IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v136y2016i3d10.1007_s10551-014-2534-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Foundations of Responsible Leadership: Asian Versus Western Executive Responsibility Orientations Toward Key Stakeholders

Author

Listed:
  • Michael A. Witt

    (INSEAD)

  • Günter K. Stahl

    (Vienna University of Economics and Business)

Abstract

Exploring the construct of social-responsibility orientation across three Asian and two Western societies (Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and the United States), we show evidence that top-level executives in these societies hold fundamentally different beliefs about their responsibilities toward different stakeholders, with concomitant implications for their understanding and enactment of responsible leadership. We further find that these variations are more closely aligned with institutional factors than with cultural variables, suggesting a need to clarify the connection between culture and institutions on the one hand and culture and social-responsibility orientations on the other.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael A. Witt & Günter K. Stahl, 2016. "Foundations of Responsible Leadership: Asian Versus Western Executive Responsibility Orientations Toward Key Stakeholders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 623-638, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:136:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-014-2534-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2534-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-014-2534-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-014-2534-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonathan P. Doh & Terrence R. Guay, 2006. "Corporate Social Responsibility, Public Policy, and NGO Activism in Europe and the United States: An Institutional‐Stakeholder Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 47-73, January.
    2. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    3. Anant K. Sundaram & Andrew C. Inkpen, 2004. "The Corporate Objective Revisited," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 350-363, June.
    4. Agle, Bradley R. & Donaldson, Thomas & Freeman, R. Edward & Jensen, Michael C. & Mitchell, Ronald K. & Wood, Donna J., 2008. "Dialogue: Toward Superior Stakeholder Theory," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 153-190, April.
    5. Freeman, R. Edward, 1994. "The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions1," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 409-421, October.
    6. Cheung, Yan-Leung & Rau, P. Raghavendra & Stouraitis, Aris, 2006. "Tunneling, propping, and expropriation: evidence from connected party transactions in Hong Kong," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 343-386, November.
    7. Joseph K. Tanimura & M. Gary Okamoto, 2013. "Reputational Penalties in Japan: Evidence from Corporate Scandals," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 39-57, March.
    8. Bryan W Husted & David B Allen, 2006. "Corporate social responsibility in the multinational enterprise: strategic and institutional approaches," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(6), pages 838-849, November.
    9. Redding, Gordon, 2008. "Separating Culture from Institutions: The Use of Semantic Spaces as a Conceptual Domain and the Case of China," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 257-289, July.
    10. Christian Voegtlin & Moritz Patzer & Andreas Scherer, 2012. "Responsible Leadership in Global Business: A New Approach to Leadership and Its Multi-Level Outcomes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(1), pages 1-16, January.
    11. Nicola Pless & Thomas Maak, 2009. "Responsible Leaders as Agents of World Benefit: Learnings from “Project Ulysses”," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(1), pages 59-71, February.
    12. David A Waldman & Mary Sully de Luque & Nathan Washburn & Robert J House & Bolanle Adetoun & Angel Barrasa & Mariya Bobina & Muzaffer Bodur & Yi-Jung Chen & Sukhendu Debbarma & Peter Dorfman & Rosemar, 2006. "Cultural and leadership predictors of corporate social responsibility values of top management: a GLOBE study of 15 countries," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(6), pages 823-837, November.
    13. Bame-Aldred, Charles W. & Cullen, John B. & Martin, Kelly D. & Parboteeah, K. Praveen, 2013. "National culture and firm-level tax evasion," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 390-396.
    14. Gordon Redding, 2008. "Separating Culture from Institutions: The Use of Semantic Spaces as a Conceptual Domain and the Case of China," Management and Organization Review, The International Association for Chinese Management Research, vol. 4(2), pages 257-289, July.
    15. Thomas Maak & Nicola M. Pless, 2006. "Responsible Leadership in a Stakeholder Society – A Relational Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 99-115, June.
    16. Guido Palazzo & Andreas Scherer, 2006. "Corporate Legitimacy as Deliberation: A Communicative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 71-88, June.
    17. Arthaud-Day, Marne L., 2005. "Transnational Corporate Social Responsibility: A Tri-Dimensional Approach to International CSR Research," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 1-22, January.
    18. David A. Ralston & James Pounder & Carlos W.H. Lo & Yim-Yu Wong & Carolyn P. Egri & Joseph Stauffer, 2006. "Stability and Change in Managerial Work Values: A Longitudinal Study of China, Hong Kong, and the U.S," Management and Organization Review, International Association of Chinese Management Research, vol. 2(1), pages 67-94, March.
    19. Ralston, David A. & Pounder, James & Lo, Carlos W. H. & Wong, Yim-Yu & Egri, Carolyn P. & Stauffer, Joseph, 2006. "Stability and Change in Managerial Work Values: A Longitudinal Study of China, Hong Kong, and the U.S," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 67-94, March.
    20. Sheila M. Puffer & Daniel J. McCarthy & Max Boisot, 2010. "Entrepreneurship in Russia and China: The Impact of Formal Institutional Voids," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(3), pages 441-467, May.
    21. Runtian Jing & John L. Graham, 2008. "Values Versus Regulations: How Culture Plays Its Role," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 80(4), pages 791-806, July.
    22. Phillips, Robert & Freeman, R. Edward & Wicks, Andrew C., 2003. "What Stakeholder Theory is Not," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(4), pages 479-502, October.
    23. Mansour Javidan & Robert J House & Peter W Dorfman & Paul J Hanges & Mary Sully de Luque, 2006. "Conceptualizing and measuring cultures and their consequences: a comparative review of GLOBE's and Hofstede's approaches," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(6), pages 897-914, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rosalie L Tung & Günter K Stahl, 2018. "The tortuous evolution of the role of culture in IB research: What we know, what we don’t know, and where we are headed," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(9), pages 1167-1189, December.
    2. Gregory Jackson & Julia Bartosch, 2017. "Understanding Corporate Responsibility in Japanese Capitalism: Some Comparative Observations," Working Papers halshs-01680432, HAL.
    3. Rana, Mohammad B. & Morgan, Glenn, 2019. "Twenty-five years of business systems research and lessons for international business studies," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 513-532.
    4. K. V. James & R. G. Priyadarshini, 2021. "Responsible Leadership: A New Paradigm for Organizational Sustainability," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 46(4), pages 452-470, November.
    5. Said Id Bouichou & Lei Wang & Hafiz Muhammad Basit Feroz, 2022. "How corporate social responsibility perceptions affect employees’ positive behavior in the hospitality industry: moderating role of responsible leadership," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 19(2), pages 413-446, June.
    6. Igor Filatotchev & R. Duane Ireland & Günter K. Stahl, 2022. "Contextualizing Management Research: An Open Systems Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 1036-1056, June.
    7. Christian Voegtlin & Colina Frisch & Andreas Walther & Pascale Schwab, 2020. "Theoretical Development and Empirical Examination of a Three-Roles Model of Responsible Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 411-431, December.
    8. Miska, Christof & Szőcs, Ilona & Schiffinger, Michael, 2018. "Culture’s effects on corporate sustainability practices: A multi-domain and multi-level view," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 263-279.
    9. Christine A. Hemingway & Ken Starkey, 2018. "A Falling of the Veils: Turning Points and Momentous Turning Points in Leadership and the Creation of CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 875-890, September.
    10. Ryoichi Arai & Shinichi Hirota, 2023. "Profitability or Longevity? Cross-Country Variations in Corporate Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-29, May.
    11. Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, 2022. "Capitalizing on the uniqueness of international business: Towards a theory of place, space, and organization," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(9), pages 2050-2067, December.
    12. Amlan Haque & Mario Fernando & Peter Caputi, 2019. "The Relationship Between Responsible Leadership and Organisational Commitment and the Mediating Effect of Employee Turnover Intentions: An Empirical Study with Australian Employees," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(3), pages 759-774, May.
    13. Junjian Gu, 2022. "Country Portfolio and Taxation: Evidence from Japan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(3), pages 583-607, January.
    14. Xinyue Zhang & Dian Li & Xintong Guo, 2022. "Antecedents of Responsible Leadership: Proactive and Passive Responsible Leadership Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-22, July.
    15. Donald G. Gardner & Vathsala Wickramasinghe, 2023. "Relationships between Leadership Styles and Prosocial Motivation Depend on Cultural Values: A Case Study in Sri Lanka," Merits, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-14, July.
    16. Alberto Citterio & Rossella Locatelli & Andrea Uselli, 2024. "Mapping Corporate Social Responsibility in Family Firms: A Bibliometric Review across Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-21, January.
    17. Lolita Shaila P. Safaee Chalkasra & John Paolo R. Rivera & Dynah Avigail T. Basuil, 2019. "A Review of Theoretical Perspectives on CSR Among Family Enterprises," Vision, , vol. 23(3), pages 225-233, September.
    18. Bilal Afsar & Ahsen Maqsoom & Asad Shahjehan & Sajjad Ahmad Afridi & Adnan Nawaz & Hassan Fazliani, 2020. "Responsible leadership and employee's proenvironmental behavior: The role of organizational commitment, green shared vision, and internal environmental locus of control," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 297-312, January.
