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Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics

Singapore Management University

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Full-Text Articles in Business

Environmental, Social, And Governance (Esg) And Artificial Intelligence In Finance: State-Of-The-Art And Research Takeaways, Trstan Lim Apr 2024

Environmental, Social, And Governance (Esg) And Artificial Intelligence In Finance: State-Of-The-Art And Research Takeaways, Trstan Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The rapidly growing research landscape in finance, encompassing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics and associated Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, presents challenges for both new researchers and seasoned practitioners. This study aims to systematically map the research area, identify knowledge gaps, and examine potential research areas for researchers and practitioners. The investigation focuses on three primary research questions: the main research themes concerning ESG and AI in finance, the evolution of research intensity and interest in these areas, and the application and evolution of AI techniques specifically in research studies within the ESG and AI in finance domain. Eight archetypical …


Investing In Climate: A Role For 'Sovereign Climate Funds', Marianna Kozintseva, Thierry Wizman Mar 2024

Investing In Climate: A Role For 'Sovereign Climate Funds', Marianna Kozintseva, Thierry Wizman

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

Efforts to address climate change have generally been focused on deploying mitigation technologies. However, it is adaptation technologies (and climate risk transfer) that will have to gain an increasing share of an investment pool dedicated to climate if human systems are to stay resilient to climate forces. Just like mitigation projects, adaptation projects have a strong public goods aspect, wherein public returns exceed private returns, and thus call for the state’s involvement. We argue that sovereign climate funds (SCFs) - new types of sovereign wealth funds with a climate investment mandate - can be critical purpose-built conduits especially for undertaking …


Analyzing Global Utilization And Missed Opportunities In Debt-For-Nature Swaps With Generative Ai, Nataliya Tkachenko, Simon Frieder, Ryan-Rhys Griffiths, Christoph Nedopil Feb 2024

Analyzing Global Utilization And Missed Opportunities In Debt-For-Nature Swaps With Generative Ai, Nataliya Tkachenko, Simon Frieder, Ryan-Rhys Griffiths, Christoph Nedopil

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

We deploy a prompt-augmented GPT-4 model to distill comprehensive datasets on the global application of debt-for-nature swaps (DNS), a pivotal financial tool for environmental conservation. Our analysis includes 195 nations and identifies 21 countries that have not yet used DNS before as prime candidates for DNS. A significant proportion demonstrates consistent commitments to conservation finance (0.86 accuracy as compared to historical swaps records). Conversely, 35 countries previously active in DNS before 2010 have since been identified as unsuitable. Notably, Argentina, grappling with soaring inflation and a substantial sovereign debt crisis, and Poland, which has achieved economic stability and gained access …


Promoting Esg Investing By Trustees: Risk Management And Structuring Solutions, Vincent Ooi, Alvin W. L. See Jan 2024

Promoting Esg Investing By Trustees: Risk Management And Structuring Solutions, Vincent Ooi, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The world is falling behind on its commitments to tackle some of the most pressing problems of this century: climate change, inequality, and other obstacles to building a sustainable future. In 2015, all Member States of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which set out 17 Sustainable Development Goals (‘UNSDG’) and 169 targets spanning the spectrum of environmental, social and economic dimensions of development. At the mid-point to 2030, the UN Secretary-General reported that of the roughly 140 targets for which data is available, about 12 per cent are on track; more than half are moderately …


Climate Change Concerns And Mortgage Lending, Tinghua Duan, Frank Weikai Li Jan 2024

Climate Change Concerns And Mortgage Lending, Tinghua Duan, Frank Weikai Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine whether beliefs about climate change affect loan officers’ mortgage lending decisions. We show that abnormally high local temperature leads to elevated attention to and belief in climate change in a region. Loan officers approve fewer mortgage applications and originate lower amounts of loans in abnormally warm weather. This effect is stronger among counties heavily exposed to the risk of sea-level rise, during periods of heightened public attention to climate change, and for loans originated by small lenders. Additional tests suggest that the negative relation between temperature and approval rate is not fully explained by changes in local economic …


Leviathan Inc. And Corporate Environmental Engagement, Po-Hsuan Hsu, Hao Liang, Pedro Matos Dec 2023

Leviathan Inc. And Corporate Environmental Engagement, Po-Hsuan Hsu, Hao Liang, Pedro Matos

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In a 2010 special report, The Economist magazine termed the resurgence of state-owned, publicly listed enterprises “Leviathan Inc.” and criticized the poor governance and low efficiency of these firms. We compile a new comprehensive data set of state ownership of publicly listed firms in 44 countries over the period of 2004–2017 and show that state-owned enterprises are more responsive to environmental issues. The effect is more pronounced in economies lacking energy security and strong environmental regulation, and among firms with more local operations and higher domestic government ownership. We find a similar effect on corporate social engagement but not on …


