variable CSR in the SME sector.

PurposeA highly competitive business environment needs a creative strategy for long-term survival and a competitive advantage in an uncertain market environment. This objective induces organizations to adopt innovative workplace behavior for better performance. Accordingly, this study aims to examine the impact of spirit at work (SAW), perceived identifiability and shared responsibility on innovative work behavior (IWB) and task performance.Design/methodology/approachThe data was collected from 72 business-to-business (B2B) sales teams consisting of 561 employees working in Pakistan's B2B industries. The data was then analyzed using PROCESS macro to test the research hypotheses.FindingsThe results have shown a surprising and inconsistent finding where shared responsibility has a relatively more substantial and positive influence on IWB and task performance than perceived identifiability and SAW.Research limitations/implicationsThe shared responsibility dimension of "social loafing theory" always negatively influences work-related outcomes, but this study refutes this claim. Therefore, researchers should explore social loafing theory in cultures with a higher collectivism score on the Hofstede cultural model.Practical implicationsThis study motivates the sales manager to reassess the shared responsibility concept, as it may play a synergetic role in boosting innovation in selling approaches.Originality/valueAs per the researchers' best knowledge, research on social loafing theory has never been conducted in a selling context, specifically in a collectivistic society.

AbstractEnvironmental success can only become a reality when the financial goals of firms are not compromised. Based on this proposition, the study aimed to investigate four relationships, including the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on financial performance, mediation of green dynamic capabilities (GDCs) between CSR and green innovation (GI), mediation of GI between CSR and financial performance, and moderation of perceived environmental volatility in GI and financial performance nexus. A sample of 655 manufacturing firms was collected from Pakistan to test the proposed hypotheses, and structural equation modeling was conducted. The results demonstrate a positive significant influence of CSR on financial performance. In addition, the mediation of GDCs and GI has also been confirmed. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that high environmental volatility weakens the GI and financial performance nexus. The study results offer unique contributions to the literature and interesting suggestions for practicing emerging economy managers.