Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Uncovering the Intellectual Structure of Research in Business Ethics: A Journey Through the History, the Classics, and the Pillars of Journal of Business Ethics

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

After almost 30 years of publications, Journal of Business Ethics (JBE) has achieved the position of main marketplace for business ethics discussion and knowledge generation. Given the large amount of knowledge produced, an assessment of the state of the art could benefit both the constructive development of the discipline and the further growth of the journal itself. As the evolution of a discipline is set to be reflected in the evolution of its leading journal, we attempt to characterize changes in the intellectual structure of business ethics through a bibliometric analysis of articles published in JBE. Specifically, we conduct a knowledge-stock analysis to assess the evolution, major trends, and current state of the journal. Additionally, we use citation and co-citation analysis to provide an accurate description of the content and the advancement of research in business ethics. Through the results of our analysis, we are able to: (1) pinpoint the characteristics of the growing stock of knowledge published by JBE over the years; (2) identify the most influential works on business ethics research; and (3) detect the formation and evolution of schools of thought in business ethics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In the first two eras, JBE articles were gathered in a single volume each year; however the increasing number of articles and issues eventually led the editorial board to decide to publish several volumes per year. The irregular growth of the number of volumes, coupled with the constant increase of the number of issues makes the first part of Table 2 difficult to read; therefore, the next paragraph will be based on the second and third parts of the table.

  2. For each work in the table, the raw citation frequency indicates the number of JBE’s articles citing the work (we do not account for multiple citations within the same JBE’s article). The relative citation frequency indicates the percentage of JBE’s articles citing the work. Thus, it is calculated by dividing the raw citation frequency by the total number of JBE’s articles published in the time period under consideration.

  3. We thank an anonymous reviewer for indicating this to us.

  4. The letter is available at the following link: http://ama-academics.communityzero.com/elmar?go=2371115.

  5. This strategy has, for example, been pursed by Journal of Retailing, which recently published a Special Issue in honor to Oliver E. Williamson (Volume 86, Issue 3) and succeeded in hosting the work of the most influential marketing scholars in the field of transaction costs. The prestigious authorship exhibits a high probability to increase citations to these articles and, in turn, to Journal of Retailing when it comes to transactions costs research in marketing.

References

  • Albrecht, C., Thompson, J. A., Hoopes, J. L., & Rodrigo, P. (2010). Business ethics journal rankings as perceived by business ethics scholars. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(2), 227–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aupperle, K. E., Carroll, A. B., & Hatfield, J. D. (1985). An empirical investigation of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability. Academy of Management Journal, 28, 446–463.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartunek, J. M., Rynes, S. L., & Ireland, R. D. (2006). What makes management research interesting, and why does it matter? Academy of Management Journal, 49(1), 9–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumgartner, H., & R. Pieters (2003). The structural influence of marketing journals: A citation analysis of the discipline and its subareas over time, Journal of Marketing, 67(April), 123–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biemans, W., Griffin, A., & Moenaert, R. (2007). Twenty years of the journal of product innovation management: History, participants, and knowledge stocks and flows. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 24(3), 193–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biemans, W., Griffin, A., & Moenaert, R. (2010). In search of the classics: A study of the impact of JPIM papers from 1984 to 2003. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 27(4), 461–484.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, B. K., Finkelstein, S., & Gove, S. (2005). How advanced is the strategy paradigm? The role of particularism in shaping research outcomes. Strategic Management Journal, 26(9), 841–854.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burt, R. S. (1977). Positions in multiple network systems, part one: A general conception of stratification and prestige in a system of actors cast as a social typology. Social Forces, 56, 106–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, D. (2000). The quest to improve the human condition: The first 1,500 articles published in journal of business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 26(1), 1–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colquitt, J. A., & Zapata-Phelan, C. P. (2007). Trends in theory building and theory testing: A five-decade study of the academy of management journal. Academy of Management Journal, 50(6), 1281–1303.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crane, D. (1967). The gatekeepers of science: some factors affecting the selection of articles for scientific journals. American Sociologist, 4, 195–201.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crane, D. (1972). Invisible colleges: Diffusion of knowledge in scientific communities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Culnan, M. J. (1987). Mapping the intellectual structure of MIS, 1980–1985: A co-citation analysis. Management of Information System Quarterly, 11(3), 341–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Culnan, M. J., O’Reilly, C. A., & Chatman, J. A. (1990). Intellectual structure of research in organizational behavior, 1972–1984: A co-citation analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 41(6), 453–458.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De George, R. T. (2005). A history of business ethics. In Proceedings of the accountable corporation. California: Santa Clara University.

