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Mapping Ethics Education in Accounting Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

• Review Paper
• Open access
• Published: 10 June 2021
• Volume 179 , pages 451–472, ( 2022 )

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• Tamara Poje   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2223-4935 1 &
• Maja Zaman Groff 1  

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The attention being paid to ethics education in accounting has been increasing, especially after the corporate accounting scandals at the turn of the century. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the existing research in the field of ethics education in accounting. To synthesize past research, a bibliometric analysis that references 134 primary studies is performed and three bibliometric methods are applied. First, we visualize the historical evolution of ethics education in accounting research through historiography. Second, we use bibliographic coupling to identify clusters of ethics education in accounting research before, during, and after major corporate scandals. Third, we perform a co-word analysis to connect the identified patterns into a map of a contextual space. The results reveal, in each decade, not only an increasing academic focus on this field of research, but also an increasing number of different research clusters. While the clusters Factors affecting moral judgement, Perception of ethics, and Lack of ethics topics in the last research period develop further from the respective clusters in the previous periods, Accounting beyond technical skills, Integration of ethics in accounting education, Use of developed ethics frameworks, and Professional values on the contrary develop anew in the last decade, as a consequence of a growing demand for teaching ethics. Overall, the paper presents the development patterns of ethics education in accounting research and sets up a research agenda that encourages future research.

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Introduction

The importance of ethics in accounting has vastly increased following the corporate scandals at the turn of the century. These scandals reflect a serious lack of ethics in both the field of financial reporting, which is primarily intended to provide true and fair representation to external users of financial statements, and accountability to the general public. Low et al. ( 2008 ) point out that corporate scandals have always drawn attention to the role of accountants who simultaneously assisted in financial management, preparation, and auditing of financial statements, and that “ recent corporate scandals have set a new low for the accounting profession ” (Low et al., 2008 , p. 222).

To prevent further corporate scandals, different legislative changes, including the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, Directive 2006/43/EC, Directive 2014/56/EU and Regulation 537/2014, were adopted. In regaining public trust, professional codes proved to be another essential part. Accordingly, the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA), was revised.

To change behavior and mindset, setting up policies is not enough ─ moral development is needed as well. Enhancement of ethics education is therefore a viable solution in addressing the ethical crisis in the accounting profession (Jackling et al., 2007 ) that has certainly encouraged research in ethics education itself (De Lange et al., 2006 ; Dellaportas, 2006 ; McPhail, 2001 ; Melé, 2005 ; Roxas & Stoneback, 2004 ).

The main objective of the paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing research in the field of ethics education in accounting, while at the same time improving its understanding and driving its future research. More specifically, our goals are to firstly, outline influential papers that have shaped or reformed this field and provide an overview of the historical developments in the field of research, secondly, examine the developments, and thirdly, develop a research agenda that fosters future research.

Most studies of ethics education in accounting present a static view of the current situation. However, since the topic is evolving dynamically over time, the present study instead provides a dynamic perspective on how this field of research has advanced over the last three decades. The resulting development patterns of ethics education in the accounting research, combined with the current developments in the business environment, provide a basis for not only predicting future developments in this field, but also encouraging future research. To the best of our knowledge, this is the very first comprehensive literature review based on a bibliometric analysis in the field of ethics education in the accounting research. As such, it aims to examine the proposed research area in a transparent and quantitative way. We believe that the bibliometric methods applied overcome to some extent the problems of the subjectivity that is associated with peer review and result in more objective outcomes.

Three bibliographic methods are used in the research to achieve the objectives set. Firstly, historiography is performed to show the development of theoretical approaches. Secondly, bibliographic coupling is used to identify and analyze the individual clusters of the academic literature and the relations between them in the periods before, during, and after the corporate accounting scandals. And lastly, a co-word analysis is conducted to show the thematic landscape.

Based on the bibliometric analysis, we look for a developmental path in the ethics education in accounting research. The results reveal that research interest has been increasing throughout the observed periods with a relatively slow increase during the corporate scandals, but a considerable increase of research interest in the period following the scandals, when the number of published articles quadrupled and the number of different clusters doubled, when compared to the previous period. For the last research period, seven research clusters that evolved within the ethics education in accounting research are identified. Namely, while the clusters Factors affecting moral judgement, Perception of ethics , and Lack of ethics topics develop further from the respective clusters in the previous periods, Accounting beyond technical skills, Integration of ethics in accounting education, Use of developed ethics frameworks , and Professional values on the contrary develop anew in the last decade, as a consequence of a growing demand for teaching ethics. In the last research period, the research questions, such as why ethics education is needed, are replaced by the questions related to the contents of ethics courses and the different approaches to teaching ethics (e.g. stand-alone course or integrated across the curriculum, the use of innovative teaching methods). Among the factors influencing the ethical decision-making process, both individual and situational factors are explored, with the emphasis on the latter (e.g. predispositions, pressure, culture).

The research findings primarily relate to educators and researchers in the field, where the former are provided with relevant sources that they can use to design courses, while the latter obtain a comprehensive review of the most relevant research that has already been conducted in the field, together with the current trends and possible avenues for further research.

The paper is structured as follows. After the introduction, the background section first indicates the role of the corporate accounting scandals in the enhancement of the ethics education in accounting, then outlines the prominence of the ethics education in the accounting research, and in the end presents the arguments for the selected bibliometric methods. In the following section, the methodology used to perform the analysis of ethics education in the accounting literature is presented. Next, we identify the thematic landscapes and theoretical approaches, define clusters and contextualize the main findings for all periods. The study concludes with the discussion, viable areas for future research and conclusion sections that include research limitations.

The accounting profession consists of financial accountants, management accountants, auditors, tax consultants, valuation specialists, financial analysts and other professionals. What they all have in common, aside from accounting knowledge, is their daily involvement in making ethical choices. Questionable accounting practices, including ethical concerns, have already existed long before the most famous corporate accounting scandal Enron (Duska et al., 2018 ). Some noticeable early examples cover Yale Express System (1965), Equity Funding (1973), and Waste Management Scandal (1998). Although Enron and WorldCom are most known of all, the scandals occurred all over the world (see Table 1 ).

Aside from the consequences directly related to the stakeholders, the effects were more far-reaching, and revealed themselves in the reduced quality of financial reporting (Ball, 2009 ) and in investors losing confidence in financial information, resulting in a severe loss of market capitalization (Petra & Spieler, 2020 ). In addition, this was followed by a lack of public trust which is “essential not only for preserving respectability but also for ensuring the survival of accounting’s status as a profession” (Carnegie & Napier, 2010 , p. 360). Among the many reasons which contributed to the corporate accounting scandals, lack of auditors’ independence (Sikka, 2009 ; Unerman & O’Dwyer, 2004 ) and professional skepticism were outlined (Benston & Hartgraves, 2002 ). The independence in the accounting profession is at the core of the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. To mitigate such scandals in the future, ethics education proves just as important, since it improves professional skepticism (Ratna & Anisykurlillah, 2020 ).

Studying not only the efficiency of different approaches to teaching ethics in accounting programs, but also the effects of ethics education on the moral development of accounting students, the importance of developing values and virtues in accounting students becomes therefore relevant and timely. Accounting ethics education is outlined by Uysal ( 2010 ) in a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the business ethics research with an accounting focus as one of the three areas that have, along with the Moral cognitive development and Implications for ethical decision-making models, evolved in the accounting business ethics literature. Moreover, in the review by Bampton and Cowton ( 2013 ), education is outlined as a subfield within the accounting ethics literature.

Due to an increasing number of relevant papers, identifying the most important contributions in the field by studying the literature is time-consuming and subjective. To overcome these difficulties and to objectify the results at least partly, a bibliographic analysis was developed, consisting of various bibliometric methods, among which citation analysis is most frequently used. The idea behind citation analysis is that the most frequently-cited authors and papers are also most relevant to scholars and researchers (Garfield, 1979 ). Zupic and Čater ( 2015 ) differentiate between five main bibliographic methods, namely the citation analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, co-author analysis and co-word analysis. The methods differ based on the unit of each analysis, or in other words, it is common for the first three methods that they use citation data as an input, while the input in the co-author analysis comes from authorship data and in the co-word analysis from words.

The bibliographic analysis in the field of accounting started with studying the flow of information within accounting journals (McRae, 1974 ), the influence of a particular journal (Brown & Gardner, 1985 ), and ranking accounting journals by their influence (Tahai & Rigsby, 1998 ). All in all, bibliographic analysis remains to this day a prominent research method in accounting (Ameen & Guffey, 2017 ; Bisman, 2011 ; Chan et al., 2009 ; Ezenwoke et al., 2019 ; Guffey & Harp, 2017 ; Uysal, 2010 ). Citation analysis conducted by Ameen and Guffey ( 2017 ) in the field of teaching and curriculum innovation in accounting, which reveals that out of the six most cited articles three are related to the topic of ethics education, shows how important this field of research actually is.

To identify the research areas developed in the field of ethics education in accounting, we use the clustering method as defined in the bibliometric literature (van Eck & Waltman, 2017 ; Waltman et al., 2010 ). The advantage of this method is the reduction of subjectivity, since qualitative data are analyzed quantitatively. However, the interpretation of quantitative results remains subject to subjectivity. Further, to show the structure of the research area and the development path, science mapping is used (Zupic & Čater, 2015 ).

• Historiography

Bibliographic coupling shows a static picture of a research field. Since we are also interested in the field’s development over time, we perform historiography in CitNetExplorer. Historiography analyzes the chronological development of the research field by visualizing the most important publications and showing how articles build on each other. The tool enables the identification of the most important publications in the field in chronological order and reveals citations between them. In addition, it uses citation networks of individual publications as the data for analysis (van Eck & Waltman, 2014 ).

Co-word Analysis

We perform a co-word or co-occurrence analysis, representing a content analysis that connects words or noun phrases in the title or abstract. Based on the connections, a conceptual structure of the topic can be built, in other words, the more times the terms appear together, the stronger the connection of the concepts (He, 1991 ). Among the existing bibliographic methods, co-word analysis is the only one that uses text data instead of bibliographic data as a source for the analysis (van Eck & Waltman, 2019 ) to show the thematic landscape. It analyses the documents’ content, while other methods are more focused on searching for connections only through the citation analysis. The major idea of the co-word analysis is to connect any identified patterns into a map of contextual space. And it is the sequence of such maps for different periods that shows the conceptual transformation (Coulter et al., 1998 ).

Bibliographic Coupling

We use bibliographic coupling as a cross-citation technique which refers to two documents that have at least one common reference. This method searches for bibliography overlaps and since it looks for citing publications, it is a retrospective (static) similarity measure, not depending on a certain point in time. The method is in addition used to determine recent contributions and research trends (Vogel & Güttel, 2013 ). And although bibliometric methods are generally useful, they are nevertheless not self-sufficient, as they do not provide any information about the content of the analyzed papers. Within our research, the bibliographic coupling method is used primarily to map and analyze research in the field of ethics education in accounting.

Sampling and Data

Our analysis is based on the Web of Science data source. Despite all the existing articles from the field of ethics education in accounting not being included in the Web of Science, we use this database for the following reasons. Firstly, the Web of Science covers the widest time span and comprises articles that are over 40 years older than the articles in other databases. As an example, the Web of Science includes articles from 1956, while Scopus from 1996 (Meho & Yang, 2007 ). In any case, older articles are necessary for the reason of performing a historical comparison. Secondly, the database also covers the Social Science Citation Index that, due to an independent and thorough editorial process, in the end ensures the overall journal quality. Thirdly, the Web of Science was designed particularly for citation analysis (Falagas et al., 2008 ).

To derive the data set of the studies for the analysis, we first used keywords accounting , education , and ethic * Footnote 1 as a search engine in the Web of Science. In total, 385 articles matching all three keywords were found in July 2020. Next, we limited the search to the following science categories: business finance, business, education educational research and ethics, which scaled the list of relevant articles down to 273. Third, we defined article as a document type (after which 205 articles remained) and English as a document language (after which 192 articles remained). To prevent any omission of the relevant articles, we also ran searches with different combinations of keywords, including teaching , accountant and similar, all resulting in comparable sets of articles.

For the set of the remaining 192 articles, we downloaded and read all the abstracts to examine, if the content of the articles is in line with our research topic. We excluded those articles that were not directly related to our field of research. The majority of the excluded articles were closely related to two keywords, while the third one was only mentioned. The mere mention of the keyword was sufficient for an inclusion by the program, however, the manual check did not show a match with the research topic. Based on our judgment, additional 58 articles were excluded as non-relevant for the analysis, resulting in the final selection of 134 primary articles to be included in further research. Only one article was dated before 1991 (1939) and was for that reason eliminated from further analysis.

Figure  1 presents the number of articles in the final sample published by year. The vast majority of articles were published in the Journal of Business Ethics, as presented in Table 2 .

Number of articles published by year.

The data were analyzed with the VOSviewer software. For the analysis purpose, we divided the articles into three time periods, namely decades: 1991–2000, 2001–2010 and 2011–2020. The first decade corresponds to the period before the major corporate scandals, the second decade coincides with the scandals, while the third decade represents the period after the scandals. The selection of time periods enables an identification of the possible impact of corporate accounting scandals and the related public mistrust in the accounting profession on the ethics education in accounting research. Table 3 presents the five most cited articles for each period.

To analyze the bibliographic data, we used BibExcel that shows co-occurrences of references in the articles’ bibliographies (Persson et al., 2009 ). BibExcel was applied to analyze secondary documents (citation within citation) which are documents cited by primary articles (cited articles). The five most cited documents among secondary documents are Rest ( 1986 ; cited in 33 primary papers), Loeb ( 1988 ; cited in 24 primary papers), Dellaportas ( 2006 ; cited in 21 primary papers), Jones ( 1991 ; cited in 19 primary papers), and Blanthorne et al. ( 2007 ; cited in 18 primary papers). In the most cited paper, Rest ( 1986 ) develops the Defining Issue Test (DIT), which is the most widely used instrument for measuring an individual’s level of moral development, where the individual identifies the ethical issues for each ethical dilemma.

In all three analyzed periods, most of the cited articles were published in the Journal of Business Ethics. However, in the last period, the percentage of the cited papers published in the Journal of Business Ethics dropped due to the increased number of different cited sources (1991–2000: 57, 2001–2010: 185, 2011–2020: 436). Since researchers in the field of ethics education in accounting apply knowledge also from other fields, such as medicine, nursing, physiology, sociology, business, innovation, law, etc., the percentage of the cited articles per journal is reduced, when compared to the previous two periods (Fig.  2 ).

