Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility

Abstract Impact investors often know their financial return on investments, but are less certain about their impact. This article frames impact as their contribution to sustainable market transformation. A sustainable market transformation consists of inception, first movers, critical mass, and institutionalization phases. Given the nature of such transformations, the impact is effectuated at different moments and toward various market actors. Based on an exploratory research design with semi‐structured expert interviews, this article aims to create an overview of the roles of impact venture capital funds in sustainable market transformations. The results suggest that the view that the capitalization of start‐ups is the only impact of impact investors is a misconception. The needs of companies with sustainability value propositions change over time and consequently impact investors perform various roles. For example, exiting an investment while upholding social and environmental objectives communicates to mainstream business that the start‐up is ready to create a greater impact. Further, impact investors fulfill external roles that change the perspectives of institutional actors toward sustainable investments. Based on an overview of the different roles that impact investors fill, this article proposes a future research agenda to strengthen our knowledge about the impact return of investments.

Maarten Holtslag

Nicolas Chevrollier

Andre Nijhof

Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility

Impact investing and sustainable market transformations: The role of venture capital funds

Abstract This study contributes to the burgeoning research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the individual level of analysis, in a hitherto largely neglected developing country context. Using survey information collected from 297 employees in public and private enterprises in Kosovo, this study examines how and to what extent employees’ perceptions of their employer's CSR activities are associated with their intention to emigrate. Applying a needs‐based framework, this research provides evidence that employees’ perceptions of CSR are positively related to the meaningfulness of their work and job satisfaction and negatively related to intention to emigrate. Additionally, results confirm that the association between CSR perceptions and emigration intention is mediated by the meaningfulness of work and job satisfaction. From a practical point of view, this research should encourage private and public enterprises in developing countries to enhance and extend their CSR engagement.

Sonja Grabner‐Kräuter

Robert J. Breitenecker

Festim Tafolli

Exploring the relationship between employees’ CSR perceptions and intention to emigrate: Evidence from a developing country

Abstract Given the adverse consequences of destructive leadership at work, we examine leader favoritism prevalent in contemporary organizations. Our study builds on previous research on unethical leadership behaviors and extends social exchange theory by assessing whether leader favoritism contributes to employee psychological withdrawal behavior at work and whether perceived unfairness explains this link, addressing a gap in the literature on this topic. In addition, we investigate the condition of perceived employability to seek whether the influence of perceived unfairness due to leader favoritism on psychological withdrawal behavior at work is strengthened when employees think they can secure alternative employment elsewhere. The study utilizes a two‐wave data collection approach to gather responses from 206 front end customer service employees working in the hospitality and tourism firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study findings offer empirical support for the proposed mediated moderation model. Specifically, the results demonstrate that leader favoritism directly, indirectly (via perceived unfairness), and positively influence employee withdrawal behaviors. This influence is stronger among employees who believe they can easily find alternative employment options. Our findings highlight the relevance of incorporating social exchange theory into the unethical leadership behaviors and withdrawal behaviors literature and provide valuable insights for managers into how to mitigate the practice of leader favoritism because of its adverse consequences on employees' work attitudes and behavior.

Faridahwati Mohd Shamsudin

Shaker Bani‐Melhem

Rawan Abukhait

Rekha Pillai

Samina Quratulain

The role of leader favoritism, unfairness, and employability in employee psychological withdrawal behavior

领导者偏袒、不公平与员工可雇佣性对员工心理退缩行为的影响

ABSTRACT Do employees respond to a firm's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance? This study examines the relationship between corporate ESG performance and employee turnover, employing social identity theory and rational action theory. Using data from Chinese A‐share nonfinancial listed firms over the period from 2011 to 2020, the results reveal a positive U ‐shaped relationship. Specifically, moderate levels of ESG performance are associated with reduced employee turnover. And this relationship is more pronounced in the environmental and social pillars. Further analysis shows that employees at high‐performing firms are more concerned with ESG performance, and those with high environmental awareness exhibit greater sensitivity to it. Information asymmetry may mediate the relationship between corporate ESG performance and employee turnover. These results contribute valuable insights into the broader implications of ESG performance for employee turnover, clarify the underlying mechanisms, and offer practical guidance for refining corporate ESG strategies.

Shengshi Zhou

“Sticking to One's Post” or “Backing the Right Captain”?—The Impact of Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance on Employee Turnover

“坚守岗位”还是“支持正确领导”？——企业环境、社会和治理绩效对员工流动率的影响

ABSTRACT Previous works have highlighted that small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are responsible for approximately 60%–70% of European industrial pollution, which has led scholars to investigate whether owner‐managers, the most influential decision‐makers in SMEs, actually care about environmental issues. Although existing works have identified various antecedents of owner‐managers' environmental concern, limited attention has been paid to understand how they could turn such environmental concern into environmental practices. Therefore, the present research explores how owner‐managers' environmental concern influences the environmental practices of SMEs, whereas considering the effects of company size and sector‐specific environmental regulations. Relying on interviews with 19 Belgian SME owner‐managers, we contribute to the existing literature by providing a typology classifying SMEs' environmental practices according to their owner‐managers' environmental concern and considering company size and environmental sectoral regulations. Four profiles emerge from this typology: climate change champions, green opportunists, eco‐compliant followers and routine entrepreneurs. This typology highlights the fact that micro‐enterprises are more likely to adopt environmental practices when they are mandatory. In contrast, the adoption of environmental practices is more likely to result from owner‐managers' environmental concern in small to medium‐sized firms.

