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 Kim Geok
AU - Teo, Thompson Sian Hin
AU - Ansari, Mahfooz A.
AU - Sutarso, Toto
AU - Garber, Ilya
AU - CHIU, Randy K
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 - Garcia de la Torre, Consuelo
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, Anthony Ugochukwu Obiajulu
AU - Sardžoska, Elisaveta Gjorgji
AU - Allen, Michael W.
AU - Correia, Rosario
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 - Copyright publisher:
© 2023 The Authors. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2023/7
Y1 - 2023/7
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
KW - measurement invariance
KW - common method variance
KW - dishonesty
KW - corruption
KW - wrongdoing
KW - unethicality
KW - greedy desires
KW - avaricious monetary aspiration
KW - love of money attitude
KW - monetary wisdom
KW - nternational
KW - global
KW - cross-cultural
KW - pay satisfaction-dissatisfaction
KW - gains-losses
KW - justice
KW - equity perceptions
KW - Level 1
KW - prospect theory
KW - risk-taking
KW - risk-aversion
KW - the certainty effect
KW - the possibility effect
KW - S Curve
KW - behavioral economics
KW - theory of planned behavior
KW - TPB
KW - attitude
KW - social norms
KW - control
KW - intention
KW - transparency
KW - high-low probability of risk
KW - CPI
KW - environmental context
KW - country level
KW - Level 2
UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/beer.12505
U2 - 10.1111/beer.12505
DO - 10.1111/beer.12505
M3 - Journal article
SN - 2694-6416
VL - 32
SP - 925
EP - 945
JO - Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility
JF - Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility
IS - 3
ER -