The list of the 5 most cited journals among secondary documents for each period and their coverage among all citations

To understand the development of the ethics education in accounting research we perform historiography on all the main documents. Historiography was conducted in CitNetExplorer (van Eck & Waltman, 2014 ) on a full sample of primary papers, as described earlier. Since analyzing a large number of citation relations may result in unclear results, the full citation network was reduced in CitNetExplorer in two ways. First, by defining the minimum number of citation relations required for a publication to be included in the analysis, we followed the procedure of van Eck and Waltman ( 2014 ), where only publications with at least ten internal citation relations were included in the analysis. Second, by applying the transitive reduction method, where the program distinguishes between essential and non-essential citation relations in the network, only the essential relations (no other relations connect two publications) are shown in the final result. For additional explanation on the transitive reduction method see van Eck and Waltman ( 2014 ). Figure  3 shows two main research streams (cluster 1, green; cluster 2, blue) that have been established, using CitNetExplorer, where in the last five years, cluster 1 (green) has become the dominant one.

Note : *National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting. To increase visibility, only the most important articles are shown

Citation network of the evolution of ethics education in accounting research.

The first cluster consists of 41 publications (Fig.  3 , green), starting with a seminal work by Kohlberg ( 1969 ), who developed the theoretical foundation of moral development. Based on the latter, the theory then further developed with the works of Rest ( 1986 ) and Trevino ( 1986 ). Rest ( 1986 ) developed a four-step model of moral development, while Trevino ( 1986 ) built a competitive model, adding additional individual and situational variables into the model. Trevino’s and Rest’s models both outline cognitive moral development as crucial for judgment. A few years later, Jones ( 1991 ) developed a new model based on Rest’s theory, introducing moral intensity as a factor affecting the four stages.

The first themes within this cluster are oriented towards theory development and are followed by the development of more practice-oriented themes, addressing the importance of real-world dilemmas related to profession (Loeb, 1988 ; McPhail, 2001 ). Recent articles continue to add to the development of a theoretical foundation by connecting the existing topics (Martinov-Bennie & Mladenovic, 2015 ), providing literature reviews (Bampton & Cowton, 2013 ; O’Fallon & Butterfield, 2005 ) or pointing out the current stand on the topic (Marques & Azevedo-Pereira, 2009 ).

The second cluster (Fig.  3 , blue) is the largest and consists of 96 publications. The second research stream starts with Rest’s ( 1979 ) development of a measurement instrument, the Defining Issue Test (DIT), which is a self-report measure that gives quantitative values to moral issues. Therefore, the focus of the majority of the research in the second cluster is on the research using DIT, or a combination of DIT and other measurement instruments (Armstrong, 1987 ; Dellaportas, 2006 ; Eynon et al., 1997 , etc.).

One of the themes that emerges in the 1990s within the second cluster is the factors influencing moral judgment. Authors investigate the effect on moral judgment of individual factors, such as gender (Adkins & Radtke, 2004 ; Jones & Hiltebeitel, 1995 ) and age (Adkins & Radtke, 2004 ; Jones & Hiltebeitel, 1995 ), and situational factors, such as social pressure (Mayhew & Murphy, 2009 ; O’Leary et al., 2007 ) and education (Cooper et al., 2008 ; Halbesleben et al., 2005 ; Hiltebeitel & Jones, 1992 ; McNair & Milam, 1993 ; Mohd Ghazali, 2015 ). After 2000, research on ethics education in accounting spread to non-Western countries, including Turkey (Karaibrahimoğlu et al., 2009 ), Malaysia (Marzuki et al., 2017 ; Mohd Ghazali, 2015 ), China (Driskill & Rankin, 2020 ; Liu, 2018 ) and Tunisia (Arfaoui et al., 2016 ). In the 2010s, research became more detailed and focused on different topics, such as the benefits of teaching ethics (Arfaoui et al., 2016 ), questions related to course development (Kidwell et al., 2011 ; Sorensen et al., 2017 ; Tweedie et al., 2013 ), and extending the accounting knowledge beyond technical skills (Gordon, 2011 ).

Bibliographic Analysis

Next, the data collected and selected were analyzed using two bibliographic methods, i.e. co-word analysis and bibliographic coupling. We performed both methods for each period, with the clustering solution depending on the minimum occurrences or citations defined, resolution parameter and minimum cluster size. As recommended by van Eck and Waltman ( 2017 ), we performed different clustering solutions in order to achieve good explanatory power. Consequently, there are methodological differences between the periods. Since the aim of our co-word analysis was to primarily identify approximately 25 most frequently used words, we adjusted the minimum occurrence in each period accordingly. The resolution parameter and minimum cluster size were both set to the default value (1), except for the second period, for which the resolution parameter was set at 0.9. As for bibliographic coupling, due to the manageable number of publications in the field, the minimum citations defined in bibliographic coupling remained as the default value (0), as well as the minimum cluster size (1), in all three periods. To improve explanatory power, the resolution parameter was adjusted to 0.8 in the first period, while being set to the default value (1) in the last two periods.

The bibliographic analysis based on co-word analysis and bibliographic coupling was performed separately for each of the three research periods. For every period, we define the research fields obtained by each of the two methodological approaches. As the co-word analysis is based on article content (words and phrases), it results in thematic landscapes or clusters representing the terms that are used together most frequently. Consequently, it is already the words or phrases within each cluster that define the cluster’s content and there is thus no need to label the clusters based on the supplementary content analysis. On the other hand, bibliographic coupling provides clusters of articles that are grouped together based on their references, not their content. Therefore, for each cluster obtained by bibliographic coupling, we perform an additional manual qualitative analysis of its articles’ content to assign pertinent cluster labels (names). Although the advantage of the bibliographic analysis is reduction of subjectivity, cluster naming nevertheless remains subject to subjectivity.

For each period, we exhibit the clusters identified with VOSviewer for both methodological approaches, where each item is assigned to exactly one cluster based on the method used (bibliographic coupling or co-word analysis). For presentation purposes, the clusters in Figs.  4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , and 8 are represented by different colors. The weight of an item determines the size of the label and the circle. Weight is defined by total link strength, which is the cumulative strength of the links of an item with other items. Two publications have greater coupling strength, the more citations to other publications they share. The lines between the publications represent the links between them (van Eck & Waltman, 2019 ). Moreover, Tables 4 , 5 and 6 provide a list of clusters in each research period. In addition to the cluster number and color, the cluster label (name) based on the manual content analysis is provided along with a list of the five most cited references. This section presents the main findings for each period, followed by a discussion describing the patterns of development.

Note : a) colors represent the clusters, b) lines represent the connections between the items, c) the size of both the label and the circle represents weight of an item, and d) the distance between the items and the weight of the lines represents the relatedness between the items

Period 1991–2000 with clusters for ethics education in accounting based on bibliographic coupling

Research Fields for the Period 1991–2000

For the 16 articles published in the period 1991–2000, the co-word analysis identifies only one cluster consisting of the following words: business, education, future managers, moral development , and society course . The list of most frequently used words reveals that research flow builds on the importance of teaching ethics, as a result of its effect on the accounting profession. Identification of a single cluster may occur, due to the limited number of articles published in this period.

For bibliographic coupling, the largest set of the connected items consists of 15 items (Table 4 ), with the total number of clusters identified standing at 2 (Fig.  4 ), all articles published in the Journal of Business Ethics.

Even before the outbreak of the major corporate accounting scandals, researchers were aware of the inadequate treatment of ethical issues in the classroom. As reported in the research published between 1991 and 2000, ethics education was at the time already included in some parts of the accounting curriculum, but not sufficiently (Gunz & McCutcheon, 1998 ; Kerr & Smith, 1995 ; Loeb, 1991 ; Loeb & Rockness, 1992 ; McNair & Milam, 1993 ). We label this research cluster Lack of ethics topics . McNair and Milam ( 1993 ) reported that although ethics education is included in accounting courses, the scope is nevertheless limited and needs to be expanded. It was already then believed that ethics should be integrated into the accounting curriculum in a way that enhances students’ moral development which can be achieved by integrating ethics content into the core accounting courses rather than having separate ethics courses (Loeb & Rockness, 1992 ; McNair & Milam, 1993 ).

Research in this period reveals that one of the reasons for the lack of ethics topics may be found in the insufficient academic commitment. Despite an increase in the accounting ethics articles, little research has been done on the topic (Gunz & McCutcheon, 1998 ). The professors who participated in McNair and Milam’s ( 1993 ) study agree that an increased coverage of ethics topics in accounting courses is much needed. Further, they pinpoint the lack of time and available materials as the main causes of the problems associated with ethics education in accounting. A lack of ethics can have a negative impact on both the accounting profession and society, however, although ethical issues are not adequately addressed in accounting courses, the research identifies positive trends toward teaching ethics in accounting (Loeb, 1991 ).

One of the biggest challenges facing accounting educators is how to integrate ethics topics into the curriculum (Huss & Patterson, 1993 ; Loeb, 1994 ; McCarthy, 1997 ), as there is still no consensus on the effect of ethics courses on ethical orientation. While research by Hiltebeitel and Jones ( 1992 ) shows that ethics integration does in fact affect ethical orientation, McCarthy ( 1997 ), on the contrary, finds no differences. Moreover, it is further ascertained that implementation of ethics education alone is not enough, since it should also be defined why and how to integrate it into the curriculum (Loeb, 1994 ). In addition, ethics should be taught in a way that encourages students’ critical thinking about ethical dilemmas, while the purpose of integrating ethics into the curriculum should be to improve students’ moral development (Fischer & Rosenzweig, 1995 ).

Within the cluster labeled Factors affecting ethical decision-making process , authors also study the effects of personal characteristics (Hiltebeitel & Jones, 1992 ), in addition to ethics education. While Eynon et al. ( 1997 ) report that certified accountants have lower levels of moral judgment, when compared to other professions, that is lower than the average adult and average student, Green and Weber ( 1997 ) on the contrary find no differences in moral judgment, when comparing junior accounting and other business students. Therefore, no consensus exists to date between researchers as to whether more or less ethical students choose accounting as their major. On the other hand, differences are reported when comparing senior-level accounting and other business students, with the latter presenting lower levels of moral judgment (Green & Weber, 1997 ). It is necessary to add here that senior accounting students in the sample were exposed to a professional code of ethics, which may have affected their moral judgment. Jones and Hiltebeitel ( 1995 ) find that personal characteristics (age, gender, education), organizational expectations, and internalized expectations do in fact affect moral judgment. The overall research also shows that the moral development of accountants is an ongoing process, and that ethics training should continue after formal education. And since accountants with lower levels of moral judgment are less supportive of ethical education, Eynon et al. ( 1997 ) suggest mandatory ethical training.

It is obvious that the importance of ethics education in accounting already drew the attention of researchers in the period 1991–2000 before the major corporate accounting scandals. However, during the next period (2001–2010), the number of articles in this field of research increased by 44%.

Research Fields for the Period 2001–2010

Corporate scandals that occurred in the period 2001–2010 encouraged many researchers to pay additional attention to ethics education in accounting:

“ Such scandals have again questioned the business and accounting practices of these firms and the role played by their auditors .” (Dellaportas, 2006 , p. 391) “ The scandals […] remind us that accounting programs still need to teach ethical conduct .” (Shawver & Sennetti, 2009 , p. 663) “ Thus, considerable steps have been made in ethical accounting education, but, after the well-known recent accounting scandals, it seems absolutely essential to pay increasing attention to ethics in accounting and to improve ethical education for accountants .” (Melé, 2005 , p. 97) “ In light of the myriad accounting and corporate ethics scandals of the early 21st century, many corporate leaders and management scholars believe that ethics education is an essential component in business school education .” (Halbesleben et al., 2005 , p. 385)

Based on a selection of 23 articles for the period 2001–2010, the co-word analysis shows a more precise picture of the thematic landscape than it does in the previous period. To narrow down the results, the minimum number of occurrences of keywords was defined as 2. Out of 143 keywords, 24 met the reduction criteria.

A notable cluster derived by the co-word analysis (Fig.  5 , red) consists of words judgments , perceptions , unethical behavior , gender , perspectives , issues , multidimensional analyses and accounting ethics . On one hand, this cluster reveals a continued interest of researchers in the factors affecting ethical decision making, but on the other hand, it suggests an increasing importance of the perception of ethics. Perception is further connected with two main themes, one related to students (yellow) and the other related to professionals (blue). The last cluster (green) relates to the notion that the success of teaching ethics depends on the way ethics content is delivered. Despite the fact that the manner of teaching ethics is at this point in time not yet identified as an individual research cluster, the co-word analysis reveals that many authors already started exploring this field.

Note : a) colors represent the clusters, b) lines represent the connections between the selected words, c) the size of both the label and the circle represents the weight of a word, d) the distance between words and the weight of the lines represents the relatedness between the words

Co-word analysis for the period 2001–2010

Based on bibliographic coupling, the largest set of connected items consists of all articles (Table 5 ). The total number of the clusters identified is three (Fig.  6 ), of which the majority (19) were published in the Journal of Business Ethics.

Period 2001–2010 clusters for ethics education in accounting based on bibliographic coupling

In the period between 1991 and 2000, research mainly focused on the individual Factors affecting ethical decision-making process . In the subsequent period between 2001 and 2010, research built on the knowledge of the previous 10-year period and studied more thoroughly the individual factors, such as gender (Cohen et al., 2001 ; Liyanarachchi & Newdick, 2009 ; Marques & Azevedo-Pereira, 2009 ; Roxas & Stoneback, 2004 ) and age (Marques & Azevedo-Pereira, 2009 ), of which age was found to be an important determinant of relativism (Marques & Azevedo-Pereira, 2009 ). Regarding gender, results of some researchers show that females are more critical when evaluating ethical dilemmas and less likely to perform a questionable action described in dilemmas, when compared to males (Cohen et al., 2001 ). On the other hand, research by Marques and Azevedo-Pereira ( 2009 ) reveals just the opposite, in the dilemmas where gender differences exist males are more critical than females. In any case, gender results are situation-specific and have to be interpreted with caution. In addition, the question of which gender is more ethical depends on the culture (Roxas & Stoneback, 2004 ). Another explanation for the inconsistent results could be that most studies focus on main effects only. Liyanarachchi and Newdick ( 2009 ) show in their research that there is an interaction effect between gender and moral development on the propensity for blowing the whistle.

