ASSESSING THE RESPONSIVENESS OF SINGAPORE COMPANIS TO SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS ON BUSINESS ETHICS AND STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

Abstract

A growing emphasis on business ethics and stakeholder management as integral elements of corporate social responsibility can be seen from the establishment of the Singapore Compact and the recent review of the corporate governance code in Singapore. While there are clearly heightened expectations for businesses to uphold high ethical standards and be accountable to their stakeholders, their preparedness in meeting these obligations remains fairly unexplored in the local context. This study aims to fill the research gap by assessing the responsiveness of Singapore companies to these expectations, based on their implementation of supporting structures and measures in the organisation. It also examines the effects of industry type, company size and public listing on corporate responsiveness in these domains. To this end, the study deploys a standard questionnaire for data collection. Data was collected from the member companies of Singapore Business Federation. The findings showed that the sampled companies are only somewhat responsive to expectations on business ethics and stakeholder management, with the former performing marginally better than the latter. Company size and public listing were also found to share significant positive relationships with corporate social responsiveness on both domains of expectations. This offers useful feedback and directions for relevant parties to enhance the companies’ performance on these domains in the future.