Exploration of the construct of moral capital

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Description/Abstract

Intangible assets, such as moral capital, comprise an increasing proportion of corporations’ total assets. With the ascendancy of the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR), driven in part by the rise in social media and the corresponding increased transparency of the social and environmental impacts of business, we argue that the construct of moral capital is of increasing relevance to both corporations and their stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to develop a means by which the ideas inherent in moral capital can be used to measure some of the intangible outcomes of CSR. In order to do this, the paper locates moral capital within a conceptual body of literature and makes an initial attempt to operationalise the construct. The validity of a preliminary scale used to explore the effects of corporate philanthropy on moral capital is explored. The Moral Capital Scale demonstrated internal consistency and construct validity, as evaluated through factor analysis, correlation with existing measures, and hypothesis testing. This paper represents a first step towards the development of a specific instrument to measure the increasingly important construct of moral capital.