In addition to culture, researchers concentrated also on other situational factors, such as profession (Cohen et al., 2001 ), professional commitment (Elias, 2006 ), social pressure (O’Leary et al., 2007 ), and education (McManus & Subramaniam, 2009 ). When comparing students and professionals, the results reveal that professionals do not only rely more on utilitarianism, but are also less willing to perform a questionable action described in ethical dilemmas (Cohen et al., 2001 ). What is more, in Elias’ ( 2006 ) research, professionalism was found to positively influence moral judgment. The differences in moral judgment may exist due to the group situational factor, which means that individuals are more willing to take extreme actions (regardless whether ethical or unethical), while groups tend to make more neutral decisions (O’Leary et al., 2007 ). The research by McManus and Subramaniam ( 2009 ) confirms that ethics education at a university level can improve moral judgment. This and similar findings within the Factors affecting ethical decision-making process can be among the reasons why research in the period between 2001 and 2010 also developed around the topic The need to teach ethics .

The findings reported by the authors representing The need to teach ethics cluster emphasize that in order to succeed as knowledgeable professionals in a highly competitive and changeable business environment, students need to learn both technical and soft skills. Among soft skills, ethics education is crucial for the accounting profession (Dellaportas, 2006 ; Karaibrahimoğlu et al., 2009 ; McPhail, 2001 ; Melé, 2005 ; Molyneaux, 2004 ), hence accounting educators should strive to increase students' ethical awareness. One of the ethics education objectives, as defined by McPhail ( 2001 ), is thus the development of a broader view of the profession, in other words, students should be able to understand how their profession is positioned in a broader social and political context and develop moral sensitivity for others.

A newly developed Perception of ethics cluster reveals that students perceive ethics education as more important than faculty members (Adkins & Radtke, 2004 ) and that only 20% of accounting master’s degree students believe that ethics programs impact their decisions (Mayhew & Murphy, 2009 ). In any case, participation in a variety of different business courses that include ethics content may in fact lead to improved moral judgment and decreased pluralistic ignorance (Halbesleben et al., 2005 ).

Research Fields for the Period 2011–2020

To narrow down the results, based on 94 articles for the period 2011–2020, the minimum number of occurrences of keywords was defined as 5. Out of 522 keywords in this period, 23 met the threshold. For the co-word analysis, the resolution parameter was defined as 0.9 with the purpose of reducing the number of different clusters from 5 to 4 in order to achieve better interpretation.

Again, the thematic landscape presented in Fig.  7 overlaps with the clusters identified in Table 6 . The co-word analysis groups the words business ethics , students , education , ethics education , accounting ethics , model , curriculum and accounting into a single theme (Fig.  7 , green) that corresponds to the three clusters focusing on teaching ethics from different perspectives, namely Accounting beyond technical skills, Integration of ethics in accounting education and Use of developed ethics frameworks (Table 6 ). The second theme, including decision making, business students, profession, behavior, values, sensitivity, gender, attitudes, organizations and ethical decision making (Fig.  7 , red), correlates with the Factors affecting ethical decision-making process cluster, where different factors influence the sensitivity of the ethical decision-making process. The last theme, with perceptions, ethics, impact, professional ethics and accounting education (Fig.  7 , blue), corresponds to the Perception of ethics cluster.

Note : a) colors represent the clusters, b) lines represent the connections between the words, c) the size of both the label and the circle represents the weight of a word, d) the distance between the words and the weight of the lines represents the relatedness between the words

Co-word analysis for the period 2011–2020

Based on bibliographic coupling, the largest set of connected items consists of 93 items (Table 6 ) and the total number of clusters identified is seven (Fig.  8 ). The majority of the articles were published in the Journal of Business Ethics (23 articles), followed by the Advances in Accounting Education: Teaching and Curriculum Innovations (8 articles) and Accounting Education (7 articles).

Period 2011–2020 clusters for ethics education in accounting based on bibliographic coupling. Note : a) colors represent the clusters, b) lines represent the connections between the items, c) the size of both the label and the circle represents weight of an item, and d) the distance between the items and the weight of the lines represents the relatedness between the items

Ethics education in accounting was extensively studied in the last period from 2010 to 2020, when the number of articles published quadrupled, compared to the preceding period. Similar to the previous two periods, Factors affecting ethical decision-making process remains to date an important subfield of research. Nevertheless, the most significant breakthrough in this period is the development of four new research subfields, namely Accounting beyond technical skills, Integration of ethics in accounting education, Use of developed ethics frameworks and Professional values. These four clusters, focusing on why and how to teach ethics, evolved from the cluster that developed during the period of corporate scandals (i.e. The need to teach ethics) . As ethics education in accounting is not yet at the desired level, the research in the Lack of ethics topics cluster, identified for the period 1991–2000 , draws attention once again. And lastly, the Perception of ethics cluster grows compared to the previous period, due to the continuous changes in the environment on one hand and the constantly developing curriculums on the other.

Factors Affecting Ethical Decision-Making Process

Although the subfield Factors affecting ethical decision-making process was studied extensively in the previous two periods, the research on this topic continues, researches focus on both the individual (Nahar, 2018 ; Rodriguez Gomez et al., 2020 ) and situational factors (Driskill & Rankin, 2020 ; Hummel et al., 2018 ; Koh et al., 2011 ; Liu, 2018 ; Mladenovic et al., 2019 ; Nahar, 2018 ; Ramirez, 2017 ; Shawver & Miller, 2017 ; Taplin et al., 2018 ), with the latter gaining in importance. Among the situational factors, researchers have so far studied what effect do pressure (Koh et al., 2011 ), the importance of outcome (Koh et al., 2011 ), the pre-dispositional effect (Hummel et al., 2018 ), treatment effect (Hummel et al., 2018 ; Liu, 2018 ; Mladenovic et al., 2019 ; Ramirez, 2017 ; Shawver & Miller, 2017 ; Taplin et al., 2018 ), culture (Driskill & Rankin, 2020 ), and religion (Nahar, 2018 ) have on the ethical decision-making process. Further, building on the theories of profit maximization, Hummel et al. ( 2018 ) studied the effect of economics and business education on moral judgment. They did not find any differences in the predispositions of economics and business students, when compared to other majors and no effect of business education on moral judgment. Liu ( 2018 ) separated and studied the effects of ethics and auditing education on professional skepticism. While auditing education has no effect on professional skepticism, the effect of ethics education is, on the contrary, positive. Similarly, Mladenovic et al. ( 2019 ) confirmed that the effect of integrating ethics topic in accounting courses does positively affect the students’ ethical decision-making process. Ramirez and Palos-Sanchez ( 2018 ) went a step further and narrowed down the research focus on the effect of ethics education in higher education on willingness to comply with the law, with the results showing positive effect. If Ramirez and Palos-Sanchez ( 2018 ) defined clearly the scope of educational effect, it was Taplin et al. ( 2018 ) who narrowed down the ethics intervention to a short role-play intervention. In fact, role-playing was found to be an effective way to learn ethics. In addition, culture (Driskill & Rankin, 2020 ) and religion (Nahar, 2018 ) are reported as factors that influence the ethical decision-making process.

Perception of Ethics

Age and gender are reported to be important determinants of the students’ perception of the importance of accounting ethics (Tormo-Carbó et al., 2016 ). This perception is influenced additionally by education, meaning that it is the students who have taken an ethics course that show an interest in including ethics topics into the curricula (Tormo-Carbó et al., 2016 ). Focusing on the students’ perception of their peers, Costa et al. ( 2016 ) report that students believe their peers have lower ethical standards than they do. Further, students perceive serving public interest as more important than auditors do and have a greater need to establish independence rules, which can be explained by their lack of experience. In other words, while auditors become more confident in their moral judgment with experience and perceive rules as constraints on their judgment, students feel more confident by following the rules. Although the students’ commitment to the public interest and independence was higher than the auditors’, the results reveal that auditors perceive questionable practices as less ethical than students (Barrainkua & Espinosa-Pike, 2018 ). Similar results were found when comparing students and accountants (Waldron & Fisher, 2017 ).

Lack of Ethics Topics in the Education Process

Ample research on ethics education in accounting has already been conducted with the aim of improving it, nevertheless, the lack of ethics topics in educational process still persists. Larrán Jorge et al. ( 2015 ) researched whether accounting programs integrated ethics or corporate social responsibility as a stand-alone course. The result shows that only half of the business schools in the sample offer at least one such course. In addition, there is a negative relationship established between school size and course inclusion, with larger schools being more robust and their transformation taking more time. All in all, limited training related to corporate social responsibility is indeed observed, however, it is also evident that students are aware of its importance and have thus room to claim more ethical and social themes in the future (Larrán et al., 2018 ).

The generally prevailing view of accounting students is that accounting information is prepared above all for the shareholder’s needs (Ferguson et al., 2011 ). The author further explains that “ accounting and business education fails to address the ethical assumptions that it is underpinned by and fails to acknowledge alternative ethical frameworks ” (Ferguson et al., 2011 , p. 24), which means that schools should be aware of their involvement in education of ethical accountants. All in all, the need to redesign accounting education (Al-Htaybat & Von Alberti-Alhtaybat, 2015 ) is evident throughout this research cluster.

Research Clusters Evolved from the Need to Teach Ethics

Cluster The need to teach ethics, identified in the preceding period of corporate scandals, developed further around four specific areas of research, namely the Integration of ethics in accounting education, Use of developed ethics frameworks, Accounting beyond technical skills, and Professional values.

The general opinion is that accounting educators not only need to move beyond teaching theory and standards to actually developing students' attitudes towards values and ethics (Caglio & Cameran, 2017 ), but also need to be aware that the perceived professional ethics is an important factor influencing students’ intention to major in accounting (Lee & Schmidt, 2014 ). Further, it is considered that while ethical values and professional identity should be developed within the university, the process itself should continue throughout the professional career, i.e. individuals need to understand their role within the wider economic and social system (Sin et al., 2011 ).

Technical skills are necessary, but not at all sufficient, in the accounting profession. Pierre and Rebele ( 2014 ) believe that the primary goal of accounting education should remain the development of technical skills, in the sense that students must first understand the subject/problem, before they can critically evaluate it (Pierre & Rebele, 2014 ). After this primary goal is achieved, educators should then start with the development of other student competencies. The problem is that through the education process students receive only limited soft skills, resulting in an expectation gap between student skills and the expectations of audit firms (Anis, 2017 ; Chaffer & Webb, 2017 ). Considering that accounting students value career growth and are willing to develop professional skills that are essential for the profession, ethical issues should certainly be integrated into accounting programs (Sarapaivanich et al., 2019 ). However, what raises concerns about the issue are the results of Sugahara and Boland ( 2011 ), revealing that only 55% of accounting academics agree that they should incorporate ethics topics into their curriculums.

Despite all the ample research on the topic, there is still no consensus on how ethics should be taught. Researchers recommend the use of innovative teaching methods, such as thematic approach (Blanthorne et al. 2017 ; Tweedie et al., 2013 ), active learning (Loeb, 2015 ), virtue ethics (Sorensen et al., 2017 ), giving voice to values (Christensen et al., 2018 ; Cote & Latham, 2016 ; Painter-Morland & Slegers, 2018 ), and role-playing (Bouten & Hoozée, 2015 ), rather than using the traditional ones. Another recommendation is the development of soft skills by applying real-life cases (Keevy, 2020 ).

Likewise, no consensus exists on whether ethics should be taught as a separate course or integrated into the curriculum (Blanthorne et al. 2017 ; Kelly & Earley, 2011 ; Needles Jr., 2014 ; Sugahara & Boland, 2011 ). Miller and Shawver ( 2018 ) studied the extent to which the Ethics Education Framework Footnote 2 is used in curriculums and found that its use is low, but also that it is increasing. Ethics is at any rate a complex topic, as there is no unique approach to teaching it, and for this reason it is up to the educators to decide which framework is the most suitable to achieve the ethics-related goals. Moreover, as ethical frameworks influence moral judgment, ethics decision-making frameworks should not only be included in the codes of conduct of professional bodies (e.g. IFAC, APESB), but also presented to both professionals and students (Martinov-Bennie & Mladenovic, 2015 ).

Using historiography , we analyze the chronological development of ethics education in the field of accounting research. The theoretical background starts with Kohlberg ( 1969 ) who was the first to identify the nature of morality. Almost two decades later, Rest ( 1986 ) went further and developed a four-step model of moral development. Both Kohlberg’s moral development and the neo-Kolbergian model (based on Rest’s) theories were also outlined by DeTienne et al. ( 2019 ) as being two of the main streams of research in moral development in business ethics. The historiography analysis reveals that the other streams of the moral development research identified by DeTienne et al. (2019), including moral identity, domain theory, moral automaticity, moral schemas and moral heuristic, are not referenced in the ethics education in accounting research, which pinpoints a research focus that is narrower than the broader research field of business ethics.

Besides research development, historiography reveals an overlap of shared knowledge between different research areas. Relatedly, the vast majority of articles (more precisely, 131 out of 133) were included in the bibliographic coupling analysis, showing bibliographic connections to other documents in the network. This positive development indicates that information and knowledge are shared across the scientific community. To see the impact of corporate scandals on research in the field, we divided the study’s timeframe into three distinct, namely the before, during, and after the major corporate scandals periods. The increase in the published articles was perhaps indeed small from the period before to the period during the corporate scandals, nevertheless, there was a major increase in the period after the scandals, when the number of the published articles quadrupled and the number of different clusters doubled, when compared to the preceding period. While some clusters persist and expand throughout the observed periods, others evolve as new research fields with a more specific focus. At any rate, the latter, despite representing a novel stream of research, build on and further develop previous knowledge. Using the bibliographic coupling analysis, we depict the development patterns of ethics education in accounting research in Fig.  9 .

Development patterns of ethics education in accounting research

Factors affecting ethical decision-making process is identified as a continuing cluster of research. In the first period (1991–2000), this field of research prevailed with 9 primary articles (out of 15 connected items). The importance of the cluster can be outlined by the fact that all articles from the list of the 5 most cited articles in this period (Table 3 ) belong to this research cluster (Eynon et al., 1997 ; Fischer & Rosenzweig, 1995 ; Green & Weber, 1997 ; Jones & Hiltebeitel, 1995 ; Karcher, 1996 ). In the second period (2001–2010), this was still a prominent field of research with 10 primary articles (out of 23 connected items). However, only 2 articles from this cluster (Cohen et al., 2001 ; Roxas & Stoneback, 2004 ) appear among the 5 most cited articles in this period. In the last research period (2011–2020), this cluster comprises only 16 primary (out of 93 connected) articles. Another interesting observation is that while individual factors remain similarly researched between the periods, the research on the effect of situational factors, as are social pressure and treatment effect, continues to grow .

