TY - JOUR
T1 - Behavioral economics and monetary wisdom
T2 - A cross-level analysis of monetary aspiration, pay (dis)satisfaction, risk perception, and corruption in 32 nations
AU - Tang, Thomas Li Ping
AU - Li, Zhen
AU - Özbek, Mehmet Ferhat
AU - Lim, Vivien K.G.
AU - Teo, Thompson S.H.
AU - Ansari, Mahfooz A.
AU - Sutarso, Toto
AU - Garber, Ilya
AU - Chiu, Randy Ki Kwan
AU - Charles-Pauvers, Brigitte
AU - Urbain, Caroline
AU - Luna-Arocas, Roberto
AU - Chen, Jingqiu
AU - Tang, Ningyu
AU - Tang, Theresa Li Na
AU - Arias-Galicia, Fernando
AU - De La Torre, Consuelo Garcia
AU - Vlerick, Peter
AU - Akande, Adebowale
AU - Al-Zubaidi, Abdulqawi Salim
AU - Kazem, Ali Mahdi
AU - Borg, Mark G.
AU - Cheng, Bor Shiuan
AU - Du, Linzhi
AU - Ibrahim, Abdul Hamid Safwat
AU - Kim, Kilsun
AU - Malovics, Eva
AU - Mpoyi, Richard T.
AU - Nnedum, Obiajulu Anthony Ugochukwu
AU - Sardžoska, Elisaveta Gjorgji
AU - Allen, Michael W.
AU - Correia, Rosário
AU - Jen, Chin Kang
AU - Moreira, Alice S.
AU - Osagie, Johnston E.
AU - Osman-Gani, AAhad M.
AU - Pholsward, Ruja
AU - Polic, Marko
AU - Skobic, Petar
AU - Stembridge, Allen F.
AU - Canova, Luigina
AU - Manganelli, Anna Maria
AU - Pitariu, Adrian H.
AU - Pereira, Francisco José Costa
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Corruption involves greed, money, and risky decision-making. We explore the love of money, pay satisfaction, probability of risk, and dishonesty across cultures. Avaricious monetary aspiration breeds unethicality. Prospect theory frames decisions in the gains-losses domain and high-low probability. Pay dissatisfaction (in the losses domain) incites dishonesty in the name of justice at the individual level. The Corruption Perceptions Index, CPI, signals a high-low probability of getting caught for dishonesty at the country level. We theorize that decision-makers adopt avaricious love-of-money aspiration as a lens and frame dishonesty in the gains-losses domain (pay satisfaction-dissatisfaction, Level 1) and high-low probability (CPI, Level 2) to maximize expected utility and ultimate serenity. We challenge the myth: Pay satisfaction mitigates dishonesty across nations consistently. Based on 6500 managers in 32 countries, our cross-level three-dimensional visualization offers the following discoveries. Under high aspiration conditions, pay dissatisfaction excites the highest- (third-highest) avaricious justice-seeking dishonesty in high (medium) CPI nations, supporting the certainty effect. However, pay satisfaction provokes the second-highest avaricious opportunity-seizing dishonesty in low CPI entities, sustaining the possibility effect—maximizing expected utility. Under low aspiration conditions, high pay satisfaction consistently leads to low dishonesty, demonstrating risk aversion—achieving ultimate serenity. We expand prospect theory from a micro and individual-level theory to a cross-level theory of monetary wisdom across 32 nations. We enhance the S-shaped Curve to three 3-D corruption surfaces across three levels of the global economic pyramid, providing novel insights into behavioral economics, business ethics, the environment, and responsibility.
AB - Corruption involves greed, money, and risky decision-making. We explore the love of money, pay satisfaction, probability of risk, and dishonesty across cultures. Avaricious monetary aspiration breeds unethicality. Prospect theory frames decisions in the gains-losses domain and high-low probability. Pay dissatisfaction (in the losses domain) incites dishonesty in the name of justice at the individual level. The Corruption Perceptions Index, CPI, signals a high-low probability of getting caught for dishonesty at the country level. We theorize that decision-makers adopt avaricious love-of-money aspiration as a lens and frame dishonesty in the gains-losses domain (pay satisfaction-dissatisfaction, Level 1) and high-low probability (CPI, Level 2) to maximize expected utility and ultimate serenity. We challenge the myth: Pay satisfaction mitigates dishonesty across nations consistently. Based on 6500 managers in 32 countries, our cross-level three-dimensional visualization offers the following discoveries. Under high aspiration conditions, pay dissatisfaction excites the highest- (third-highest) avaricious justice-seeking dishonesty in high (medium) CPI nations, supporting the certainty effect. However, pay satisfaction provokes the second-highest avaricious opportunity-seizing dishonesty in low CPI entities, sustaining the possibility effect—maximizing expected utility. Under low aspiration conditions, high pay satisfaction consistently leads to low dishonesty, demonstrating risk aversion—achieving ultimate serenity. We expand prospect theory from a micro and individual-level theory to a cross-level theory of monetary wisdom across 32 nations. We enhance the S-shaped Curve to three 3-D corruption surfaces across three levels of the global economic pyramid, providing novel insights into behavioral economics, business ethics, the environment, and responsibility.
KW - cross-level analysis, measurement invariance, common method variance
KW - dishonesty, corruption, wrongdoing, unethicality
KW - greedy desires, avaricious monetary aspiration, love of money attitude, monetary wisdom
KW - international, global, cross-cultural
KW - pay satisfaction-dissatisfaction, gains-losses, justice, equity perceptions, Level 1
KW - prospect theory, risk-taking, risk-aversion, the certainty effect, the possibility effect, S Curve, behavioral economics
KW - theory of planned behavior, TPB, attitude, social norms, control, intention
KW - transparency, high-low probability of risk, CPI, environmental context, country level, Level 2
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85150885628&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/beer.12505
DO - 10.1111/beer.12505
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85150885628
SN - 2694-6416
JO - Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility
JF - Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility
ER -