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

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 twenty 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.

Does Economic Rationalization Decrease or Increase Accounting Professionals’ Occupational Values?

“…Prior research on the occupational values of accounting professionalism has demonstrated the ways in which these values can be socialized in accounting education programs (Huss and Patterson 1993;Mele 2005;Dellaportas 2006;Bampton and Cowton 2013). Our findings suggest that the socialization of these values is particularly important in countries with higher level of economic rationalization.…”

“…We suggest that the socialization of professional values is likely to be a more effective mechanism to ensure ethical conduct of accountants rather than behavioral control using rules and regulations (Duska and Duska 2003;Bampton and Cowton 2013). This is because values are enduring normative standards that guide human behavior across distinct contexts while behaviors are more dependent on context and external control.…”

“…Accounting professionals also pursue openness to change values, emphasizing independence and creativity, to maintain their autonomy in the creation, innovation and application of accounting expertise (Loeb 1988;Huss and Patterson 1993;Duska and Duska 2003;Pakaluk and Cheffers 2011;Bampton and Cowton 2013;Klein 2015). The international and national codes of accounting ethics require professionals to exercise independence in client assessment.…”

Teaching ethics through court judgments in Finance, Accounting, Economics and Business

“…The recent business scandals -mainly in Spain, but also worldwide -that are reflected in a high number of criminal sentences, justify why teaching ethics to students in the areas of Finance and Accounting, and Business and Economy has gained so much interest (Buchan 2005, Johl et al, 2012, Marques & Azevedo Pereira 2009, Svanberg 2011, Bampton & Cowton 2013. Most of the sentenced illegal acts are well supported by the literature, such as: unfair competition receiving unjustified business favours (Gili Pascual, 2007), labour exploitation (MorenoJiménez;Rodríguez Muñoz, 2006), the use of public information for private purposes (Bajo Fernández, 1998), tax falsehoods and inaccurate documentation (Bacigalupo, 2007), strategies for tax evasion (Camargo Hernández, 2005), flight of capital (Alvarez Pastor; Eguidazu Palacios 2006), among others.…”

Psychological and moral determinants in accepting cheating and plagiarism among university students in Poland

“…There is a substantial amount of other research whose results emphasise the importance of individual traits, in particular moral convictions (Bampton & Cowton, 2009).…”