The Moderating Effect of Corporate Governance between Management of Ethics and Firm Performance

Abstract

This research has logically investigated and practically analyzed whether a firm's management ethics affect the firm's performance. The proxy measure of management of ethics is the KEJI Index score, the companies assessed with the KEJI, which is published over 6 years from 2004 to 2009 by the Economic Justice Institutein Korea. According to the analysis results, firstly, management of ethics has a positive effect on the ROA firm performance, which supports the existing research results on that the firms that better manage ethics have a better economic performance. Secondly, we found interaction effects of corporate governance on the relationship between management of ethics and firm's performance. One can say that these results bring a new theoretic perspective academically on the reputation effect through management of ethics, and how it affects the firm's performance. Also in practice, the results show not only how the management of ethics is done just for a social flow in enforcing the management of ethics, but also that it is important to make amendments according to the management of ethics by recognizing it's importance and influence on increasing the firm's performance.