Research On The Impact Mechanism Of Entrepreneurs’Values On Corporate Accountability

Nowadays, our lives seem to be haunted by various crises that occur frequently. These crises related to a wide range of fields have a huge impact and they could be quite difficult to track the real "actor", because they would evade the obligation or defend themselves with excuses. However, when we take a deep look into these crises, some companies turn out to be the initiators which play an important role. In this context, the whole society is now considering about how to achieve corporate accountability.Existing theories mainly emphasize "forcing" companies to be accountable by supervision and external control. However, such kind of compulsory accountability is losing effectiveness in real business world. Many researchers have realized that implicit perspective researches should be done in order to achieve corporate accountability and it should be possible for companies to pursue higher levels of accountability spontaneously. The key to achieve the goal lies in the entrepreneurs’ values. Therefore, this article will follow the clue and try to unfold the internal mechanism of how entrepreneurs’values affect corporate accountability.Drawing on the extensive references and existing researches, the paper conducts a re-interpretation of two main concepts: corporate accountability and entrepreneurs’ values. With the help of first-hand interviews and second-hand text data from a single case, the paper conducts a longitudinal research on the impact mechanism of entrepreneurs’values on corporate accountability. Finally, some profound insights and theoretical propositions are proposed.The main conclusions of this study are:(1)there are two main corporate accountabilities including self-evident accountability and transactional accountability. They interact with each other and emerge three different forms in the developmental stages of companies, namely, breach-type accountability, mixed-type accountability, and unified-type accountability;(2) entrepreneurs’values are the key to drive corporate accountability, entrepreneur’s "value just above material gain" view ensures the companies to be accountable, while primary entrepreneur’s values and its inheritance determine the basic form and development of corporate accountability;(3) employees’values recognition mediates the impact of entrepreneurs’values on corporate accountability, and only entrepreneurs’values are widely accepted by their followers and employees, can it lead a huge power of accountability.