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Taking Stock of Accounting Ethics Scholarship: A Review of the Journal Literature

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Abstract

The proportion of business ethics literature devoted to accounting and the proportion of academic accounting literature devoted to ethical issues are both small, yet over the past two decades there has been a steady accumulation of research devoted to ethical issues in accounting. Based on a database of more than 500 articles gathered from a wide range of accounting and business ethics academic journals, this paper describes and analyses the characteristics of what has been published in the past 20 years or so. It identifies and explores patterns and trends in publication outlets and the type of research conducted. Furthermore, through a comparison with issues that have been raised in the general business ethics literature, it offers guidance to researchers who intend to take the field of accounting ethics forward using empirical methods.

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Notes

  1. However, although it involves more than 1500 articles, Collins’ review is focused solely on the Journal of Business Ethics.

  2. The bibliography has since been updated. It can be found at http://cae.uwaterloo.ca/citation.php.

  3. With their original spelling.

  4. This impression was borne out by a statistical check. An analysis of the specialisms of academic staff listed in the British Accounting Review Research Register found that 63 % gave Financial Accounting or Auditing, compared with 37 % for Management Accounting. These figures were then compared with the relevant percentages of published literature. A chi-squared test found that management accounting was significantly under-represented in the accounting ethics bibliography.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leeds Business School, Leeds Metropolitan University, The Rose Bowl, Leeds, LS1 3HB, UK

    Roberta Bampton

  2. University of Huddersfield Business School, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH, UK

    Christopher J. Cowton

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  1. Roberta Bampton
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  2. Christopher J. Cowton
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Correspondence to Christopher J. Cowton.

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Bampton, R., Cowton, C.J. Taking Stock of Accounting Ethics Scholarship: A Review of the Journal Literature. J Bus Ethics 114, 549–563 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1341-3

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