Practical ethics and sustainable performance in the food industry: a mixed method research

Nowadays, continuous environmental changes and the breadth of competition have made sustainability in this turbulent environment crucial for executives. Research has shown that the success of organizations in this regard is not limited to tangible factors, but intangible factors such as professional ethics have a significant impact on the sustainable performance of business enterprises. In this regard, the present study has studied the effect of professional ethics on sustainable performance in two qualitative and quantitative studies (mixed-dual phase series). Accordingly, using the content analysis research project and the study of theoretical foundations and the view of 8 experts in the field of management and ethics, dimensions and indicators of professional ethics were explained using MAXQDA software, then, by distributing a questionnaire among 163 Managers and supervisors of small and medium-sized enterprises producing food products in Tehran, the conceptual model of research was fitted and tested using structural equation modeling and Smart PLS 2 software. Accordingly, by categorizing professional ethics indicators in two dimensions: individual and organizational, it was determined that all the hypotheses based on the effect of each individual and organizational dimension of professional ethics on each dimension of performance Sustainability (environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and social sustainability) was confirmed at a significant level of 95%.