Large companies are expected to play a greater role in addressing societal problems. In response, companies are broadening their purposes beyond profit maximization. This paper explores the recent phenomenon of “corporate purpose” using semistructured interviews with managers of six Fortune Global 500 companies in Japan. The study found that the companies have had a broader corporate purpose as Keiei rinen（mission statements）for decades. All six companies activated the duty aspect of purpose by disseminating the purpose within the organization, whereas four companies simultaneously activated the goal aspect of purpose through developing a corporate sustainability strategy. The findings also suggest two aspects of corporate purpose, goal and duty, determine how companies implement their purposes, rather than whether they have developed “purpose statements”.

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Since the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights （UNGPs） in 2011, the debate over the business and human rights （BHR） has significantly developed. Companies have begun formulating human rights policies and conducting the human rights due diligence, including their overseas suppliers. Yet, in developing countries like Africa, where institutional capabilities around human rights are limited, companies tend to face serious challenges of addressing their responsibilities that are not necessarily required in the UNGPs. In addition to refraining from violating human rights, the companies are often demanded to ameliorate them through the contribution to resolving social problems from which the inhabitants are suffering. In other words, the companies are supposed not only to address BHR but also to maximize the corporate social responsibility （CSR）. This paper discusses the challenges and measures to be taken by companies based on the case in Sierra Leone.

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Communication between pharmaceutical companies and patients is restricted in Japan due to specific regulations that prohibit direct promotion of prescription drugs to patients. Currently, however, there is significant interest in patient centricity and making the patient voice a central part of business operations. This study explored how communication with patients influences the perspective of pharmaceutical company employees and affects their behavior and motivation. Interviews with 12 employees who directly communicated with patients found the interviewees gained new perspectives, some changed behaviors, and motivation increased. This implies that until action is taken employees remain in the cognitive change phase and do not perceive motivational change. Thus, communication between employees and patients not only brings an opportunity to integrate the patients’ voice into business but provides a people development opportunity based on cross-boundary learning. Overall, this is worthwhile investment for pharmaceutical companies to drive employees’ behavior and motivation through communication with patients.

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Virtue ethics approaches in business ethics have received increasing research attention in recent years. In these studies, wisdom, courage, temperance, justice, team spirit, teamwork, collaboration, and integrity are specifically mentioned as virtues, but are these regarded as virtues in the Japanese business scene? This presentation aims to identify the qualities that are regarded as virtues in the Japanese business scene, on the basis of the management philosophy of Japanese companies. Text mining is employed to investigate the virtues included in management philosophy and their frequency. KH Coder is used to extract the virtues from frequently occurring words in the management philosophy. The extracted virtues are contribution, trustworthiness, creativity, fairness, responsibility, and so on. From this, it is evident that the virtues in the Japanese business scene are very different from those found in previous studies.

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Product advertising can evoke negative emotions in the human mind. The theme of this paper, “SNS flame war,” originates from posts by people who feel offended or discomfort at the appearance of products or expressions in advertising media. The person who sparks a flame war posts text about what is wrong with the product/ advertisement expression along with an image of the object he or she finds offensive or uncomfortable. What, then, are the mental mechanisms of those who activate a mode of criticism/attack on SNS? This paper analyzes four cases of flame wars caused by product appearance and advertising displays: Prada’s “blackface issue,” H&MGB’s “racism issue,” Dior’s “racism issue,” and IKEA Japan’s “gender roles issue,” and elucidates the mechanism by which information obtained from viewing products and advertisements creates a sense of offense or discomfort in the human mind, which in turn, generates the emotion of anger.

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This study is a qualitative study of women inside directors and officers with experience changing jobs. The experience of women executives changing jobs, especially in large, Japanese-style management company with long-term employment systems, has two meanings. First, due to statistical discrimination, many women move from traditional large firms to performance-based firms, such as foreign-affiliated firms, where they can demonstrate their abilities, early in their careers. Second, the lack of internal development of women in senior management positions in large traditional Japanese companies has led to women who have acquired high skills outside the company moving into executive positions. When women move on after management positions, they already have high job skills, and thus idiosyncrasy credits may be at work and they may be accepted into traditional workplaces.

