Welcome to issue 42.3 of the International Journal of Ethics and Systems. In this issue we deal with some key topics of business ethics, such as financial reporting, ESG performance, organizational spirituality, leadership, ethical principles related to short-term contractors, patriotism, religiosity and acceptability of corruption, CSR, and failed corruption initiatives. After this, we present some articles that cover different aspects of Islamic economics and business ethics in Africa and the Middle East.
In this issue we have contributions from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kosovo, Turkey, USA, UK, Ghana, Hong Kong, China, Canada.
We begin with a study from Bangladesh that proposes a systematic literature review of different financial reporting theories in relation to social and environmental impact. The aim is to provide an overview of the different approaches to financial reporting. The review is based on key word research in Scopus. The paper demonstrates that legitimacy, agency and stakeholder theories are most widely used in research on financial reporting. Other theories like neo-institutional theory, management or political economic approaches are less present in this research. This study shows that there is room for theory development in the research and study of financial reporting regarding social and environmental dimensions of business.
This role of financial reporting is further investigated in an article about financial reporting quality and ESG performance in relation to the efficiency of investments. Researchers from Indonesia investigate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in relation to financial performance. Researchers look at ESG scores in cross-country comparison. A key finding is a positive relation between ESG-performance measurement, financial reporting and the efficiency of investments. The findings demonstrate that there is a close relation between ESG performance and investment efficiency, where reporting a high ESG score has a great impact on investment efficiency and future performance.
A study from Kosovo with help from a colleague from Turkey looks at the relation between organizational spirituality, leadership and employee well-being. A specific focus point is the role of organizational trust understood through spirituality in work engagement and burnout. Through quantitative analysis of organizations and employees from Kosovo, the researchers find that organizational spirituality has a positive impact on wellbeing and job performance. Trust relationships are important for organizational spirituality and the engagement of employees to avoid burnout. Furthermore, transformational and transactional leadership approaches also have impact on job engagement and job burnout. The role of the leader can therefore be determined as important for dealing with job burnout and ensuring employee engagement.
A paper from USA investigates ethical challenges for same-day delivery contractors. The paper looks at this phenomenon in the gig economy, where workers are hired for one day or with short-term contracts, for example in platforms, taxis, hotels etc. The research proposes ethical principles of fairness and justice inspired by John Rawls to find ethical principles that can handle the problem. On this basis the research evaluates different ethical and philosophical approaches to understanding the ethics of short-term delivery contracts. With focus on Rawlsian ethical principles the paper aims to define the principle of ethical regulation for independent contractors in the gig economy.
A contribution with authors situated in the UK, Ghana and Hong Hong, China discusses the relationship between religiosity and corruption in Ghana with special focus on patriotism as a mediating variable in the context of a developing country. Based on cross-sectional quantitative data, the research is based on data from World Values Survey on Ghana. The findings demonstrate a negative effect of religiosity on acceptability of corruption, but it also shows that there is no direct effect between patriotism and religiosity. But indeed, patriotism is relevant for not accepting corruption. Nevertheless, the study demonstrates that there is no significant relation between patriotism, religiosity and acceptability of corruption.
Another contribution from Ghana in Africa looks at the role of managerial corporate social responsibility (CSR) in relation to the question of what drives business performance. The article investigates the relation between managerial CSR and business performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with focus on the mediating role of CSR in business. This research is based on analysis of interviews with different methodologies. Findings include that managerial CSR is significant for financial business performance and institutional forces may as have an impact on the role of the CSR mindset in relation to business performance. The article emphasizes that a CSR-mindset is very important for developing business performance in business and CSR practices can be improved through institutional forces.
An additional article about Africa from Canada discusses why anti-corruption projects and programs fail in some African countries, while having more success in others. The paper looks at the role of anti-corruption programs in relation to ethical leadership to analyze the efficiency of different anti-corruption systems. The aim of anti-corruption programs is to improve development, for example with focus on sustainable development goals. This research used methodology of field experience, participant observation and open-ended interviews and was studied with qualitative analysis. The research demonstrates that corruption continues to be a barrier for development policy in particular in cases in which strong social norms limit policy implementation. To avoid this, it is necessary to work with ethical leadership and include citizens in ethical decision-making processes in Africa.
The content related to Islamic business ethics and Islamic economics begins with an article from Indonesia on classification of unconventional perspectives on the concept of homo islamicus. The study investigates different definitions and approaches to Islamic economics across disciplines to determine how to define the concept of Islamic economic agents. The article used a machine learning analysis approach to identify relevant articles on the concept of economic agency in Islamic economics. This research looks at different definitions of economic agents in Islam and it also include investigation of criticisms by non-Islamic scholars. The study is based on textual analysis of articles using the term of homo islamicus, so this is a limitation since many articles dealing with the topic are not mentioned. Nevertheless, the article is innovative as one of the only articles focusing on this topic of Islamic economics.
Researchers from Turkey investigate the foundation of an Islamic moral economy. They discuss the possible return to a substantive morality in the theorization of Islamic economics. The article focusses on the necessity to incorporate substantial morality in the definition of Islamic moral economy. The research looks critically on theories of Islamic economics using discursive analysis. This method makes it possible to analyze key dimension of modern Islamic economics. The findings of the article are that Islamic economics most have been conceptualized in a reactive manner with focus of finding an alternative to the neoclassical economic approach. This approach has had the consequences that Islamic moral economics has ignored the substantial dimension of morality and instead it has been conceived as instrumental morality without fundamental moral content. With this the paper aims at finding a new substantial ethical grounding of Islamic economics.
A contribution from Indonesia and Malaysia can be said to follow up on this perspective more in detail. The article scrutinizes the conditions of possibility of a potential frugal lifestyle in relation to the spiritual dimensions of an Islamic ethical consumption framework. The purpose is to study what a frugal lifestyle means in the framework of Islamic consumption ethics. Frugal lifestyle is defined as conscious use of money and resources to maximize value and minimize waste. The frugal lifestyle is critical toward unlimited hedonism and puts restrictions on consumption. The article is based on analysis of articles about Islamic consumption. It turns out that articles share a critique of capitalism with focus on sustainability and solidarity in a long-term perspective. This can be promoted as basis for long term aims of frugal lifestyle in business and society with focus on responsible sustainability in the future. With this the frugal lifestyle approach is a new perspective on sustainable development.
One more article from Indonesia and Malaysia looks at the characteristics of Sharia-supervisory boards in relation to Islamic banking in MENA-countries. Mena-countries are countries in North-Africa and the Middle East. The research investigates the importance of Sharia-boards in green banking. The findings demonstrate that green banking disclosure in Islamic banks is affected by the establishment of Sharia-supervisory boards. The proportion and increase of bank members have a significant impact on the green performance of banks. This has a significant impact on decision-makers. Sharia-supervisory boards are important in form and size to develop green banking.
We wish the reader good luck and insights in reading this collection of articles on general dimensions of ethics followed by articles with special focus on Africa and the Middle East. We hope that the articles will lead to new and important reflections and insights.
