International Journal of Ethics and Systems

vLex
Publisher:
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Publication date:
2021-02-01
ISBN:
2514-9369

Issue Number

Latest documents

  • Editorial: Artificial intelligence and ethics in business, finance and economics
  • Digital distractions and work-leisure balance: excessive information through digital consumption and its impact on work ethic among Muslims

    Purpose: Excessive digital consumption can lead to a blurring of boundaries between work and leisure. This paper aims to investigate the influence of digital consumption on the work ethic among Muslims, integrating demographic variables like gender and marital status into the analysis. Design/methodology/approach: Using data from the 7th wave of the World Values Survey, this study focuses on a subset of 12,979 employed Muslims to assess the relationships between their engagement with digital media and their work-related values. Multiple linear regression models are used to analyze the effects of various digital platforms, including mobile phones, social media and internet usage, on the perceived importance of work and related ethic principles. Findings: The findings indicate a significant negative impact of over digital consumption on work ethic, suggesting that increased digital engagement and tech-overload may undermine traditional work values. The relationship persists in all models on success inclusion of control variables, which confirms the robustness of the relationship. However, this relationship varies among demographic groups, with males and singles being more susceptible to the negative impacts compared to females and married individuals. Originality/value: The study contributes to understanding how digital consumption influences traditional work values and offers recommendations for balancing digital consumption to maintain a robust work ethic in modern digital societies.

  • Human-robot dynamics: a psychological insight into the ethics of social robotics

    Purpose: Social robotics is a rapidly growing application of artificial intelligence (AI) in society, encompassing an expanding range of applications. This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing integration of psychology into social robotics ethics by reviewing current theories and empirical findings related to human–robot interaction (HRI) and addressing critical points of contention within the ethics discourse. Design/methodology/approach: The authors will explore the factors influencing the acceptance of social robots, explore the development of relationships between humans and robots and delve into three prominent controversies: deception, dehumanisation and violence. Findings: The authors first propose design factors allowing for a positive interaction with the robot, and further discuss precise dimensions to evaluate when designing a social robot to ensure ethical design technology, building on the four ethical principles for trustworthy AI. The final section of this paper will outline and offer explicit recommendations for future research endeavours. Originality/value: This paper provides originality and value to the field of social robotics ethics by integrating psychology into the ethical discourse and offering a comprehensive understanding of HRI. It introduces three ethical dimensions and provides recommendations for implementing them, contributing to the development of ethical design in social robots and trustworthy AI.

  • Editorial: social and green finance, ESGs, good governance, and ethics to avoid corruption and fraud in business and government
  • Digital technologies and social sustainability in the digital transformation age: a systematic analysis and research agenda

    Purpose: This paper aims to systematically review the constructive effects of digital transformation (DT) on social sustainability, examining its impact across democracy and governance, social cohesion, quality of life, equality and diversity. It emphasizes the need for appropriate frameworks that incorporate DT strategies in organizational practices to improve social sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review was carried out through Web of Science and Scopus databases to identify the distinctive papers that explored the impact of DT on social sustainability. It analyzes how various digital technologies, like Internet of Things, cloud computing and mobile computing, can be strategically embedded in organizational practices to optimize social sustainability outcomes. Findings: This study reveals that although DT significantly enhances operational capabilities and consumer experiences, its integration into social sustainability practices is often overlooked. It proposes a novel framework that aligns digital capabilities with sustainability goals, aiming to enrich organizational performance and societal welfare. This paper identifies dynamic capabilities as crucial for sustaining competitive advantage in a digitally transformed business landscape. Research limitations/implications: The primary limitation is the reliance on secondary data, which may not fully capture the rapid advancements in DT. Future research should focus on empirical studies to validate the proposed framework and explore the dynamic capabilities required for integrating DT in social sustainability practices. Originality/value: This study extends the discourse on DT by linking it explicitly with social sustainability, presenting a structured analysis that highlights the need for strategic integration of digital technologies within organizational sustainability practices. It fills a gap in the literature by proposing a comprehensive framework for organizations to follow, thereby contributing to the theoretical and practical understanding of DT’s role in enhancing social sustainability.

  • Neurodata-based headsets for the (digital) employee well-being – responsibilities between benefit and harm

    Purpose: This study aims to demonstrate the importance of recognizing stress in the workplace. Accurate novel objective methods that use electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure brainwaves can promote employee well-being. However, using these devices can be positive and potentially harmful as manipulative practices undermine autonomy. Design/methodology/approach: Emphasis is placed on business ethics as it relates to the ethics of action in terms of positive and negative responsibility, autonomous decision-making and self-determined work through a literature review. The concept of relational autonomy provides an orientation toward heteronomous employment relationships. Findings: First, using digital devices to recognize stress and promote health can be a positive outcome, expanding the definition of digital well-being as opposed to dependency, non-use or reduction. Second, the transfer of socio-relational autonomy, according to Oshana, enables criteria for self-determined work in heteronomous employment relationships. Finally, the deployment and use of such EEG-based devices for stress detection can lead to coercion and manipulation, not only in interpersonal relationships, but also directly and more subtly through the technology itself, interfering with self-determined work. Originality/value: Stress at work and EEG-based devices measuring stress have been discussed in numerous articles. This paper is one of the first to explore ethical considerations using these brain–computer interfaces from an employee perspective.

