Suchergebnisse

AbstractWhile support for corporate political activity (CPA) is well echoed in the literature, little has been done to empirically examine its ethicality. Moreover, existing ethical CPA frameworks assume normative and rational leanings that are insufficient to provide a comprehensive account of CPA ethicality. Utilizing the Ghanaian context, adopting a multiple case study design involving 28 Directors from 22 firms, and employing a grounded theory approach, I explore how the ethicality of CPA is determined in weak institutional environments. The findings reveal that business executives evaluate ethics at three levels (i.e. context, organizational and strategy) using three principles (i.e. utilitarianism, justice and institutions). Leveraging this knowledge, I present an eclectic framework that bridges the long-standing gap between normative ethical prescriptions and lived ethical realities. In doing so, I move away from abstraction to give "voice" to the actors involved in CPA. I also present a model that shows how the ethical judgement process is influenced by managerial intuition and interactive personal and organizational experiences. This article has important theoretical and practical implications for ethical business-government relations in developing countries.

Corruption remains a significant barrier to the socio-economic development of Africa, despite efforts by various local, national and international stakeholders to combat it. Mishra and Maiko (2017), in their article which was published in Africa Journal of Management, suggest that business schools could serve as institutions of change by incorporating student-elder partnerships in their curricula to develop ethical business leaders who will help fight corruption. In this article, I respond to Maiko and Mishra by refining their idea to make it more feasible within the current African context. I also outline why their idea might not be effective for combating systemic corruption in Africa, and propose an alternative focused on training business students to become institutional entrepreneurs in Africa's political arenas. This article is intended to start a dialogue that will facilitate the development of novel and effective ways of using business and management education to combat corruption in Africa

In this study, we draw upon insights from agency theory to examine the impact of managerial political ties on cost of debt and also to explore whether corporate governance mediates this impact. We hypothesize that political ties reduce financial reporting quality, disclosure of non-financial information and board independence, and are therefore associated with higher interest rates. We also hypothesize that the negative effect of political ties on the cost of debt will be stronger if firms borrow from privately-owned banks versus government-owned banks. Using data from Ghana, we find support for our direct and moderation hypotheses; political ties are associated with high interest rates and poor corporate governance. However, we do not find evidence of mediation. Altogether, the findings reveal the dark side of political connections and highlight the cost of political embeddedness in emerging credit markets.

Introduction. The Nexus of Business, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development in Africa / Uwafiokun Idemudia, Francis Xavier Tuokuu, Tahiru Azaaviele Liedong -- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable Development in Africa: A Critical Overview / Uwafiokun Idemudia -- Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Rights / Raymond A. Atuguba -- Corporate Social Responsibility and Conflicts in Africa / Francois Lenfant -- Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Development in Africa: Issues and Prospects / Uwafiokun Idemudia, Francis Xavier Tuokuu, Marcellinus Essah, Emmanuel Graham -- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Taxation in Africa: The Battle for the Ethics of Tax and Responsible Governance / Adaeze Okoye -- Tackling Climate Change in Africa Through Corporate Social Responsibility / Tahiru Azaaviele Liedong, Olushola Emmanuel Ajide, Oluyomi Abayomi Osobajo -- Corporate Social Responsibility and Institutional Strengthening: A RARE Model for Anti-Corruption in Africa / Tahiru Azaaviele Liedong -- CSR and Environmental Sustainability Implementation in Mining: Perspectives from Ghana / Prince Amoah and Gabriel Eweje -- Achieving Sustainable Development Goals Through Corporate Social Responsibility / Uwem E. Ite.

AbstractThe choice of open versus closed innovation is shaped by the interplay between firms' analytical orientation and the institutional conditions within firms' operating environments. Whereas there is a plethora of research about the antecedents of innovation performance, there is a lack of understanding about the factors affecting and influencing innovation governance. Regulatory, normative, and cognitive institutional voids have differential impacts on the choice of open versus closed innovation. Firms' analytical orientation, political connections, and collaborating partners' home country institutions moderate the effect of institutional voids on innovation governance.

The extant literature argues that nonmarket strategies can establish, sustain, or enhance a firm's competitive advantage. Less clear is how and why effective nonmarket strategies influence a firm's competitiveness. Moreover, the extant literature tends to examine the two building blocks of nonmarket strategy—corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activity (CPA)—separately. In this article, we extend trust to the nonmarket environment. We analyze how CSR and CPA complement each other to create strong trust between firms and the polity, and how they consequently influence government policy. We show the mediating role of trust in policy influence, and argue that CSR and CPA should be aligned for the successful influence of salient government policy.