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This study identifies the impacts of board composition on reducing greenhouse gas （GHG）emissions of Japanese corporations. After reviewing existing studies, the author conducts an empirical analysis. The study’s sample includes 488 corporations and covers the period of 3 years （2017-2019）. A firm fixed effect model is employed wherein the natural log of GHG emissions is the dependent variable, and the ratios of independent outside directors and female directors are the independent variables. My estimation results suggest that board independence has a positive association with carbon reductions. However, I do not find any relationship between gender diversity and carbon reductions. Additionally, CSR stance is found to affect carbon reductions.

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Nonprofit organizations （NPOs） are vulnerable to fraud, which negatively impacts the organization's reputation, future funding, and ability to carry out its mission. Relatively little research has been done on fraud in NPOs, largely because of the difficulty in obtaining data. In this study, we created a database summarizing and describing the basic facts （type, scale, and duration of misconduct, perpetrators, and organizational profile） of 163 cases of fraud detected in Japanese NPOs. The results identified several trends related to nonprofit fraud, including larger scale frauds with longer durations and higher mortality rates when frauds are uncovered. In addition, it was found that the earlier the age of involvement in fraud, the higher the mortality rate after the fraud was discovered.

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The development and application of Artificial Intelligence （AI） has been progressing across a variety of domains. The rapid progress of AI has brought about benefits of technological development and expansion of application areas. On the other hand, it has also brought challenges, such as the lack of legal development and the emergence of ethical issues. Due to its impact on society, there is a growing interest in the ethical aspects of AI. In this study, we will focus on the ethical issues of concern when using AI in a business context. First, we will organize previous research on AI and ethics and identify what is at the center of the debate; second, through previous research, examine the ethical issues and challenges that arise when AI is used in business; and third, discuss the potential for future research.

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In recent years, CSV （Creating Shared Value） has been attracting attention, and companies are trying to put it into practice. In addition, there are studies on CSV alliances for CSV in previous studies. However, there are only a few empirical studies about CSV alliances in local industrial clusters in the context of inter-organizational networks. Especially, in Japan, where SMEs form a major portion of the supply chain, it is important to explore and expand CSV alliance. This study aims to propose CSV alliance models of SMEs among local clusters in Japan by using structural equation model. Then we target SMEs in local industrial clusters and explore the CSV alliance with regard to intra- and inter- organizational alliance management.

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This study argues that the factors influencing personal ethical orientation and meaningful work differ between middle managers and employees in Japanese companies. To propose hypotheses about the causal relationship between factors making work meaningful, I reviewed previous studies and focused on top managers’ ethical leadership and workplace ethical climate as factors of personal ethical orientation. To verify the hypotheses, I conducted an online questionnaire survey and received 1,030 valid responses from middle managers and employees in Japan. The results of multiplegroup structural equation modeling revealed that while top managers’ ethical leadership and workplace ethical climate influence personal ethical orientation and meaningful work, the effects of top managers’ ethical leadership and personal ethical orientation are stronger on the middle managers’ model than on the employees’ model. In addition, I discussed the relationship between top management and middle managers in terms of ethics management.

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This research investigated the expertise of outside directors of regional banks based on a skill matrix. The following facts were discovered. Disclosure of skill matrices by regional banks is progressing. First of all, the number of skills of each bank is selected according to the appropriate skills, not like a list of many skills as in general companies. Secondly, a bank director's skills consist of corporate management, legal, accounting, banking, and risk management. Comparing this with US banks, Japanese bank directors need to strengthen their skills in financial regulation, risk management, finance and corporate governance. Meanwhile, it was found that Japanese regional banks have a relatively large number of skills related to sustainability and diversity. A particular challenge for Japanese banks is to disclose the reasons for skill selection. Only 12% of banks disclosed it. The survey found good examples of skill consistency in the context of business strategies and challenges in a limited number of banks. In conclusion, it is important for Bank management to discuss business strategies and directions, business issues in response to them, and which skills required of directors for that purpose at board meetings.

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This study aims to structurally clarify the influence of compliance affairs in the working-place using a large-scale survey data. One high degree model of the conforming structure was obtained after conducting covariance structure analysis. The model is comprised of five explanatory variables, including job and workplace satisfaction, obtained via factor analysis. Regardless of the five risk categories, which are also obtained through factor analysis as objective variables, the model consistently shows the high degree model. The model indicated that clear job descriptions, good operational and labor management suggested a reduction in the risk of compliance affairs. However, our hypothesis that compliance affairs do not occur in individuals and organizations with high job and work place satisfaction was not demonstrated, suggesting that even among highly motivated employees, more attention should be paid to compliance.