  • Diodato, V. (1994). Dictionary of bibliometrics. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durisin, B., Calabretta, G., & Parmeggiani, V. (2010). The intellectual structure of product innovation research: A bibliometric study of the journal of product innovation management, 1984–2004. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 27(3), 437–451.

    Google Scholar 

  • Etzion, D. (2007). Research on organizations and the natural environment, 1992-present: A review. Journal of Management, 33(4), 637–664.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garfield, E. (1979). Citation indexing. Its theory and application in science, technology, and humanity. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, J. J., & Mahon, J. F. (1997). The corporate social performance and corporate financial performance debate: Twenty-five years of incomparable research. Business & Society, 36, 5–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, D. L., & Holbrook, M. B. (1993). The intellectual structure of consumer research: A bibliometric study of author co-citations in the first 15 years of the journal of consumer research. Journal of Consumer Research, 19(4), 505–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kish-Gephart, J. J., Harrison, D. A., & Trevino, L. K. (2010). Bad apples, bad cases, and bad barrels: Meta-analytic evidence about sources of unethical decisions at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(1), 1–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Machold, S., Ahmed, P., & Farquhar, S. (2008). Corporate governance and ethics: A feminist perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 81(3), 665–678.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCain, K. W. (1986). Cocited author mapping as a valid representation of intellectual structure. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 37(3), 111–122.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCain, K. W. (1990). Mapping authors in intellectual space: A technical overview. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 41(6), 433–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McWilliams, A., & Siegel, D. (2000). Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: Correlation or mispecification? Strategic Management Journal, 21, 603–609.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma, Z. (2010). The status of contemporary business ethics research: Present and future. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(3), 255–265.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Fallon, M. J., & Batterfield, K. D. (2005). A review of the empirical ethical decision making literature: 1996–2003. Journal of Business Ethics, 59(4), 375–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orlitzky, M., Schmidt, F. L., & Rynes, S. L. (2003). Corporate social and financial performance: A meta-analysis. Organization Studies, 24(3), 403–441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pasadeos, Y., Phelps, J., & Kim, B. (1998). Disciplinary impact of advertising scholars: Temporal comparisons of influential authors, works and research networks. Journal of Advertising, 27(4), 53–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pfeffer, J., Long, A., & Strehl, K. (1977). Paradigm development and particularism: Journal publication in three scientific disciplines. Social Forces, 55(4), 938–951.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pilkington, A., & Liston-Heyes, C. (1999). Is production and operations management a discipline? A citation/co-citation study. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 19(1), 7–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Price, D. J. (1963). Little science, big science… and beyond. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramos-Rodríguez, A. R., & Ruíz-Navarro, J. (2004). Changes in the intellectual structure of strategic management research: A bibliometric study of the strategic management journal, 1980–2000. Strategic Management Journal, 25(10), 981–1004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, R. C., & Maranto, C. L. (1989). Causal models of publishing productivity in psychology. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74(4), 636–649.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, R. I., & Staw, B. M. (1995). What theory is not. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(3), 371–384.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tahai, A., & Meyer, M. J. (1999). A revealed preference study of management journals’ direct influences. Strategic Management Journal, 20(3), 279–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tenbrunsel, A. E., & Smith-Crowe, K. (2008). Ethical decision making: Where we’ve been and where we’re going. Academy of Management Annals, 2, 545–607.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K., Weaver, G. R., & Reynolds, S. J. (2006). Behavioral ethics in organizations: A review. Journal of Management, 32(6), 951–990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Üsdiken, B., & Pasadeos, Y. (1995). Organizational analysis in North America and Europe: A comparison of co-citation networks. Organization Studies, 16(3), 503–515.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Liedekerke, L., & Dubbink, W. (2008). Twenty years of European business ethics—Past developments and future concerns. Journal of Business Ethics, 273–280.

