Open research questions in Ethics in Business and Education
400 gap statements mined from Ethics in Business and Education papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 4,461 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.
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What the literature leaves open
The study recognizes that prior research has not fully explored the role of employee implicit beliefs in determining which pathways they are more likely to follow. The research gap includes the need to examine the temporally distinct effects of the social cognitive mechanism and the social exchange mechanism.
However, the ethical consequences of performance‐focused HR attributions remain unknown.
Exploring the Unethical Implications of Performance‐Focused HR Attributions: The Role of Moral Disengagement and Algorithmic Management · 2026 · DOIWithin the African context, political, social and legislative factors that appear to have a significant influence have not been thoroughly explored.
Despite the importance of understanding ethical climates in Indonesian organizations, a standardized scale for measuring this is lacking.
Assessing Ethical Climate: Adaptation and Psychometric Properties in the Indonesian Context · 2024 · DOIWe are confident that we have laid the groundwork for further research into ethical reasoning of ICT, with a specific emphasis on its role during conceptual modelling.
It is unclear whether reasoning results in more ethical judgments or behaviours. US participants are outliers on various psychological and social characteristics.
The relations between ethical reasoning and moral intuitions among engineering students in the US, Netherlands, and China · 2026 · DOIThe study highlights the need to examine how legitimacy is constructed and maintained in evolving occupational landscapes.
Measuring first-order legitimacy judgments: development of the corporate profession legitimacy scale · 2026 · DOIThe existing scales have limitations, such as exclusively addressing organizational legitimacy and conflating first-and second-order legitimacy judgments.
Measuring first-order legitimacy judgments: development of the corporate profession legitimacy scale · 2026 · DOIFuture research could examine similar court-based or legal-institutional learning experiences across different cultural and disciplinary contexts, incorporate baseline and delayed follow-up data, and use complementary methods to explore whether students’ reflective responses persist and translate into professional action.
Learning ethical sensitivity through authentic legal experience: an educational psychology perspective on court hearing engagement · 2026 · DOIThe gap is the lack of an integrative model that connects these dimensions.
Clarity Under Pressure: A Structural Model of Moral Stability Under Entrepreneurial Pressure · 2026 · DOIThe research highlights the need to explore the role of Workplace Spirituality and Balinese cultural values in auditor performance.
Ethical Behaviour: Improving Auditor Performance Through Workplace Spirituality and Local Cultural Values – Evidence from Village Credit Institutions in Denpasar, Indonesia · 2026 · DOISource categorization was conducted by a single reviewer. The reviewed literature is primarily drawn from English-language Western organizational research. Future structured reviews should incorporate second-coder verification to strengthen thematic reliability.
ETHICAL FADING AS SYSTEMIC VULNERABILITY: FROM THEORETICAL REVIEW TO A MULTI-LEVEL DIAGNOSTIC FRAMEWORK FOR MORAL EROSION IN COMPLEX ORGANIZATIONS · 2026 · DOIFuture research should incorporate second-coder verification to strengthen thematic reliability. Future research should draw on a more diverse range of institutional contexts, including Eastern European, Asian, or Global South contexts.
ETHICAL FADING AS SYSTEMIC VULNERABILITY: FROM THEORETICAL REVIEW TO A MULTI-LEVEL DIAGNOSTIC FRAMEWORK FOR MORAL EROSION IN COMPLEX ORGANIZATIONS · 2026 · DOIAddressing the compliance-integrity gap and developing models that can capture the complexity of compliance maturity. Developing more effective compliance management systems that prioritize organizational integrity and ethical conduct.
Measuring Compliance Maturity and Organizational Integrity: A Conceptual Framework for an Integrated Governance and Ethics Model · 2026 · DOIThe study aims to investigate the mediating role of moral disengagement and the moderating role of supervisor-rated job performance in this relationship.
Workplace ostracism and political behavior: a moderated mediation model of moral disengagement and supervisor-rated job performance · 2026 · DOILongitudinal studies in real decision situations are the next step. They will have to show whether the architecture is not only testable but also trainable.
