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International investment law governs matters related to transnational investments. The extensive reach of transnational corporations (TNCs) has granted them substantial economic, political and social influence, often intertwining them with public interest issues and implications in human rights violations. This paper aims to explore the profound influence exerted by TNCs in today’s globalized world and its implications for human rights and social responsibility within the framework of international investment law. Particularly, it acknowledges the vulnerability of economically weak South Asian states and cites past instances such as the Bhopal gas tragedy in India and the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh as egregious violations of human rights. Focusing on South Asian bilateral investment treaties (BITs), this paper aims to examine the scope of investors’ social accountability.

This research engages with doctrinal and analytical methods in traversing through primary and secondary sources. It would parse the arbitral tribunals’ jurisprudence for their discussion on the inclusion of social accountability obligations within international investment agreements (IIAs). Further, it engages in a quantitative analysis related to the nature of the social accountability-related obligation of the corporation within South Asian BITs.

The findings reveal a glaring absence of the law on investors’ social accountability and the need for enhanced regulatory mechanisms to address the escalating influence of TNCs on human and social rights. The absence of a robust legal framework, coupled with the asymmetric nature of international investment law, granting investors greater rights and leverage compared to states, exacerbates this challenge. The phenomenon of “regulatory chill” inhibits states from effectively enforcing regulatory measures aimed at protecting human rights and the environment. Furthermore, the broad interpretation of clauses such as “fair and equitable treatment” by investment tribunals often undermines states’ ability to implement measures in the public interest. While international organizations such as the UNCTAD and the UNCITRAL Working Group III are actively discussing reforms to IIAs, the existing guidelines addressing investors’ social accountability are woefully lacking in the content as well as the method of their integration with international human rights law. The findings underscore the imperative for South Asian nations, the subject of this research’s empirical analysis, to adopt a comprehensive approach involving both domestic law reforms to promote corporate social accountability and active pursuit of negotiations for the inclusion of binding social obligations for investors within IIAs.

This research, drawing upon international law developments, offers suggestions for incorporation of social accountability provisions via relevant domestic law reform. The research could be viewed as a prelude for mapping the legal developments in the area of investors’ social accountability within investment agreements, as well as investment contracts, drawing guidance from international law instruments.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study analysed the scope of investors’ social accountability in South Asian BITs.

To increase charitable donations, not-for-profit organisations sometimes include a pre-giving incentive such as a monetary gift alongside a request to donate. Little is known about how monetary pre-giving incentives impact subsequent donation intentions, particularly for young consumers who are an important market for the not-for-profit sector. Using the principles of reciprocity, this paper aims to examine whether the value of monetary pre-giving incentives induces obligation (i.e. a negative psychological state) and/or gratitude (i.e. a positive psychological state) and whether this subsequently impact young consumers’ initial donation amount and future donation intention.

This research uses a one-factor, three-level between-subjects experimental design (n = 274) to test the effect of different values of pre-giving incentives on gratitude, obligation, initial donation amount and future donation intentions of young consumers.

Higher value pre-giving incentives increase young consumers’ experience of obligation and subsequent donation intention as well as future donation intention. Unexpectedly, gratitude towards the organisation was not influenced by the value of the pre-giving incentive but did increase obligation.

This research highlights an ethical tension about the use of pre-giving incentives to solicit donations from young consumers: while this strategy is effective, it activates an obligation that can negatively impact young consumers’ wellbeing. As such, it also contributes to extending the limited empirical examination of the ethics of fundraising. Theoretically, this research extends understanding of the distinct but simultaneous mechanisms of gratitude and obligation, which has not received sufficient research attention, generated by the norm of reciprocity within the not-for-profit context.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of ethical obligation and environmental concern in young consumers’ green purchase behaviour using Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behaviour as underpinning theoretical model.

Data collected from 253 college students of a major higher education institution in Northern India were analysed by using structural equation modelling and moderated mediation analysis in AMOS 22.0 and SPSS 20.0.

Investigating why environmental concern does not significantly translate into green purchase intention, the study demonstrates that the effect of environmental concern was mediated through attitude and ethical obligation. In addition, the study also found that the effect of environmental concern on attitude was positively moderated by ethical obligation. Moreover, subjective norms were found to exhibit no direct effect on green purchase intention; rather, this effect was indirect and mediated through attitude and perceived behavioural control. The results of moderated mediation analysis further demonstrated that the indirect effect of subjective norms on green purchase intention through attitude was found conditional on the values of perceived behavioural control.

The study offers a valuable contribution by signifying the moderating role of ethical obligation in green purchase behaviour. It also contributes to the existing knowledge by assessing the conditional indirect effect of subjective norms on green purchase intention which is rarely examined in the literature.

The employee-organization relationship (EOR) has increasingly become a focal point for researchers in organizational behavior, human resource management, and industrial relations. Literature on the EOR has developed at both the individual – (e.g. psychological contracts) and the group and organizational-levels of analysis (e.g. employment relationships). Both sets of literatures are reviewed, and we argue for the need to integrate these literatures as a means for improving understanding of the EOR. Mechanisms for integrating these literatures are suggested. A subsequent discussion of contextual effects on the EOR follows in which we suggest that researchers develop models that explicitly incorporate context. We then examine a number of theoretical lenses to explain various attributes of the EOR such as the dynamism and fairness of the exchange, and new ways of understanding the exchange including positive functional relationships and integrative negotiations. The article concludes with a discussion of future research needed on the EOR.

