How and When Ethics Lead to Organizational Performance: Evidence from South Asian Firms

• Published in: Sustainability 2023-05, Vol.15 (10), p.8147
• Main Authors: Ahmed, Rizwan Raheem, Pahi, Munwar Hussain, Nadeem, Shahid, Soomro, Riaz Hussain, Parmar, Vishnu, Nasir, Fouzia, Ahmed, Faiz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brand loyalty; Business ethics; Business operations; Competitive advantage; Corporate governance; Customers; Decision making; Employees; Ethics; High technology industry; Human capital; Human resource management; Hypotheses; Information technology; Innovations; Intellectual capital; Knowledge management; Managers; Marketing; Mediation; Mediators; Privacy; Reputations; Social responsibility; Society; Structural models; Sustainability; Technological change; Technology; Technology and civilization
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su15108147

The objective of this paper was to examine the influence of determinants of business ethics, for instance, HR management ethics, ethics in corporate governance, and ethics in sales and marketing on organizational performance. The paper also examined mediation of human capital, structural capital and relational capital (dimensions of intellectual capital) in the connection between business ethics and organizational performance. Additionally, this research examined show technological change moderates between business ethics and organizational performance. Researchers collected 474 responses from March 2022 to November 2022 from the information technology sector in various cities in South Asian countries, including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, through structured questionnaires. PLS-SEM modeling was used for data analysis; we evaluated the measurement and structural models for this purpose. The research results suggest that ethics in corporate governance, HR management ethics, and ethics in sales and marketing have a notably positive effect on business ethics, leading to a substantial and affirmative impact on organizational performance. The findings also revealed a significant mediating influence of human capital, structural capital, and relational capital between exogenous variables and organizational performance. The findings further suggest that technological change significantly and positively moderates the relationship between business ethics and organizational performance in the high-tech industry. This research offers a novel modified conceptual framework that provides substantial theoretical and managerial implications to research scholars and industry practitioners.