Interestingly, the Lack of ethics topics in education process cluster was noted already before the major corporate scandals. Researchers have already highlighted the importance of ethics education (Gunz & McCutcheon, 1998 ; Loeb, 1991 ; McNair & Milam, 1993 ), which contributed to a further development of the cluster during the period of corporate scandals (2001–2010), when the need for ethics education became thoroughly investigated. In this period, 9 primary papers (out of 23 connected items) were identified in The need to teach ethics cluster, three of them among the 5 most cited in the period (De Lange et al., 2006 ; Dellaportas, 2006 ; McPhail, 2001 ), outlining the importance of ethics education in preventing similar ethical misconduct with consequences reaching far into the future and regain public trust in the accounting profession. However, the need for ethics education also raised additional questions. How should ethics be taught? Who should teach it? Do the characteristics of the learner matter? These are some of the questions that researchers sought to answer in the last research period (2011–2020). Accordingly, The need to teach ethics cluster evolved into more specific research areas, including Integration of ethics in accounting education, Use of developed ethics frameworks, Accounting beyond technical skills and Professional values, comprising in total 58 primary papers (out of 93 connected items), four of them among the 5 most cited in the period (Chabrak & Craig, 2013 ; Martinov-Bennie & Mladenovic, 2015 ; O’Leary & Stewart, 2013 ; Tweedie et al., 2013 ). Among the four newly evolved clusters, Accounting beyond technical skills reports the highest number of primary papers (19).

All in all, the increased number of clusters, identified with the bibliographic coupling analysis, and the increased number of articles within the clusters indicate together the increasing importance of teaching ethics in accounting. Despite ample empirical evidence published in the highest quality journals, the present study reveals that the implementation of ethics topics in accounting education is, although increasing, still not at a desirable level. Based on our literature review, the contributing factors to the current state of ethics education in accounting include the following reasons: (1) some schools are slow in implementing the necessary changes due to a lack of knowledge and commitment of academics, (2) after a successful implementation of ethics into the academic syllabi, its impact on the ethics-related goals may be limited, because the selected approach disregards certain relevant (individual or situational) factors that affect the ethical decision-making process, and (3) due to the abundant empirical evidence on the topic, it may be difficult to optimize the effect of ethics education, especially when among researchers no consensus has yet been reached regarding the questions such as the development of stand-alone courses or integrating ethics topics across the curriculum, how to account for individual factors, and last but not least, what innovative teaching methods provide the best results.

The trend of the number of articles increasing in the field of ethics in accounting is also outlined in the accounting education literature review by Apostolou et al. ( 2010 ). Overall, the majority of the existing literature reviews focus on the accounting education (Apostolou et al., 2010 , 2017 ; Rebele et al., 1991 ; Watson et al., 2007 ) or ethics in accounting (Uysal, 2010 ). To the best of our knowledge, the present study is novel in the sense that it combines both fields and gives a comprehensive overview of the historical development of the existing research in the field of ethics education in accounting.

Future Research

Based on historiography , the research in ethics education in accounting has mostly been based on Kohlberg’s ( 1969 ) theory of moral development and Rest’s ( 1979 ) measurement instrument, DIT. Both Kohlberg’s and Rest’s theories were also outlined by DeTienne et al. ( 2019 ) as two of the main streams of the research in moral development in business ethics. However, their work covered additional theoretical foundations that are currently used in the field of business ethics, including the domain theory, moral automaticity, moral schemas, and moral heuristic. These have not yet been as well applied in the ethics education in accounting literature. Nevertheless, incorporating these novel theoretical approaches may be warranted, because they are by their nature highly multidisciplinary. DeTienne et al. ( 2019 ) outline that this area is of high interest, in addition to academics, to philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists, and other professionals. For example, approaches similar to those used in neuro-accounting apply also to moral schemas. As this stream of research focuses on the development of brain structures, it must thus be supported by both neuroscience and psychology (Narvaez, 2008 ). The literature review of Tank and Farrell ( 2021 ) shows that neuro-accounting has attracted the attention of researchers only from 2007, so it is not surprising that it has not yet developed in the subfield of ethics education. Future research could therefore expand the existing theoretical background so as to include other theories that are not yet as well applied, which could lead to additional clusters within the historiography of ethics education in accounting.

Based on bibliographic coupling that presents the development patterns in the field of research, to encourage future research we next develop a research agenda. The past expansion and the current developments within the Factors affecting ethical decision-making process cluster suggest that this cluster is to persist in the future. We can nonetheless still expect novel research focusing on new factors that were disregarded or insufficiently investigated in the previous decades. In recent years, country-specific issues have attracted the interest of researchers (Arfaoui et al., 2016 ; Driskill & Rankin, 2020 ; Marzuki et al., 2017 ; Mohd Ghazali, 2015 ), however, the consistency of the results and their implications are still lacking. Moreover, an increase in the research related to the Islamic religion, conducted over the past decade (Musbah et al., 2016 ; Nahar, 2018 ; Zubairu, 2016 ), may indicate that the effect of different religions on the ethical decision-making process could become a prominent area of future research within this cluster.

In the last period (2011–2020), Use of developed ethics frameworks and Integration of ethics in accounting education were among the clusters that developed from The need to teach ethics cluster, which evolved during the second period (2001–2010). The common characteristic of the two clusters is their focus on the course design. It is therefore plausible to expect that the clusters will merge to form a prominent How to teach ethics cluster, thus reaching beyond the research questions of the two previous clusters by incorporating current developments, also related to the outbreak of Covid-19, into teaching. What could become a prominent research area within the new cluster is the effect of the online ethics courses. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020, education worldwide was forced to go online in the spring of the same year (Alassaf & Szalay, 2020 ; Sun et al., 2020 ). While the vast majority of the existing research has so far focused on the in-class ethics education (Arfaoui et al., 2016 ; Shawver & Miller, 2017 ), we expect a growing body of literature to focus mainly on the online methods. In fact, recent research (Sorensen et al., 2017 ) has already denoted this trend. Research questions in these clusters have so far included the identification of, on one hand, the most effective teaching approaches that are applied in ethics education, such as the thematic approach (Tweedie et al., 2013 ), active learning (Loeb, 2015 ), role-playing (Bouten & Hoozée, 2015 ), and on the other hand, the research questions related to whether ethics should be taught as a stand-alone course or using an integrated approach. This field merits additional insight, as despite extensive research no consensus on the topic has been reached to date (Dellaportas, 2006 ; Martinov-Bennie & Mladenovic, 2015 ). In addition, while most researchers have focused on comparing the effectiveness of traditional and innovative teaching methods, there is a lack of comparison between innovative methods.

The specific part of the Integration of ethics in accounting education cluster, which relates to virtue ethics (Sorensen et al., 2017 ), could merge with the Professional values cluster to form a new Professional values and virtues cluster . Moral virtues focus on character development and represent a permanent attitude towards moral behavior. Since the objectives of ethics education are to increase moral sensitivity, help individuals to make moral judgments, improve moral behavior and stimulate moral virtues, moral values and virtues are closely related and should therefore be treated in ethics education (Melé, 2005 ). The importance of moral virtues has been frequently addressed in the field of medical ethics (Toon, 2014 ), however, the existing lack of comparable research in ethics education in accounting can be identified as another research gap.

In the last period (2011–2020), the importance of developing soft skills in accounting education was addressed in the Accounting beyond technical skills cluster. This stream of research originated in the gap observed between the skills of accounting students and expectations of employers. Ma ( 2009 ), who examined the status of the business ethics research, reported that in the all-encompassing pursuit of profits in capitalist economies, the effect of business ethics on financial performance became one of the main determinants of the promotion of ethical behavior. Similarly, a new stream of ethics education in the accounting research, included in the Practical importance of ethics in accounting cluster, could investigate whether (and to what extent) the motivation for promoting soft skills, together with ethics and moral skills, has been redefined to include its effects on corporate financial performance.

While the Lack of ethics topics in education process cluster seems to evolve and implode in cycles, based on the latest research findings on the existent situation in accounting education, Perception of ethics is, on the contrary, a continuous cluster that not only provides an overview of the current state of ethics and its improvement, but is also expected to continue to exist in the future, due to continuous changes in the environment and the constantly developing curriculums. Future research development patterns of ethics education in the accounting research are presented in Fig.  10 .

Future research development patterns of ethics education in accounting research

Conclusion and Limitations

Looking at the existing research in the field of ethics education in accounting reveals a vast amount of work that researchers have already done on the topic. The objective of this paper however is to trace the evolution of ethics education in accounting, define the thematic landscapes and outline the subfields that constitute the ethics education in the accounting research. We attempted to accomplish this objective by performing historiography, bibliographic coupling and co-word analysis. Dividing the study’s timeframe into three different, i.e. the before, during and after the major corporate accounting scandals, periods allowed us to see the true impact of the corporate accounting scandals on the investigated research area. Moreover, our review highlights the most influential articles and journals in the field.

The theoretical backgrounds used in ethics education in accounting research are based on the fundamental theories from the field of business ethics, while research does not yet build on the newly developed concepts, such as moral identity, domain theory, moral automaticity, moral schemas and moral heuristics (DeTienne et al., 2019 ). These interdisciplinary approaches that have been applied in the business ethics research provide scholars with a venue of further research.

The present study gives a comprehensive overview of the topic and thus contributes to a more effective and efficient implementation of ethics education in accounting and future research. Although the importance of ethics education was outlined even before the corporate accounting scandals, the number of published articles quadrupled while the number of different clusters doubled in the period in the period following the scandals in comparison to the previous period, the implementation of ethics topics in accounting education is not yet at a desired level, due to a lack of knowledge in its implementation on one side and a lack of commitment from academics on the other. Moreover, the true impact of the implemented ethics education is still limited as a consequence of the numerous factors affecting its success. In each period, researchers describe additional factors that affect the ethical decision-making process, among which situational factors gain in their importance. The period of the corporate accounting scandals outlined The need to teach ethics , which resulted in four research areas developed in the last period, namely Integration of ethics in accounting education , Use of developed ethics frameworks , Accounting beyond technical skills , and Professional values. To improve the effectiveness of ethics education, educators should pay special attention to the course design and its development, especially in terms of the content and structure of the course, the ethics frameworks use and the teaching methods, with researchers recommending the use of innovative rather than traditional methods.

We expect researchers to continue studying the individual and situational factors, with the emphasis on the latter. Further, innovative teaching methods are proving to be more effective than the traditional ones, however, there is a lack of comparison between innovative methods. Moreover, the vast majority of research to date has focused on teaching ethics in the classroom. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak in March of 2020, which forced education to go online, we assume a growing body of literature to focus on online methods.

Like many before, this study too faces several limitations. Firstly, not all the existing articles related to the ethics education in accounting are necessarily included in the research. We decided to use as the database source the articles published in the English language in the Web of Science, within the science categories that comprise business and finance, business, education educational research and ethics. The final sample thus consist of the articles published between 1991 and 2020, and it is a fact that using different keywords or methods, or different research periods or science categories might result in the discovery of connections and developments invisible to this study. Secondly, using bibliographic coupling as a method for our research has proven to have its own limitations, since the analysis treats all citations equally and does not distinguish between different reasons for citing (support vs. criticism).

Using asterisk in the search engine enabled the inclusion of related words (e.g. ethics, ethical, ethicality).

The framework was developed by Cooper et al. ( 2008 ) and expanded by Dellaportas et al. ( 2011 ). It is based on Rest’s ( 1986 ) four-component model of ethical decision making. The framework offers the students and professional accountants a learning tool to identify, analyze and resolve ethical dilemmas (Dellaportas et al., 2011 ).

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The authors thank Ivan Zupic for his helpful comments that improved the manuscript.

This work was supported by the University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business and Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) program P5-0161.

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Poje, T., Zaman Groff, M. Mapping Ethics Education in Accounting Research: A Bibliometric Analysis. J Bus Ethics 179 , 451–472 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04846-9

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Cultural Relativity and Acceptance of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

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There is a debate about the ethical implications of using human embryos in stem cell research, which can be influenced by cultural, moral, and social values. This paper argues for an adaptable framework to accommodate diverse cultural and religious perspectives. By using an adaptive ethics model, research protections can reflect various populations and foster growth in stem cell research possibilities.

INTRODUCTION

Stem cell research combines biology, medicine, and technology, promising to alter health care and the understanding of human development. Yet, ethical contention exists because of individuals’ perceptions of using human embryos based on their various cultural, moral, and social values. While these disagreements concerning policy, use, and general acceptance have prompted the development of an international ethics policy, such a uniform approach can overlook the nuanced ethical landscapes between cultures. With diverse viewpoints in public health, a single global policy, especially one reflecting Western ethics or the ethics prevalent in high-income countries, is impractical. This paper argues for a culturally sensitive, adaptable framework for the use of embryonic stem cells. Stem cell policy should accommodate varying ethical viewpoints and promote an effective global dialogue. With an extension of an ethics model that can adapt to various cultures, we recommend localized guidelines that reflect the moral views of the people those guidelines serve.

Stem cells, characterized by their unique ability to differentiate into various cell types, enable the repair or replacement of damaged tissues. Two primary types of stem cells are somatic stem cells (adult stem cells) and embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells exist in developed tissues and maintain the body’s repair processes. [1] Embryonic stem cells (ESC) are remarkably pluripotent or versatile, making them valuable in research. [2] However, the use of ESCs has sparked ethics debates. Considering the potential of embryonic stem cells, research guidelines are essential. The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) provides international stem cell research guidelines. They call for “public conversations touching on the scientific significance as well as the societal and ethical issues raised by ESC research.” [3] The ISSCR also publishes updates about culturing human embryos 14 days post fertilization, suggesting local policies and regulations should continue to evolve as ESC research develops. [4]  Like the ISSCR, which calls for local law and policy to adapt to developing stem cell research given cultural acceptance, this paper highlights the importance of local social factors such as religion and culture.

