Emotions and behavioural ethics : the case of asset management and investment banking

• Main Author: Dobra-Kiel, Alexandra
• Published: University of Warwick 2017
• Subjects: 320; HG Finance
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.742235

This PhD Dissertation, structured by essays, aims to contribute to the field of emotions and behavioural ethics by spanning across disciplinary boundaries and methodological approaches. The ‘General Introduction’ provides a background as well as an overview of the contributions of this PhD Dissertation. The first essay provides the first systematic review on emotions and ethical decision-making, based on 38 empirical studies published between 2008 and 2017. At a methodological level, it reflects on the research methods that have been deployed so far to validate the study of the role of emotions on ethical decision-making. At a content level, it outlines the impact, in terms of outcomes, of different categories of emotions on ethical decision-making, through developing a 2x2 matrix of categories and outcomes. It concludes by recommending future thematic research avenues at both a methodological and content-level. The second essay provides the first exploratory study of implicit ethical behaviour and integral emotion responses in the asset management industry, through critical incident interviews with 38 elite fund managers in top-tier and boutique asset management companies in the UK. The latent thematic analysis of the interviews, guided by an essentialist paradigm, contributes to a contextualised elaboration of theory by developing a framework linking dimensions of ethical behaviour (i.e., authenticity and responsibility) with emotion responses (i.e., control and motivation). It contributes to the literature on ethical theories/value orientation, emotion regulation and appraisal theories by highlighting congruencies and incongruencies with existing research. The third essay provides a group-level psychosocial analysis of ethical risk on both a conscious and unconscious tier. Furthermore, it identifies how emotional contagion and RegTech (i.e., regulatory technology) efficiency affect ethical risk. It develops a mid-range model of ethical risk, alongside a typology of ethical behaviour and risk, and discusses theoretical and managerial implications.