Journal of Business Ethics - Sections and Section Editors
Accounting and Business Ethics
Steven Dellaportas
Charles H. Cho
Marion Brivot
This section seeks submissions that address ethical issues as they relate to accounting. It has a broad focus in terms of methodology and subject matter. Authors are encouraged to submit theoretical and/or empirical work. Recent topics have included issues of auditor independence, financial reporting fraud, ethical management and adjustments, state of accounting ethics research, accountability in the public sector, morality and the accounting profession, behavioural choices, and studies of ethics, social and environmental accounting disclosures. Submissions are welcome in new and emerging areas of accounting ethics research that challenge familiar boundaries of knowledge.
Arts, Humanities, and Business Ethics
Christopher Wong Michaelson
This section of the journal seeks contributions that utilize objects and methods from the arts and humanities to yield creative, insightful, and high-quality business ethics research. The arts and humanities include anthropology, architecture, arts, classics, design, drama, film, history, language, literature, and music, among other disciplines that explore human values and culture. Business ethics, too, can be studied as a humanity, when it investigates, for example, how our economic lives are shaped by underlying cultural values – and how those values are influenced by our market systems. Authors are invited to submit contributions to the study of business ethics, including but not limited to those that do the following: Study (a) work(s) of the arts and humanities with relevance to business ethics; interpret the works of an artist, author, composer, genre, etc., that put that oeuvre into correspondence with conventional scholarship; examine an art form to yield findings about the ethical values of business; apply arts and humanities theories to generate insights about business ethics; explore how ethical characterizations of business have evolved in the arts and humanities across time and place; and, synthesize other research involving business ethics and the arts and humanities.
Behavioral Business Ethics
Rommel O. Salvador
Wim Vandekerckhove
This section of the journal focuses on research in the business ethics subfield—behavioral business ethics. Rooted in social scientific as well as natural science research, behavioral business ethics utilizes insights from behavioral psychology, neuroscience, behavioral economics, and cognition to examine the antecedents of human behavior in ethical situations, and the forces that influence organizational stakeholders’ decisions. Of interest to this section is scholarly work that provides insights into what affects the last stage of the ethical decision-making model, behavior. Institutional and organizational pressures, individual cognitive biases and naturally formed tendencies all play a role in determining both commission and omission decisions in business. Conceptual and empirical studies (including laboratory studies) submitted to this section should contribute to the field’s understanding of human behavior associated with business ethics issues.
Book (and More) Reviews
Rita Mota
We aim to publish reviews of books and other media (e.g., novels, films, plays, television shows, art exhibitions, and so on) that advance dialogue among scholars and between scholars and the public about business ethics and society. Although we publish conventional reviews of scholarly material, we are especially interested in cultivating more creative reviews of non-scholarly material that should be of interest to both scholars and the public. Reviews may be invited by the editors or proposed by an interested reviewer.
To submit a proposal, please see the Book (and More) Reviews Guidelines (this opens in a new tab) for further information about format, timelines, and so on.
Business Ethics Learning and Education
Andrew West
Recognising that education has the potential to influence ethical behaviour and contribute to ethical outcomes at all levels of business activity, this section welcomes papers that make valuable contributions to business ethics learning and education. Both conceptual and empirical (whether quantitative or qualitative) submissions are welcomed. Relevant topics include all contexts and approaches to business ethics learning and education (i.e. including, but not limited to business ethics pedagogy in tertiary institutions). Accordingly, papers may investigate formal, non-formal or informal business ethics learning and education within academic institutions, businesses, professions or other organizational settings. Papers that examine the ongoing development of business ethics learning and education (in academic or other settings) are also welcome.
Papers must be well grounded in the literature, make appropriate use of relevant theories, and be methodologically sound to ensure that our current knowledge of the field is expanded. Submissions are expected to go beyond descriptions of existing teaching practices or curricula.
Consumer Ethics
Deirdre Shaw
Michal Carrington
Louise M. Hassan
Verena Gruber
Ross Gordon
This section seeks submissions that focus on the scope and ethical nature of consumption. Articles are welcomed which explore consumer ethics from conceptual, positivist, interpretivist and cross-disciplinary perspectives, which may include, but are not restricted, to the psychological, cultural and/or socio-economic factors pertinent to advancing our understanding of consumer ethics and ethical theory. Consumer ethics may include consideration of (non)purchase, use and disposal of goods and services by consumers, ethical, green, political, activist and anti consumer identities, the nature and role of influencers, barriers and enablers in (non)ethical decisions by consumers and unethical consumer practices. Conceptual papers may be grounded in any ethical theory, whereas empirical manuscripts from a broad range of quantitative or qualitative methodologies are welcomed.
