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Coevolution of Strategy, Innovation and Ethics

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Abstract

The way in which business ethics change over time will remain theoretically unclear unless we empirically reveal the temporal coevolution and coalignment among a changing environment, transitional institutions, strategic adaptations, and performance implications. To revitalize this coevolutionary perspective in business ethics research, in this special issue, we ask the following question: how do business ethics practices coevolve with a changing society and technology advancement as a result of the strategic choices of organizations in adapting to and shaping the environment? This special issue includes a collection of seven empirical studies of business ethics in China that differ in methodology and empirical context but collectively showcase the change in business ethics practices in an emerging economy and the processes underlying this change. Based upon the findings, we propose a conceptual model of the coevolution among business ethics practices, technological innovation, institutional transition and disruptive events; then, we pose questions for future research.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Mary Sully de Luque, the editor of the Journal of Business Ethics, for her guidance and support throughout the publication process. We also thank Dan Li and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback. The project was supported in part by research grants from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and National Natural Science Foundation of China (72072124, 72272106, 72272083), and by the Center for Business Studies and Innovation in Asia-Pacific at the University of San Francisco.

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  1. School of Management, University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117, USA

    Liang Wang

  2. Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3, Canada

    Justin Tan

  3. College of Economics and Management, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Justin Tan

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  1. Liang Wang
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Correspondence to Justin Tan.

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Wang, L., Tan, J. Coevolution of Strategy, Innovation and Ethics. J Bus Ethics 186, 711–721 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05439-4

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