Clarity Under Pressure: A Structural Model of Moral Stability Under Entrepreneurial Pressure · 2026 · DOIThe study used a one-year time lag, - The study had a limited sample size of 455 working adults, - The study did not control for all potential confounding…
The study employed a multicenter cross-sectional survey design, - Individual-level institutional identifiers were not retained in the analytical dataset, - Potential within-institution clustering could not be further…
Affective Commitment and Healthcare Professionals’ Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior: An Asymmetric Double-Edged Pattern Across Emotional-Labor Pathways and the Role of Moral Identity · 2026 · DOIFurther research could explore the relationship between affective commitment and UPB in different contexts, - The role of moral identity in moderating the relationship between surface acting and UPB could be further…
Affective Commitment and Healthcare Professionals’ Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior: An Asymmetric Double-Edged Pattern Across Emotional-Labor Pathways and the Role of Moral Identity · 2026 · DOIThe study only collected data from three enterprises in China - The sample size was limited to 303 employee–coworker dyads - The study did not disclose the identities of the participating…
When ownership stakes pull in different directions: How CGHRM practices shape the ethical implications of employee stock ownership level · 2026 · DOIFuture research could explore the generalizability of the findings to other countries and industries - Future research could investigate the impact of employee stock ownership on other organizational outcomes - Future research could examine the role of other moderating variables in the relationship between employee stock ownership and unethical pro-organizational…
When ownership stakes pull in different directions: How CGHRM practices shape the ethical implications of employee stock ownership level · 2026 · DOIThe challenge of holding leaders accountable for reckless or unethical behaviour, - The difficulty of balancing stakeholder interests in times of crisis, - The need to prevent normalizing governance…
The persistence of bad leadership despite governance reforms and leadership training, - The need to understand the consequences of bad leadership on corporate…
Whistleblowers face isolation, victimization, career disruption, financial hardship, and mental health issues - There is a lack of institutional support and ineffective protective measures…
Investigating lived experiences and mental health of whistleblowers: a perspective from South African employees who exposed corruption and wrongdoing in the workplace · 2026 · DOIFuture research should investigate the effectiveness of legal protections for whistleblowers - Future research should examine the impact of organisational support on the well-being…
Investigating lived experiences and mental health of whistleblowers: a perspective from South African employees who exposed corruption and wrongdoing in the workplace · 2026 · DOI
Most-cited papers in Ethics in Business and Education
- The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders · Business Horizons · 1991 · 5,901 citations
- Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model · Academy of Management Review · 1991 · 3,279 citations
- Ethical Decision Making in Organizations: A Person-Situation Interactionist Model · Academy of Management Review · 1986 · 2,858 citations
- Organizational Legitimacy: Social Values and Organizational Behavior · The Pacific Sociological Review · 1975 · 2,738 citations
- Trust And Distrust: New Relationships and Realities · Academy of Management Review · 1998 · 2,454 citations
- WHEN EMPLOYEES FEEL BETRAYED: A MODEL OF HOW PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT VIOLATION DEVELOPS · Academy of Management Review · 1997 · 2,377 citations
- A Contingency Framework for Understanding Ethical Decision Making in Marketing · Journal of Marketing · 1985 · 2,273 citations
- TRUST: THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ETHICS · Academy of Management Review · 1995 · 1,974 citations
- Accounting for the effects of accountability. · Psychological Bulletin · 1999 · 1,601 citations
- Violating the psychological contract: Not the exception but the norm · Journal of Organizational Behavior · 1994 · 1,590 citations
Most recent work
- Conceptualization of ethical leadership: pitfalls and suggestive pathways · International Journal of Ethics and Systems · 2026
- The scales of justitia: A comprehensive survey on safety evaluation of LLMs · Information Fusion · 2026
- The paradox of emotional intelligence: How resource scarcity and emotion regulation facilitate consumer fraud · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · 2026
- Moral transgressions, moral emotions, and regulatory behaviours at work: evidence from two studies · European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology · 2026
- Exploring criticality in Nigerian business education: curriculum, pedagogy, and graduate formation · Frontiers in Education · 2026
- Unethical Organizational Practices as a Stressor, Mediated by Moral Emotions and Moderated by Ethical Leadership · Journal of Business Ethics · 2026
- Designing ethical brands: the impact of logo frames on consumer perceived brand ethicality · Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics · 2026
- Customer complaints trigger employees’ unethical behaviors: the roles of insomnia and moral disengagement · International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management · 2026
- Breaking the silence: ethical voice in response to peer unethical behaviour in Indian public sector organizations · International Journal of Ethics and Systems · 2026
- Beyond borders: can culturally intelligent leaders make better CSR calls · Journal of Sustainable Tourism · 2026
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