Values and attitudes toward social and environmental accountability : a study of MBA students
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Journal of Business Ethics
Publication Date
4-1-2007
Volume
71
Issue
4
First Page
381
Last Page
394
Keywords
Environmental accountability, MBA students, Personal values, Social accountability
Abstract
Efforts to promote corporate social and environmental accountability (SEA) should be informed by an understanding of stakeholders' attitudes toward enhanced accountability standards. However, little is known about current attitudes on this subject, or the determinants of these attitudes. To address this issue, this study examines the relationship between personal values and support for social and environmental accountability for a sample of experienced MBA students. Exploratory factor analysis of the items comprising our measure of support for SEA revealed two distinct factors: (1) endorsement of the general proposition that corporations and executives should be held accountable for the social and environmental impacts of their actions; and (2) agreement that the government should adopt and enforce formal SEA standards. Our findings indicate that the universalism value type is positively associated with general support for SEA, but not with support for government enforcement of accountability standards. In addition, we found that gender has a significant impact on support for government enforcement of SEA standards.
DOI
10.1007/s10551-005-3893-y
Print ISSN
01674544
E-ISSN
15730697
Publisher Statement
Copyright © Springer 2007
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Additional Information
Paper presented at the Symposium on Political Theory of Organization, Mar, 2005, San Francisco, California.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Fukukawa, K., Shafer, W. E., & Lee, G. M. (2007). Values and attitudes toward social and environmental accountability: A study of MBA students. Journal of Business Ethics, 71(4), 381-394. doi: 10.1007/s10551-005-3893-y