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Building on work showing that prosperity fuels overconfidence, risk-taking, and greed, we argue that ethical behavior improves when the economy falters. Five studies spanning diverse populations and different types of misconduct find support for this hypothesis. Our findings suggest that diffuse environmental factors can affect unethical behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female representation in top management remains stubbornly low. Of CEOs in public companies in the US for example, only 6.6% are women. One piece of the puzzle relates to audience reaction -- analysts, who are sophisticated and informed actors reduce their recommendations following the first earnings call with an incoming female CEO (on average, from "hold" to "sell"). We use a novel dataset of containing the voice recordings of 60,038 earnings calls, and a novel computational approach that extracts to examine these earnings calls and ask why do analyst reduce (increase) their recommendation when a new Female (Male) CEO is appointed. The scale of our data (3,465 publicly listed firms, 203,159 executives and 266,340 analysts sampled at 15-second intervals -- yielding 11.5 million observations of individual participant speech, and intonation), and it's panel structure (from 2011 to 2019) allows us exceptional granularity. We find that although it seems that analysts penalize female CEOs, they only do so when female CEOs use a distinctly female type speech (uptalk). Non-uptalk using incoming female CEOs, or uptalk using male CEOs are not penalized. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to use large-scale voice data of earnings calls, and we, therefore, end by reporting how voice data compares to text data in established measures (e.g. positive, negative, financial, uncertainty etc) that demonstrate the usefulness of voice data over transcribed text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This symposium aims to investigate the connection between micro-level processes and macro-level phenomena in social networks. It will specifically focus on understanding the individual factors that contribute to the formation of social connections, the influence of formal organizational structures on social interactions, and how individuals and organizations can or cannot gain from being part of a network. The symposium also aims to explore new ways of understanding social network mechanisms. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and potential solutions to causality in social network analysis, the symposium will feature four papers, three of which use a mixed-method approach and one of which uses a qualitative, inductive study. Putting Work Back into Networking: How Unembedded Entrepreneurs Navigate Networking Arenas Author: Rand Gerges Yammine; ESCP Business School Author: Anne L.J. Ter Wal; Imperial College Business School Author: Namrata Malhotra; Imperial College London His and Hers Gratitude: The Role of Gender in Shaping Gratitude and Collaboration Networks Author: Evelyn Ying Zhang; Frankfurt School of Finance & Management Author: Wu Liu; Hong Kong Polytechnic U. Author: Xiaofei Hu; Hong Kong Polytechnic U. Author: Xinwen Bai; Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Need for Closure, (In)Formal Structures, and Individual Performance Author: Alessandro Iorio; Bocconi U. Author: Manuel David Gomez-Solorzano; Tilburg School of Economics and Management (TiSEM), Tilburg U. Author: Giuseppe Soda; Bocconi U. The Contaminating Effect of Social Capital: Upper-Class Networks Increase Unethical Behavior Author: Siyu Yu; U. of Michigan, Ross School of Business Author: Jiyin Cao; Stony Brook U.-State U. of New York Author: Aharon Cohen Mohliver; London Business School [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceptions of the morality of organizations drive important outcomes for both organizations themselves and their stakeholders. In this symposium four teams of scholars present research on morality in groups explaining the psychological processes behind our perceptions of group morality as well as providing insight into the consequences that these perceptions create. Ana Gantman begins the symposium with evidence for a mental model through which people assess wrongdoing in hierarchical organizations. Next, Julia Langdon also explores perceptions following unethical behavior by group members. She investigates the relationship between the number of group members responsible and perceptions of the group as a whole, making the case that perceptions of collusion mediate this relationship. Subsequently, Aharon Mohliver explores how closing loopholes -- an act done in the service of reducing deviance and increasing compliance -- can, under certain conditions increase subversion. Finally, Bill Brady submits research that shows how the medium through which many people learn news -- social media -- is itself triggering systemic over perception of the moral outrage of groups. Together these talks provide insights into the underlying psychological mechanisms driving our perceptions of group morality, as well as the consequences that this can have. * Intuitive Dualism and Corporate Responsibility * Presenter: Ana Gantman; Brooklyn College * Presenter: Nirupika Sharma; U. of California, Berkeley * Presenter: Grace Flores-Robles; CUNY Graduate Center, Baruch College * Members Behaving Badly: Perceptions of Group Morality Following Unethical Behavior * Presenter: Julia A. Langdon; London Business School * Presenter: Gabrielle Adams; U. of Virginia * When a Finger in the Dike Floods the Plains: Closing Loopholes Can Increase Subversion of the Law * Presenter: Aharon Cohen Mohliver; London Business School * Presenter: Celia Moore; Imperial College Business School * Overperception of collective outrage in online social networks * Presenter: William Brady; Yale U. * Presenter: Killian McLoughlin; Yale U. * Presenter: Mark Torres; Yale U. * Presenter: Kara Luo; Yale U. * Presenter: Molly Crockett; Yale U. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms and their executives are increasingly taking a stand on socio-politically salient yet contentious issues such as racial equality, global warming, gun control, immigration, and LGBTQ rights. Yet, our scholarly understanding on the antecedents and consequences of this growing phenomenon of corporate activism remains relatively limited. The goal of this panel is to explore key research questions to be answered and future directions and opportunities for research on corporate activism. The panel includes scholars who are actively researching this topic and have made important contributions to our understanding of corporate activism. Panelists will share insights and engage with the audience on both the promise and potential pitfalls of studying this topic, as well as how a study of corporate activism can build not only from the nonmarket literatures on social movements, stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility, but also from related strategy literatures, such as resource-based theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having friends in high places is often considered necessary to achieve success. Indeed, connections with upper-class individuals has been identified as a key component of social capital. Despite the tangible benefits upper-class network contacts can offer, we find that these networks have a dark side: the increased potential for unethical behavior, over and above one's own social class. We propose that because upper-class individuals are less constrained by social norms, individuals with many upper-class contacts will perceive their network