Corporate Governance and Business Ethics
Jeroen Veldman
Tanusree Jain
Christian Hauser
Stelios Zyglidopoulos
This section welcomes papers that address the relationship between corporate governance and business ethics.
In relation to corporate governance, the section adopts a broad theory of the firm perspective which encompasses the whole set of ethical, legal, cultural and institutional arrangements that determine what corporations can and should do, who controls them, how control is exercised or should be exercised, and how risks and returns are allocated. Accordingly, this section calls for manuscripts that enhance the study of corporate governance by employing interdisciplinary perspectives that include, but are not restricted to, stewardship, stakeholder, institutional, and resource dependence theories as well as political and cultural theories. We encourage the study of a wide array of firm level outcomes that include, but go beyond, traditional financial performance parameters to those that have underlying ethical considerations such as stakeholder performance, social and environmental performance. We invite corporate governance and ethical reflections from diverse geographical and cultural contexts, including manuscripts that adopt a comparative corporate governance perspective.
Submissions of conceptual papers grounded in established theories and empirical manuscripts dealing with quantitative or qualitative approaches are welcomed. Importantly, as the section seeks to progress established discussions in the field of corporate governance and business ethics, it is important that authors clearly demonstrate their contribution(s) both to corporate governance and to business ethics literatures. Furthermore, we would like to emphasize that studies that focus exclusively on single and/or traditional financial performance parameters are of limited interest to the section.
Corporate Responsibility and Business Ethics: Theoretical/Qualitative Issues
Antonino Vaccaro
Elisabeth Garriga
Arno Kourula
This section seeks submissions that explore issues concerned with business ethics and corporate responsibility through the use of theoretical or qualitative methodological approaches. Authors are encouraged to submit theoretically informed qualitative research that examines the antecedents, processes, and impacts of corporate social responsibility and business ethics. Examples of relevant research include qualitative studies of ethical decision making, corporate social performance, corporate reputation, and philanthropic and community involvement programs.
Corporate Responsibility and Business Ethics: Quantitative Issues
Shuili Du
Ming Jia
Assaad El Akremi
Irene Henriques
Jill Brown
This section seeks submissions that explore issues concerned with ethical and socially responsible corporate behaviors through the use of quantitative methodological approaches. Authors are encouraged to submit theoretically informed empirical research that examines the antecedents, processes, and impacts of corporate social responsibility and ethical decision making. Corporate social responsibility is defined broadly and includes philanthropy, cause-related marketing, community involvement, responsible business practices, responsible innovation, and so on. Examples of relevant research include, but are not limited to, stakeholder influence on and reactions to CSR, linkages between cultural, institutional, and organizational characteristics and CSR, CSR communication, socially responsible and green innovation, characteristics of effective CSR strategy/program. Submissions that examine the relationships between CSR and financial/accounting outcomes should be directed to other relevant sections.
Corporate Sustainability and Business Ethics
Cory Searcy
Kai Hockerts
This section welcomes submissions that address the theoretical or applied aspects of corporate sustainability. Research on the challenges and opportunities of embedding a commitment to sustainability into corporate governance structures is particularly encouraged. Examples of relevant research include studies focused on sustainability reporting, sustainability performance, or supply chain management. Authors are encouraged to address the short- and long-term implications of corporate sustainability initiatives. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research approaches are welcomed.
Critical Studies and Business Ethics
Bernadette Loacker
A critical approach to ethics has the potential to re-orient the field from ‘business as usual’ approaches by challenging taken-for-granted assumptions that prevail within the discipline. Critical approaches to business, management and organizational ethics are ontologically reflexive, epistemologically dynamic, and methodologically heterodox. To that end, critical researchers have advanced the idea that traditional research in business and organizational ethics can function to normalize and sustain questionable business practices, by bestowing upon them the imprimatur of reflective self-regulation. Such an approach deflects questions of organizational oversight by other institutional actors and legitimizes existing business practices, without critically reflecting on their underlying rationales and ethical and political implications.
A variety of broad research questions can be asked of business and organizational ethics from a critical perspective. For example, what are the historical conditions under which the existing regimes of business ethics and social responsibility have emerged? What purposes do such approaches serve, and what purposes do they subvert? What are the different ways in which established regimes of practice can be contested and, potentially, be transformed? Concomitantly, how are organizational subjects shaped as political actors that (re)negotiate institutional and organizational practices and conditions, and how do organizational subjects constitute themselves as subjects of ethics and morality that seek to form considered, alternate modes of relating to self and others?