  • Wartick, S. L., & Cochran, P. L. (1985). The evolution of the corporate social performance model. Academy of Management Review, 10, 758–769.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, H. D., & Griffith, B. C. (1981). Author co-citation: A literature measure of intellectual structure. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 32(3), 163–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, H. D., & McCain, K. W. (1998). Visualizing a discipline: An author co-citation analysis of information science, 1972–1995. Journal of the American Society forInformation Science, 49(4), 327–355.

    Google Scholar 

Complete References for the Most Cited Works in JBE from 1982 to 2008

  • Aristotle, (1980). Nichomachean ethics. (T. Irving, Trans.). Indianapolis: Hacket Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumhart, R. (1961). How ethical are businessmen? Harvard Business Review, 39(4), 6–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, V. (1979). Moral issues in business. Belmount, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beauchamp, T. L., & Bowie, N. R. (1979). Ethical theory and business. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bommer, M., Gratta, C., Gravendir, J., & Tuttle, M. (1987). A behavioral model of ethical and unethical decision making. Journal of Business Ethics, 6(4), 265–280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowie, N. E. J. (1982). Business ethics. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brenner, S. N., & Molander, E. A. (1977). Is the ethics of business changing? Harvard Business Review, 55(1), 57–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr, A. Z. (1968). Is business bluffing ethical? Harvard Business Review, 46(l), 143–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, A. B. (1975). Managerial ethics: A post-watergate view. Business Horizons, 18, 75–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, A. B. (1979). A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance. Academy of Management Review, 4(4), 497–505.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, A. B. (1989). Business and society: Ethics and stakeholder management. Cincinnati: South Western.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavanagh, G. F., Moberg, D. J., & Velasquez, M. (1981). The ethics of organizational polirics. Academy of Management Review, 6(3), 363–374.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chonko, L. B., & Hunt, S. D. (1985). Ethics and marketing management: An empirical examination. Journal of Business Research, 13(4), 339–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De George, R. T. (1982). Business ethics. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donaldson, T. (1982). Corporations and morality. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donaldson, T. (1989). Ethics in international business. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donaldson, T., & Dunfee, T. W. (1994). Toward a unified conception of business ethics: Integrative social contracts theory. Academy of Management Review, 19(2), 252–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donaldson, T., & Dunfee, T. W. (1999). Ties that bind: A social contracts approach to business ethics. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donaldson, T., & Preston, L. E. (1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence, and implications. Academy of Management Review, 20(1), 65–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donaldson, T., & Werhane, P. (1983). Ethical Issues in business: A philosophical approach. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ewing, D. W. (1977). Freedom inside the organization: Bringing civil liberties to the workplace. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrell, O. C., & Gresham, L. G. (1985). A contingency framework for understanding ethical decision making in marketing. Journal of Marketing, 49(3), 87–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrell, O. C., & Weaver, M. (1978). Ethical beliefs of marketing managers. Journal of Marketing, 42, 69–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrell, O. C., Gresham, L. G., & Fraedrich, J. (1989). A synthesis of ethical decision making models for marketing. Journal of Macromarketing, 11, 55–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford, R. C., & Richardson, W. D. (1994). Ethical decision making: A review of the empirical literature. Journal of Business Ethics, 13(3), 205–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forsyth, D. R. (1980). A taxonomy of ethical ideologies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 175–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, E. R. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, M. (1962). Capitalism and freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, M. (1970, September 13). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profit. New York Times Magazine.

