Business Students’ Love of Money and Their Distrust of Corporations
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Authors
Elias, Rafik
Issue Date
2016-10
Type
Article
Language
en_US
Keywords
Accounting , Business and Society
Alternative Title
Abstract
In the last two decades, the business world has witnessed the collapse of major
companies (e.g. Enron, Lehman Brothers) due to widespread fraud. The financial
collapse of 2007-2009 has been characterized as “The Great Recession” by economists
(e.g. Yandle, 2010) and was widely believed to be the most serious economic crisis in
the United States since World War II. This crisis and the ensuing credit market freeze
of 2008 have negatively affected the public’s trust in corporations in general (Yandle,
2010).
The purpose of this study is two-fold: First, it examines the concept of corporate distrust
as perceived by business students. This sample is selected because business students
close to graduation will soon be looking for employment in a variety of organizations,
mostly corporations. The study examines how business students view corporations in
general. The timing of the study is important because the U.S. is recovering from the
financial collapse of 2008-2009 and corporations are engaged in a major campaign to
regain the public’s trust (Koehn, 2013). Second, the study examines a potential
psychological determinant of corporate distrust: The love of money. Friedman (1970)
advocated that the primary responsibility of business was to maximize shareholders’
value. Therefore, this study examines if lower levels of the love of money variable were
related to higher corporate distrust and vice versa.
The paper is organized as follows: Following this introduction is a literature review of
corporate distrust and the love of money along with a presentation of the study’s
hypotheses. This is followed by an explanation of the study’s methodology as it relates
to sampling and measurement. The results are presented followed by a discussion and
opportunities for future research.
Description
14 pages
Citation
Publisher
Drake Management Review