  • Ethical dimensions of generative AI: a cross-domain analysis using machine learning structural topic modeling

    Purpose: The purpose of this study is to comprehensively examine the ethical implications surrounding generative artificial intelligence (AI). Design/methodology/approach: Leveraging a novel methodological approach, the study curates a corpus of 364 documents from Scopus spanning 2022 to 2024. Using the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) and structural topic modeling (STM), it quantitatively dissects the thematic essence of the ethical discourse in generative AI across diverse domains, including education, healthcare, businesses and scientific research. Findings: The results reveal a diverse range of ethical concerns across various sectors impacted by generative AI. In academia, the primary focus is on issues of authenticity and intellectual property, highlighting the challenges of AI-generated content in maintaining academic integrity. In the healthcare sector, the emphasis shifts to the ethical implications of AI in medical decision-making and patient privacy, reflecting concerns about the reliability and security of AI-generated medical advice. The study also uncovers significant ethical discussions in educational and financial settings, demonstrating the broad impact of generative AI on societal and professional practices. Research limitations/implications: This study provides a foundation for crafting targeted ethical guidelines and regulations for generative AI, informed by a systematic analysis using STM. It highlights the need for dynamic governance and continual monitoring of AI’s evolving ethical landscape, offering a model for future research and policymaking in diverse fields. Originality/value: The study introduces a unique methodological combination of TF-IDF and STM to analyze a large academic corpus, offering new insights into the ethical implications of generative AI across multiple domains.

  • Customer perceived ethicality and electronic word of mouth approach to customer loyalty: the mediating role of customer trust

    Purpose: Drawing from stakeholder (ST) and social exchange theory (SET), the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between customer perceived ethicality (CPE), electronic word of mouth (eWOM), customer trust (CT) and customer loyalty (CL). Furthermore, this study aimed to understand the dual role of CPE and eWOM in obtaining CT and achieving CL. Design/methodology/approach: Using a quantitative, cross-sectional research design, data were collected from face-to-face surveys, yielding 358 responses. The partial least square algorithm was used to test the proposed hypothesis. Findings: The analysis revealed that CPE and eWOM positively affect CT and CL, and CT has a mediating effect on the association between CPE–CL and eWOM–CL. CT was also found to positively affect CL. Practical implications: Hotel managers can prioritize ethical practices and leverage the power of eWOM to build trust and achieve loyalty. This integrated approach not only enhances customer satisfaction and retention but also creates a competitive advantage. Originality/value: The novelty of this study lies in the investigation of the dual role played by CPE and eWOM as antecedents of CT and CL within the hotel industry. Finally, this study explains the drivers of CT and CL, thereby making a novel contribution to the literature.

  • Editorial: Green banking, spirituality and ethics in organizations, and social banking and economics
  • FinTech application in Islamic social finance in Asia region: a systematic literature review

    Purpose: This study aims to analyse the existing literature on the utilisation of financial technology (FinTech) in the Islamic social finance (ISF) sector, focusing on tools, applications and benefits. From this study, it is to provide insights for literature or for practitioners on how FinTech can be used in ISF, such as using blockchain (tools) in waqf (application) that can help to enhance transparency and trust (benefits) with donors. It is important to explore new available tools or applications in ISF markets so that such effort can benefit the industry in promoting its growth. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out using Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses (ROSES) which has been based on quality evaluation criteria, beginning with 41,945 entries in Scopus, 25,386 entries in the Web of Science and 1,590 entries in the Google Scholar databases and ending with 35 articles from data abstraction and analysis, all of which focus on tools, applications and benefits of FinTech in ISF sector. Findings: This review yielded three primary themes and eleven sub-themes addressing FinTech, namely applications (four sub-themes: crowdfunding, blockchain, banking service and peer-to-peer (P2P), tools (three sub-themes: waqf, zakat and sadaqah), as well as benefits (four sub-themes: transparency, innovation, inclusiveness and efficiency). Research limitations/implications: This study emphasises on innovative application of FinTech used in ISF industry which focuses on applications, tools and benefits of FinTech to the industry. However, the findings indicate that there is plenty of room for future investigation. The current work outlines several methodological issues and concerns as well as provides recommendations for future research. Various challenges associated with FinTech applications include inadequate regulations, complex permit application procedures, misuse of FinTech for terrorist financing, the existence of fraudulent FinTech companies and consumer disputes in the FinTech sector concerning ISF. There are few in-depth studies on the possible use of FinTech models in ISF, compared to studies focusing on upcoming challenges. This study also highlights the methodological limitations in previous research efforts, which can be used to improve future studies in this area. To offer a more comprehensive analysis, additional search keywords and engines that have not been included in this study could be used in future investigations with different methodologies. Practical implications: For practitioners, the paper has significant managerial consequences. The analysis provides insights into real-life opportunities, limits and solutions for improving performance management by looking at FinTech applications from a larger and more diverse perspective. The practitioners, especially the State Islamic Religious Council, can recognise the benefits of using FinTech technology in ISF (waqf, zakat and sadaqah), namely under their jurisdiction. Originality/value: This systematic literature assessment identifies critical knowledge gaps that must be addressed such as the applications of FinTech that are still ambiguous, with certain applications not completely embraced in the ISF industry. This study uses SLR technique to categorise literature, identify gaps in current studies and provide recommendations for the research issue (Paul and Criado, 2020), instead of using the other previous methodology such as content analysis or qualitative review. Hence, FinTech is considered an innovative or new approach in ISF industry.

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