I.     Global Cultural Perspective of Embryonic Stem Cells

Views on ESCs vary throughout the world. Some countries readily embrace stem cell research and therapies, while others have stricter regulations due to ethical concerns surrounding embryonic stem cells and when an embryo becomes entitled to moral consideration. The philosophical issue of when the “someone” begins to be a human after fertilization, in the morally relevant sense, [5] impacts when an embryo becomes not just worthy of protection but morally entitled to it. The process of creating embryonic stem cell lines involves the destruction of the embryos for research. [6] Consequently, global engagement in ESC research depends on social-cultural acceptability.

a.     US and Rights-Based Cultures

In the United States, attitudes toward stem cell therapies are diverse. The ethics and social approaches, which value individualism, [7] trigger debates regarding the destruction of human embryos, creating a complex regulatory environment. For example, the 1996 Dickey-Wicker Amendment prohibited federal funding for the creation of embryos for research and the destruction of embryos for “more than allowed for research on fetuses in utero.” [8] Following suit, in 2001, the Bush Administration heavily restricted stem cell lines for research. However, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 was proposed to help develop ESC research but was ultimately vetoed. [9] Under the Obama administration, in 2009, an executive order lifted restrictions allowing for more development in this field. [10] The flux of research capacity and funding parallels the different cultural perceptions of human dignity of the embryo and how it is socially presented within the country’s research culture. [11]

b.     Ubuntu and Collective Cultures

African bioethics differs from Western individualism because of the different traditions and values. African traditions, as described by individuals from South Africa and supported by some studies in other African countries, including Ghana and Kenya, follow the African moral philosophies of Ubuntu or Botho and Ukama , which “advocates for a form of wholeness that comes through one’s relationship and connectedness with other people in the society,” [12] making autonomy a socially collective concept. In this context, for the community to act autonomously, individuals would come together to decide what is best for the collective. Thus, stem cell research would require examining the value of the research to society as a whole and the use of the embryos as a collective societal resource. If society views the source as part of the collective whole, and opposes using stem cells, compromising the cultural values to pursue research may cause social detachment and stunt research growth. [13] Based on local culture and moral philosophy, the permissibility of stem cell research depends on how embryo, stem cell, and cell line therapies relate to the community as a whole . Ubuntu is the expression of humanness, with the person’s identity drawn from the “’I am because we are’” value. [14] The decision in a collectivistic culture becomes one born of cultural context, and individual decisions give deference to others in the society.

Consent differs in cultures where thought and moral philosophy are based on a collective paradigm. So, applying Western bioethical concepts is unrealistic. For one, Africa is a diverse continent with many countries with different belief systems, access to health care, and reliance on traditional or Western medicines. Where traditional medicine is the primary treatment, the “’restrictive focus on biomedically-related bioethics’” [is] problematic in African contexts because it neglects bioethical issues raised by traditional systems.” [15] No single approach applies in all areas or contexts. Rather than evaluating the permissibility of ESC research according to Western concepts such as the four principles approach, different ethics approaches should prevail.

Another consideration is the socio-economic standing of countries. In parts of South Africa, researchers have not focused heavily on contributing to the stem cell discourse, either because it is not considered health care or a health science priority or because resources are unavailable. [16] Each country’s priorities differ given different social, political, and economic factors. In South Africa, for instance, areas such as maternal mortality, non-communicable diseases, telemedicine, and the strength of health systems need improvement and require more focus. [17] Stem cell research could benefit the population, but it also could divert resources from basic medical care. Researchers in South Africa adhere to the National Health Act and Medicines Control Act in South Africa and international guidelines; however, the Act is not strictly enforced, and there is no clear legislation for research conduct or ethical guidelines. [18]

Some parts of Africa condemn stem cell research. For example, 98.2 percent of the Tunisian population is Muslim. [19] Tunisia does not permit stem cell research because of moral conflict with a Fatwa. Religion heavily saturates the regulation and direction of research. [20] Stem cell use became permissible for reproductive purposes only recently, with tight restrictions preventing cells from being used in any research other than procedures concerning ART/IVF.  Their use is conditioned on consent, and available only to married couples. [21] The community's receptiveness to stem cell research depends on including communitarian African ethics.

c.     Asia

Some Asian countries also have a collective model of ethics and decision making. [22] In China, the ethics model promotes a sincere respect for life or human dignity, [23] based on protective medicine. This model, influenced by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), [24] recognizes Qi as the vital energy delivered via the meridians of the body; it connects illness to body systems, the body’s entire constitution, and the universe for a holistic bond of nature, health, and quality of life. [25] Following a protective ethics model, and traditional customs of wholeness, investment in stem cell research is heavily desired for its applications in regenerative therapies, disease modeling, and protective medicines. In a survey of medical students and healthcare practitioners, 30.8 percent considered stem cell research morally unacceptable while 63.5 percent accepted medical research using human embryonic stem cells. Of these individuals, 89.9 percent supported increased funding for stem cell research. [26] The scientific community might not reflect the overall population. From 1997 to 2019, China spent a total of $576 million (USD) on stem cell research at 8,050 stem cell programs, increased published presence from 0.6 percent to 14.01 percent of total global stem cell publications as of 2014, and made significant strides in cell-based therapies for various medical conditions. [27] However, while China has made substantial investments in stem cell research and achieved notable progress in clinical applications, concerns linger regarding ethical oversight and transparency. [28] For example, the China Biosecurity Law, promoted by the National Health Commission and China Hospital Association, attempted to mitigate risks by introducing an institutional review board (IRB) in the regulatory bodies. 5800 IRBs registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry since 2021. [29] However, issues still need to be addressed in implementing effective IRB review and approval procedures.

The substantial government funding and focus on scientific advancement have sometimes overshadowed considerations of regional cultures, ethnic minorities, and individual perspectives, particularly evident during the one-child policy era. As government policy adapts to promote public stability, such as the change from the one-child to the two-child policy, [30] research ethics should also adapt to ensure respect for the values of its represented peoples.

Japan is also relatively supportive of stem cell research and therapies. Japan has a more transparent regulatory framework, allowing for faster approval of regenerative medicine products, which has led to several advanced clinical trials and therapies. [31] South Korea is also actively engaged in stem cell research and has a history of breakthroughs in cloning and embryonic stem cells. [32] However, the field is controversial, and there are issues of scientific integrity. For example, the Korean FDA fast-tracked products for approval, [33] and in another instance, the oocyte source was unclear and possibly violated ethical standards. [34] Trust is important in research, as it builds collaborative foundations between colleagues, trial participant comfort, open-mindedness for complicated and sensitive discussions, and supports regulatory procedures for stakeholders. There is a need to respect the culture’s interest, engagement, and for research and clinical trials to be transparent and have ethical oversight to promote global research discourse and trust.

d.     Middle East

Countries in the Middle East have varying degrees of acceptance of or restrictions to policies related to using embryonic stem cells due to cultural and religious influences. Saudi Arabia has made significant contributions to stem cell research, and conducts research based on international guidelines for ethical conduct and under strict adherence to guidelines in accordance with Islamic principles. Specifically, the Saudi government and people require ESC research to adhere to Sharia law. In addition to umbilical and placental stem cells, [35] Saudi Arabia permits the use of embryonic stem cells as long as they come from miscarriages, therapeutic abortions permissible by Sharia law, or are left over from in vitro fertilization and donated to research. [36] Laws and ethical guidelines for stem cell research allow the development of research institutions such as the King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, which has a cord blood bank and a stem cell registry with nearly 10,000 donors. [37] Such volume and acceptance are due to the ethical ‘permissibility’ of the donor sources, which do not conflict with religious pillars. However, some researchers err on the side of caution, choosing not to use embryos or fetal tissue as they feel it is unethical to do so. [38]

Jordan has a positive research ethics culture. [39] However, there is a significant issue of lack of trust in researchers, with 45.23 percent (38.66 percent agreeing and 6.57 percent strongly agreeing) of Jordanians holding a low level of trust in researchers, compared to 81.34 percent of Jordanians agreeing that they feel safe to participate in a research trial. [40] Safety testifies to the feeling of confidence that adequate measures are in place to protect participants from harm, whereas trust in researchers could represent the confidence in researchers to act in the participants’ best interests, adhere to ethical guidelines, provide accurate information, and respect participants’ rights and dignity. One method to improve trust would be to address communication issues relevant to ESC. Legislation surrounding stem cell research has adopted specific language, especially concerning clarification “between ‘stem cells’ and ‘embryonic stem cells’” in translation. [41] Furthermore, legislation “mandates the creation of a national committee… laying out specific regulations for stem-cell banking in accordance with international standards.” [42] This broad regulation opens the door for future global engagement and maintains transparency. However, these regulations may also constrain the influence of research direction, pace, and accessibility of research outcomes.

e.     Europe

In the European Union (EU), ethics is also principle-based, but the principles of autonomy, dignity, integrity, and vulnerability are interconnected. [43] As such, the opportunity for cohesion and concessions between individuals’ thoughts and ideals allows for a more adaptable ethics model due to the flexible principles that relate to the human experience The EU has put forth a framework in its Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being allowing member states to take different approaches. Each European state applies these principles to its specific conventions, leading to or reflecting different acceptance levels of stem cell research. [44]

For example, in Germany, Lebenzusammenhang , or the coherence of life, references integrity in the unity of human culture. Namely, the personal sphere “should not be subject to external intervention.” [45]  Stem cell interventions could affect this concept of bodily completeness, leading to heavy restrictions. Under the Grundgesetz, human dignity and the right to life with physical integrity are paramount. [46] The Embryo Protection Act of 1991 made producing cell lines illegal. Cell lines can be imported if approved by the Central Ethics Commission for Stem Cell Research only if they were derived before May 2007. [47] Stem cell research respects the integrity of life for the embryo with heavy specifications and intense oversight. This is vastly different in Finland, where the regulatory bodies find research more permissible in IVF excess, but only up to 14 days after fertilization. [48] Spain’s approach differs still, with a comprehensive regulatory framework. [49] Thus, research regulation can be culture-specific due to variations in applied principles. Diverse cultures call for various approaches to ethical permissibility. [50] Only an adaptive-deliberative model can address the cultural constructions of self and achieve positive, culturally sensitive stem cell research practices. [51]

II.     Religious Perspectives on ESC

Embryonic stem cell sources are the main consideration within religious contexts. While individuals may not regard their own religious texts as authoritative or factual, religion can shape their foundations or perspectives.

The Qur'an states:

“And indeed We created man from a quintessence of clay. Then We placed within him a small quantity of nutfa (sperm to fertilize) in a safe place. Then We have fashioned the nutfa into an ‘alaqa (clinging clot or cell cluster), then We developed the ‘alaqa into mudgha (a lump of flesh), and We made mudgha into bones, and clothed the bones with flesh, then We brought it into being as a new creation. So Blessed is Allah, the Best of Creators.” [52]

Many scholars of Islam estimate the time of soul installment, marked by the angel breathing in the soul to bring the individual into creation, as 120 days from conception. [53] Personhood begins at this point, and the value of life would prohibit research or experimentation that could harm the individual. If the fetus is more than 120 days old, the time ensoulment is interpreted to occur according to Islamic law, abortion is no longer permissible. [54] There are a few opposing opinions about early embryos in Islamic traditions. According to some Islamic theologians, there is no ensoulment of the early embryo, which is the source of stem cells for ESC research. [55]

In Buddhism, the stance on stem cell research is not settled. The main tenets, the prohibition against harming or destroying others (ahimsa) and the pursuit of knowledge (prajña) and compassion (karuna), leave Buddhist scholars and communities divided. [56] Some scholars argue stem cell research is in accordance with the Buddhist tenet of seeking knowledge and ending human suffering. Others feel it violates the principle of not harming others. Finding the balance between these two points relies on the karmic burden of Buddhist morality. In trying to prevent ahimsa towards the embryo, Buddhist scholars suggest that to comply with Buddhist tenets, research cannot be done as the embryo has personhood at the moment of conception and would reincarnate immediately, harming the individual's ability to build their karmic burden. [57] On the other hand, the Bodhisattvas, those considered to be on the path to enlightenment or Nirvana, have given organs and flesh to others to help alleviate grieving and to benefit all. [58] Acceptance varies on applied beliefs and interpretations.

Catholicism does not support embryonic stem cell research, as it entails creation or destruction of human embryos. This destruction conflicts with the belief in the sanctity of life. For example, in the Old Testament, Genesis describes humanity as being created in God’s image and multiplying on the Earth, referencing the sacred rights to human conception and the purpose of development and life. In the Ten Commandments, the tenet that one should not kill has numerous interpretations where killing could mean murder or shedding of the sanctity of life, demonstrating the high value of human personhood. In other books, the theological conception of when life begins is interpreted as in utero, [59] highlighting the inviolability of life and its formation in vivo to make a religious point for accepting such research as relatively limited, if at all. [60] The Vatican has released ethical directives to help apply a theological basis to modern-day conflicts. The Magisterium of the Church states that “unless there is a moral certainty of not causing harm,” experimentation on fetuses, fertilized cells, stem cells, or embryos constitutes a crime. [61] Such procedures would not respect the human person who exists at these stages, according to Catholicism. Damages to the embryo are considered gravely immoral and illicit. [62] Although the Catholic Church officially opposes abortion, surveys demonstrate that many Catholic people hold pro-choice views, whether due to the context of conception, stage of pregnancy, threat to the mother’s life, or for other reasons, demonstrating that practicing members can also accept some but not all tenets. [63]

Some major Jewish denominations, such as the Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist movements, are open to supporting ESC use or research as long as it is for saving a life. [64] Within Judaism, the Talmud, or study, gives personhood to the child at birth and emphasizes that life does not begin at conception: [65]

“If she is found pregnant, until the fortieth day it is mere fluid,” [66]

Whereas most religions prioritize the status of human embryos, the Halakah (Jewish religious law) states that to save one life, most other religious laws can be ignored because it is in pursuit of preservation. [67] Stem cell research is accepted due to application of these religious laws.

We recognize that all religions contain subsets and sects. The variety of environmental and cultural differences within religious groups requires further analysis to respect the flexibility of religious thoughts and practices. We make no presumptions that all cultures require notions of autonomy or morality as under the common morality theory , which asserts a set of universal moral norms that all individuals share provides moral reasoning and guides ethical decisions. [68] We only wish to show that the interaction with morality varies between cultures and countries.

III.     A Flexible Ethical Approach

The plurality of different moral approaches described above demonstrates that there can be no universally acceptable uniform law for ESC on a global scale. Instead of developing one standard, flexible ethical applications must be continued. We recommend local guidelines that incorporate important cultural and ethical priorities.

While the Declaration of Helsinki is more relevant to people in clinical trials receiving ESC products, in keeping with the tradition of protections for research subjects, consent of the donor is an ethical requirement for ESC donation in many jurisdictions including the US, Canada, and Europe. [69] The Declaration of Helsinki provides a reference point for regulatory standards and could potentially be used as a universal baseline for obtaining consent prior to gamete or embryo donation.

