In 2025, the “HSUHK Business Ethics Index” was 66.6 out of 100. It increased by 10.4% compared to the result in 2024 (60.3) and by 6.7%compared to the result in 2023 (62.4). We were delighted to see that the general public viewed Hong Kong corporations as more ethical this year. It showed that corporations in Hong Kong improved in the dimensions of business ethics.
In addition, our results showed that “Junzi” behavior of corporations was important for consumers’ satisfaction. The consumers’ satisfaction with Hong Kong corporations was 67.3 out of 100. The univariate regression results indicated that “Junzi” behavior of corporations was significantly positively associated with consumers’ satisfaction (β = 0.863, p ≤ 0.01). In other words, an increase of one additional point in “Junzi” behavior of a corporation shall be associated with an increase of 0.863 additional point in consumers’ satisfaction with the corporation.
Five Virtues of “Junzi”
In general, citizens in Hong Kong considered Hong Kong corporations fulfilling the five virtues of “Junzi.” Specifically, the scores of benevolence (“Ren”), righteousness (“Yi”), propriety (“Li”), wisdom (“Zhi”), and trustworthiness (“Xin”) are 65.4, 61.8, 65.8, 66.5, and 68.7, respectively (all out of 100). While the respondents regarded Hong Kong corporations as generally trustworthy and reliable, they might feel that Hong Kong corporations sometimes focused too much on profits, especially for daily necessities and livelihood expenditure.
Besides, our multivariate regression results suggested that all the five virtues were significantly positively associated with a corporation’s “Junzi” behavior. Accordingly, trustworthiness (“Xin”) had the strongest association with “Junzi” behavior (β = 0.347, p ≤ 0.01), followed by propriety (“Li”) (β = 0.190, p ≤ 0.01), wisdom (“Zhi”) (β = 0.162, p ≤ 0.01), righteousness (“Yi”) (β = 0.149, p ≤ 0.01), and benevolence (“Ren”) (β = 0.108, p ≤ 0.01).
Biggest Concern of BUSINESS Ethical Issues
Our results reflected that 36% of the general public in Hong Kong was most concerned about “fairness to customers,” 25% was most concerned about “public safety,” 18% was most concerned about “fairness to employees,” 14% was most concerned about “financial integrity,” and 7% was most concerned about “bribery”.
Again, the results were consistent with our previous analyses. The respondents viewed trustworthiness (“Xin”) as a more important element of a corporation’s “Junzi” behavior, therefore they were more likely to be concerned about how fairly a corporation treats its customers, and how reliable a product or service is.