The section, furthermore, welcomes studies that explore questions such as: How can ethics research become more sensitive to the aspirations of marginalized organizational subjectivities and social groups? What are, more overall, the philosophical questions and concerns about ethics that, to date, have been under-represented in our discussion of business and organizational ethics? And what regions of the world still lie within the shadows of the current literature on ethics? In this section, we invite papers that study these and related issues conceptually as well as empirically. While we are open to various perspectives and ethics approaches, submissions to this section aim to further a critical-transformative approach that goes beyond simplistic prescriptions and common attempts to ‘model’ ethics, ethical responsibility, and ethical practices at work.
Cultural Dynamics and Business Ethics
Laurence Romani
Christof Miska
This section of the journal focuses on the ethical dimensions of all forms of cultural interactions in business, management, and organizations. We encourage theoretical and empirical research that investigates why and how ethicality may differ across, between, and within various contexts. This section welcomes all research approaches, such as comparative, intercultural, and critical cultural management studies because we believe in the strength of multiple research paradigms to enrich our understanding of cultural differences and ethicality in research methods, theory, and teaching.
The section aims to problematize the ethical aspects of well-established streams of cultural scholarship including but not limited to comparative studies, multicultural teams, expatriation and mobile professionals or global leadership. In particular, we encourage the study of emerging, contemporary, and novel aspects of ethical relevance. These may include topics such as language, race, intersectionality, migration, human rights, indigenous perspectives, and silenced groups in relation to business, management, and organizing. In addition to works addressing interpersonal interactions, this section encourages analyses taking historical and geopolitical contexts into consideration in the study of the power dimensions at play in ethicality. We wish to bring more visibility to ethical perspectives currently under-represented in our theorizing, teaching, and research methods in the scholarship of cultural encounters in business, management, and organizations.
Through a lens of ethics, we intend to open up new conversations that have the potential to advance scholarship dedicated to cultural dynamics and to generate responsible management for sustainable and inclusive societies.
Economics and Business Ethics
Julie Nelson
This section invites discussions of the relationship between economics and business ethics. Conventional economic theories about firms and the people involved in them encourage a very narrow focus on profit and monetary incentives. Yet the reality of business is far more complex, and the consequences of ethical or unethical economic behaviour are far-reaching. How can the discipline of economics—and the teaching of economics within business schools--more adequately address issues of business ethics? Are there concerns of economists, either conventional or critical, that business ethicists should take more seriously? Authors submitting to this section are welcome to explore these questions from philosophical or historical perspectives, offer conceptual insights, and/or use quantitative or qualitative methods of empirical analysis.
Environment and Business Ethics
Steffen Böhm
Martina Linnenluecke
All human activity on this planet is influenced by and dependent on the natural environment and sustainable, healthy and resilient ecosystems. Yet, the rise of capitalism and industrialised economies have led to profound and large-scale alterations to the earth system. Climate change, ocean acidification, deforestation, water pollution, species extinction, soil erosion and degradation are all examples of how the way businesses and economies are run negatively impacts Earth. This section welcomes papers that explore the complex and multiple relationships between nature and society, focusing particularly on the environmental ethics of business and economic activities.
We welcome ethical reflections from diverse geographical, historical and cultural sources, as well as marginalized voices and perspectives. Particular emphasis will be put on challenging anthropocentrism, as there is a pressing need to think about non-human ethics, for example, animal and plant ethics. This involves acknowledging different ontologies and cosmologies that approach nature-human interactions in a variety of different ways.
As humanity strives to find answers to the multiple environmental crises we face, nature-based solutions (including reforestation, carbon sequestration, rewilding, marine conservation, restoring wetlands, biofuel production) are implemented – often by businesses – at an ever-increasing scale. There is an urgent need to evaluate the ethical and governance implications of such approaches to increasing our ‘natural capital’. Are such solutions always just and inclusive? What tensions are there between people and their livelihoods and the need to conserve nature and re-grow the environment? Such questions call for renewed scholarly interest in the land, air, sea, and their inhabitants, evaluating the competing demands and interests articulated by business, state and civil society actors. This section provides space for critical, theoretically astute and empirically rigorous explorations of the emerging ethical and governance dynamics of these developments.