Sustainability Transformation: The Role Of Accountancy And Finance Professionals In The Singapore Manufacturing Sector, Jiwei Wang, Holly I. Yang, Liandong Zhang, Sanli Pinar Darendeli, Ying-Chi Huang Nov 2023

Sustainability Transformation: The Role Of Accountancy And Finance Professionals In The Singapore Manufacturing Sector, Jiwei Wang, Holly I. Yang, Liandong Zhang, Sanli Pinar Darendeli, Ying-Chi Huang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Sustainability is already reshaping the Singapore manufacturing sector. The majority of companies surveyed (70%) have started their sustainability transformation in one form or another, and many have initiated discussions. However, on the whole, only 37% of companies have implemented sustainability initiatives, and 21% have reported on sustainability. On the bright side, these percentages are slated to double within 1-3 years. The infusion of sustainability into the manufacturing sector has led to accountancy and finance professionals potentially playing a bigger role in their organisations, particularly in aligning the sustainability objectives with business strategies. The study notes that manufacturing companies are mostly …


Rule Violation And Time-To-Enforcement In Weak Institutional Environments: A Good Faith Perspective, Jun Xia, Yusi Jiang, Heli Wang, Yuan Li Nov 2023

Rule Violation And Time-To-Enforcement In Weak Institutional Environments: A Good Faith Perspective, Jun Xia, Yusi Jiang, Heli Wang, Yuan Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Previous studies on corporate misconduct have focused mainly on preventing misconduct or remedying it after detection, but it remains unclear how misconduct can be effectively detected in the first place once it occurs. We apply the good faith perspective in the context of China, which represents a weak institutional environment, and argue that the ability of culpable leaders to conceal information may delay misconduct disclosure because such ability helps maintain the good faith of regulators. Moreover, we argue that because the regulators have faith in professionals (external auditors, institutional investors, and securities analysts) whose skills are in fact often underdeveloped …


Mitigating Industry Contagion Effects From Financial Reporting Fraud: A Competitive Dynamics Perspective Of Non-Errant Rival Firms Exploiting Product-Market Opportunities, Eugene Kang, Nongnapat Thosuwanchot, David Gomulya Nov 2023

Mitigating Industry Contagion Effects From Financial Reporting Fraud: A Competitive Dynamics Perspective Of Non-Errant Rival Firms Exploiting Product-Market Opportunities, Eugene Kang, Nongnapat Thosuwanchot, David Gomulya

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Existing studies show that financial reporting frauds by errant firms cause declines in stock market valuations for non-errant rival firms (i.e. industry contagion effects). We posit that contagion effects may be mitigated by investors’ expectations of non-errant rivals exploiting product-market opportunities at the expense of errant firms. We apply the competitive dynamics literature to argue that non-errant rivals experience lower contagion effects when they have more available slack to engage in competitive actions. This effect is expected to strengthen when rival firms have previously deployed more resources for research and development and advertising investments or have higher prior market share …


Commentary: Black Or White? Wrong Or Right? Don't Rush To Take Sides On Complex Issues Such As Israel-Hamas Conflict, Siow-Heng Ong, Benjamin Joshua Ong Oct 2023

Commentary: Black Or White? Wrong Or Right? Don't Rush To Take Sides On Complex Issues Such As Israel-Hamas Conflict, Siow-Heng Ong, Benjamin Joshua Ong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While responses to the Israel-Hamas conflict have been bitterly divided, they showcase a common phenomenon of people viewing complex situations in black-and-white terms. But how did we get here?


In Customer Service, When Is A Full Refund Justified?, Hannah H. Chang Oct 2023

In Customer Service, When Is A Full Refund Justified?, Hannah H. Chang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Marketing Hannah Chang discussed the challenges in achieving balance between making genuine amends for the specific incident and strategic reputation management when customers complain. She also noted the challenges in balancing between offering genuine redress and not setting precedents that encourage unreasonable demands. Assoc Prof Chang also shared how companies can take preventive measures by setting clear policies for refunds or compensation, and monitoring online sentiment to stay ahead of brewing issues, thus allowing businesses to address concerns in real time.


