ABSTRACT
The topics of ethical conduct and governance in academic research in the business field have attracted scientific and public attention. The concern is that research misconduct in organizations such as business schools and universities might result in practitioners, policymakers, and researchers grounding their decisions on biased research results. This study addresses ethical research misconduct by investigating whether the ethical orientation of business researchers is related to the likelihood of research misconduct, such as selective reporting of research findings. We distinguish between deontological and consequentialist ethical orientations and the competition between researchers and investigate the moderating role of their perceived autonomy. Based on global data collected from 1031 business scholars, we find that researchers with a strong deontological ethical orientation are less prone to misconduct. This effect is robust against different levels of perceived autonomy and competition. In contrast, researchers having a consequentialist ethical orientation is positively associated with misconduct in business research. High levels of competition in the research environment reinforce this effect. Our results reveal a potentially toxic combination comprising researchers with a strong consequentialist orientation who are embedded in highly competitive research environments. Our research calls for the development of ethical orientations grounded on maxims rather than anticipated consequences among researchers. We conclude that measures for ethical governance in business schools should consider the ethical orientation that underlies researchers' decision-making and the organizational and institutional environment in which business researchers are embedded.
ABSTRACT
The gastronomy sector is among those that are hit particularly hard by a loss of customers and regulatory uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis. When established ways of doing business become almost impossible, business model innovation (BMI) is a possible reaction to this high uncertainty level. Effectuation and causation are decision-making logics that may lead to BMI and help a firm navigate uncertainty. We investigate configurations of causation and effectuation components associated with a high BMI level during the first wave of COVID-19. We perform fuzzy-set-qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on a sample of 143 gastronomy entrepreneurs in Münster county, Germany. We identify two paths that lead to a high BMI level: "the planning soloist" and "the hedging networker." We conclude that innovators among the gastronomy entrepreneurs use effectuation and causation components in complex configurations.