In highly digitalised countries such as Denmark, statistics show that one out of four employees has experienced high levels of stress. However, despite ample research evidence on the presence of technostress, the knowledge on this phenomenon is not yet part of the material and guidelines from official authorities. Previous research on technostress provides quantitative psychological and neurophysiological perspectives on technostress, focussing on the individual, the technology or the technological environment. The authors see this as a limited approach, as it leaves out the social environment in which technostress arises. The authors aim to expose the sociological mechanisms that contribute to technostress by using the sociological lens of obligation. The authors ask: ‘What is the knowledge that the sociological lens of obligation can bring to the theoretical understanding of technostress?’ To answer our research question, the authors employ an embedded case study in Denmark by looking into the existing political material and interviews with 14 employees across 6 organisations. The authors find that stress in practice is mostly addressed from a response perspective, which points to the individual. This view is inherent in how the individuals take responsibility for the technostress they experience. Another critical finding from our data is that technostress is socially constructed. The authors contribute to theory by using a new-to-IS theory and a qualitative approach to technostress research, which allows us to uncover how the social construction of obligation impacts the individual employee. Our theoretical contributions point to a need for practice to move in the direction of seeing technostress as a societal, rather than solely individual, responsibility.

Measuring the normative obligation to obey the police, a key component of police legitimacy, has proven difficult. Pósch et al.’s (2021) proposed scales appear to overcome the problems associated with traditional measures. This study introduces new items for these scales and empirically assesses whether such additions have the desired effects on scale performance.

This study uses data from a national online survey administered in July 2022 (N = 1,494). Measures of internal consistency and factor analysis were used to evaluate the properties of the obligation to obey scales. Linear regression was used to test the hypothesized effects.

The results show that adding the new items to the existing scales increased the level of internal consistency and improved how well the factor model fit the data. In terms of antecedents, procedural justice and bounded authority concerns were correlated with normative and non-normative obligations to obey the police in the expected direction and relative magnitude, findings that held for both the original and expanded scales. Although both normative obligation scales were significantly associated with willingness to cooperate with the police and significantly mediated the effect of procedural justice on cooperation, the relationship for the expanded scale was stronger and the mediation more pronounced.

This study extends previous research working to overcome some of the setbacks associated with measuring a crucial feature of police legitimacy. Effectively navigating this challenge will help advance legitimacy studies in criminal justice settings.

Facilitated by social media, employee activism is on the rise, often in response to organizations' own socially irresponsible behavior. Given that digital employee activism is a vital yet underexplored research arena, the purpose of this study is to propose and test a theoretical model for understanding this phenomenon.

A survey was launched on Dynata, a US-based consumer panel company. A total of 657 representative full-time employees working at different levels of positions participated the survey to indicate their perceptual and behavioral responses to organizational social irresponsibility.

Moral obligation was a significant factor in mediating the relationship between organizational social irresponsibility and digital employee activism. Ideological psychological contract adds supplemental weights moderating the mediation effect on digital employee activism.

This study, based on social regulation theory, explores the rise of employee activism in response to organizations’ socially irresponsible behavior. The study identifies moral obligation and ideological psychological contract as the driving forces behind digital employee activism. This study advances digital employee activism scholarship by incorporating the normative lens of moral obligation and ideological psychological contract.

Drawing on the socioemotional selectivity theory and the volunteerism literature, this study aims to examine the influence of empathy, altruism and opportunity recognition, on social entrepreneurial intentions (SEI) of people who have retired from a full-time career. Furthermore, the study examines whether the above-mentioned relationships are mediated by moral obligation.

A set of hypotheses is tested by applying partial least squares structural equation modelling on a survey sample of 227 retirees in Oman, who had participated in an entrepreneurial leadership training after retirement. Using SmartPLS software, the path model is tested through bootstrapping.

The findings suggest that altruism and opportunity recognition do not have a direct relationship with SEI, however, they are significant only when mediated through moral obligation. Nevertheless, empathy has a significant direct association with SEI, and an indirect relationship through moral obligation.

The findings of this study demonstrate that to develop intentions to indulge in social entrepreneurship, among retirees who are approaching their senior years, the focus should be on driving their sense of moral obligation to society. Hence, policymakers and authorities connected to social wellbeing goals can fine-tune their initiatives, such as training, by emphasizing on moral obligation to address social issues through social entrepreneurship.

The novelty of this study is twofold. Firstly, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it seems to be among the first empirical study that is at the crossroads of the senior entrepreneurship and the social entrepreneurship literature. Secondly, this study fills a gap in the extant literature by deploying the socioemotional selectivity theory to examine the antecedents of SEI of people who have retired from full-time employment in their early to late senior years.

While compassionate and morally motivated people are theorised to be more likely to engage in activities that contribute to the social good, the literature provides contradictory evidence regarding the role of empathy and moral obligation in building social entrepreneurial intention (SEI). This study aims to clarify how empathy and moral obligation influence SEI.

The authors used survey data (n = 307) from Bangladesh, a frontier economy, to test the hypothesised relationships between empathy, moral obligation and SEI by applying partial least square–structural equation modelling in Smart PLS 3. They then conducted a second study with a larger sample (n = 339) from Saudi Arabia, an emerging economy, to further investigate how the findings withstand in a different socio-economic context.

The findings contradicted extant conceptualisations and revealed that empathy and moral obligation influence SEI indirectly through other individual and contextual factors, such as social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and perceived social support. The findings indicate that a person with a feeling of compassion and moral responsibility to help others will not start a social venture unless they feel capable and supported to start and run the venture.

The study contributes to a contentious area of research in SEI by demonstrating the links between various individual-level (empathy, moral obligation and social entrepreneurial self-efficacy) and contextual-level (perceived social support) variables and their relationship with SEI.