Corporate Ethical Responsibility in Management Research: Intellectual Bases, Focus, Salience, and Future
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper deals with an interesting topic and reaches interesting guidelines for future research. However, some of its points need to be addressed:
· Line 13 “it also”. The citation data examined in the paper are no a simple addition, but the analytical method as stated in lines 60-61, and also in the continuation of the abstract. Instead of “it also” a connector that indicates causality would be more appropriate.
· Line 40, on the structure of the paper. Mention the conclusions section explicitly.
· Lines 62-64 on co-citation: clarify and explain more this assertion.
· Line 64: Revise verbal tenses. Why past? (i.e., why “explored” instead of “explores).
· Line 65: full stop instead of a semicolon.
· Table 1: Add a brief legend to explain it. Mention the meanings of # and n explicitly.
· Lines 85-86: the bases pointed out on these lines do not totally coincide with the ones displayed in Figure 1.
· Figure 1: explain the meanings of the figures (#39 etc.)
· Lines 91-95: Numeration of the clusters. This enumeration would gain clarity if the authors add a table (even in an appendix) displaying all clusters and their enumeration.
· Conceptual model: consider placing the antecedents before definitions (totally optional).
· Line 199: “a model that considers”. A model not only considers but also links and relates. This model would improve by emphasising its conceptual stream, namely the logic inside it.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
This paper deals with an interesting topic and reaches interesting gulidlines for futrue research. However, some of its points need to be addressed:
Reponse:
Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to revise the article. Thank you very much for the detail comments and suggestions on this paper. We had tried our best to improve the paper based on your suggestions.
1. Line 13 “it also”, the citation data examined in the paper are no a simple addition, but the analytical method as stated in lines 60-61, and also in the continuation of the abstract. Instead of “it also” a connector that indicates causality would be more appropriate.
Response:
We want to thank you for this suggestion very much. We have revised it. The revision can be found in Page 1 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
We use citations analysis in this study because it is an efficient method in identifying and visualize intellectual bases in a given field. Then, it presents a conceptual model that summarizes key relationships within the CER literature by reviewing the source articles.
2. Line 40, on the structure of the paper. Mention the conclusions section explicitly.
Response:
We want to thank you for this suggestion very much. We have supplemented the conclusions. The revision can be found in Page 4 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
Based on our co-citation cluster analysis, we visualize the intellectual network mapping of CER in the “Intellectual Bases of CER” section. In the “Focus and Salience on CER” section, we present key relationships in the conceptual CER model, including antecedents, definitions, measurements, moderations, mediations, and outcomes of CER. We synthesize intellectual contributions CER studies and we highlight unresolved research gaps. Finally, we recommend future research directions for CER studies based on the unresolved research questions. They include improvement in the approach to measuring CER performance, the urgent need for studies about the mediators between CER and outcomes, theoretical and empirical research on advancing CER research methodology.
3. Lines 62-64 on co-citation: clarify and explain more this assertion.
Response:
We would like to thank you for this suggestion very much. We have supplemented the explanation on co-citation analysis. The revision can be found in Page 6 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
Citation analysis, based on the premise that authors cite documents, is an established method to demonstrate the impact of previous research on a study. The cited frequency of an article mainly depends on the article quality, research method, journal placement etc. [1]. Co-citation analysis, a branch of citation analysis, is a bibliometric technique that maps the intellectual structure of a research field [2]. Co-citation analysis methods include journal co-citation analysis, author co-citation analysis, and document co-citation analysis. Journal co-citation reveals the macrostructure of scholarly disciplines by analyzing journal titles from a macro-level, whereas author co-citation and document co-citation analysis reveal the “invisible college” of scientific research at a micro-level [3].
4. Line 64: Revise verbal tenses. Why past? (i.e., why “explored” instead of “explores).
Response:
We want to thank you for this correction very much. We have corrected this mistake. The revision can be found in Page 7 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
Therefore, this study explores the underlying intellectual structure of CER with document co-citation analysis. Thus, in addition to citation and co-citation analyses, we review the 497 source articles and discuss their findings in relation to CER. We then propose a conceptual model, including the antecedents, definitions, measurements, moderators, mediators, and outcomes in CER based on the analysis of the key articles of the 497 source articles that are shown in Table2 and Table 3.
5. Line 65: full stop instead of a semicolon.
Response:
We want to thank you for this correction very much. We have corrected this mistake. The revision can be found in Page 5 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
Therefore, this study explores the underlying intellectual structure of CER with document co-citation analysis.
6. Table 1: Add a brief legend to explain it. Mention the meanings of # and n explicitly.
Response:
We want to thank you for this suggestion very much. We have supplemented the explanation on # and n. The revision can be found in Page 7 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
The "#" denotes for the ID for each cluster. Each ID number was generated randomly by the used tool (Gephi). Just as shown in Appendix, 104 clusters are generated from "# = 0" to "# = 103". "n" is the number of co-cited documents in each cluster. "n" also denotes the number of nodes in the corresponding cluster network because one document is one node in document co-cited networks.
7. Lines 85-86: the bases pointed out on these lines do not totally conincide with the ones displayed in Figure1.
Response:
We want to thank you for this comment very much. We apologize for our carelessness and have corrected them.The revision can be found in Page 9 and Page 11 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
We identified 8 intellectual bases by analyzing the co-citation clusters and reviewing the co-citation documents: (1) Organization Ethics (including # 39 Organizational identity and # 24 Ethics codes), (2) Institutional theory for CER (including #19 Institutional theory and #103 Corporate governance), (3) Stakeholder perspectives of CER (including #9 Stakeholder and #8 Leadership), (4) Corporate citizenship (#5), (5) Strategic management and sustainability (#89), (6) Firm performance (#10), (7) Firm size (#6), and (8) Integrative application (#90) (Figure 1).
<Figure1 the Intellectual Bases of CER>
8. Figure1: explain the meanings of the figures (#39 etc.)
Response:
We would like to thank you for this suggestion very much. We have supplemented the relative information on the former question. The meaning of each cluster figure is explained in section 3. For example, Cluster #39 and Cluster #24 are explained in section 3.1. The two clusters comprise the one base of CER (Organization ethics). Cluster #39 included articles with keywords such as “organizational theory”, “business ethics”, “organizational identity”, “ethical corporate identity”, and “ethical organizational identity”. Cluster #24 comprised articles with “corporate ethics”, “business code”, “codes of conduct”, “ethics standards”, “corporate culture”, “ethical culture”, and “climate” as keywords. The keywords of the two clusters are high relative. Then, we read the documents of the two clusters and make the corresponding conclusion in the last part of section 3.1.
9. Lines 91-95: Numeration of the clusters. This numeration would gain clarity if the authors add a table (even in an appendix) displaying all clusters and their enumeration.
Response:
We would like to thank you for this suggestion very much. We have added the appendix.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
Appendix the Whole Documents Co-cited Analysis (DCA) Clusters
# (ID) | n | % of the network |
0 | 1 | 0.15 |
1 | 1 | 0.15 |
2 | 1 | 0.15 |
3 | 1 | 0.15 |
4 | 1 | 0.15 |
5 | 85 | 12.8 |
6 | 35 | 5.27 |
7 | 1 | 0.15 |
8 | 48 | 7.23 |
9 | 34 | 5.12 |
10 | 1 | 0.15 |
11 | 1 | 0.15 |
12 | 2 | 0.3 |
13 | 1 | 0.15 |
14 | 1 | 0.15 |
15 | 1 | 0.15 |
16 | 53 | 7.98 |
17 | 1 | 0.15 |
18 | 1 | 0.15 |
19 | 36 | 5.42 |
20 | 1 | 0.15 |
21 | 1 | 0.15 |
22 | 1 | 0.15 |
23 | 1 | 0.15 |
24 | 29 | 4.37 |
25 | 1 | 0.15 |
26 | 2 | 0.3 |
27 | 1 | 0.15 |
28 | 2 | 0.3 |
29 | 1 | 0.15 |
30 | 1 | 0.15 |
31 | 1 | 0.15 |
32 | 1 | 0.15 |
33 | 1 | 0.15 |
34 | 1 | 0.15 |
35 | 1 | 0.15 |
36 | 1 | 0.15 |
37 | 1 | 0.15 |
38 | 1 | 0.15 |
39 | 53 | 7.98 |
40 | 1 | 0.15 |
41 | 1 | 0.15 |
42 | 1 | 0.15 |
43 | 3 | 0.45 |
44 | 1 | 0.15 |
45 | 10 | 1.52 |
46 | 1 | 0.15 |
47 | 1 | 0.15 |
48 | 1 | 0.15 |
49 | 1 | 0.15 |
50 | 1 | 0.15 |
51 | 1 | 0.15 |
52 | 2 | 0.3 |
53 | 2 | 0.3 |
54 | 1 | 0.15 |
55 | 1 | 0.15 |
56 | 1 | 0.15 |
57 | 1 | 0.15 |
58 | 1 | 0.15 |
59 | 1 | 0.15 |
60 | 1 | 0.15 |
61 | 1 | 0.15 |
62 | 1 | 0.15 |
63 | 1 | 0.15 |
64 | 1 | 0.15 |
65 | 1 | 0.15 |
66 | 1 | 0.15 |
67 | 24 | 3.61 |
68 | 1 | 0.15 |
69 | 1 | 0.15 |
70 | 1 | 0.15 |
71 | 1 | 0.15 |
72 | 1 | 0.15 |
73 | 1 | 0.15 |
74 | 1 | 0.15 |
75 | 1 | 0.15 |
76 | 1 | 0.15 |
77 | 1 | 0.15 |
78 | 15 | 2.28 |
79 | 2 | 0.3 |
80 | 1 | 0.15 |
81 | 2 | 0.3 |
82 | 1 | 0.15 |
83 | 1 | 0.15 |
84 | 1 | 0.15 |
85 | 1 | 0.15 |
86 | 1 | 0.15 |
87 | 1 | 0.15 |
88 | 1 | 0.15 |
89 | 37 | 5.57 |
90 | 39 | 5.87 |
91 | 2 | 0.3 |
92 | 1 | 0.15 |
93 | 14 | 2.13 |
94 | 2 | 0.3 |
95 | 1 | 0.15 |
96 | 1 | 0.15 |
97 | 4 | 0.61 |
98 | 1 | 0.15 |
99 | 2 | 0.3 |
100 | 5 | 0.76 |
101 | 1 | 0.15 |
102 | 1 | 0.15 |
103 | 44 | 6.63 |
664 | 100 |
10. Conceptual model: consider placing the antecedents before definitions (totally optional).
Response:
We thank you for this suggestion very much. We have placed the antecedents before definitions. The revision can be found in Page 17 in the manuscript with changes marked.
11. Line 199: “a model that considers”. A model not only considers but also links and relates. This model would improve by emphasising its conceptual stream, namely the logic inside it.
Response:
We thank you for this suggestion very much. The revision can be found in Page 17 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
We developed a conceptual model that integrates the key relationships, including antecedents, definitions, measurements, moderations, mediations, and outcomes of CER.
References
1. Dang, C.Y.; Li, Z.C. Drivers of research impact: Evidence from the top three finance journals. Accounting and Finance 2018, 2, 1-54.
2. Ma, Z.Z.; Lee, Y.; Yu, K.H. Ten years of conflict management studies: Themes, concepts and relationships. International Journal of Conflict Management 2008, 19, 234-248.
3. Liu, Z.G.; Yin, Y.M.; Liu, W.D.; Dunford, M. Visualizing the intellectual structure and evolution of innovation systems research: A bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics 2015, 103, 135-158.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Overall the paper title and abstract imply the paper being interesting and scientifically relevant. The main aim is not indicated clearly, however, the research problem and contribution are reasoned. It is highly recommended to clearly describe the paper aim.
Please find some specific comments below.
1. Introduction
Introduction could be expended by providing deeper problem analysis and relevance reasoning. The structure of paper is well described.
2. Methodology; 3. Intellectual Bases of CER
It is not quite clear, how the selection of journals was made. Also it would purposeful to provide a full list of journals in the section 2.1.
In the section 2.3 authors mention that they “proposed a conceptual model, including the performance measurement, antecedents, mediators, and outcomes in CER” (lines 67-69). However, such model is not provided, unless authors consider Figure 1 or Table 2 as a conceptual model. This should be clearly indicated in order to avoid misunderstanding.
Overall the method and process of citation analysis and literature review, including clustering, should be described more in detail. Currently, it is not evident enough how these clusters are formed and what number provided in Table 1 and Figure 1 mean (for example, #5, #16, etc.).
4. Focus and Salience of CER
The section 4 is quite well written. However, it is not clear how it is related to the previous section. It seems that authors just select several paper and analyse mediators, moderators and outcomes of CER. This does not correspond to their intention to give summarized information on management studies in this field during a certain period of time. I am sure that this analysis does not provide a full picture. This should be amended or the choice of papers must be reasoned more clearly.
In the section 4.5 authors mention Table 3 (line 274) which is not presented in the paper. Authors also mention Table without number in the line 291.
According to the Instructions for authors, Discussion part should also be presented in the paper. Instead of this, authors provide Conclusions and Further Research as separate parts. It is highly recommended to amend paper by providing Discussion part which would clearly discuss implications and further research areas.
It should also be mentioned that the comments provided in the review do not mean that the paper is of low quality. However, it is recommended to follow them in order to make the paper more comprehensive and understandable for a reader.
Sincerely,
Reviewer
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
Overall the paper title and abstract imply the paper being interesting and scientifically relevant. The main aim is not indicated clearly, however, the research problem and contribution are reasoned. It is highly recommended to clearly describe the paper aim.
Response:
Thank you very much for allowing us to revise the article. Thank you very much for the detail comments and suggestions on this paper. We have tried our best to improve the paper based on your suggestions. We have added the aim of this research in Section1. The revision can be found in Page 3 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
The intellectual bases and conceptual model aim to offer assistance for researchers in this area by the comprehensive overview. Further, this research concludes the relationships between CER and performance by identifying the outcomes (financial and non-financial performance) of CER. The conclusions are useful for policymakers in designing policies to promote CER. Especially in the developing countries, business ethics are still being formed and many firms lack CSR consciousness [8]. The conclusions have forward-looking and guiding significances. In addition, the study provides the research directions for the researchers on the future CER research directions.
Please find some specific comments below.
1. Introduction
Introduction could be expended by providing deeper problem analysis and relevance reasoning. The structure of paper is well described.
Response:
We thank you for this suggestion. We have expanded the introduction by providing deeper problem analysis and rationale behind it. The revision can be found in Page 1 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
CER advocates companies are having strong self-restraint and altruistic duties that strengthen stakeholders' rights and expand public policy. In contrast, both corporate economic and legal responsibilities are mandatory [2].
CER has played an increasingly critical role in regulating the market order in global economies. Many developing countries have achieved remarkable economic progress with market-oriented reforms. However, developing countries are sometimes characterized by moral degradation, exemplified by widespread counterfeit products and unsafe food sales, resource wasting, corruption, and fraudulent dealings [3,4]. Although the governments in developing countries are strengthening their policies and laws, their legal frameworks remain relatively weak compared to developed countries [5]. In most developing countries, a solid or effective legal framework regulating firms’ ethical behavior is absent. Therefore, the promotion of CER is essential to prohibit further ethical degradation in business practices in the developing countries. In addition to the issues related to the effectiveness of their legal systems, developing countries’ national laws do not regulate corporate ethical behaviors beyond their national territory. By the same token, international law imposes no direct legal obligation on corporate ethical decisions [6]. Therefore, Legal Vacuum creates a ‘ethical free space’ or a ‘responsibility free space’ [7]. With the growing trend of globalization, ethical decisions in business practices often influence sustainable supply chain networks spanning multiple countries. Thus, CER is a critical emerging topic that requires further research compared to the economic and legal aspects of CSR.
In the methodology section, the research methodology and data sources are explained in detail. Based on our co-citation cluster analysis, we visualize the intellectual network mapping of CER in the “Intellectual Bases of CER” section. In the “Focus and Salience on CER” section, we present key relationships in the conceptual CER model. We synthesize intellectual contributions CER studies and we highlight unresolved research gaps. Finally, we recommend future research directions for CER studies based on the unresolved research questions. They include improvement in the approach to measuring CER performance, the urgent need for studies about the mediators between CER and outcomes, theoretical and empirical research on advancing CER research methodology.
2. Methodology; 3. Intellectual Bases of CER
It is not quite clear, how the selection of journals was made. Also it would purposeful to provide a full list of journals in the section 2.1.
Response:
We thank you for this correction. We have supplemented the explanation and the full list of journals in section 2.1. The revision can be found in Page 4 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
CSR is considered an applied management topic [8]. While CER is a major branch of CSR, we focus on mainstream management journals for this review to ensure academic quality and rigor [9]. We include all the journals from the University of Texas at Dallas Top 100 Business School Research Rankings; this list is comprised of 24 journal outlets. In addition, to evaluate the research excellence of business schools, Financial Times magazine ranks the top 45 business and management journals (FT 45). It is mentioning that the number of journal of FT 45 has been increased from 45 to 50 journal in 2017, however, during the data collection period from 1985 to 2015, we used the FT 45 journal list. In total, 23 journals were are included in both journal lists. Therefore, the total number of journals included in our search is 46. They include They include "Academy Of Management Review", "Academy Of Management Journal" , "Mis Quarterly" , "Journal Of Operations Management" , "Organization Science" , "Administrative Science Quarterly", "Strategic Management Journal", "Journal Of International Business Studies" , "Information Systems Research" , "Production And Operations Management" , "Manufacturing And Service Operations Management" , "Management Science" , "Operations Research" , "Journal On Computing" , "The Accounting Review" OR "Journal of Accounting and Economics" , "Journal of Finance" , "Journal of Financial Economics", "The Review of Financial Studies" , "Journal of Consumer Research", "Journal of Marketing" , "Journal of Marketing Research" , "Marketing Science ","Academy Of Management Perspectives" , "Accounting, Organisations and Society" , "American Economic Review" , "California Management Review", "Contemporary Accounting Research" , "Econometrica" , "Entrepreneurship Theory And Practice" , "Harvard Business Review" , "Human Resource Management" , "Journal of Accounting Research" ,"Journal Of Applied Psychology" , "Journal of Business Ethics" , "Journal of Business Venturing", "Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis" , "Journal of Financial Economics", "Journal Of Management Studies", "Journal Of Political Economy" , "Journal Of The American Statistical Association" , "Organizational Behavior And Human Decision Processes" ,"Quarterly Journal Of Economics" , "Rand Journal Of Economics" , "Review of Accounting Studies" and "Sloan Management Review".
In section 2.3 authors mention that they "proposed a conceptual model, including the performance measurement, antecedents, mediators, and outcomes in CER" (lines 67-69). However, such model is not provided, unless authors consider Figure 1 or Table 2 as a conceptual model. This should be clearly indicated in order to avoid misunderstanding.
Response:
We thank you for this comment. We have supplemented the explanation. We identify the intellectual bases of CER base on Figure 1 with co-citation analysis and propose the conceptual model base on Table 2 with literature review. It is mentioning that other reviewers suggest us to divide Table 2 into two parts. Therefore, Table 2 is divided into Table2 and Table3. The revision can be found in Page 7 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
We then propose a conceptual model, including antecedents, definitions, measurements, moderations, mediations, and outcomes of CER based on the analysis of the key articles of the 497 source articles that are shown in Table2 and Table 3.
Overall the method and process of citation analysis and literature review, including clustering, should be described more in detail. Currently, it is not evident enough how these clusters are formed and what number provided in Table 1 and Figure 1 mean (for example, #5, #16, etc.).
We would like to thank you for this suggestion. We have supplemented the explanation on co-citation analysis. The revision can be found in Page 5 in the manuscript with changes marked. We have supplemented the explanation on # and n. In addition, we have added the appendix on the whole clusters list. The revision can be found in Page 6 and Appendix in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
Citation analysis, based on the premise that authors cite documents, is an established method to demonstrate the impact of previous research on a study. The cited frequency of an article mainly depends on the article quality, research method, journal placement, etc. [10]. Co-citation analysis, a branch of citation analysis, is a bibliometric technique that maps the intellectual structure of a research field [11]. Co-citation analysis methods include journal co-citation analysis, author co-citation analysis, and document co-citation analysis. Journal co-citation reveals the macrostructure of scholarly disciplines by analyzing journal titles from a macro-level, whereas author co-citation and document co-citation analysis reveal the “invisible college” of scientific research at a micro-level [12].
The "#" denotes for the ID for each cluster. Each ID number was generated randomly by the used tool (Gephi). Just as shown in Appendix, 104 clusters are generated from "# = 0" to "# = 103". "n" is the number of co-cited documents in each cluster. "n" also denotes the number of nodes in the corresponding cluster network because one document is one node in document co-cited networks.
4. Focus and Salience of CER
Section 4 is quite well written. However, it is not clear how it is related to the previous section. It seems that authors just select several paper and analyse mediators, moderators and outcomes of CER. This does not correspond to their intention to give summarized information on management studies in this field during a certain period of time. I am sure that this analysis does not provide a full picture. This should be amended or the choice of papers must be reasoned more clearly.
Response:
We thank you for this suggestion. We have supplemented the explanation on the choice of the articles. The revision can be found in Page 17 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
We reviewed the 497 source articles in relation to CER from 1985 to 2015. The collection way of the 497 source articles has been explained in the section “ Selection of CER Articles”.
In the section 4.5 authors mention Table 3 (line 274) which is not presented in the paper. Authors also mention Table without number in the line 291.
Response:
We want to thank you for this correction. This study had some other tables in the initial manuscript. Later, we thought they are not much important and deleted them. But we are sorry for the wrong order number of tables. We have corrected these mistakes. Because other reviewer ask us to add another table before it, the table become Table 3 again. The revision can be found in Page 23 in the manuscript with changes marked.
According to the Instructions for authors, Discussion part should also be presented in the paper. Instead of this, authors provide Conclusions and Further Research as separate parts. It is highly recommended to amend paper by providing Discussion part which would clearly discuss implications and further research areas.
We thank you for this suggestion. We have made up the discussion part in Section 5. The revision can be found in Page 28 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
The intellectual bases of CER are mainly composed of organization ethics, institutional theory, stakeholders theory, corporate citizenship, sustainability and strategic management, financial performance, firm size etc. The intellectual bases of CER are mainly composed of organization ethics, institutional theory, stakeholders theory, corporate citizenship, sustainability and strategic management, financial performance, firm size etc. it is worth mentioning that firm size has many different measuring methods and different proxies capture different aspects of firm size [13]. For example, total asset represents the firm's total resources, total sales mainly denote product market and are not prospective, while market capitalization is more market-oriented and forward-looking. Therefore, using different proxy of firm size may has a different relationship with CER.
In addition, we found that the organizations in developed countries are the major actors being studied in CER literature. Although there are many ethical issues in developing countries, the organizations and policies in developing countries received much less attention.
It should also be mentioned that the comments provided in the review do not mean that the paper is of low quality. However, it is recommended to follow them in order to make the paper more comprehensive and understandable for a reader.
We believe this study become more comprehensive and understandable, after revising it based on your suggestions.
References
1. Du, X.Q. How the market values greenwashing? Evidence from china. Journal of Business Ethics 2015, 128, 547-574.
2. Windsor, D. Corporate social responsibility: Three key approaches. Journal of Management Studies 2006, 43, 93-114.
3. Vynoslavska, O.; McKinney, J.A.; Moore, C.W.; Longenecker, J.G. Transition ethics: A comparison of ukrainian and united states business professionals. Journal of Business Ethics 2005, 61, 283-299.
4. Zheng, Q.Q.; Luo, Y.D.; Wang, S.L. Moral degradation, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility in a transitional economy. Journal of Business Ethics 2014, 120, 405-421.
5. Firth, M.; Wang, K.; Wong, S.M.L. Corporate transparency and the impact of investor sentiment on stock prices. Management Science 2015, 61, 1630-1647.
6. Scherer, A.G.; Palazzo, G. The new political role of business in a globalized world: A review of a new perspective on csr and its implications for the firm, governance, and democracy. Journal of Management Studies 2011, 48, 899-931.
7. Jamali, D.; Karam, C. Corporate social responsibility in developing countries as an emerging field of study. International Journal of Management Reviews 2018, 20, 32-61.
8. Lockett, A.; Moon, J.; Visser, W. Corporate social responsibility in management research: Focus, nature, salience and sources of influence. Journal of Management Studies 2006, 43, 115-136.
9. Chen, C.M. Science mapping: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Data and Information Science 2017, 2, 1-40.
10. Dang, C.Y.; Li, Z.C. Drivers of research impact: Evidence from the top three finance journals. Accounting and Finance 2018, 2, 1-54.
11. Ma, Z.Z.; Lee, Y.; Yu, K.H. Ten years of conflict management studies: Themes, concepts and relationships. International Journal of Conflict Management 2008, 19, 234-248.
12. Liu, Z.G.; Yin, Y.M.; Liu, W.D.; Dunford, M. Visualizing the intellectual structure and evolution of innovation systems research: A bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics 2015, 103, 135-158.
13. Dang, C.Y.; Li, Z.C.; Yang, C. Measuring firm size in empirical corporate finance. Journal of Banking & Finance 2018, 86, 159-176.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
See attached
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to revise the article. Thank you very much for the detail comments and suggestion on this study. We are pleased to read the 4 additional references that enlighten our team on this literature. We get great help and enlightenment from them. We have revised our manuscript base on your suggestions and comments.
1.
In the introduction, you need to show your findings, and your contributions right after. You can talk about the following contributions: What insights can you provide based on your finding? Do they push forward our understanding? What should we do with your research? Do you have any suggestions to improve the current regulation or practice? Adding the above discussion and extend your literature review may help you make more contributions and position your contributions better.
Response:
We would like to thank you for this suggestion very much. We have added the above discussion in the manuscript. The revision can be found in Page 3 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
The intellectual bases and conceptual model aim to offer assistance for researchers in this area by the comprehensive overview. Further, this research concludes the relationships between CER and performance by identifying the outcomes (financial and non-financial performance) of CER. The conclusions are useful for policymakers in designing policies to promote CER. Especially in the developing countries, business ethics are still being formed and many firms lack CSR consciousness [1]. The conclusions have forward-looking and guiding significances. In addition, the study provides the research directions for the researchers on the future CER research directions.
2.
Related to the above point, you should study and summarize the use of firm size measures in the literature since frim size is the key variable in this area. See Dang et al. 2018. Measuring Firm Size in Empirical Corporate Finance. Journal of Banking & Finance 86:159-176. After all it is the most significant variable in most studies alike. You need to discuss more rigorously
Response:
We would like to thank you for this suggestion very much. We have learned this paper and won a great harvest and enlightenment from it. We have added the discussion. The revision can be found in Page 28 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
It is worthy mentioning that firm size has many different measuring methods and different proxies capture different aspects of firm size [2]. For example, total asset represents the firm’s total resources, total sales mainly denote product market and are not prospective, while market capitalization is more market oriented and forward-looking. Therefore, using different proxy of firm size may has a different relationship with CER.
3.
A similar paper, Z.F. Li and Dang, C., 2018.., studies the citation data in finance area. You can use and/or discuss the theoretical framework and methodology in the paper.
Response:
We would like to thank you for this suggestion very much. We have learned this paper and won great harvest and enligtenment from it. We have used the paper as the theoretical support in our citation analysis. The revision can be found in Page 6 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added the comment:
The cited frequency of an article mainly depends on the article quality, research method, journal placement, etc. [3].
4.
The intellectual bases may be important, but more important, I believe, is how to promote and implement CER in practice. Maybe you can link executive incentives to firms' CER performance, as suggested in the CSR contracting literature (Hong, et al., 2016, Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation for Corporate Social Responsibility, Journal of Business Ethics, June, 136 (1): 199-213. Li, Ikram, Minor, 2018.). You should consider this practice while discussing your suggestions to practitioners and regulators.
Response:
We would like to thank you for this suggestion very much. We have learned the two papers and won great harvest and enlightenment from them. We have added the content on suggestions on promoting and implementing CER in practice. The revision can be found in Page 30 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised to address the comment:
Last but not least, corporate strategies in promoting and implementing CER practice should be developed in every firm in the future. Every firm could develop different measures to optimize the resources that promote CER. For example, executive compensation can be tied to CER-related milestones，because direct incentives for CSR is an effective tool to improve firm social performance [4]. Further, firms need to cautiously design CER compensation contracts, because transparent CSR contracts and opaque CSR contract may have different influence on firm value [5].
5.
You should emphasize the differences between CSR and CER, based on theory and some real life examples. Also you need distinguish channels how CER affects firm value. There should be a large strand of literature on this topic but the results are inconclusive due to the endogeneity problem.
Response:
We would like to thank you for this suggestion. I have added the following content in section of “Introduction”. The revision can be found in Page 2 in the manuscript with changes marked.
The text has been added/revised as the followings:
CER advocates companies are having strong self-restraint and altruistic duties that strengthen stakeholders' rights and expand public policy. In contrast, both corporate economic and legal responsibilities are mandatory [6].
CER has played an increasingly critical role in regulating the market order in global economies. Many developing economies have achieved remarkable economic progress with market-oriented reforms. However, developing economies are sometimes characterized by moral degradation, exemplified by widespread counterfeit products and unsafe food sales, resource wasting, corruption, and fraudulent dealings [7,8]. Although the governments in developing economies are strengthening their policies and laws, their legal frameworks remain relatively weak compared with those of developed countries [9]. In most developing markets, a solid or effective legal framework regulating firms' ethical behavior is absent. Therefore, the promotion of CER is essential to prohibit further ethical degradation in business practices in developing countries. In addition to the issues related to the effectiveness of their legal systems, developing countries’ national laws do not regulate corporate ethical behaviors beyond their national territory. By the same token, international law imposes no direct legal obligation on corporate ethical decisions [10]. Therefore, Legal Vacuum creates an ‘ethical free space' or a ‘responsibility free space' [11]. With the growing trend of globalization, ethical decisions in business practices often influence sustainable supply chain networks spanning multiple countries. Thus, CER is a critical emerging topic that requires further research compared to the economic and legal aspects of CSR.
References
1. Du, X.Q. How the market values greenwashing? Evidence from china. Journal of Business Ethics 2015, 128, 547-574.
2. Dang, C.Y.; Li, Z.C.; Yang, C. Measuring firm size in empirical corporate finance. Journal of Banking & Finance 2018, 86, 159-176.
3. Dang, C.Y.; Li, Z.C. Drivers of research impact: Evidence from the top three finance journals. Accounting and Finance 2018, 2, 1-54.
4. Hong, B.; Li, Z.C.; Minor, D. Corporate governance and executive compensation for corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics 2016, 136, 199-213.
5. Ikram, A.; Li, Z.F.; Minor, D. Csr-contingent executive compensation contracts. Social Science Electronic Publishing 2017.
6. Windsor, D. Corporate social responsibility: Three key approaches. Journal of Management Studies 2006, 43, 93-114.
7. Vynoslavska, O.; McKinney, J.A.; Moore, C.W.; Longenecker, J.G. Transition ethics: A comparison of ukrainian and united states business professionals. Journal of Business Ethics 2005, 61, 283-299.
8. Zheng, Q.Q.; Luo, Y.D.; Wang, S.L. Moral degradation, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility in a transitional economy. Journal of Business Ethics 2014, 120, 405-421.
9. Firth, M.; Wang, K.; Wong, S.M.L. Corporate transparency and the impact of investor sentiment on stock prices. Management Science 2015, 61, 1630-1647.
10. Scherer, A.G.; Palazzo, G. The new political role of business in a globalized world: A review of a new perspective on csr and its implications for the firm, governance, and democracy. Journal of Management Studies 2011, 48, 899-931.
11. Jamali, D.; Karam, C. Corporate social responsibility in developing countries as an emerging field of study. International Journal of Management Reviews 2018, 20, 32-61.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
I recommend acceptance.
Reviewer 3 Report
Much improved. Need to hire a professional edit to proofread the paper one more time.
