A Perspective on the Influence of National Corporate Governance Institutions and Government's Political Ideology on the Speed to Lockdown as a Means of Protection Against Covid-19

Chow, Dawn Yi Lin, Petrou, Andreas and Procopiou, Andreas ORCID: 0000-0001-6289-9734 (2023) A Perspective on the Influence of National Corporate Governance Institutions and Government's Political Ideology on the Speed to Lockdown as a Means of Protection Against Covid-19. JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS, 185 (3). pp. 611-628.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05216-9

Abstract

This first wave study of the Covid-19 pandemic investigates why the governments of different countries proceeded to lockdown at different speeds. We draw upon the literature on Corporate Governance Institutions (CGIs) to theorize that governments' decision-making is undertaken in the light of prevailing beliefs, norms, and rules of the collectivity, as portrayed by the focal country's CGIs, in their effort to maintain legitimacy. In addition, drawing on motivated cognition we posit that the government's political ideology moderates this relationship because decision-makers are biased when assessing the impact of lockdown on commerce. Running negative binomial regressions on a sample of 125 countries, we find that the more shareholder-oriented the CGIs, the slower the governmental response in shutting down the economy to protect from the pandemic. Moreover, the main relationship is stronger the more right-leaning the government's ideology. Our study contributes to the research on corporate governance institutions and political ideology and illustrates how societal and ideological biases affect government decision-making, especially when important decisions about public welfare are taken with little information on hand.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	COVID-19, Pandemic response, National CGIs
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	18 Jul 2022 07:44
Last Modified:	03 Aug 2023 01:30
DOI:	10.1007/s10551-022-05216-9
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3158651