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Many of the attention-grabbing “purpose” companies have a background of strong leadership by charismatic managers, the spirit of the founding family, and long traditions. In contrast, the difference between Ryohin Keikaku, which advocates a “second foundation,” stands out. The company's purpose began with the strong antithesis to the excessive consumption society, “Wake atte Yasui.” After that, it changed to “Korede Ii”, which finds significance in rediscovering the value of familiar things, and “Kanjiyoi Kurashi”, which aims for a positive feeling rather than affluence and comfort. Behind this is a corporate culture that constantly asks itself, “Is it useful?” The latest purpose is a “Kanjiyoi Kurashi to Shakai”（Truthful and Sustainable Life for All）that plans a society that includes not only consumers but also stakeholders such as producers, employees, and communities. This goes beyond the realm of retail.

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This study uses a survey of previous research and case studies to examine the process of social impact evaluation for developing startups in Japan. First, we discuss the characteristics of domestic and international impact investment markets and evaluation methods. Next, we discuss the effects of investment from prior studies, characteristics of impact investment destinations by developmental startups, and their evaluation methods, comparing them with examples from previous studies. The case of Ashirase, Inc. is examined to illustrate whether a social issue can be examined in an exploratory manner. Accordingly, a medium-term goal of supporting the visually impaired is set along with the short-term goal of promoting outings using a navigation system.

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Whistleblowing is often likened to the context of surveillance, and has an over-wrapping research area with mutual monitoring. But their relations are not studied enough yet today. We used a text mining method and “Web of Science”, the databases of academic journals. We find the differences and conceptualized the relationship between the researches of whistleblowing and mutual monitoring.

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This study examines the effect of economic and social performance on CEO forced turnover in Japanese and Chinese firms. The board of directors prioritize performance as a crucial factor in evaluating CEO behavior, leading to replacement of CEOs with poor performance. Previous research has primarily focused on economic performance, such as Return on Assets and Price Earnings Ratio, in relation to CEO forced turnover. this study expands on this by investigating the impact of social performance on CEO forced turnover. The results show that in China, poor social performance does not cause CEO forced turnover, but good social performance reduce it. Conversely, in Japan, poor social performance leads to relatively higher rate of CEO forced turnover.

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This study clarifies the implication of the inclusion of “a safe and healthy working environment,” in the International Labour Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. At its 110th session, the International Labour Conference decided to include “a safe and healthy working environment” as a new fundamental principle and right at work. The new category related to occupational safety and health is characterized by “active participation of government, employers and workers” and differs from other existing fundamental principles and rights at work. It indicates the ILO’s intention to promote the declaration through the active participation in initiatives regarding occupational safety and health.

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By confirming the current problems of the “Revised Whistleblower Protection Act”, confirm and verify the ideal “whistleblower system”, which is the purpose of this law, and points to be improved, and make proposals. aimed at

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We are observing continuous occurring of corporate wrongdoings and seeing no sign of decreasing despite all the efforts to analyze the causes and provide solutions by strengthening compliance and governance structures as well as changing laws and regulations as necessary. This paper attempts to take a step further to focus on certain negative factors of person’s heart and mind in order to identify root causes of corporate wrongdoings. It will examine the research papers that looked at individual’s thinking and behaviors and then discuss various aspects that would affect one’s heart and mind that possibly lead to wrongdoings. In doing so, the role of top executives, particularly that of CEOs, will be highlighted as critically important in an effort to tackle the corporate wrongdoings. Finally, this paper will make some recommendations for companies to take to reduce the number and magnitude of corporate wrongdoings, if not to entirely eliminate them.

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Abnormal weather caused by recent global warming threatens our daily lives and the existence of ecosystems. Importantly, it also affects the survival of companies. Institutional investors aim to maximize investment performance, but for companies, there is a trade-off between economic development and environmental protection at least in the short term. This paper is centered around the reconciliation of institutional investors to this contradiction. I have not found evidence suggesting that ESG investment undermines fiduciary duty. However, ESG investment has been receiving social significance. Moreover, the fact many main institutional investors are members of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment indicates that ESG investment does not violate fiduciary duty. More than anything, this is because ESG factors are deeply related to the two major aspects that enable institutional investors to fulfill their fiduciary duty, i.e., creation of business opportunities and elimination of risks in the long run.

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