OLOVEZE, Ambrose Ogbonna
Department of Marketing, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike
emrysoloveze@gmail.com
NKANIKPO, Ibok Ibok
Department of Marketing, Akwa-Ibom State University, Akwa-Ibom State
OKONKWO, Raphael Valentine Obodoechi
Department of Marketing, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike
rv.okonkwo@mouau.edu.ng
ADINDU, Michael Ogbonna
Department of Business Administration (Marketing option)
Clifford University, Owerrinta
ABSTRACT
Ethical responsibility is an important aspect of business practices. The interest of managers is anchored on
the tendency of ethical workers to be compliant with ethical work environment and demands of the work.
As firms strive to meet their objectives the concern of business conducts within principle of what is right
and wrong becomes a necessary consideration. The paper evaluated ethical responsibility and corporate
performance in Nigeria with focus on employees of financial firms. Adapted questionnaire was used to
sample 340 employees using convenience and snowball sampling technique. Confirmatory factor analysis
and structural equation modeling was adopted in the analysis. The results reveal that ethical codes, ethical
management system, corporate social responsibility, and ethical leadership significantly and positively
influence firm reputation thereby concluding that ethical responsibility has a significant effect on corporate
performance in Nigeria. The study recommends that ethical leadership should be added as a curriculum in
institutions of learning to deepen the role of ethical leaders and groom potential ethical leaders that
contributes to ethical practices in work environments.
Keywords: Ethical code, ethical responsibility, corporate reputation, company practices,