For instance, in Columbia University’s egg donor program for stem cell research, donors followed standard screening protocols and “underwent counseling sessions that included information as to the purpose of oocyte donation for research, what the oocytes would be used for, the risks and benefits of donation, and process of oocyte stimulation” to ensure transparency for consent. [70] The program helped advance stem cell research and provided clear and safe research methods with paid participants. Though paid participation or covering costs of incidental expenses may not be socially acceptable in every culture or context, [71] and creating embryos for ESC research is illegal in many jurisdictions, Columbia’s program was effective because of the clear and honest communications with donors, IRBs, and related stakeholders.  This example demonstrates that cultural acceptance of scientific research and of the idea that an egg or embryo does not have personhood is likely behind societal acceptance of donating eggs for ESC research. As noted, many countries do not permit the creation of embryos for research.

Proper communication and education regarding the process and purpose of stem cell research may bolster comprehension and garner more acceptance. “Given the sensitive subject material, a complete consent process can support voluntary participation through trust, understanding, and ethical norms from the cultures and morals participants value. This can be hard for researchers entering countries of different socioeconomic stability, with different languages and different societal values. [72]

An adequate moral foundation in medical ethics is derived from the cultural and religious basis that informs knowledge and actions. [73] Understanding local cultural and religious values and their impact on research could help researchers develop humility and promote inclusion.

IV.     Concerns

Some may argue that if researchers all adhere to one ethics standard, protection will be satisfied across all borders, and the global public will trust researchers. However, defining what needs to be protected and how to define such research standards is very specific to the people to which standards are applied. We suggest that applying one uniform guide cannot accurately protect each individual because we all possess our own perceptions and interpretations of social values. [74] Therefore, the issue of not adjusting to the moral pluralism between peoples in applying one standard of ethics can be resolved by building out ethics models that can be adapted to different cultures and religions.

Other concerns include medical tourism, which may promote health inequities. [75] Some countries may develop and approve products derived from ESC research before others, compromising research ethics or drug approval processes. There are also concerns about the sale of unauthorized stem cell treatments, for example, those without FDA approval in the United States. Countries with robust research infrastructures may be tempted to attract medical tourists, and some customers will have false hopes based on aggressive publicity of unproven treatments. [76]

For example, in China, stem cell clinics can market to foreign clients who are not protected under the regulatory regimes. Companies employ a marketing strategy of “ethically friendly” therapies. Specifically, in the case of Beike, China’s leading stem cell tourism company and sprouting network, ethical oversight of administrators or health bureaus at one site has “the unintended consequence of shifting questionable activities to another node in Beike's diffuse network.” [77] In contrast, Jordan is aware of stem cell research’s potential abuse and its own status as a “health-care hub.” Jordan’s expanded regulations include preserving the interests of individuals in clinical trials and banning private companies from ESC research to preserve transparency and the integrity of research practices. [78]

The social priorities of the community are also a concern. The ISSCR explicitly states that guidelines “should be periodically revised to accommodate scientific advances, new challenges, and evolving social priorities.” [79] The adaptable ethics model extends this consideration further by addressing whether research is warranted given the varying degrees of socioeconomic conditions, political stability, and healthcare accessibilities and limitations. An ethical approach would require discussion about resource allocation and appropriate distribution of funds. [80]

While some religions emphasize the sanctity of life from conception, which may lead to public opposition to ESC research, others encourage ESC research due to its potential for healing and alleviating human pain. Many countries have special regulations that balance local views on embryonic personhood, the benefits of research as individual or societal goods, and the protection of human research subjects. To foster understanding and constructive dialogue, global policy frameworks should prioritize the protection of universal human rights, transparency, and informed consent. In addition to these foundational global policies, we recommend tailoring local guidelines to reflect the diverse cultural and religious perspectives of the populations they govern. Ethics models should be adapted to local populations to effectively establish research protections, growth, and possibilities of stem cell research.

For example, in countries with strong beliefs in the moral sanctity of embryos or heavy religious restrictions, an adaptive model can allow for discussion instead of immediate rejection. In countries with limited individual rights and voice in science policy, an adaptive model ensures cultural, moral, and religious views are taken into consideration, thereby building social inclusion. While this ethical consideration by the government may not give a complete voice to every individual, it will help balance policies and maintain the diverse perspectives of those it affects. Embracing an adaptive ethics model of ESC research promotes open-minded dialogue and respect for the importance of human belief and tradition. By actively engaging with cultural and religious values, researchers can better handle disagreements and promote ethical research practices that benefit each society.

This brief exploration of the religious and cultural differences that impact ESC research reveals the nuances of relative ethics and highlights a need for local policymakers to apply a more intense adaptive model.

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[36] Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies.  https://www.aabb.org/regulatory-and-advocacy/regulatory-affairs/regulatory-for-cellular-therapies/international-competent-authorities/saudi-arabia

[37] Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: Interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia.  BMC medical ethics ,  21 (1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6

[38] Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: Interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics , 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6

Culturally, autonomy practices follow a relational autonomy approach based on a paternalistic deontological health care model. The adherence to strict international research policies and religious pillars within the regulatory environment is a great foundation for research ethics. However, there is a need to develop locally targeted ethics approaches for research (as called for in Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics, 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6), this decision-making approach may help advise a research decision model. For more on the clinical cultural autonomy approaches, see: Alabdullah, Y. Y., Alzaid, E., Alsaad, S., Alamri, T., Alolayan, S. W., Bah, S., & Aljoudi, A. S. (2022). Autonomy and paternalism in Shared decision‐making in a Saudi Arabian tertiary hospital: A cross‐sectional study. Developing World Bioethics , 23 (3), 260–268. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12355 ; Bukhari, A. A. (2017). Universal Principles of Bioethics and Patient Rights in Saudi Arabia (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/124; Ladha, S., Nakshawani, S. A., Alzaidy, A., & Tarab, B. (2023, October 26). Islam and Bioethics: What We All Need to Know . Columbia University School of Professional Studies. https://sps.columbia.edu/events/islam-and-bioethics-what-we-all-need-know

[39] Ababneh, M. A., Al-Azzam, S. I., Alzoubi, K., Rababa’h, A., & Al Demour, S. (2021). Understanding and attitudes of the Jordanian public about clinical research ethics.  Research Ethics ,  17 (2), 228-241.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016120966779

[40] Ababneh, M. A., Al-Azzam, S. I., Alzoubi, K., Rababa’h, A., & Al Demour, S. (2021). Understanding and attitudes of the Jordanian public about clinical research ethics.  Research Ethics ,  17 (2), 228-241.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016120966779

[41] Dajani, R. (2014). Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East.  Nature  510, 189. https://doi.org/10.1038/510189a

[42] Dajani, R. (2014). Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East.  Nature  510, 189. https://doi.org/10.1038/510189a

[43] The EU’s definition of autonomy relates to the capacity for creating ideas, moral insight, decisions, and actions without constraint, personal responsibility, and informed consent. However, the EU views autonomy as not completely able to protect individuals and depends on other principles, such as dignity, which “expresses the intrinsic worth and fundamental equality of all human beings.” Rendtorff, J.D., Kemp, P. (2019). Four Ethical Principles in European Bioethics and Biolaw: Autonomy, Dignity, Integrity and Vulnerability. In: Valdés, E., Lecaros, J. (eds) Biolaw and Policy in the Twenty-First Century. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 78. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05903-3_3

[44] Council of Europe. Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (ETS No. 164) https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list?module=treaty-detail&treatynum=164 (forbidding the creation of embryos for research purposes only, and suggests embryos in vitro have protections.); Also see Drabiak-Syed B. K. (2013). New President, New Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Policy: Comparative International Perspectives and Embryonic Stem Cell Research Laws in France.  Biotechnology Law Report ,  32 (6), 349–356. https://doi.org/10.1089/blr.2013.9865

[45] Rendtorff, J.D., Kemp, P. (2019). Four Ethical Principles in European Bioethics and Biolaw: Autonomy, Dignity, Integrity and Vulnerability. In: Valdés, E., Lecaros, J. (eds) Biolaw and Policy in the Twenty-First Century. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 78. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05903-3_3

[46] Tomuschat, C., Currie, D. P., Kommers, D. P., & Kerr, R. (Trans.). (1949, May 23). Basic law for the Federal Republic of Germany. https://www.btg-bestellservice.de/pdf/80201000.pdf

[47] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Germany . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-germany

[48] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Finland . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-finland

[49] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Spain . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-spain

[50] Some sources to consider regarding ethics models or regulatory oversights of other cultures not covered:

Kara MA. Applicability of the principle of respect for autonomy: the perspective of Turkey. J Med Ethics. 2007 Nov;33(11):627-30. doi: 10.1136/jme.2006.017400. PMID: 17971462; PMCID: PMC2598110.

Ugarte, O. N., & Acioly, M. A. (2014). The principle of autonomy in Brazil: one needs to discuss it ...  Revista do Colegio Brasileiro de Cirurgioes ,  41 (5), 374–377. https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-69912014005013

Bharadwaj, A., & Glasner, P. E. (2012). Local cells, global science: The rise of embryonic stem cell research in India . Routledge.

For further research on specific European countries regarding ethical and regulatory framework, we recommend this database: Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Europe . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-europe   

[51] Klitzman, R. (2006). Complications of culture in obtaining informed consent. The American Journal of Bioethics, 6(1), 20–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265160500394671 see also: Ekmekci, P. E., & Arda, B. (2017). Interculturalism and Informed Consent: Respecting Cultural Differences without Breaching Human Rights.  Cultura (Iasi, Romania) ,  14 (2), 159–172.; For why trust is important in research, see also: Gray, B., Hilder, J., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., Dowell, A., & Stubbe, M. (2017). Are research ethics guidelines culturally competent?  Research Ethics ,  13 (1), 23-41.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016116650235

[52] The Qur'an  (M. Khattab, Trans.). (1965). Al-Mu’minun, 23: 12-14. https://quran.com/23

[53] Lenfest, Y. (2017, December 8). Islam and the beginning of human life . Bill of Health. https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2017/12/08/islam-and-the-beginning-of-human-life/

[54] Aksoy, S. (2005). Making regulations and drawing up legislation in Islamic countries under conditions of uncertainty, with special reference to embryonic stem cell research. Journal of Medical Ethics , 31: 399-403.; see also: Mahmoud, Azza. "Islamic Bioethics: National Regulations and Guidelines of Human Stem Cell Research in the Muslim World." Master's thesis, Chapman University, 2022. https://doi.org/10.36837/ chapman.000386

[55] Rashid, R. (2022). When does Ensoulment occur in the Human Foetus. Journal of the British Islamic Medical Association , 12 (4). ISSN 2634 8071. https://www.jbima.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2-Ethics-3_-Ensoulment_Rafaqat.pdf.

[56] Sivaraman, M. & Noor, S. (2017). Ethics of embryonic stem cell research according to Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic, and Islamic religions: perspective from Malaysia. Asian Biomedicine,8(1) 43-52.  https://doi.org/10.5372/1905-7415.0801.260

[57] Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. Religious Perspectives on Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In K. Monroe, R. Miller & J. Tobis (Ed.),  Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues  (pp. 79-94). Berkeley: University of California Press.  https://escholarship.org/content/qt9rj0k7s3/qt9rj0k7s3_noSplash_f9aca2e02c3777c7fb76ea768ba458f0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940994-005

[58] Lecso, P. A. (1991). The Bodhisattva Ideal and Organ Transplantation.  Journal of Religion and Health ,  30 (1), 35–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27510629 ; Bodhisattva, S. (n.d.). The Key of Becoming a Bodhisattva . A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. http://www.buddhism.org/Sutras/2/BodhisattvaWay.htm

[59] There is no explicit religious reference to when life begins or how to conduct research that interacts with the concept of life. However, these are relevant verses pertaining to how the fetus is viewed. (( King James Bible . (1999). Oxford University Press. (original work published 1769))

Jerimiah 1: 5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…”

In prophet Jerimiah’s insight, God set him apart as a person known before childbirth, a theme carried within the Psalm of David.

Psalm 139: 13-14 “…Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”

These verses demonstrate David’s respect for God as an entity that would know of all man’s thoughts and doings even before birth.

[60] It should be noted that abortion is not supported as well.

[61] The Vatican. (1987, February 22). Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation Replies to Certain Questions of the Day . Congregation For the Doctrine of the Faith. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html

[62] The Vatican. (2000, August 25). Declaration On the Production and the Scientific and Therapeutic Use of Human Embryonic Stem Cells . Pontifical Academy for Life. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdlife/documents/rc_pa_acdlife_doc_20000824_cellule-staminali_en.html ; Ohara, N. (2003). Ethical Consideration of Experimentation Using Living Human Embryos: The Catholic Church’s Position on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology . Retrieved from https://article.imrpress.com/journal/CEOG/30/2-3/pii/2003018/77-81.pdf.

[63] Smith, G. A. (2022, May 23). Like Americans overall, Catholics vary in their abortion views, with regular mass attenders most opposed . Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/05/23/like-americans-overall-catholics-vary-in-their-abortion-views-with-regular-mass-attenders-most-opposed/

[64] Rosner, F., & Reichman, E. (2002). Embryonic stem cell research in Jewish law. Journal of halacha and contemporary society , (43), 49–68.; Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. Religious Perspectives on Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In K. Monroe, R. Miller & J. Tobis (Ed.),  Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues  (pp. 79-94). Berkeley: University of California Press.  https://escholarship.org/content/qt9rj0k7s3/qt9rj0k7s3_noSplash_f9aca2e02c3777c7fb76ea768ba458f0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940994-005

[65] Schenker J. G. (2008). The beginning of human life: status of embryo. Perspectives in Halakha (Jewish Religious Law).  Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics ,  25 (6), 271–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-008-9221-6

[66] Ruttenberg, D. (2020, May 5). The Torah of Abortion Justice (annotated source sheet) . Sefaria. https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/234926.7?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en

[67] Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. Religious Perspectives on Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In K. Monroe, R. Miller & J. Tobis (Ed.),  Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues  (pp. 79-94). Berkeley: University of California Press.  https://escholarship.org/content/qt9rj0k7s3/qt9rj0k7s3_noSplash_f9aca2e02c3777c7fb76ea768ba458f0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940994-005

[68] Gert, B. (2007). Common morality: Deciding what to do . Oxford Univ. Press.