Feminisms and Business Ethics
Charlotte Karam
This section welcomes submissions that address the complexities of the relationship between business ethics and feminisms. We are interested in receiving a wide range of research that examines feminist approaches to an ethical analysis of, or an ethical analysis of feminist approaches to, business and business-related phenomena. Gender remains a central organizing principle of societal structures; women are (and have historically been) disadvantaged by these structures. Feminisms are concerned with unpacking the embedded power relations and the ways in which they perpetuate ongoing inequalities and hierarchies faced by women and other marginalized groups in the context of business, management or organizing for daily life.
Papers that include women as a demographic category only (e.g., women on boards, women CEOs, etc.) without a clear feminist analysis are not appropriate for this new section. Instead, we encourage analyses of the forces and dynamics perpetuating material examples and symbolic accounts of gendered organization within the realm of business from anywhere in the world. This work might analyze, for example, the ways that different forms of business-related knowledge and practices work to privilege some groups over others. Alternatively, it may explore feminist mobilizing, infrapolitics and solidarity movements, or transform dominant business ethics conceptions and practices of knowledge attribution, acquisition, and justification to challenge traditional gender and other social hierarchies such as race and class. Topics may include exploration of hegemonic masculinities, patriarchal societal and organizational structures, materialities of local gendered contexts, sexism and misogyny, or invisible ramifications of normalized patterns of care-work and the ideologies of everyday life. Larger, nationalist or transnational politico-economic structures and dynamics of globalizing capitalism, entanglement of gendered social relations with technology, and the manifestations of gendered geographies of power are some other possible topics of inquiry.
This section also illuminates the potential of feminist foundations for business ethics, thereby facilitating both the building of feminist frameworks of business ethics and, as importantly, challenging the very assumptions upon which feminist business ethics are made possible. To this end, we encourage research drawing from different paradigms, such as those grounded in realist ontologies and empiricism or those in social constructionist ontology and postmodern epistemologies. We welcome consideration of a wide spectrum of feminisms including, but not limited to, liberal, psychoanalytic, radical, socialist, womanist, poststructuralist, postmodern, theology, spiritual, Islamic, transnational, postcolonial, techno/cyber, eco and other feminist approaches. We hope that submissions to the section will generate new questions, employ innovative methodologies, and articulate novel theoretical insights, thereby contributing to different research agendas and different kinds of knowledge about what is being done, for whom, and to what end in business ethics theory and practice.
Finance and Business Ethics
Greg Shailer
Omrane Guedhami
Hao Liang
This section seeks submissions that address ethical issues as they relate to finance. It has a broad focus in terms of methodology and subject matter. Authors are encouraged to submit theoretical and/or empirical work. Recent topics have included issues of moral investment decisions, socially responsible investing, capital structure, and case studies of corporate failure and ethical decision making.
Global Issues and Business Ethics
Suhaib Riaz
Judy Muthuri
Contemporary economic, social and political developments often have important global dimensions. This should come as no surprise since we inhabit the same planet and our lives across the globe are increasingly intertwined. Current issues suggest this trend, such as those related to the global financial crisis, inequality, global value chains, global movement of humans including refugees, war and violence, political extremism, natural resources and natural environment, and sustainability.
In this section, we welcome articles on ethical aspects of global issues, particularly as related to business, management or organizing. The issues listed above are simply illustrative examples and submissions are welcome on any issues whose global dimensions need attention.
As befits a global issues space, submissions may engage with global issues drawing on a wide variety of ethical theories and analyses from anywhere in the world. We specially encourage studies highlighting non-elite perspectives that often do not find equal opportunities to have a voice on global issues.
Human Resource Management and Development and Business Ethics
Nelarine Cornelius
Fida Afiouni
Thomas Köllen
We encourage the submission of papers to this section that explore the ethics of managing and developing people within and across business entities, networks, and systems as they exist and function anywhere in the world. Although the papers we seek must clearly ground their work in an ethical analysis of business-related phenomena, these phenomena may be broad ranging. Relevant HR topics are likely to include an ethical analysis of three areas. The first relates to traditional HRM functions (e.g., performance appraisal, recruitment and selection, compensation and benefits, labor relations, health and safety) and HRD activities (e.g. learning and development, career development, talent management, coaching and mentoring, performance management systems, etc.). The second relates to within-organizational HRM/D issues (e.g., fairness and equity, motivation and empowerment, diversity and inclusion, compliance and risk management, retention and attrition, workplace flexibility, data security and data-driven HR practices, etc.). The third relates to national or supranational HRM/D concerns (e.g., socio-political unrest, limited statehood, economic and institutional uncertainties, complex business-society interactions, global climate change, growing North-South or developed-developing inequalities, national and regional human resource development strategies, gendered structures, demographic shifts and migration patterns, competition for talent, HRD standards and standardization, MNC dominance and its externalities, etc.). We invite manuscripts that bring strong empirical contributions, that extend theory, and/or that adopt a disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective. Especially desired are papers that critique and reimagine HRM/D to broaden our understanding of the ethical dynamics and to bring to light different insights upon which we can build new HR perspectives and narratives that make “the institution of business a greater servant of humanity” (Greenwood & Freeman, 2017: 1).
