Everyday-Life Business Deviance Among Chinese SME Owners

Junzhe Ji, Pavlos Dimitratos, Qingan Huang, Taoyong Su

Journal of Business Ethics · 2019 · Volume 155 · Issue 4

Abstract

Despite its prevalence in emerging economies, everyday-life business deviance (EBD) and its antecedents have received surprisingly little research attention. Drawing on strain theory and the business-ethics literature, we develop a socio-psychological explanation for this deviance. Our analysis of 741 owners of Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) suggests that materialism and trust in institutional justice affect EBD both directly and indirectly in a relationship mediated by the ethical standards of SME owners. These findings have important implications for researching deviant business behavior within SMEs.

Keywords

Everyday-life business deviance, Ethical standards, Materialism, Strain theory, Trust in institutional justice

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