All Hands on Deck Special Session: Personifying Socially Responsible Corporations: Scale Development and Validation: An Abstract

Abstract

This paper aims to develop an alternative model based on traditional Chinese Confucius ideologies and normative ethics that is different from existing strategic orientations. The philosophy of Confucius emphasizes the wholehearted social responsibility of a “Junzi,” the ideal image of a holy man in Confucianism, who always undertakes to behave righteously in all situations. Analogous to the popular marketing concept and the associated strategic marketing orientation concept, we define our Junzi concept as a business philosophy and Junzi orientation as the organizational behavior involved in the implementation of the guiding philosophy.

Based on in-depth interviews with experienced Chinese business managers together with a comprehensive review of the existing literature, Junzi orientation is defined as a multidimensional behavioral construct made up of five dimensions: (1) Ren—benevolence or humaneness: Ren is the extent to which the company attempts to care about and satisfy the needs of its stakeholders; (2) Yi—appropriateness or righteousness: Yi is the extent to which the company acts in a righteousness manner and undertakes to do so at all costs; (3) Li—propriety or harmonious differentiation: Li is the extent to which the company strives to look for a harmonious relationship with its stakeholders and keeps the balance between conflicting needs of stakeholders to achieve a win-win outcome for all stakeholders; (4) Zhi—wisdom or knowledge management: Zhi is the extent to which the company recognizes the importance of learning and long-term vision, and the ability to see things as they truly are; (5) Xin—integrity or trustworthiness: Xin is the extent to which the company acts in an honest and trustworthy manner.

A 30-item scale was developed based on the expert panel and a pilot study with MBA and MSc students in Hong Kong. The scale and other outcome measurements were mailed to 2760 firms in different industries in Hong Kong. The sample frame was obtained from the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the oldest and largest nonprofit association representing all firms in Hong Kong. Four hundred and twenty-three questionnaires were collected (after two waves of mail and one wave of telephone reminder), representing a response rate of 15.3%. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, and the scale was found to be reliable and valid. The data also support that Junzi orientation has a positive influence on company performance.