Indigeneity and Business Ethics
Ana María Peredo
Indigenous knowledges and ways of organizing hold significant insights and potential for business ethics scholarship. Increasingly, Indigenous leaders, indigenous scholars and scholars of Indigeneity are drawing attention to distinctive worldviews, as well as unique forms of organizing, enterprising and economic provisioning, many of which express successful Indigenous activism and model self-determination. It must be acknowledged that despite the potential for enriching the life of colonized surroundings, Indigenous communities have to navigate complex challenges in engagements with corporations, NGOs, state entities, and even within academic institutions. It is against this backdrop of lived Indigenous experience and scholarship that we invite and urge a deep and meaningful dialogue at the intersection of indigeneity, business, and ethics.
Indigenous organizational practices are not merely distinct strategies. They are grounded in different worldviews and embody ethical frameworks that have sustained Indigenous peoples across generations. These practices are rooted in cultural and spiritual systems that challenge the narratives and ethical parameters underlying mainstream discussions in business ethics and beyond. These challenges are particularly relevant as the management and organizations field reconsiders notions of economic success and profit maximization faced with a call to recognize relational approaches in responding to environmental, social, cultural, and economic crises. The ongoing interaction between Indigenous communities and organizations on the one hand and external entities of various kinds on the other, brings to the fore a spectrum of ethical considerations, often accentuated by the interplay of power, cultural integrity, and sovereignty.
In this journal section, we seek contributions that not only identify but also rigorously engage with ethics and business in dialogue with Indigenous knowledges and practices as those are incorporated into collective ethical understandings. For example, Indigenous peoples typically see a relationship with ancestral lands in terms of fellowship, even kinship. What are the ethical implications of that for land-use and business practices by both Indigenous peoples and settler organizations? What are the implications of Indigenous views that give ethical standing to non-human nature and ancestors and how should those views be acknowledged? What are ethical considerations in Indigenous ‘partnerships’ with settler governments and private enterprises? How can Indigenous holistic worldviews frame an understanding of well-being and the overall nature and purpose of economic arrangements?
These are just a few examples of the way that incorporating Indigenous knowledges and worldviews into investigations of business ethics generates potential for new questions and fresh insights. Addressing these matters raises ethical issues about research methods, including the positionality of researchers. These have received considerable scholarly attention but are far from settled.
We invite contributions from authors from the fields of management and organizations, as well as those from the broader spectrum of social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences, whose research intersects with the nexus of Indigenous knowledge, business practices, and ethics. We are open to a variety of well-constructed qualitative and quantitative methods.
Labor Relations and Business Ethics
Ernesto Noronha
Premilla D'Cruz
Globalization, intensive competition and technological advancement are redefining the world of work, raising new economic, social, legal and ethical considerations. In this context, papers in this section should focus issues on ethical aspects in labour relations and workers’ rights such as the consequences of outsourcing, flexibility, deregulation, migration, digitization and artificial intelligence for labour relations and workers’ rights. Of particular interest will be ethical issues that deal with workers in relation to precariousness, the gig economy, public and private regulation, workers’ sense of agency, surveillance, privacy, collective and individual resistance and alternative forms of organizing.
Law, Public Policy, and Business Ethics
David Hess
The Law, Public Policy, and Business Ethics section of the Journal of Business Ethics seeks research focused on how the perspectives of legal studies and public policy can inform business ethics research, and how business ethics research can inform those areas. The journal encourages research that seeks to understand how law and public policy can encourage ethical and socially responsible behavior by businesses. Business ethics scholars can help guide the law—broadly defined to include case law, statutory law, agency regulation, soft law instruments, and others—and public policy more generally, by examining the effectiveness of different laws and policy approaches in shaping ethical business practices and identifying necessary reforms. Importantly, what sets scholarship in this journal apart from scholarship in law or public policy journals are the insights from, and contributions to, business ethics scholarship, which includes the wide range of disciplinary perspectives and methodologies represented by business ethics scholars. Both theoretical and empirical work are encouraged. Research focused on country-specific laws or developments must keep in mind the global readership of the journal and the dramatic differences in legal, regulatory, and governing regimes around the world, and seek to provide findings that have insights of value to this global readership.
