Does Ethical Behaviour Affect Sustainable Development? Evidence from Developed and Developing Countries
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper “Does ethical Behaviour Affect Sustainable Development? Evidence from Developed and Developing Countries” investigates the relationship between ethical behavior and green growth for a 11 large sample of countries. To achieve this aim, it adopts a semi-parametric test developed by Friedman (1937) and a parametric test developed by Pesaran (2007). I have the following suggestions for the authors to improve the quality of their research. First, the abstract is too short. It should triangulate the introduction, methodology, results, and implications of the study. In addition, the authors present an introduction section, in which the integration of social, managerial, and environmental issues should be better analysed. Further, the introduction should better clarify the novelty of the research. As for the theoretical background, my suggestion is to clarify how the literature on the topic was reviewed to justify the research objectives. Indeed, the paper lacks a detailed review on the topic investigated, which is mandatory to justify the subsequent empirical analysis. Therefore, before presenting the methodology, I would include a literature review section to analyse the state-of-art of the topic, identify the research gaps, and highlight the research questions addressed. As for the future contributions and implications, I suggest highlighting the potential role of sustainability and digital transition issues as a future research direction for the topic investigated (e.g. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135665, DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2022.3200889, DOI: 10.3390/su12198112). I suggest improving the discussion of findings. Regarding the context of investigation, could it affect the results? Why? Additional information on how the evaluation is generated should be included to justify the significance of the results and clarify the effectiveness and rationality of the proposed approach. Moreover, the authors should describe more in details if and how their application converges or diverges from other approaches. Finally, proofreading in different sections is needed.
Proofreading in different sections is needed.
Author Response
NA
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper developed the relationship between ethical behavior and green growth for a large sample of countries. However, some descriptions are not clear. Some revisions are necessary in the manuscript.
1. Please further explain the basis of formula (4).
2. Please explain how ethical behavior is evaluated and defined.
3. Please explain what green growth is.
4. The core focus of this paper should be the results of the simulation part. Please further summarize and visualize the data.
5. In the paper, authors have focused on sustainable development. The environmental impact of emissions and how they will be reduced needs to be analyzed to indicate advantages of your work, which can refer to：
[a] IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 68, no. 7, pp. 3576-3581, 2021
[b] IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 1545-1551, 2019
[c] IEEE Trans. Power Systems, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 4067-4077, 2022
A proof reading is needed to further improve the paper quality.
Author Response
NA
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
I thank my colleagues for their consideration of a very important problem - increasing the level of environmental friendliness of the economic activity of states and society as a whole. The authors measure the dependence of this level on the degree of ethics in different spheres of our life. The analysis of ethical attitudes towards the environment is based on the example of two groups of countries: developed and developing. More than 100 countries were included in the analysis. The influence of ethical attitudes on the ecological functioning of these countries was found.
Some shortcomings and suggestions.
The authors conclude that "The impact of ethical behaviour on green growth is more pronounced in developed countries than in developing countries" (lines 311-312). However, it must be understood that the level of ethical behaviour towards the environment is much lower in developing countries, and in this case it is probably the scale of such behaviour and its severity that has a complex impact on environmental sustainability. This should probably be mentioned in the limitations of the study.
2. The review of the problem should be enhanced by contemporary research. The review presented in the manuscript is based on sources from 2020 and older, mainly from 2012. Some sources are not directly related to the research (16, 20).
3. The paper is not clear on how the level of ethical attitudes towards the environmental component was measured, which is important for evaluating the results of the statistical analysis. This needs to be clarified.
4. It is useful to present specific measures of ethical attitudes towards the environment arising from the results of the statistical analysis, beyond the general and obvious conclusions.
I wish you success in further research!
Author Response
NA
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
I appreciate the hard work made by authors to improve the paper according to reviewers' suggestions. In my opinion, It can be published.
Reviewer 2 Report
No further comments.
No Further comments.
Reviewer 3 Report
Авторы учли замечания и предложения, высказанные к первому варианту рукописи. На мой взгляд, новая версия рукописи может быть опубликована.
Желаю авторам успехов в дальнейших исследованиях!