  • Fritzsche, D., & Becker, H. (1984). Linking management behavior to ethical philosophy—An empirical investigation. Academy of Management Journal, 27(1), 166–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodpaster, K., & Matthews, J. (1982). Can a corporation have a conscience? Harvard Business Review, 60(1), 132–141.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hair, J. F. (1992). Multivariate data analysis. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hegarty, H. W., & Sims, H. P. (1978). Some determinants of unethical decision behavior: An experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63(4), 451–457.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hegarty, W. H., & Sims, H. P. (1979). Organizational philosophy, policies and objectives related to unethical decision behavior: A laboratory experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 64(3), 331–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hofstede, G. (1980). Cultural consequences: International differences in work related values. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, S. D., & Vitell, S. J. (1986). The general theory of marketing ethics: A revision and three questions. Journal of Macromarketing, 6(1), 5–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, S. D., & Vitell, S. J. (1993). The general theory of marketing ethics: A retrospective and a revision. In C. Smith & J. Quelch (Eds.), Ethics in marketing (pp. 775–784). Irwin: Homewood.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackall, R. (1988). Moral mazes: The world of corporate managers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, M. C., & Meckling, W. (1976). A theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. Journal of Financial Economics, 3(4), 305–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, T. M. (1991). Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issue-contingent model. Academy of Management Review, 16(2), 366–395.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kidwell, J. M., Stevens, R. E., & Bethke, A. L. (1987). Differences in the ethical perceptions between male and female managers: Myth or reality. Journal of Business Ethics, 6, 489–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohlberg, L. (1969). The cognitive-developmental approach to socialization. In A. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization theory and research. Chicago: Rand McNally.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohlberg, L. (1981). Essays on moral development (Vol. I). San Francisco: Harper & Row.

  • Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of Management Review, 22(4), 853–886.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, P. E., & Laczniak G. R. (1981). Marketing ethics: A review with implications for managers, educators and researchers, Review of Marketing 1981 (pp. 251–266). Chicago: American Marketing association.

  • Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, T. J., & Waterman, T. H. (1982). In search of excellence. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reidenbach, R. E., & Robin, D. R. (1990). Toward the development of a multidimensional scale for improving evaluations of business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 9(8), 639–653.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rest, J. R. (1979). Development in judging moral issues. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rest, J. R. (1986). Moral development: Advances in research and theory. New York: Praeger Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schein, E. H. (1985). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, R. C. (1992). Ethics and excellence. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, C. (1975). Where the law ends. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K. (1986). Ethical decision making in organizations: A person-situation interactionist model. Academy of Management Review, 11(3), 601–617.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K. (1990). A cultural perspective on changing and developing organizational ethics. Research in Organizational Change and Development, 4, 195–230.

    Google Scholar 

  • Victor, B., & Cullen, J. B. (1988). The organizational bases of ethical work climates. Administrative Science Quarterly, 33(1), 101–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Velasquez, M. G. (1982). Business ethics. Concepts and cases. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood, D. J. (1991). Corporate social performance revisited. Academy of Management Review, 16(4), 691–718.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, BI Norwegian Business School, Nydalsveien 37, 0484, Oslo, Norway

    Giulia Calabretta

  2. Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi University, via Roentgen, 1, 20136, Milan, Italy

    Boris Durisin

  3. McKinsey & Company Italy, Piazza del Duomo, 31, 20122, Milan, Italy

    Marco Ogliengo

Authors
  1. Giulia Calabretta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Boris Durisin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marco Ogliengo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giulia Calabretta.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Calabretta, G., Durisin, B. & Ogliengo, M. Uncovering the Intellectual Structure of Research in Business Ethics: A Journey Through the History, the Classics, and the Pillars of Journal of Business Ethics . J Bus Ethics 104, 499–524 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0924-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0924-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation