THE QUALITY OF MANAGEMENT SCHOOLS AND SUSTAINABILITY: THE MODERATING EFFECT OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOR OF FIRMS
Abstract
Purpose: This paper examines the association between the quality of management schools and sustainability and investigates whether ethical behavior of firms moderates relationship between quality of management schools and sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: The sample consists of 500 country-year observations over the period of 2014-2017. Sustainability is collected from the Global Sustainable Competiveness Index Reports for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, while the quality of management schools and ethical behavior of firms are collected from the Global Competiveness Reports for the same years. Findings: The findings of this study suggest that the quality of management schools is positively associated with sustainability. When testing for the moderating effect of ethical behavior of firms on the association between quality of management schools and sustainability, results show that the positive association becomes positive and more significant for countries where firms operate with high ethical behaviors, while the association becomes insignificant for settings where firms operate with low ethical behaviors. Findings also show that the quality of management schools and ethical behavior of firms play a complimentary role in improving sustainability. Social implications: The findings emphasize the role played by business schools and business ethics in improving sustainability. These results may have policy implications for governments aiming to improve sustainability by emphasizing on education for sustainable development in management schools’ programs, enforcing standards dealing with business ethics and controlling firms’ compliance with them. Originality/value: The findings of this study highlight the importance of education, as proxied by the quality of management schools, in the development of sustainable societies and economic systems
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