[69] World Medical Association (2013). World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. JAMA , 310(20), 2191–2194. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.281053 Declaration of Helsinki – WMA – The World Medical Association .; see also: National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. (1979).  The Belmont report: Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research . U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/belmont-report/read-the-belmont-report/index.html

[70] Zakarin Safier, L., Gumer, A., Kline, M., Egli, D., & Sauer, M. V. (2018). Compensating human subjects providing oocytes for stem cell research: 9-year experience and outcomes.  Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics ,  35 (7), 1219–1225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-018-1171-z https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6063839/ see also: Riordan, N. H., & Paz Rodríguez, J. (2021). Addressing concerns regarding associated costs, transparency, and integrity of research in recent stem cell trial. Stem Cells Translational Medicine , 10 (12), 1715–1716. https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.21-0234

[71] Klitzman, R., & Sauer, M. V. (2009). Payment of egg donors in stem cell research in the USA.  Reproductive biomedicine online ,  18 (5), 603–608. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1472-6483(10)60002-8

[72] Krosin, M. T., Klitzman, R., Levin, B., Cheng, J., & Ranney, M. L. (2006). Problems in comprehension of informed consent in rural and peri-urban Mali, West Africa.  Clinical trials (London, England) ,  3 (3), 306–313. https://doi.org/10.1191/1740774506cn150oa

[73] Veatch, Robert M.  Hippocratic, Religious, and Secular Medical Ethics: The Points of Conflict . Georgetown University Press, 2012.

[74] Msoroka, M. S., & Amundsen, D. (2018). One size fits not quite all: Universal research ethics with diversity.  Research Ethics ,  14 (3), 1-17.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016117739939

[75] Pirzada, N. (2022). The Expansion of Turkey’s Medical Tourism Industry.  Voices in Bioethics ,  8 . https://doi.org/10.52214/vib.v8i.9894

[76] Stem Cell Tourism: False Hope for Real Money . Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI). (2023). https://hsci.harvard.edu/stem-cell-tourism , See also: Bissassar, M. (2017). Transnational Stem Cell Tourism: An ethical analysis.  Voices in Bioethics ,  3 . https://doi.org/10.7916/vib.v3i.6027

[77] Song, P. (2011) The proliferation of stem cell therapies in post-Mao China: problematizing ethical regulation,  New Genetics and Society , 30:2, 141-153, DOI:  10.1080/14636778.2011.574375

[78] Dajani, R. (2014). Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East.  Nature  510, 189. https://doi.org/10.1038/510189a

[79] International Society for Stem Cell Research. (2024). Standards in stem cell research . International Society for Stem Cell Research. https://www.isscr.org/guidelines/5-standards-in-stem-cell-research

[80] Benjamin, R. (2013). People’s science bodies and rights on the Stem Cell Frontier . Stanford University Press.

Mifrah Hayath

SM Candidate Harvard Medical School, MS Biotechnology Johns Hopkins University

Olivia Bowers

MS Bioethics Columbia University (Disclosure: affiliated with Voices in Bioethics)

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Mapping Ethics Education in Accounting Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

Tamara poje.

School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva pl. 17, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Maja Zaman Groff

The attention being paid to ethics education in accounting has been increasing, especially after the corporate accounting scandals at the turn of the century. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the existing research in the field of ethics education in accounting. To synthesize past research, a bibliometric analysis that references 134 primary studies is performed and three bibliometric methods are applied. First, we visualize the historical evolution of ethics education in accounting research through historiography. Second, we use bibliographic coupling to identify clusters of ethics education in accounting research before, during, and after major corporate scandals. Third, we perform a co-word analysis to connect the identified patterns into a map of a contextual space. The results reveal, in each decade, not only an increasing academic focus on this field of research, but also an increasing number of different research clusters. While the clusters Factors affecting moral judgement, Perception of ethics, and Lack of ethics topics in the last research period develop further from the respective clusters in the previous periods, Accounting beyond technical skills, Integration of ethics in accounting education, Use of developed ethics frameworks, and Professional values on the contrary develop anew in the last decade, as a consequence of a growing demand for teaching ethics. Overall, the paper presents the development patterns of ethics education in accounting research and sets up a research agenda that encourages future research.

Introduction

The importance of ethics in accounting has vastly increased following the corporate scandals at the turn of the century. These scandals reflect a serious lack of ethics in both the field of financial reporting, which is primarily intended to provide true and fair representation to external users of financial statements, and accountability to the general public. Low et al. ( 2008 ) point out that corporate scandals have always drawn attention to the role of accountants who simultaneously assisted in financial management, preparation, and auditing of financial statements, and that “ recent corporate scandals have set a new low for the accounting profession ” (Low et al., 2008 , p. 222).

To prevent further corporate scandals, different legislative changes, including the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, Directive 2006/43/EC, Directive 2014/56/EU and Regulation 537/2014, were adopted. In regaining public trust, professional codes proved to be another essential part. Accordingly, the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA), was revised.

To change behavior and mindset, setting up policies is not enough ─ moral development is needed as well. Enhancement of ethics education is therefore a viable solution in addressing the ethical crisis in the accounting profession (Jackling et al., 2007 ) that has certainly encouraged research in ethics education itself (De Lange et al., 2006 ; Dellaportas, 2006 ; McPhail, 2001 ; Melé, 2005 ; Roxas & Stoneback, 2004 ).

The main objective of the paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing research in the field of ethics education in accounting, while at the same time improving its understanding and driving its future research. More specifically, our goals are to firstly, outline influential papers that have shaped or reformed this field and provide an overview of the historical developments in the field of research, secondly, examine the developments, and thirdly, develop a research agenda that fosters future research.

Most studies of ethics education in accounting present a static view of the current situation. However, since the topic is evolving dynamically over time, the present study instead provides a dynamic perspective on how this field of research has advanced over the last three decades. The resulting development patterns of ethics education in the accounting research, combined with the current developments in the business environment, provide a basis for not only predicting future developments in this field, but also encouraging future research. To the best of our knowledge, this is the very first comprehensive literature review based on a bibliometric analysis in the field of ethics education in the accounting research. As such, it aims to examine the proposed research area in a transparent and quantitative way. We believe that the bibliometric methods applied overcome to some extent the problems of the subjectivity that is associated with peer review and result in more objective outcomes.

Three bibliographic methods are used in the research to achieve the objectives set. Firstly, historiography is performed to show the development of theoretical approaches. Secondly, bibliographic coupling is used to identify and analyze the individual clusters of the academic literature and the relations between them in the periods before, during, and after the corporate accounting scandals. And lastly, a co-word analysis is conducted to show the thematic landscape.

Based on the bibliometric analysis, we look for a developmental path in the ethics education in accounting research. The results reveal that research interest has been increasing throughout the observed periods with a relatively slow increase during the corporate scandals, but a considerable increase of research interest in the period following the scandals, when the number of published articles quadrupled and the number of different clusters doubled, when compared to the previous period. For the last research period, seven research clusters that evolved within the ethics education in accounting research are identified. Namely, while the clusters Factors affecting moral judgement, Perception of ethics , and Lack of ethics topics develop further from the respective clusters in the previous periods, Accounting beyond technical skills, Integration of ethics in accounting education, Use of developed ethics frameworks , and Professional values on the contrary develop anew in the last decade, as a consequence of a growing demand for teaching ethics. In the last research period, the research questions, such as why ethics education is needed, are replaced by the questions related to the contents of ethics courses and the different approaches to teaching ethics (e.g. stand-alone course or integrated across the curriculum, the use of innovative teaching methods). Among the factors influencing the ethical decision-making process, both individual and situational factors are explored, with the emphasis on the latter (e.g. predispositions, pressure, culture).

The research findings primarily relate to educators and researchers in the field, where the former are provided with relevant sources that they can use to design courses, while the latter obtain a comprehensive review of the most relevant research that has already been conducted in the field, together with the current trends and possible avenues for further research.

The paper is structured as follows. After the introduction, the background section first indicates the role of the corporate accounting scandals in the enhancement of the ethics education in accounting, then outlines the prominence of the ethics education in the accounting research, and in the end presents the arguments for the selected bibliometric methods. In the following section, the methodology used to perform the analysis of ethics education in the accounting literature is presented. Next, we identify the thematic landscapes and theoretical approaches, define clusters and contextualize the main findings for all periods. The study concludes with the discussion, viable areas for future research and conclusion sections that include research limitations.

The accounting profession consists of financial accountants, management accountants, auditors, tax consultants, valuation specialists, financial analysts and other professionals. What they all have in common, aside from accounting knowledge, is their daily involvement in making ethical choices. Questionable accounting practices, including ethical concerns, have already existed long before the most famous corporate accounting scandal Enron (Duska et al., 2018 ). Some noticeable early examples cover Yale Express System (1965), Equity Funding (1973), and Waste Management Scandal (1998). Although Enron and WorldCom are most known of all, the scandals occurred all over the world (see Table ​ Table1 1 ).

Some of the most known corporate scandals by region

Aside from the consequences directly related to the stakeholders, the effects were more far-reaching, and revealed themselves in the reduced quality of financial reporting (Ball, 2009 ) and in investors losing confidence in financial information, resulting in a severe loss of market capitalization (Petra & Spieler, 2020 ). In addition, this was followed by a lack of public trust which is “essential not only for preserving respectability but also for ensuring the survival of accounting’s status as a profession” (Carnegie & Napier, 2010 , p. 360). Among the many reasons which contributed to the corporate accounting scandals, lack of auditors’ independence (Sikka, 2009 ; Unerman & O’Dwyer, 2004 ) and professional skepticism were outlined (Benston & Hartgraves, 2002 ). The independence in the accounting profession is at the core of the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. To mitigate such scandals in the future, ethics education proves just as important, since it improves professional skepticism (Ratna & Anisykurlillah, 2020 ).

Studying not only the efficiency of different approaches to teaching ethics in accounting programs, but also the effects of ethics education on the moral development of accounting students, the importance of developing values and virtues in accounting students becomes therefore relevant and timely. Accounting ethics education is outlined by Uysal ( 2010 ) in a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the business ethics research with an accounting focus as one of the three areas that have, along with the Moral cognitive development and Implications for ethical decision-making models, evolved in the accounting business ethics literature. Moreover, in the review by Bampton and Cowton ( 2013 ), education is outlined as a subfield within the accounting ethics literature.

Due to an increasing number of relevant papers, identifying the most important contributions in the field by studying the literature is time-consuming and subjective. To overcome these difficulties and to objectify the results at least partly, a bibliographic analysis was developed, consisting of various bibliometric methods, among which citation analysis is most frequently used. The idea behind citation analysis is that the most frequently-cited authors and papers are also most relevant to scholars and researchers (Garfield, 1979 ). Zupic and Čater ( 2015 ) differentiate between five main bibliographic methods, namely the citation analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, co-author analysis and co-word analysis. The methods differ based on the unit of each analysis, or in other words, it is common for the first three methods that they use citation data as an input, while the input in the co-author analysis comes from authorship data and in the co-word analysis from words.

The bibliographic analysis in the field of accounting started with studying the flow of information within accounting journals (McRae, 1974 ), the influence of a particular journal (Brown & Gardner, 1985 ), and ranking accounting journals by their influence (Tahai & Rigsby, 1998 ). All in all, bibliographic analysis remains to this day a prominent research method in accounting (Ameen & Guffey, 2017 ; Bisman, 2011 ; Chan et al., 2009 ; Ezenwoke et al., 2019 ; Guffey & Harp, 2017 ; Uysal, 2010 ). Citation analysis conducted by Ameen and Guffey ( 2017 ) in the field of teaching and curriculum innovation in accounting, which reveals that out of the six most cited articles three are related to the topic of ethics education, shows how important this field of research actually is.

To identify the research areas developed in the field of ethics education in accounting, we use the clustering method as defined in the bibliometric literature (van Eck & Waltman, 2017 ; Waltman et al., 2010 ). The advantage of this method is the reduction of subjectivity, since qualitative data are analyzed quantitatively. However, the interpretation of quantitative results remains subject to subjectivity. Further, to show the structure of the research area and the development path, science mapping is used (Zupic & Čater, 2015 ).

Historiography

Bibliographic coupling shows a static picture of a research field. Since we are also interested in the field’s development over time, we perform historiography in CitNetExplorer. Historiography analyzes the chronological development of the research field by visualizing the most important publications and showing how articles build on each other. The tool enables the identification of the most important publications in the field in chronological order and reveals citations between them. In addition, it uses citation networks of individual publications as the data for analysis (van Eck & Waltman, 2014 ).

Co-word Analysis

We perform a co-word or co-occurrence analysis, representing a content analysis that connects words or noun phrases in the title or abstract. Based on the connections, a conceptual structure of the topic can be built, in other words, the more times the terms appear together, the stronger the connection of the concepts (He, 1991 ). Among the existing bibliographic methods, co-word analysis is the only one that uses text data instead of bibliographic data as a source for the analysis (van Eck & Waltman, 2019 ) to show the thematic landscape. It analyses the documents’ content, while other methods are more focused on searching for connections only through the citation analysis. The major idea of the co-word analysis is to connect any identified patterns into a map of contextual space. And it is the sequence of such maps for different periods that shows the conceptual transformation (Coulter et al., 1998 ).

Bibliographic Coupling

We use bibliographic coupling as a cross-citation technique which refers to two documents that have at least one common reference. This method searches for bibliography overlaps and since it looks for citing publications, it is a retrospective (static) similarity measure, not depending on a certain point in time. The method is in addition used to determine recent contributions and research trends (Vogel & Güttel, 2013 ). And although bibliometric methods are generally useful, they are nevertheless not self-sufficient, as they do not provide any information about the content of the analyzed papers. Within our research, the bibliographic coupling method is used primarily to map and analyze research in the field of ethics education in accounting.

Sampling and Data

Our analysis is based on the Web of Science data source. Despite all the existing articles from the field of ethics education in accounting not being included in the Web of Science, we use this database for the following reasons. Firstly, the Web of Science covers the widest time span and comprises articles that are over 40 years older than the articles in other databases. As an example, the Web of Science includes articles from 1956, while Scopus from 1996 (Meho & Yang, 2007 ). In any case, older articles are necessary for the reason of performing a historical comparison. Secondly, the database also covers the Social Science Citation Index that, due to an independent and thorough editorial process, in the end ensures the overall journal quality. Thirdly, the Web of Science was designed particularly for citation analysis (Falagas et al., 2008 ).

