Exploring business ethics research in the context of international business

Abstract

PurposeThe aim of the paper is to examine the scope, level and content of business ethics research in three leading international business (IB) journals: Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), Journal of World Business (JWB) and Management International Review (MIR). A subsequent examination of comparable themes published in the Journal of Business Ethics (JBE) is performed to establish commonalities and gaps on the topic of IB ethics between the leading IB journals and the leading business ethics journal.Design/methodology/approachA total of 42 articles are identified in JIBS, JWB and MIR that are deemed IB ethics research, and 62 articles in JBE over the same timeframe. A content analysis of these articles is conducted.FindingsThe main thematic clusters in the three IB journals are ethical judgment analyses, violation of laws and regulations, national moral environments, and corporate governance. Codes of ethics are an underlying issue across many of these themes but this is not explicitly studied. Articles published in JBE show a wider range of themes than those published in the three IB journals.Research limitations/implicationsA broader selection of business ethics journals and of leading management journals that do not focus exclusively on IB could have produced additional important themes. Even so, there is an opportunity for IB ethics research to get into as yet unexamined important themes.Practical implicationsThe ethical themes identified can help managers in their efforts to deliver focused and clustered ethical training.Originality/valueThis study establishes the themes that have been of interest to the authors and editors of academic articles in leading IB journals. What appears in such journals directly influences the research, teaching, and ultimately practice of IB. Such a perspective has not been studied in the past.