    19. Jie He & Alastair M. Morrison & Hao Zhang, 2019. "Improving Millennial Employee Well-Being and Task Performance in the Hospitality Industry: The Interactive Effects of HRM and Responsible Leadership," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-19, August.
    20. Karianne Kalshoven & Scott Taylor, 2018. "Leadership: Philosophical Perspectives and Qualitative Analysis of Ethics—Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking Around," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 1-3, March.
    21. Cheng, Ken & Wei, Feng & Lin, Yinghui, 2019. "The trickle-down effect of responsible leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior: The moderating role of leader-follower value congruence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 34-43.
    22. Francesca Conte & Agostino Vollero & Claudia Covucci & Alfonso Siano, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility penetration, explicitness, and symbolic communication practices in Asia: A national business system exploration of leading firms in sustainability," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 1425-1435, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. K. V. James & R. G. Priyadarshini, 2021. "Responsible Leadership: A New Paradigm for Organizational Sustainability," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 46(4), pages 452-470, November.
    2. Christof Miska & Mark E. Mendenhall, 2018. "Responsible Leadership: A Mapping of Extant Research and Future Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 117-134, March.
    3. Thomas M Maak & Nicola M Pless & Christian Voegtlin, 2016. "Business Statesman or Shareholder Advocate? CEO Responsible Leadership Styles and the Micro-Foundations of Political CSR," Post-Print hal-01480535, HAL.
    4. Thomas Maak & Nicola M. Pless & Christian Voegtlin, 2016. "Business Statesman or Shareholder Advocate? CEO Responsible Leadership Styles and the Micro-Foundations of Political CSR," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 463-493, May.
    5. Nina Evans & Janet Sawyer, 2010. "CSR and stakeholders of small businesses in regional South Australia," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(3), pages 433-451, August.
    6. François Maon & Adam Lindgreen, 2015. "Reclaiming the Child Left Behind: The Case for Corporate Cultural Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(4), pages 755-766, September.
    7. Jinyu Hu & Yu Rong & Frances M. McKee-Ryan, 2022. "Fifty Shades of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Conceptual Synthesis via a Decision Frame Lens," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-16, September.
    8. Seçil Bal Taştan & Seyed Mehdi Mousavi Davoudi, 2019. "The relationship between socially responsible leadership and organisational ethical climate: in search for the role of leader's relational transparency," International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 13(3), pages 275-299.
    9. Carri Reisdorf Tolmie & Kevin Lehnert & Hongxin Zhao, 2020. "Formal and informal institutional pressures on corporate social responsibility: A cross‐country analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 786-802, March.
    10. Figueira, Sandra & Gauthier, Caroline & Torres de Oliveira, Rui, 2023. "CSR and stakeholder salience in MNE subsidiaries in emerging markets," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(5).
    11. Allen Kaufman & Ernie Englander, 2011. "Behavioral Economics, Federalism, and the Triumph of Stakeholder Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(3), pages 421-438, September.
    12. Yafet Yosafet Wilben Rissy, 2021. "The stakeholder model: its relevance, concept, and application in the Indonesian banking sector," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(3), pages 219-231, September.
    13. Ariana Chang & Tian-Shyug Lee & Hsiu-Mei Lee & Jing Wang, 2023. "The Influence of Responsible Leadership on Strategic Agility: Cases from the Taiwan Hospitality Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-15, February.
    14. Yves Fassin, 2012. "Stakeholder Management, Reciprocity and Stakeholder Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(1), pages 83-96, August.
    15. Geert Demuijnck & Björn Fasterling, 2016. "The Social License to Operate," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(4), pages 675-685, July.
    16. Cheng, Ken & Wei, Feng & Lin, Yinghui, 2019. "The trickle-down effect of responsible leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior: The moderating role of leader-follower value congruence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 34-43.
    17. Gregory Kivenzor, 2015. "Cultural dynamics and marketing strategies for emerging markets: characterization of group subcultures and consumption preferences," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 5(3), pages 142-158, December.
    18. Dan Caprar & Benjamin Neville, 2012. "“Norming” and “Conforming”: Integrating Cultural and Institutional Explanations for Sustainability Adoption in Business," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 231-245, October.
    19. Carola Hillenbrand & Kevin Guy Money & Chris Brooks & Nicole Tovstiga, 2019. "Corporate Tax: What Do Stakeholders Expect?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 403-426, August.
    20. Wagner, Marcus, 2015. "The link of environmental and economic performance: Drivers and limitations of sustainability integration," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1306-1317.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:136:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-014-2534-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.