Review of SOX in the business ethics literature

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) on the academic business ethics literature with the intent of making this research more accessible to those researchers and practitioners working in business ethics and other related fields. Specifically, the authors outline the types and scope of SOX-related research, examine the extent of reliance on SOX, identify which theoretical frameworks and research approaches are used and point out under-researched areas. Design/methodology/approach Using a descriptive approach, the authors examine the theoretical perspectives, classifying these perspectives into four groupings (economics, ethics/moral, psychological and sociological). Using counts, categorization and content analyses, the authors provide an overview of 115 articles with further analysis provided for articles relying heavily (n = 14) or moderately (n = 42) on SOX. Findings Whistleblowing and codes of ethics are well-researched topics. However, employment of some theories (e.g. signaling theory and stakeholder theory) and qualitative approaches are used less often. Other under-researched issues in the sample include CEO/CFO certifications, cost of compliance, auditor disclosures and empirical investigation of SOX and auditor independence (or corporate culture). Research limitations/implications The authors’ decision to use certain databases, search terms and research methods, and to focus on business ethics journals and English language articles are possible limitations. Originality/value The authors’ contributions comprise an examination of the scope of SOX topics and detailing how reliant the research is on SOX. The authors identify trends in this literature and provide evidence of the broad theoretical frameworks to better understand the breadth and depth of theories used.

Understanding the Auditor's Ethical Behaviour in the Professional Environment

“…Consistent with bibliometric and social networks analysis research (Gordon and Nazari, 2018;Hota et al, 2020;Dwekat et al, 2020a;2021;Alberti et al, 2020;Mardawi et al, 2022) , 2020). Therefore, the journals incorporated in the WoS platform are identified as 'top journals' (García-Lillo et al, 2017;Omran et al, 2021;Dwekat et al,2020b;Carmona et al, 2022).…”

Wave after wave: unboxing 40 years of auditing ethics research

“…Consistent with bibliometric and social networks analysis research (Gordon and Nazari, 2018; Hota et al , 2020; Dwekat et al , 2020a; 2021; Alberti et al , 2020; Mardawi et al , 2022), we based our search on the WoS database, which consists of various citation indicators in it is core collection. The first article in this search appeared in 1980.…”

“…With regards to many bibliometric and content analysis research (see, for example, Gordon and Nazari, 2018), we limit our search to only the top (SSCI) auditing, accounting and business ethics journals (see Table 1).…”

“…At the same time, the Securities Exchange Committee modified its independence rules to meet the changing relationships between auditors and management and the possibility that independence could be compromised. In addition, SOX forced serious and detailed reforms that affect corporate governance and requested changes in Section 8 of the US Federal Sentencing Guidelines regarding the requirements for the mitigation of penalties provisions (Gordon and Nazari, 2018). Such reforms led to the development of codes of ethics for financial officers and employees, complemented with training in those codes.…”

“…The outcome of this search provided 1,064 articles. Second, as we mentioned earlier, consistent with previous accounting and auditing reviews (Gordon and Nazari, 2018), we limit our search to the SSCI auditing, accounting and top three business ethics journals. The results of this search generate 195 articles.…”