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The Influence of Retail Management’s Use of Social Power on Corporate Ethical Values, Employee Commitment, and Performance

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An Erratum to this article was published on 23 November 2010

Abstract

Recent cases in retailing reflect that ethics have a major impact on brands and performance, in turn, demonstrating that brand owners, employees, and consumers focus on ethical values. In this study, we analyze how various sources of social power affect corporate ethical values, retailer’s commitment to the retail organization, and ultimately sales and service quality. Multi-source data based on a sample of 225 retailers indicated a strong link between power, ethics, and commitment and that these affected output performance.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Lars Kjaerstad, Geir Myhre Jacobsen, and Roger Gronberg for technical assistance during this research. This research was supported by the Centre for Advanced Research in Retailing at BI Norwegian School of Management. The Research Fund of Norway, (the SUPTEK-program) provided funding for this study. We gratefully acknowledge the comments and suggestions from Roberta W. Berg at BI Norwegian School of Management, and two anonymous reviewers.

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Correspondence to Arne Nygaard.

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The authors contributed equally to this research and are listed alphabetically.

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0684-x

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Nygaard, A., Biong, H. The Influence of Retail Management’s Use of Social Power on Corporate Ethical Values, Employee Commitment, and Performance. J Bus Ethics 97, 87–108 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0497-y

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