Investment decisions grounded in personal values and societal norms has seen a growth in the last decades, to a point where large institutional investors are abstaining from certain industries that share a specific characteristic altogether. The affiliation with sinful industries that promote human vice is not viewed as socially responsible in the eyes of the public, a reason why socially responsible investment funds that screen out these companies has experienced an increase in popularity. This study sets out to investigate the performance of American sin stocks in an attempt to increase the awareness of how these shunned industries has performed. While the existing literature provides evidence which proves sin stocks outperforms the market, we will provide further evidence concentrating on a mix of industries previously not focused on. Additionally we will extend the observation period beyond what has been done in the past. In this study, the definition of sin incorporates the industries of alcohol, defense, gambling and tobacco, and investigates the performance of a survivorship-free sample of 159 companies between July 1973 and June 2012. As performance measure, the four factor model is employed to capture any abnormal performance in relation to the market with three additional risk factors. In addition, we set out to investigate the performance of the different industries individually, to find if there is any that acts as a driver of the performance. Further, we look into the persistency of the performance over time. We find that the sample outperforms the market with 5.8% annually, and where the tobacco industry stands out with the highest abnormal return, the other industries grouped together still produce significant outperformance. The sinful index examined in this degree project has shown persistent performance, with no obvious trends of growth or decline. Unlike what has been found in previous research, the sample has shown a substantial difference in performance depending on the weighting scheme applied, not only individually for the industries, but also collectively.

Despite growing concerns for environmental crisis and the recent economic downturns, worldwide appetite for luxury goods has remained stable and has even grown dramatically in some countries. Luxury goods implicitly convey certain meanings and norms. What are psychological and behavioural consequences of exposure to luxuries? In this proposal, I argue that exposure to luxury goods increases cognitive accessibility of constructs relate to self-interest and subsequently affects social judgments and behaviour. I aim to establish a theoretical conjunction between (a) anthropology’s study of material culture, which focuses on material evidence in attributing human cultures, and (b) psychology’s priming technique, which examines the effects of activated cognitive representations on psychological responding. Accordingly, three studies were conducted to investigate the implicit link of luxury and self-interest. The results showed that exposure to luxury primes automatically activated mental associations relate to self-interest and subsequently increased one’s propensity to allocate more resources to oneself relative to another person (study 1), caused some harvesters to defect in a multi-stage N-person commons dilemma (study 2), but did not necessarily induce unethical behaviour aimed to harm others (study 3). Research about the psychological effects of luxury goods are important because luxuries are implicitly embedded in institutional settings and organizational environments in which negotiations are typically conducted and resource allocation decisions are made. / Graduate / 0621 / 0623 / 0451 / angelch@uvic.ca

We examine the moderating role of the situational and organizational contexts in determining unethical managerial behavior, applying the case-survey methodology. On the basis of a holistic, multiple-antecedent perspective, we hypothesize that two key constructs, moral intensity and situational strength, help explain contextual moderating effects on relationships between managers'; individual characteristics and unethical behavior. Based on a quantitative analysis of 52 case studies describing occurrences of real-life unethical conduct, we find empirical support for the hypothesized contextual moderating effects of moral intensity and situational strength. By examining these complex contextual moderators, we aim to contribute to organizational ethics research as we shed light on the critical role that context may play in influencing unethical managerial behavior.

In the Czech Republic, advertisement is regulated by legislation and by the Czech Advertising Standards Council, which supplements the legislative requirements for advertising with an ethical dimension and establishes respective ethical rules through the Code of Advertising Practice. It cannot legally enforce compliance with the Code and therefore promotes self-regulation in this matter. The aim of this work is to analyze problematic advertising campaigns in the Czech Republic and to explain how the regulation of advertising is applied in practice. We present an analysis of campaigns which largely exceeded the limits set by the Code. The work should contribute to the understanding of why these infringements occur and how they could be prevented.

abstract: One of the theoretical cores and values of good governance is the accountability of public employees, where the citizens expect the public employees to maintain professional standards, avoid conflicts of interest, respect the principles of fair and impartial treatment, and use public money wisely. However, are these unique moral standards to which only public employees are held? The dissertation seeks to examine how the public evaluates the unethical behaviors of public and private leaders differently to better understand the sources of public and private sector differences in the public’s normative evaluations. Based on a randomized online vignette experiment with 1,569 respondents residing in the United States collected in Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform, the dissertation confirms that public authorities face different levels of public tolerance relative to business managers. More specifically, the unethical behaviors of a public manager are less likely to be tolerated than the same misconduct of a business manager, while ethical offenses of elected officials are least likely to be tolerated by the public. However, the public is relatively much less tolerant of public managers’ and elected officials’ petty violations relative to business managers than they do for more egregious violations of public authorities. The dissertation further finds that public evaluations are contingent upon the respondents’ work experience in different sectors. Individuals working in government are more likely to be tolerant of petty unethical behaviors, regardless of whom they evaluate, but they become much less tolerant of public managers’ and elected officials’ grand ethical violations. The longer individuals work in for-profit organizations, the less likely they are to tolerate public authorities’ petty violations of organizational rules while consistently being more accepting of the unethical behaviors of business managers. Using an experimental design, the dissertation finds the importance of a fair and legitimate use of tax money in the public’s moral evaluations of public leadership and further discusses the potential sources of public skepticism of the public sector. Furthermore, the public and private sector comparison provides theoretical and practical implications for ethics reform in the era of collaborative governance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Public Administration and Policy 2020

