A cross-cultural construct of the ethos of the corporate codes of ethics: Australia, Canada and Sweden G˛ran Svensson, Greg Wood, Jang Singh and Michael Callaghan n The objective of this paper is to develop and describe a construct of the ethos of the corporate codes of ethics (i.e. an ECCE construct) across three countries, namely Australia, Canada and Sweden. The introduced construct is rather unique as it is based on a cross-cultural sample seldom seen in the literature. While the outcome of statistical analyses indicated a satisfactory factor solution and acceptable estimates of reliability measures, some research limitations have been stressed. They provide a foundation for further research in the field and testing of the ECCE construct in other cultural and corporate settings. We believe that the ECCE construct makes a contribution to theory and practice in the field as it outlines a theoretical construct for the benefit of other researchers. It is also of managerial interest as it provides a grounded framework of areas to be considered in the implementation in organizations of corporate codes of ethics. Introduction In the 20th century, industrialized economies around the world enacted legislation to protect free trade, securities dealings, consumers, suppli- ers, stockholders and, more recently, other stakeholders. These legislative initiatives were often precipitated by behaviour that initially appeared unethical, but in time was made illegal (Ferrell et al. 1998, Carasco & Singh 2003). Subsequently, as the powers of large corporations grew, they were confronted by greater expecta- tions from society to behave in an ethical manner (Cleek & Leonard 1998, Cohan 2002, Sørensen 2002). Errant companies were lambasted in the media (Collier 2000, Wheeler et al. 2002), charged with corporate crimes, and litigation was brought against them by citizens who had fallen victim of their malfeasance. The need for standards that transcended differ- ences in laws and cultures was also the driving force behind various attempts by international organiza- tions to regulate the conduct of global companies (Carasco & Singh 2003). For example, the OECD proposed the Guidelines for Multinational Enter- prises and the United Nations constructed its Global Compact document (Carasco & Singh 2003). In North America, such pieces of legislation as the US Sentencing Guidelines in 1991 and the Sarbanes Oxley Act in 2002 were enacted to n Respectively, Oslo School of Management, Norway; Deakin University, Australia; University of Windsor, Canada; Deakin University, Australia. r 2009 The Authors Journal compilation r 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA 253 Business Ethics: A European Review Volume 18 Number 3 July 2009