The Race To Regeneration: A New Era For Business And Planet, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx, Ryan Knowles Merrill Aug 2023

The Race To Regeneration: A New Era For Business And Planet, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx, Ryan Knowles Merrill

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In an era where the urgency to address environmental and social challenges is paramount, traditional sustainability efforts are no longer enough. Unlike legacy sustainability strategies that revolve around measuring and reducing carbon footprints, regenerative sustainability widens its lens to encompass all facets of our planet’s well-being and focuses on creating positive impact.


When Do Corporate Good Deeds Become A Burden? The Role Of Corporate Social Responsibility Following Negative Events, Changhyun Kim, Yoonseok Zang, Heli Wang, Kate Niu Aug 2023

When Do Corporate Good Deeds Become A Burden? The Role Of Corporate Social Responsibility Following Negative Events, Changhyun Kim, Yoonseok Zang, Heli Wang, Kate Niu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates the differential roles of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of negative events. By categorizing CSR and negative events by their respective stakeholder groups, primary and secondary stakeholders, we theorize and test differential impacts of CSR and their interaction effects with different types of negative events. We propose that, while CSR toward secondary stakeholders offers the monotonous risk-tempering effect, CSR toward primary stakeholders has heterogeneous effects when facing negative events. Specifically, the effect of CSR toward primary stakeholders varies with the type of negative events. When negative events are associated with secondary stakeholders in the domain …


The Effect Of Nationalism On Governance Choices In Cross-Border Collaborations, Gokhan Ertug, Ilya R. P. Cuypers, Douglas Dow, Jesper Edman Aug 2023

The Effect Of Nationalism On Governance Choices In Cross-Border Collaborations, Gokhan Ertug, Ilya R. P. Cuypers, Douglas Dow, Jesper Edman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine how nationalism influences governance choice in cross-border collaborations. While nationalism has historically been within the purview of political scientists, we demonstrate its relevance to management scholars by theorizing how nationalist attitudes and behaviors among decision-makers might shape strategic decisions about collaborations with foreign partners. Drawing on insights from the social psychology literature, we theorize how two attitudes commonly associated with nationalism, i.e., lower levels of trust and an unwillingness to work with foreigners, may increase decision-makers’ concerns about opportunistic behavior and invasiveness in cross-border collaborations. Integrating these insights into two key theories of governance choice, i.e., transaction cost …


Why Employees Accept Lower Pay At Mission-Oriented Companies, Insiya Hussain, Marko Pitesa, Stefan Thau, Michael Schaerer Jul 2023

Why Employees Accept Lower Pay At Mission-Oriented Companies, Insiya Hussain, Marko Pitesa, Stefan Thau, Michael Schaerer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Today’s companies are likely to tout how their work benefits human welfare or “makes the world a better place.” Recent research suggests that this may come with a potential financial drawback for workers, as it can inhibit them from negotiating for higher pay. Over five studies, job candidates consistently reported that they worried asking for higher pay from these companies would be seen as greedy or inappropriate. This suggests they are aware of a common bias, known as motivation purity bias, where managers believe employees interested in material rewards of work (such as pay) are less motivated than those motivated …


Board Governance Of Strategic Change: An Assessment Of The Literature And Avenues For Future Research, Patricia Klamer, Qiwen Yu, Toru Yoshikawa, Michael Hitt Jul 2023

Board Governance Of Strategic Change: An Assessment Of The Literature And Avenues For Future Research, Patricia Klamer, Qiwen Yu, Toru Yoshikawa, Michael Hitt

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Boards of directors play a central role in governing corporate strategic change. We systematically review corporate governance research on strategic change published over the past 40 years, differentiating between strategic change types and board characteristics. We identify three developments: a focus on specific strategic change types, board composition and structure, and North American listed firms as a dominant study context. Yet, our analysis of the literature shows that research on board governance of interrelated strategic changes, on different board roles and behaviour, and on the governance of strategic changes across different contexts remains underdeveloped. To address these research gaps, we …


Air Pollution, Regulations On Emission And Firms' Social Responsibility, Jun Myung Song Jun 2023

Air Pollution, Regulations On Emission And Firms' Social Responsibility, Jun Myung Song

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

This paper examines whether firms adjust their strategy in emission when air pollution is severe. Considering high PM 2.5 as severe air pollution across 65 countries, I show that firms from countries with severe air pollution have low emission score, suggesting that they put less effort in reducing emission. This is because if they improve emission strategy, firm performance deteriorates. However, such relationship disappears when the government’s environmental stringency is strong, suggesting that government’s intervention is crucial for sustainable environment. This paper concludes with analysis on the factors which can mediate the negative impact of air pollution on firms’ emission …


The More The Merrier: How Psychological Standing And Work Group Size Explain Managers' Willingness To Communicate About Unethical Conduct In Their Work Group, Burak Oc, Maryam Kouchaki May 2023

