Berrone, Pascual AlbertoSurroca Aguilar, JorgeTribo Gine, José Antonio2010-04-122010-04-122007-11Journal of Business Ethics, 2007, v. 76, n. 1, pp. 35-531573-0697https://hdl.handle.net/10016/6085In this article, we empirically assess the impact of corporate ethical identity (CEI) on a firm’s financial performance. Drawing on formulations of normative and instrumental stakeholder theory, we argue that firms with a strong ethical identity achieve a greater degree of stakeholder satisfaction (SS), which, in turn, positively influences a firm’s financial performance. We analyze two dimensions of the CEI of firms: corporate revealed ethics and corporate applied ethics. Our results indicate that revealed ethics has informational worth and enhances shareholder value, whereas applied ethics has a positive impact through the improvement of SS. However, revealed ethics by itself (i.e. decoupled from ethical initiatives) is not sufficient to boost economic performance.application/pdftext/plaineng©SpringerBusiness ethicsCorporate ethical identityFinancial performanceStakeholder satisfactionStakeholder theoryresearch articleEmpresa10.1007/s10551-006-9276-1open access35153Journal of Business Ethics76