CEO ethical leadership and corporate social responsibility: Examining the mediating role of organizational ethical culture and intellectual capital

Abstract

AbstractRecent studies have increasingly suggested leadership as a major antecedent to corporate social responsibility (CSR), empirical studies, which investigated the influence of various leadership aspects such as style and ethics on CSR and unraveled the mechanism through which leadership exerts its impact on CSR were restricted. Thus, the purpose of this research was to study the relationship between CEO ethical leadership and CSR by focusing on the mediating role of ethical culture and the intellectual capital facets (human capital and social capital) of the organization. Data for current research were collected through personally administered questionnaire through survey. Based on a sample of 250 respondents, the current study instituted that CEO ethical leadership positively affected CSR. Intellectual capital facets (human and social) and organizational ethical culture were observed to have a mediating effect on CEO ethical leadership and CSR relationship. Practical implications of the results are also given in the current study. Moreover, study limitations and directions for future study have also been presented.