企业反伦理行为是转型期我国上市公司频繁发生的治理乱象,也是商业伦理研究的热点。本文以2006--2011年A股市场因违规操作被监管机构公开谴责、批评或处罚的327家公司及其PSM配对样本为研究对象,采用二分类Probit回归方法实证检验了高管性别对企业伦理决策的影响效应。研究发现,高管性别是影响企业伦理决策的重要因素:当高管团队中存在女性成员或女性高管的比例上升时,公司发生反伦理性违规操作的概率显著降低。同时,女性高管抑制反伦理性违规操作的治理效果受到企业权力配置结构调节作用的影响。具体来讲,“一把手”权力强度越大(越集权),女性高管抑制反伦理性违规操作的积极作用越突出。本研究拓展了对企业反伦理行为决定因素的理论认知,也对女性高管决策与治理领域的研究文献贡献了新的知识。
Corporate unethical behavior happens frequently in Chinese stock market dur- ing the transition period, and also attracts much attention from scholars in the field of busi- ness ethics. In order to investigate the impact of executive gender on corporate unethical be- havior, this paper estimates the bivariate Probit model with the data of 327 Chinese listed companies publicly condemned,criticized and punished by regulatory authority owing to cor- porate fraud and their propensity score matching companies from 2006 to 2011. It comes to the conclusions that executive gender is the important factor affecting firm ethical decisions: higher ratio of female managers in top management team or female executives leads to the significant reduction in the possibility of corporate unethical fraud. Meanwhile, power alloca- tion structure plays an adjustment role in the governance effect of female executives on un- ethical fraud. Specifically speaking, more power possessed by chiefs results in more domi- nantly active role of female executives on the inhibition of unethical fraud. This paper ex- tends the theoretical cognition of the determinants of corporate unethical behavior and makes contributions to the literature of female executive decision-making and governance.