Anthony Vandersteene

Environmental Concern of Owner‐Managers and Environmental Practices of <scp>SMEs</scp>: A Typology Considering Size and Sector‐Specific Environmental Regulations

所有者-管理者环境关注与中小企业环境实践：考虑规模和行业特定环境法规的类型学

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure scores on the firm value of European listed companies before, during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic. Using a two‐level model and a unique dataset of 264 multinational firms covering the period 2019–2022, we find a negative relationship between ESG disclosure scores and firm value. Nevertheless, the effect of the social and environmental disclosure scores disappears during the crisis, and returns negative during the recovery period. Almost all empirical studies to date have found the inverse effect, suggesting that even though ESG transparency can improve firm reputation, it can also damage it and reduce firm value. We also show that firm‐specific factors remain the biggest source of variability in firm value, even during the crisis. Thus, this paper contributes to the existing literature by suggesting that the impact of ESG disclosure on firm value may vary depending on the economic and financial context in which firms operate. More specifically, it shows that the benefits of ESG disclosure, namely the reduction of agency costs, stakeholder trust, and firm legitimacy, which are expected to increase firm value, may not have the predicted effect in a crisis context. Consequently, these findings provide both an empirical and a theoretical contribution to the existing literature on agency theory, signal theory, and legitimacy theory.

Aziza Garsaa

How Has the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 Crisis Affected the Link Between <scp>ESG</scp> Disclosure and Firm Value? A Two‐Level Analysis of European Listed Companies

COVID-19危机如何影响ESG披露与企业价值之间的联系？对欧洲上市公司的两级分析

ABSTRACT The existing literature has explored the impact of high‐speed rail (HSR) opening on macrolevel environmental performance. However, few studies have validated its effects on microlevel corporate environmental responsibility performance. Therefore, on the basis of data from Chinese A‐share listed companies from 2011 to 2020, we examine the relationship between HSR opening and corporate environmental responsibility performance, along with the underlying reasons for this relationship. Our research reveals that HSR opening can significantly improve the corporate environmental responsibility performance. Talent aggregation and supervisory pressure constitute the two main channels that explain the positive relationship. Furthermore, the results of heterogeneity tests indicate that this positive effect is more significant in cities with larger populations and administrative centers, as well as in nonpolluting industries and companies certified through ISO14001 environmental management systems. This paper confirms that HSR opening contributes to generating positive externalities for firms and provides valuable insights into improving and understanding corporate environmental responsibility performance.

Kun Luo

Xiaoya Liu

Xiaolu Wang

Lei Ye

High‐Speed Rail Opening and Corporate Environmental Responsibility Performance: Analysis of Talent Aggregation and Supervisory Pressure

高速铁路开通与企业环境责任表现：人才集聚与监督压力的分析

ABSTRACT While theory and research indicate that top management team (TMT) attributes play a crucial role in shaping responsible practices, how and when TMT faultlines affect environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance remains an open question. This study aims to fill this research gap by integrating social categorization theory with the faultline literature. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms over a 12‐year period, our findings indicate that TMT faultlines can significantly inhibit ESG performance, and managerial myopia is the primary channel through which the negative effect operates. In addition, our study reveals that negative attainment discrepancy significantly amplifies the inhibitory effect of TMT faultlines on ESG performance. Intriguingly, this inhibitory effect is mitigated in firms with strong Confucian culture. Our study also reveals variations in the impact of TMT faultlines on ESG performance concerning the type of faultlines and the level of industry competition. These findings not only contribute to the literature on TMT faultlines and upper echelons but also provide valuable guidance for managers in adeptly navigating the dynamics of TMT composition.

Hai Huang

Shengbin Hao

Birds of a Feather Flock Together: The Impact of Top Management Team Faultlines on Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance

物以类聚：高管团队裂痕对环境、社会和治理绩效的影响

Abbreviation	Business Ethics Env & Resp
Journal Impact	3.78
Quartiles(Global)	ETHICS(Q1)

ISSN	2694-6416, 2694-6424
h-index	50

Publication Information	Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: journal，Open Access Journals: No
Basic data	Year of publication: 2021，Proportion of original research papers: 97.75%，Self Citation Rate:25.00%， Gold OA Rate: 29.97%

Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility

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Impact investing and sustainable market transformations: The role of venture capital funds

Exploring the relationship between employees’ CSR perceptions and intention to emigrate: Evidence from a developing country

The role of leader favoritism, unfairness, and employability in employee psychological withdrawal behavior

“Sticking to One's Post” or “Backing the Right Captain”?—The Impact of Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance on Employee Turnover

Environmental Concern of Owner‐Managers and Environmental Practices of SMEs: A Typology Considering Size and Sector‐Specific Environmental Regulations

How Has the COVID‐19 Crisis Affected the Link Between ESG Disclosure and Firm Value? A Two‐Level Analysis of European Listed Companies

High‐Speed Rail Opening and Corporate Environmental Responsibility Performance: Analysis of Talent Aggregation and Supervisory Pressure

Environmental Concern of Owner‐Managers and Environmental Practices of SMEs: A Typology Considering Size and Sector‐Specific Environmental Regulations

“Sticking to One's Post” or “Backing the Right Captain”?—The Impact of Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance on Employee Turnover

Birds of a Feather Flock Together: The Impact of Top Management Team Faultlines on Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance