Benefits of ethical communication: The role of stakeholders and experienced fraud

• Autor(a) principal: Amorim, Francisco Cadete Nogueira Correia
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/31024
• topic: Fraude -- Fraud; Corrupção -- Corruption; Ethics communication; Stakeholder ethical behavior; Corporate benefits from integrity; Comunicação ética; Comportamento ético das partes interessadas; Benefícios empresariais da integridade

Integrity is intrinsically valued by its ethical nature, but it has also been equated as a driver of benefits to organizations. In designing explanatory models on the benefits of integrity, literature has highlighted the manager’s communication focused on ethics as well as stakeholders’ ethical behavior as drivers of such benefits. Having been a victim of fraud also emerges in literature as a crucial factor to be considered but it still lacks integration. This study posits a mediation model that links manager’s ethics-focused communication to benefits of integrity via stakeholders’ ethical behavior considering the interaction with having been a victim of fraud. To test this conceptual model, we deployed a Path Analysis on 200 valid answers from C-suite individuals representing companies in Portugal (65%), Mozambique (19%), and Angola (16%). Findings show manager’s ethics-focused communication increase internal stakeholder’s ethical behavior which increases benefits from corporate reputation. Fraud interacts with manager’s ethics-focused communication where internal stakeholders that have not experienced fraud show weaker relation with ethical behaviors compared to those that experienced such fraud. Findings are discussed at the light of theory and implications drawn to management practice.