Due to the rise of the internet, the mislabelling of food products has turned into a well-known phenomenon. There is an unsolved paradox concerning how the act of mislabelling may influence brand loyal grocery shoppers’ loyalty and purchase intentions towards their favourite food brands. To investigate the area of mislabelling and brand loyalty, four in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted in a qualitative setting. The participants were handpicked based on a purposive and convenience sampling method, where individuals with experience in the catering industry were requested. The findings suggest that the outcome of mislabelling is highly individual as it may be perceived differently depending on the shoppers’ level of involvement as well as the strength of the initial brand loyalty. The present study contributes new theoretical insights concerning the concepts of branding and brand loyalty, suggesting that trust is an essential element. Also, this study contributes to practical implications that may limit the loss of consumer trust from a firm’s perspective. For future research, this study suggests that a cultural or gender-centric investigation concerning mislabelling and brand loyal grocery shoppers would be appropriate.

Job performance has historically been divided into two subsets, that which is prescribed and that which is discretionary. Further, discretionary workplace behavior has typically been described as either helpful or ethical (i.e. organizational citizenship behavior) or harmful and unethical (i.e. workplace deviance behavior) with behavior that is both helpful and unethical rarely discussed. I term this lesser discussed type of discretionary workplace behavior unethical prosocial behavior and define it as discretionary actions that are intended to benefit a specific referent outside the self, either an individual or a group, that are illegal and/or morally inappropriate to larger society. In addition to defining unethical prosocial behavior, this paper places the behavior in an organizing framework of discretionary workplace behaviors and tests several hypotheses regarding unethical prosocial behavior. The hypotheses address three primary research questions. First, are there contextual conditions that make it more likely that a person will engage in unethical prosocial behavior? Second, does the nature of the relationship between the actor and the beneficiary make unethical prosocial behavior more or less likely? And third, are there individual characteristics that serve to either constrain or enhance the likelihood that and individual will engage in unethical prosocial behavior? A 2 x 2 experimental design was used to test these hypotheses. As expected, in-group (vs. out-group) salience increased the likelihood of UPB. Individuals in the in-group condition engaged in significantly greater UPBs than those in the out-group condition. Contrary to expectations, shared reward (vs. no reward) decreased the likelihood of UPB. Individuals who were due a reward engaged less in UPBs than those who were not due a reward. Possible explanations for this relationship (both methodological and theoretical) are explored. While the overall effect of reward structure on UPB was in the opposite direction from that which was expected, propensity to morally disengage had the anticipated effect on the relationship between rewards and UPB. Those high in propensity to morally disengage were more likely to engage in UPB when a shared reward was offered (vs. no reward). Due to the nature of the task and the data collected, it was possible to operationalize UPB as a continuous measure as well as a dichotomous event (UPB/no UPB). This lead to a supplemental analysis that shed additional light on the nature of the relationship between group salience and UPB. The analysis shows that not only do subjects tend to over report the scores for fellow in-group members, but they also tend to underreport scores for out-group members. Fruitful areas for future work on the nascent UPB construct are discussed.

Future self-continuity has been noted as a major factor that determines unethical business decisions, but its mediating effect on the difference in individuals from cross-cultural settings is yet to be adequately examined. This study investigated unethical business decisions of Eastern and Western Nigerians; and the mediating role of future self-continuity. A total of 197 post graduate university students selected through convenience sampling were used for the cross-sectional study. Participants filled a self-administered close ended questionnaire measuring their unethical business decisions and future self-continuity. Pearson correlation analysis, independent t-test and Baron and Kenny’s method of mediation analysis were used to analyze the data collected. Result revealed that greater future self-continuity led to fewer unethical business decisions. Significant differences were noticed in the expression of unethical business and future self-continuity of Eastern and Western Nigerians. Future self-continuity did not mediate the difference noticed between the Eastern and Western Nigerians in their unethical business decision. In conclusion, future self-continuity is not a significant mediator of the observed difference in unethical business decisions of Eastern and Western Nigerians.

Ethical principles applied in organizations can broaden individual and corporate priorities beyond profit and shareholder enrichment. Ethical factors may influence leaders to make sound decisions to protect the organization from unethical behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine if a correlation exists between the independent variables of leadership and decision making, and the dependent variable of ethical behavior. Drucker's theory of management served as the theoretical framework. Data collection involved 2 survey instruments, the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire and the Moral Potency Questionnaire from 98 participants from retail businesses in the southwestern United States. The model as a whole was able to significantly predict ethical behavior (F(2, 95) = 12.79, p < .01), R-² = .21. However, none of the individual predictors was significant. The existence of multicollinearity between the 2-predictor variables offers a plausible explanation for this phenomenon. Therefore, these results should be viewed with caution. Implications for positive social change include examining behaviors and leadership capabilities in individuals, communities, organizations, and institutions. The findings may contribute to social change by providing leaders with information to improve strategies when making decisions involving ethical behavior in the workplace.

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