Leadership and Ethics: Philosophical Perspectives and Qualitative Analysis
Donna Ladkin
Leah Tomkins
This section seeks submissions that explore the intersection of ethics with leadership, leading, and leaders, from any theoretical perspective, through any qualitative methodology. An eclectic understanding of philosophical perspective and qualitative analysis is taken, including for example both secular and sacred metaphysics and innovative research approaches such as visual or performative methodologies. Articles may relate to any aspect of ethics and leadership, including education, from individual, group, organizational, cultural, social or political perspectives. All theoretical perspectives are welcome. Finally, as in other sections of the journal, authors should seek clarity of writing to enable communication across the range of intellectual communities to which the journal speaks.
Leadership and Ethics: Quantitative Analysis
Suzanne van Gils
Mayowa Babalola
This section seeks manuscripts that explore issues concerned with leadership and ethics through the use of quantitative methodological approaches. Articles examining the impact of leadership on follower behaviour and attitudes, the role played by leaders in incorporating ethics into organizational culture, and the factors which drive leaders to adopt ethical values are especially welcome. Studies on leadership theories other than ethical leadership, such as servant leadership, authentic leadership and paternalistic leadership are encouraged, on the proviso they deal with ethical issues within the organization.
Marketing Ethics
Danae Manika
Paolo Antonetti
This section welcomes conceptual and empirical manuscripts on the ethics of marketing practitioners (e.g., salespeople, product managers) and marketing strategies, attitudes, actions, plans, decision models, and codes of conduct. Especially encouraged are descriptive and/or prescriptive manuscripts on ethics and profitability, marketing research, social marketing, political marketing, direct marketing, marketing segmentation, non-profit entities, and the endogenous and exogenous causes of problematic behavior. Scholarship may be grounded in any normative ethical theory (e.g., utilitarianism, justice, virtue), marketing theory (e.g., relationship marketing, social marketing), or economic theory (e.g., neo-classical, Keynesian). Empirical manuscripts in any quantitative or qualitative methodological tradition may summarize studies that are cross-sectional or longitudinal, single- or multi-cultural, single- or multi-industry, and societal- or industry/firm level.
Measuring and Communicating Business Ethics
Jean-Pascal Gond
Rieneke Slager
The aim of the section is to examine, empirically and theoretically, the dynamics of measurement and communication in business ethics, and to investigate the ethical implications of how measures are produced, used, communicated, performed, and transformed. The reliance on metrics, numbers, ratings, rankings, and league tables to evaluate and communicate individual and organizational performance is such a pervasive social, scientific, and business practice that it is often taken-for-granted, including when measuring and reporting on corporate social responsibility, ethics, or sustainability by practitioners and academics alike. Hence, we seek to problematize and reflect on ethical issues inherent to metrics as well as communicative practices informed by numbers.
We welcome studies relying on sociological or historical studies of measurement and/or quantification to document and critically analyse the production and effects of ethically relevant numbers, and account for the constitutive dynamics inherent to their communication to various audiences within and across organizational settings. Studies of measurement or classification practices, such as ethically relevant accreditations, certifications, or labelling, will also be considered. We wish to stimulate studies deepening knowledge of the social properties of measures in relation to ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability. We are also interested in studies of how these notions are redefined or constituted through mechanisms such as reactivity, valuation, performativity, commensuration, qualification, justification, disciplining, or regulation.
The section welcomes submissions examining the ethical issues involved in the mobilization of numbers and metrics by social actors to promote alternative perspectives on social and environmental issues, as in the case of stat-activism or critical functionalism. We call for a deeper scrutiny of the political, social, and ethical issues underlying environmental, social or governance (ESG)-related numbers and metrics such as fair trade, grand challenges, impact investment, responsible investing, or sustainable finance.
Importantly, we encourage submissions that make strong contributions to business ethics scholarship, which includes the wide range of disciplinary perspectives and methodologies represented by business ethics scholars. Both theoretical and empirical work are encouraged, and quantitative, qualitative, as well as mixed methodologies (e.g., Qualitative Comparative Analysis) are welcome. Please note – while scale validation studies are not within the remit of the section, scale and metric studies that add to the theoretical or reflexive understanding of underlying concepts may be considered.