The More The Merrier: How Psychological Standing And Work Group Size Explain Managers' Willingness To Communicate About Unethical Conduct In Their Work Group, Burak Oc, Maryam Kouchaki

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Business ethics research has long examined the dichotomy between remaining silent or reporting ethical misconduct to a third party. Little is known, however, about ethical conversations within a work group after observing misconduct. Specifically, we do not know how many members of their work group individuals choose to communicate with. These conversations could have important implications for creating an ethical workplace. We propose that psychological standing is an important driver of individuals' decisions not to remain silent and to instead raise moral concerns with a greater number of others in their work group. In addition, integrating existing work on structural …


Ecosystem Social Responsibility In International Digital Commerce, Jingtao Yi, Jiatao Li, Liang Chen Feb 2023

Ecosystem Social Responsibility In International Digital Commerce, Jingtao Yi, Jiatao Li, Liang Chen

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Despite the surge of interest in digital globalization, its social dimensions have received far less attention than deserved. The lack of conversation between the two prominent areas of IB research, digitalization, and corporate social responsibility, presents a valuable opportunity for extending the agenda Ioannou and Serafeim (J Int Bus Stud 43(9):834-864, 2012) pioneered a decade earlier. We briefly depict the organizational differences between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and multinational platforms (MNPs), followed by a closer look at how social responsibility of digital platforms might depart from our conventional understanding derived from MNEs. We then propose the notion of ecosystem social responsibility …


Trust And Contracting: Evidence From Church Sex Scandals, Gilles Hilary, Sterling Huang Jan 2023

Trust And Contracting: Evidence From Church Sex Scandals, Gilles Hilary, Sterling Huang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Firms located in communities in which people are, on average, more trusting enjoy some benefits in terms of the power of CEO contracts. We present two pieces of empirical evidence to support this claim: (1) higher average trust in a county is associated with “flatter” executive contracts and (2) when an exogenous shock occurs (such as a scandal involving an important social institution), both trust and contracting move in similar directions. We obtain the first result in a panel specification and the second in a “difference-in-difference” specification that uses the revelation of sex scandals involving the Catholic Church across different …


Regulating The Corporate Governance Of State-Owned Enterprises In Investment Arbitration, Mark Mclaughlin Jan 2023

Regulating The Corporate Governance Of State-Owned Enterprises In Investment Arbitration, Mark Mclaughlin

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The renaissance of sovereign investment is one of the defining economic trends of the 21st century. While many states have benefitted, and continue to benefit, from an influx of state-backed foreign investment, this embrace is not without its hesitancies. Host states are particularly concerned that state-owned enterprises (SOE s) pursue non-commercial policy objectives, maintain lower levels of transparency than their private counterparts, and operate with inferior standards of responsible business conduct. In response, domestic regulators have enacted a series of countermeasures for SOE investment, including requirements that such enterprises must invest on a “commercial basis.” However, the regulation of foreign …


Nature Tech: A Nascent Ecosystem, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx Dec 2022

Nature Tech: A Nascent Ecosystem, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

When people talk about climate tech, they tend to mean carbon tech. It’s all carbon tunnel vision: Carbon footprint, carbon equivalent, carbon credit, carbon compensation, carbon emission reductions, carbon offsets, decarbonization and so on. By extension, the entire debate about energy transition, energy transformation, clean power and green energy is similarly a debate that is largely held within the carbon tunnel. Make no mistake about it. These are important topics to address. The energy transition will not only prevent catastrophic climate change but have massive benefits for human health by tackling fossil-fuel induced air pollution at the source.As the above …


Social Performance Feedback And Firm Communication Strategy, Heli Wang, Ming Jia, Yi Xiang, Yang Lan Nov 2022

Social Performance Feedback And Firm Communication Strategy, Heli Wang, Ming Jia, Yi Xiang, Yang Lan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although corporate social performance has become an important measure of firm performance, there is little understanding about how firms respond to social performance feedback and how impression management may function as an important firm response to the feedback. Building upon and extending the literature on the behavioral theory of the firm and the strategic use of language, we examine how discrepancies between firms’ social performance and their aspiration levels affect how firms use visual expressions in their CSR reports. In addition, we argue that the relationship between social performance discrepancies and the use of visual expressions in CSR reports is …


Ethical Branding In A Divided World: How Political Orientation Motivates Reactions To Marketplace Transgressions, Thomas Allard, Brent Mcferran Oct 2022

Ethical Branding In A Divided World: How Political Orientation Motivates Reactions To Marketplace Transgressions, Thomas Allard, Brent Mcferran

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In today's marketplace, users (e.g., purchasers, influencers) are increasingly the “face” of brands to potential consumers, increasing the risk for brands should these users act poorly. Across seven studies, we document that political orientation moderates the desire for punishment toward users of ethical (vs. conventional) brands who commit moral transgressions. In response to identical marketplace transgressions, we observe that liberals punish ethical brand users less than conventional brand users. In contrast, conservatives punish the same users of ethical brands more than conventional brand users. We document that this bias stems from how people interpret the inconsistency between the ethical branding …


Yung Kee: A Roast Goose Chase, Singapore Management University Aug 2022

Yung Kee: A Roast Goose Chase, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

How a Hong Kong culinary landmark emerged stronger following a bitter family feud over succession disputes


The Effects Of Csr Reputation And Csr Crisis Response Strategy On Investor Judgments, Clarence Goh Aug 2022

The Effects Of Csr Reputation And Csr Crisis Response Strategy On Investor Judgments, Clarence Goh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

I use a controlled experiment to examine, in the context of CSR crises, whether investors’ investment judgments are influenced by a firm’s CSR reputation and CSR crisis response strategy. I find that for good CSR reputation firms, the use of a rebuild or deny crisis response strategy does not lead to improvements in investment judgments. However, for bad CSR reputation firms, the use of a deny response strategy leads to improvements in investment judgments while the use of a rebuild strategy does not.


Accounting Scandals And Implications For Directors: Lessons From Enron, Pearl Hock-Neo Tan, Gillian Yeo Aug 2022

Accounting Scandals And Implications For Directors: Lessons From Enron, Pearl Hock-Neo Tan, Gillian Yeo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We analyze the Enron case to identify the risk factors that potentially led to its collapse and specific issues relating to its aggressive accounting and high-light the lessons for independent directors. In Enron, the interactions between external stimuli, strategies, corporate culture, and risk exposures possibly created an explosive situation that eventually led to its demise. Much of the post-Enron reforms have been directed towards regulating the roles and responsibilities of executive directors and auditors. However, the role of independent directors has received relatively lesser attention. Independent directors should analyze the risks of their companies and understand the pressures that arise …


Socially Oriented Shareholder Activism Targets: Explaining Activists’ Corporate Target Selection Using Corporate Opportunity Structures, Abhijith G. Acharya, David Gras, Ryan Krause Jun 2022

Socially Oriented Shareholder Activism Targets: Explaining Activists’ Corporate Target Selection Using Corporate Opportunity Structures, Abhijith G. Acharya, David Gras, Ryan Krause

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine whether and when socially oriented shareholder activists use firms’ corporate social performance (CSP) to identify them as attractive targets for their activism. We build on the research in social movements theory and stakeholder theory to theorize how firms’ engagement with primary and secondary stakeholders reflected in their technical and institutional CSP respectively allows socially oriented shareholder activists to identify targets. We develop a theoretical model by identifying corporate targets’ degree of (1) receptivity to and (2) need to comply with activist demands as two key dimensions of their corporate opportunity structure that explains the variance in firms’ attractiveness …


Digital Transformation, Sustainability, And Purpose In The Multinational Enterprise, Gerard George, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx Apr 2022

Digital Transformation, Sustainability, And Purpose In The Multinational Enterprise, Gerard George, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We discuss how environmental and pandemic crises in combination with digitization are presenting the multinational enterprise (MNE) with increasing geopolitical, organizational, and market tensions. Institutional pluralism is creating a more complex global environment. The organization of productive work is shifting, which challenges how MNEs structure and coordinate their activities. Changing consumer and investor expectations are broadening the understanding of value creation with implications for business models. We contend that the tensions invite MNEs to reconsider how they frame, formalize, and realize corporate purpose. We close with a research agenda that recognizes the need for MNEs to become purpose-driven actors.


Impact Measurement And Standards, Angeline Chua, Hao Liang, Wanyi Yang Feb 2022

Impact Measurement And Standards, Angeline Chua, Hao Liang, Wanyi Yang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Despite rapid economic growth and increasing interest in impact investment worldwide, less attention has been paid to the question of whether this growth is sustainable for people and the planet. In an ideal scenario, growth would happen within planetary and social boundaries. However, current financial value is often prioritised and achieved at cost to society and the environment. For example, small farmers in Indonesia have long practised slash-and-burn agriculture, and in recent decades large companies have industrialised the practice. The peatland blazes in Indonesia release smoke and large amounts of greenhouse gases, which impact both Indonesia itself, and neighbouring countries …