Finding Inner Harmony in the Paradoxical Coexistence of Leadership Innovation and Ethics

Morris, Lonnie R.

doi:10.1002/jls.21445

Cited by 1 publication

(4 citation statements)

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“…Entrepreneurs with low levels of moral awareness are also more likely to take risks (Baucus et al , 2008; Morris, 2016; Zhang and Arvey, 2009), and risk-taking is integral to individual creativity (Abbey and Dickson, 1983). The creation of new ideas and behaviors is risky and highly uncertain and the action-outcome link is often tortuous and spreads over time (Sethia, 1989; Csikszentmihalyi and Wolfe, 2014).…”

Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, entrepreneurs’ ethical behavior can enhance individual founding members’ creativity and innovative work behavior through stimulating their intrinsic motivation and increasing psychological empowerment and autonomy (Feng et al , 2016; Tu and Lu, 2013). Autonomy is a way for ethical leaders to convey trust to founding members (Morris, 2016), and the resulting trusting relationship can stimulate the creativity of the founding team by allowing team members to freely generate different ideas and voices with no concern about the leaders’ disapproval (Chen and Hou, 2016).…”

Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Entrepreneurs regularly face ethical dilemmas and need to choose between pursuing personal gains and following moral principles (Morris, 2016). Their choices may not only impact their firms’ stakeholders but also affect firm behavior and performance (Berrone et al , 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While ethics is increasingly important and visible in decision-making processes associated with product innovation, few studies have investigated the mechanisms through which the ethical levels of entrepreneurs affect product innovation (Brusoni and Vaccaro, 2017; Fisscher et al , 2005; Miles et al , 2004; Ward, 2015). Some scholars suggest a negative association between the ethical levels of entrepreneurs and product innovation and argue that low levels of ethics are strongly associated with generating creative ideas that facilitate product innovation (Brenkert, 2009; Morris, 2016). Others, however, suggest that entrepreneurs who make ethical decisions can ensure better organizational outcomes including employee creativity and ensuing product innovation (Baucus et al , 2008; Ferrell et al , 2013; Tu and Lu, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effects of entrepreneurs’ moral awareness and ethical behavior on product innovation of new ventures

Mai

Zhang

Wang

2019

CMS

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to apply the social cognitive theory and social learning theory to examine the different mechanisms through which entrepreneurs’ moral awareness and ethical behavior affect the product innovation of new ventures. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected survey data from 150 founders and 389 founding team members of new ventures in China in 2015. The final sample contained 113 questionnaires from entrepreneurs and 246 questionnaires from their founding team members. Regression analyses were used to test direct effects, and Preacher and Hayes’ (2004) formal mediation test approach with bootstrapping method was used to evaluate the mediation effects. Findings The findings indicate that the ethical levels of entrepreneurs can affect the product innovation of a new venture through two paths: entrepreneurs with low levels of moral awareness tend to be more individually creative, which facilitates product innovation, and entrepreneurs with high levels of ethical behavior can make founding teams more creative, which also promotes product innovation. Practical implications The findings of this study suggest that entrepreneurs are not negatively affected by their low moral awareness as long as they exhibit high ethical behavior with founding team members. But such low moral awareness has to be genuine. The best way to promote product innovation in the long run is to create an organizational culture of ethical behavior rather than to ignore moral issues in decision-making. Originality/value This study challenges the assumption that moral awareness and ethical behavior are always consistent. It takes an initial step to resolve the contradiction in the current literature regarding the relationship between the ethical levels of entrepreneurs and product innovation in the context of founders and founding teams in new ventures.

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