Organizational Behavior and Business Ethics
Joan Finegan
Baniyelme Zoogah
Joel B. Carnevale
The purpose of this section is to establish a forum for the discussion and analysis of complex managerial challenges and problems related to business ethics in both systematic and creative ways, applying various tools and techniques. Particularly important is that submitted manuscripts explore the connection between organizational behavior and ethics. Thus, scholarship is sought that engages holistic and inclusive thinking on such issues as cultural differences in the workplace and CSR, regional gender role challenges and decision-making, race relations in the workplace as related to ethics, population migration issues and their effects in the workplace, as well as addressing diversity and differences in expectations towards local and global organizations and their leaders. The section editor encourages articles that represent a wide-range of perspectives on behavior in organizations, especially stimulating critical reflection and questions relating to ethics, stakeholder decision-making and CSR.
Philosophy and Business Ethics
Alejo Jose G. Sison
Boudewijn de Bruin
This section is concerned with the ontological, epistemological and ethical foundations of business ethics (utilitarianism, deontology, social contract theory, virtue ethics, and so forth) and the methods that reflect on these foundations (hermeneutics, structuralism and phenomenology, among others). Papers may be concerned with the application of ethical theory and principles to the framing and analysis of problems arising in business practices and their possible solutions. Contributions may explore the concepts, structures, processes and routines through which business actors relate to each other, and the entrepreneurial or managerial ethos they constitute. Submissions may deal with these topics both historically and systematically, from the perspective of analytical and continental philosophies as well as other wisdom traditions. The emphasis of this section will be on conceptual papers and theoretical discussions rather than on empirical studies. Thus it hopes to contribute to the knowledge, development and renewal of the foundations of business ethics.
Practice in Business Ethics
Adrian Keevil
Dorothee Baumann-Pauly
This section seeks submissions that focus on ethics in practice and encourages academic authors to work with organisations and practitioners in the development and writing of articles. The section aims to advance the interaction of research and practice and in doing so improve ethics at work and working lives. While case based analyses are encouraged, articles may relate to any aspect of organisational ethics and adopt any suitable theoretical perspective and methodology, as long as a practical ethical issue is central to the theoretical development, empirical research, discussion or practical implications of the article. Importantly, articles are also expected to focus on the development of implications for policy and practice and their effective assessment and evaluation.
Psychology and Business Ethics
Yvonne G.T. van Rossenberg
Matthew McDonald
This section highlights the relation of psychology to business in terms of individual, interpersonal and social psychological processes. Papers are encouraged from a wide array of conceptual paradigms and methodological positions, and are assessed by the extent to which they formulate novel psychological insights on ethical and moral processes related to business contexts. Papers may be conceptual or empirical; empirical papers may be qualitative or quantitative.
While some relation to other psychologically-oriented sections (for example, Organizational Behavior, Behavioral Ethics) exists, the Business Ethics and Psychology section encourages broad questions about how business operates as a factor within moral psychology and vice versa. Thus, the section is not limited to ethical processes of managing people within organizational contexts, but may include such topics as how business practices ethically shape and are shaped by personal and interpersonal dynamics, how notions of moral selfhood and ethical subjectivity emerge from and relate to business practice, and how business contexts form backgrounds for moral development and reflection at individual or interpersonal levels. Also encouraged are studies of the shifting roles, boundaries, and practices of business in their implications for the ethical lives of those in and around organizations.
Religion, Spirituality and Business Ethics
Harry Van Buren
K. Praveen Parboteeah
This section focuses on how religion and spirituality are and can be related with business practice and management. We encourage articles regarding how religion and theology focus on moral aspects of business, including specific issues and dilemmas, religion and spirituality as inspirational source for management, leadership and organizational life. Similarly, we welcome research related to the integration of religion and spirituality into management; religious virtues and spirituality in organizational life, the influence of religion and spirituality in managing people within organizations, the relationship between spiritual or religious growth and performance, convergence and divergence between different religions on business ethics, religious and spiritual motivations in organizations, evaluation of business practices from religious, theological or spiritual perspectives, workplace spirituality, spiritual and religious capital, the relationship between religious and spiritual bonds and social capital in the business context, and religious freedom in business.
Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics
Julia Roloff
Articles submitted to this section should focus on expanding our understanding of business ethics beyond the multinational enterprise to include micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, family businesses and emerging business ventures. Research articles that focus on ethical aspects of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial process are also invited as are articles addressing small businesses within supply chains. All submissions are expected to draw from and build on relevant literatures from across disciplinary divides, for example small business, entrepreneurship, business ethics and social responsibility literature. High quality empirical papers (both quantitative and qualitative) and theoretical pieces are all welcome.
Social Entrepreneurship and Ethics
Tina Dacin
Benjamin Huybrechts
This section seeks submissions that address ethical issues as they relate to social entrepreneurship. The domain of social entrepreneurship is interdisciplinary and draws upon perspectives and theories from business and management, geography, political science, psychology and sociology. Authors are encouraged to submit theoretical or empirical manuscripts that consider ethics in the context of the emergence, efficacy and diffusion of organizational forms that combine both social purpose and commercial goals to achieve social impact and innovation.
Special Issues
Mary F. Sully de Luque
Glen Whelan
It is a hallmark of the Journal of Business Ethics (JBE) to publish high-quality, thematically focused Special Issues. Special Issues are subject to the same criteria of scholarly excellence as regular issues. Proposals concerning any topic in the field of business ethics and/or corporate responsibility, broadly defined, will be welcome for consideration. In line with the Journal’s aim they may reflect a wide variety of methodological and disciplinary perspectives. Special Issues provide the platform for scholars to focus on novel and important areas of concern and unique and specific sub-themes to advance the discourse in the field. The core criteria for consideration are originality and relevance. Specifically, we seek proposals that may lead to a better understanding of current problems, new vistas on specific topics, and to agenda setting for emerging streams of research.
Instructions on how to submit a proposal can be found in the Special Issue Guidelines on the journal’s homepage.
https://www.springer.com/journal/10551/updates/17205344
Sociology and Business Ethics
Masoud Shadnam
This section encourages and provides space for boundary spanning, interdisciplinary work that transends the specialization and boundaries common to schools of management and departments of sociology in order to consider issues of common interest to the discipline of sociology and business ethics. Are there sociological concerns, of either a conventional or a more critical bent, which business ethicists should take more seriously? Can business ethics illuminate the interconnected worlds of consumption, production and reproduction where these meet in individual behaviors, group dynamics, organizational life and state practices? Do the sociological classics and subsequent social science writers of the 20th and 21st centuries illuminate ethical issues in ways which other disciplines do not? Theoretical and empirically driven pieces are of equal interest as are those drawing upon the widest variety of philosophical, meta-theoretical, methodological and political positions.
Strategy and Business Ethics
Robert Phillips
All business strategies have ethical implications because they influence the well being of stakeholders and society. This section welcomes papers that explore these implications from the perspective of the firm, its purpose and strategy, or the perspective of the firm’s stakeholders. Of particular interest is research that explains how firm characteristics, processes, norms, values, history, or the institutions or industries to which a firm belongs, influence the manner in which strategies are formulated and implemented, and the ethical implications. In addition, this section invites research regarding the impact of particular strategies on a firm’s ethical reputation, on the way stakeholders respond to those strategies, or on the value that is created or destroyed for stakeholders as strategies are implemented. In this regard, research that measures stakeholder outcomes in non-financial terms is most welcome. Also of interest is research on the way corruption, greed, deceit, coercion, and the desire for power influence firm strategies, outcomes, and stakeholder responses. In addition, we encourage papers that look at how a sense of purpose, respect and responsibility also influences a firm's strategy. Theory papers are welcome, as are rigorous case studies, field studies, simulations, and empirical studies based on archival data or content analyses. Experiments are also welcome, but because of the topic area the use of test subjects with no business experience is probably not appropriate. All papers should be based on ethical analyses; however, any particular point of view in ethics may be invoked.
Technology and Business Ethics
Kirsten Martin
Vikram R. Bhargava
This section seeks submissions that focus on the ethical dimensions of technology and the associated corporate responsibilities of firms as either producers and designers of technology for societal use or implementers of technology within the firm. Technology is defined broadly to include all material actors from more recent advances, such as machine learning and information and communications technology (ICT), as well as drones, phones, and bicycles. The ethical implications are broadly considered to include autonomy, privacy, responsibility, harms, fairness, targeting of vulnerable populations, surveillance, cyber security, etc. This section focuses on how firms should engage in the ethical choices in deploying technologies, should recognize, negotiate, and govern the values, biases, and power of technology, should be held responsible for developing and implementing technology. Theory papers are welcome as are rigorous case studies, simulations, and empirical studies. All papers must be grounded in ethical theory and make a contribution to business ethics.