as having looser social norms. As a result, individuals with upper-class network ties will view morality as more relative and will be more likely to engage in unethical behavior. To test our core hypothesis that having upper-class contacts increases unethical behavior, we conducted five multi-method (archival, field, quasi-experimental, and experimental) studies involving a range of samples (CEOs, nationally representative adults, student roommates) in multiple cultures. This research takes a property of networks (its class composition), links it to perceptions of that network (the perceived norm looseness of one's network contacts) and connects it to a psychological mindset (moral relativism) that ultimately affects unethical behavior. Our findings show that the benefits of social capital also carry a moral cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop and test the idea that financial markets reward firms for "picking sides" along ideological faultlines. Building on sociology research showing that the views of Americans on certain moral values remain polarized, and that Americans associate products with moral values, we suggest that some individuals will reward firms for supporting a contested social issue--and some, for opposing it. We test our argument using data from the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which scores a large number of U.S. companies on their LGBTQ-related policies and activities (2002-18). We make several observations: (1) firms tend to score the highest (indicating support for LGBTQ issues) when they are headquartered in liberal states and operate in non-heavily regulated, consumer-facing industries; (2) CEI scores become more polarized over time, with a substantial minority of firms reducing their score (i.e., eliminating HR policies supporting LGBTQ employees) and a substantial majority receiving the highest score; and (3) firms receiving very high scores experience a stock-price increase when the index is released, as do firms receiving very low scores. We draw broader implications for the corporate social responsibility and social movements literatures, as well as for popular accounts of a "culture war" in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms and their managers are increasingly taking a stand on pivotal and often polarizing social and political issues such as gun control, immigration, LGBT rights, and climate change. Yet management research has only recently begun to explore the antecedents and consequences of such corporate activism. The purpose of this panel is to explore opportunities and future directions for research on corporate activism. Panelists will share insights regarding both the promise and potential pitfalls of studying this topic, as well as how a study of corporate activism can build from the non-market literatures on social movements, stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility, and from related strategy literatures, such as resource-based theory and upper echelons theory. The panel includes scholars who are actively researching this topic and have made important contributions to our understanding of corporate activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this symposium we present five papers focused on how the judgments of external stakeholders affect the apportionment of the consequences of misconduct. The papers included attack the question in various settings and across levels of analysis, ranging from teachers' personal comportment to members' of Parliament misspending to corporate fraud. Yet each paper investigates how social control agents - including the media, institutional investors, stock analysts, and other audiences - draw inferences about the seriousness and severity of infractions, and how these inferences affect the punishments that are assigned to various actors involved. This symposium will generate conversation about both theoretical and empirical questions related to misconduct and ethics, stakeholder relationships, and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has shown that ethical behavior can be influenced by features of the immediate environment such as the presence of a cheater or the characteristics of a room. We suggest ethical behavior is similarly shaped by a more diffuse and enduring situational feature: the state of the economy. Building on work showing that prosperity fuels overconfidence, risk-taking, and greed, we argue that ethical behavior improves when the economy falters. Five studies spanning diverse populations and different types of misconduct find support for this hypothesis. During prosperous economic times, companies were more likely to submit regulatory filings that would later be restated for fraud (Study 1), academics were more likely to publish papers that later would be retracted (Study 2), Major League Baseball pitchers were more likely to try to harm opposing batters (Study 3), and students were more likely to steal, damage property, shoplift, and submit plagiarized work (Studies 4 and 5). While a large body of research has shown that proximal situational variables can influence ethical impulses, our findings suggest that more diffuse macroeconomic factors can similarly shape unethical behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the big questions following the enactment of new corporate legislation is whether it is effective in altering firm behavior. In this paper, we push this question further to investigate how legislation might be effective in altering firm behavior, independent of the coercive nature of legislation and enforcement. We study the impact of the Sarbanes- Oxley Act of 2002 on the behavior of publicly traded firms restating earnings. We find that Sarbanes-Oxley does generate a change in behavior, such that firms are much more likely to take costly remedial action - in the form of firing the Chief Executive Officer or Chief Financial Officer - in the wake of a restatement after the legislation was enacted than they were before. We also find that Sarbanes-Oxley redirects media attention to the problem of restatement, and that this media attention is itself associated with more costly remedial action. Finally, we find that media attention partially mediates the effects of the legislation on firm response, suggesting that it is the redirection of attention, rather than the legislation itself, that changes organizational behavior. This conclusion is further supported by a regression discontinuity analysis, which reveals a change in firm behavior even for those organizations not yet subject to the terms of the legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine whether strong environmental circumstances at an impressionable stage of life will have lasting implications for ethical behavior. Drawing on work showing that perceptions of financial abundance increase the likelihood of ethical transgressions as well as imprinting work suggesting that early career conditions can leave a lasting mark on later career behavior, we propose that entering the workforce during an economic boom will increase the likelihood that people will engage in ethically questionable practices later in their careers. Using a large sample of American executives between 1996 and 2005, we find that those who began their careers in economically prosperous times were more likely to backdate stock options later in their careers. While past work has shown that contextual cues affect the likelihood of engaging in unethical behavior, the present findings suggest that strong environmental conditions at a formative period of life can affect ethical impulses for a long time to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]