To derive the data set of the studies for the analysis, we first used keywords accounting , education , and ethic * 1 as a search engine in the Web of Science. In total, 385 articles matching all three keywords were found in July 2020. Next, we limited the search to the following science categories: business finance, business, education educational research and ethics, which scaled the list of relevant articles down to 273. Third, we defined article as a document type (after which 205 articles remained) and English as a document language (after which 192 articles remained). To prevent any omission of the relevant articles, we also ran searches with different combinations of keywords, including teaching , accountant and similar, all resulting in comparable sets of articles.

For the set of the remaining 192 articles, we downloaded and read all the abstracts to examine, if the content of the articles is in line with our research topic. We excluded those articles that were not directly related to our field of research. The majority of the excluded articles were closely related to two keywords, while the third one was only mentioned. The mere mention of the keyword was sufficient for an inclusion by the program, however, the manual check did not show a match with the research topic. Based on our judgment, additional 58 articles were excluded as non-relevant for the analysis, resulting in the final selection of 134 primary articles to be included in further research. Only one article was dated before 1991 (1939) and was for that reason eliminated from further analysis.

Figure  1 presents the number of articles in the final sample published by year. The vast majority of articles were published in the Journal of Business Ethics, as presented in Table ​ Table2 2 .

Number of articles published by year.

Top 5 journals based on the number of published articles

The data were analyzed with the VOSviewer software. For the analysis purpose, we divided the articles into three time periods, namely decades: 1991–2000, 2001–2010 and 2011–2020. The first decade corresponds to the period before the major corporate scandals, the second decade coincides with the scandals, while the third decade represents the period after the scandals. The selection of time periods enables an identification of the possible impact of corporate accounting scandals and the related public mistrust in the accounting profession on the ethics education in accounting research. Table ​ Table3 3 presents the five most cited articles for each period.

The list of 5 most cited articles for each period

To analyze the bibliographic data, we used BibExcel that shows co-occurrences of references in the articles’ bibliographies (Persson et al., 2009 ). BibExcel was applied to analyze secondary documents (citation within citation) which are documents cited by primary articles (cited articles). The five most cited documents among secondary documents are Rest ( 1986 ; cited in 33 primary papers), Loeb ( 1988 ; cited in 24 primary papers), Dellaportas ( 2006 ; cited in 21 primary papers), Jones ( 1991 ; cited in 19 primary papers), and Blanthorne et al. ( 2007 ; cited in 18 primary papers). In the most cited paper, Rest ( 1986 ) develops the Defining Issue Test (DIT), which is the most widely used instrument for measuring an individual’s level of moral development, where the individual identifies the ethical issues for each ethical dilemma.

In all three analyzed periods, most of the cited articles were published in the Journal of Business Ethics. However, in the last period, the percentage of the cited papers published in the Journal of Business Ethics dropped due to the increased number of different cited sources (1991–2000: 57, 2001–2010: 185, 2011–2020: 436). Since researchers in the field of ethics education in accounting apply knowledge also from other fields, such as medicine, nursing, physiology, sociology, business, innovation, law, etc., the percentage of the cited articles per journal is reduced, when compared to the previous two periods (Fig.  2 ).

The list of the 5 most cited journals among secondary documents for each period and their coverage among all citations

To understand the development of the ethics education in accounting research we perform historiography on all the main documents. Historiography was conducted in CitNetExplorer (van Eck & Waltman, 2014 ) on a full sample of primary papers, as described earlier. Since analyzing a large number of citation relations may result in unclear results, the full citation network was reduced in CitNetExplorer in two ways. First, by defining the minimum number of citation relations required for a publication to be included in the analysis, we followed the procedure of van Eck and Waltman ( 2014 ), where only publications with at least ten internal citation relations were included in the analysis. Second, by applying the transitive reduction method, where the program distinguishes between essential and non-essential citation relations in the network, only the essential relations (no other relations connect two publications) are shown in the final result. For additional explanation on the transitive reduction method see van Eck and Waltman ( 2014 ). Figure  3 shows two main research streams (cluster 1, green; cluster 2, blue) that have been established, using CitNetExplorer, where in the last five years, cluster 1 (green) has become the dominant one.

Citation network of the evolution of ethics education in accounting research.

Note : *National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting. To increase visibility, only the most important articles are shown

The first cluster consists of 41 publications (Fig.  3 , green), starting with a seminal work by Kohlberg ( 1969 ), who developed the theoretical foundation of moral development. Based on the latter, the theory then further developed with the works of Rest ( 1986 ) and Trevino ( 1986 ). Rest ( 1986 ) developed a four-step model of moral development, while Trevino ( 1986 ) built a competitive model, adding additional individual and situational variables into the model. Trevino’s and Rest’s models both outline cognitive moral development as crucial for judgment. A few years later, Jones ( 1991 ) developed a new model based on Rest’s theory, introducing moral intensity as a factor affecting the four stages.

The first themes within this cluster are oriented towards theory development and are followed by the development of more practice-oriented themes, addressing the importance of real-world dilemmas related to profession (Loeb, 1988 ; McPhail, 2001 ). Recent articles continue to add to the development of a theoretical foundation by connecting the existing topics (Martinov-Bennie & Mladenovic, 2015 ), providing literature reviews (Bampton & Cowton, 2013 ; O’Fallon & Butterfield, 2005 ) or pointing out the current stand on the topic (Marques & Azevedo-Pereira, 2009 ).

The second cluster (Fig.  3 , blue) is the largest and consists of 96 publications. The second research stream starts with Rest’s ( 1979 ) development of a measurement instrument, the Defining Issue Test (DIT), which is a self-report measure that gives quantitative values to moral issues. Therefore, the focus of the majority of the research in the second cluster is on the research using DIT, or a combination of DIT and other measurement instruments (Armstrong, 1987 ; Dellaportas, 2006 ; Eynon et al., 1997 , etc.).

One of the themes that emerges in the 1990s within the second cluster is the factors influencing moral judgment. Authors investigate the effect on moral judgment of individual factors, such as gender (Adkins & Radtke, 2004 ; Jones & Hiltebeitel, 1995 ) and age (Adkins & Radtke, 2004 ; Jones & Hiltebeitel, 1995 ), and situational factors, such as social pressure (Mayhew & Murphy, 2009 ; O’Leary et al., 2007 ) and education (Cooper et al., 2008 ; Halbesleben et al., 2005 ; Hiltebeitel & Jones, 1992 ; McNair & Milam, 1993 ; Mohd Ghazali, 2015 ). After 2000, research on ethics education in accounting spread to non-Western countries, including Turkey (Karaibrahimoğlu et al., 2009 ), Malaysia (Marzuki et al., 2017 ; Mohd Ghazali, 2015 ), China (Driskill & Rankin, 2020 ; Liu, 2018 ) and Tunisia (Arfaoui et al., 2016 ). In the 2010s, research became more detailed and focused on different topics, such as the benefits of teaching ethics (Arfaoui et al., 2016 ), questions related to course development (Kidwell et al., 2011 ; Sorensen et al., 2017 ; Tweedie et al., 2013 ), and extending the accounting knowledge beyond technical skills (Gordon, 2011 ).

Bibliographic Analysis

Next, the data collected and selected were analyzed using two bibliographic methods, i.e. co-word analysis and bibliographic coupling. We performed both methods for each period, with the clustering solution depending on the minimum occurrences or citations defined, resolution parameter and minimum cluster size. As recommended by van Eck and Waltman ( 2017 ), we performed different clustering solutions in order to achieve good explanatory power. Consequently, there are methodological differences between the periods. Since the aim of our co-word analysis was to primarily identify approximately 25 most frequently used words, we adjusted the minimum occurrence in each period accordingly. The resolution parameter and minimum cluster size were both set to the default value (1), except for the second period, for which the resolution parameter was set at 0.9. As for bibliographic coupling, due to the manageable number of publications in the field, the minimum citations defined in bibliographic coupling remained as the default value (0), as well as the minimum cluster size (1), in all three periods. To improve explanatory power, the resolution parameter was adjusted to 0.8 in the first period, while being set to the default value (1) in the last two periods.

The bibliographic analysis based on co-word analysis and bibliographic coupling was performed separately for each of the three research periods. For every period, we define the research fields obtained by each of the two methodological approaches. As the co-word analysis is based on article content (words and phrases), it results in thematic landscapes or clusters representing the terms that are used together most frequently. Consequently, it is already the words or phrases within each cluster that define the cluster’s content and there is thus no need to label the clusters based on the supplementary content analysis. On the other hand, bibliographic coupling provides clusters of articles that are grouped together based on their references, not their content. Therefore, for each cluster obtained by bibliographic coupling, we perform an additional manual qualitative analysis of its articles’ content to assign pertinent cluster labels (names). Although the advantage of the bibliographic analysis is reduction of subjectivity, cluster naming nevertheless remains subject to subjectivity.

For each period, we exhibit the clusters identified with VOSviewer for both methodological approaches, where each item is assigned to exactly one cluster based on the method used (bibliographic coupling or co-word analysis). For presentation purposes, the clusters in Figs.  4 , ​ ,5, 5 , ​ ,6, 6 , ​ ,7, 7 , and ​ and8 8 are represented by different colors. The weight of an item determines the size of the label and the circle. Weight is defined by total link strength, which is the cumulative strength of the links of an item with other items. Two publications have greater coupling strength, the more citations to other publications they share. The lines between the publications represent the links between them (van Eck & Waltman, 2019 ). Moreover, Tables ​ Tables4, 4 , ​ ,5 5 and ​ and6 6 provide a list of clusters in each research period. In addition to the cluster number and color, the cluster label (name) based on the manual content analysis is provided along with a list of the five most cited references. This section presents the main findings for each period, followed by a discussion describing the patterns of development.

Period 1991–2000 with clusters for ethics education in accounting based on bibliographic coupling

Note : a) colors represent the clusters, b) lines represent the connections between the items, c) the size of both the label and the circle represents weight of an item, and d) the distance between the items and the weight of the lines represents the relatedness between the items

Cluster labels and articles in clusters for ethics education in accounting in the period 1991–2000

Period 2001–2010 clusters for ethics education in accounting based on bibliographic coupling

Co-word analysis for the period 2011–2020

Note : a) colors represent the clusters, b) lines represent the connections between the words, c) the size of both the label and the circle represents the weight of a word, d) the distance between the words and the weight of the lines represents the relatedness between the words

Period 2011–2020 clusters for ethics education in accounting based on bibliographic coupling. Note : a) colors represent the clusters, b) lines represent the connections between the items, c) the size of both the label and the circle represents weight of an item, and d) the distance between the items and the weight of the lines represents the relatedness between the items

Cluster labels and articles in clusters for ethics education in accounting for the period 2011–2020

Research Fields for the Period 1991–2000

For the 16 articles published in the period 1991–2000, the co-word analysis identifies only one cluster consisting of the following words: business, education, future managers, moral development , and society course . The list of most frequently used words reveals that research flow builds on the importance of teaching ethics, as a result of its effect on the accounting profession. Identification of a single cluster may occur, due to the limited number of articles published in this period.

For bibliographic coupling, the largest set of the connected items consists of 15 items (Table ​ (Table4), 4 ), with the total number of clusters identified standing at 2 (Fig.  4 ), all articles published in the Journal of Business Ethics.

Even before the outbreak of the major corporate accounting scandals, researchers were aware of the inadequate treatment of ethical issues in the classroom. As reported in the research published between 1991 and 2000, ethics education was at the time already included in some parts of the accounting curriculum, but not sufficiently (Gunz & McCutcheon, 1998 ; Kerr & Smith, 1995 ; Loeb, 1991 ; Loeb & Rockness, 1992 ; McNair & Milam, 1993 ). We label this research cluster Lack of ethics topics . McNair and Milam ( 1993 ) reported that although ethics education is included in accounting courses, the scope is nevertheless limited and needs to be expanded. It was already then believed that ethics should be integrated into the accounting curriculum in a way that enhances students’ moral development which can be achieved by integrating ethics content into the core accounting courses rather than having separate ethics courses (Loeb & Rockness, 1992 ; McNair & Milam, 1993 ).

Research in this period reveals that one of the reasons for the lack of ethics topics may be found in the insufficient academic commitment. Despite an increase in the accounting ethics articles, little research has been done on the topic (Gunz & McCutcheon, 1998 ). The professors who participated in McNair and Milam’s ( 1993 ) study agree that an increased coverage of ethics topics in accounting courses is much needed. Further, they pinpoint the lack of time and available materials as the main causes of the problems associated with ethics education in accounting. A lack of ethics can have a negative impact on both the accounting profession and society, however, although ethical issues are not adequately addressed in accounting courses, the research identifies positive trends toward teaching ethics in accounting (Loeb, 1991 ).

One of the biggest challenges facing accounting educators is how to integrate ethics topics into the curriculum (Huss & Patterson, 1993 ; Loeb, 1994 ; McCarthy, 1997 ), as there is still no consensus on the effect of ethics courses on ethical orientation. While research by Hiltebeitel and Jones ( 1992 ) shows that ethics integration does in fact affect ethical orientation, McCarthy ( 1997 ), on the contrary, finds no differences. Moreover, it is further ascertained that implementation of ethics education alone is not enough, since it should also be defined why and how to integrate it into the curriculum (Loeb, 1994 ). In addition, ethics should be taught in a way that encourages students’ critical thinking about ethical dilemmas, while the purpose of integrating ethics into the curriculum should be to improve students’ moral development (Fischer & Rosenzweig, 1995 ).

Within the cluster labeled Factors affecting ethical decision-making process , authors also study the effects of personal characteristics (Hiltebeitel & Jones, 1992 ), in addition to ethics education. While Eynon et al. ( 1997 ) report that certified accountants have lower levels of moral judgment, when compared to other professions, that is lower than the average adult and average student, Green and Weber ( 1997 ) on the contrary find no differences in moral judgment, when comparing junior accounting and other business students. Therefore, no consensus exists to date between researchers as to whether more or less ethical students choose accounting as their major. On the other hand, differences are reported when comparing senior-level accounting and other business students, with the latter presenting lower levels of moral judgment (Green & Weber, 1997 ). It is necessary to add here that senior accounting students in the sample were exposed to a professional code of ethics, which may have affected their moral judgment. Jones and Hiltebeitel ( 1995 ) find that personal characteristics (age, gender, education), organizational expectations, and internalized expectations do in fact affect moral judgment. The overall research also shows that the moral development of accountants is an ongoing process, and that ethics training should continue after formal education. And since accountants with lower levels of moral judgment are less supportive of ethical education, Eynon et al. ( 1997 ) suggest mandatory ethical training.

It is obvious that the importance of ethics education in accounting already drew the attention of researchers in the period 1991–2000 before the major corporate accounting scandals. However, during the next period (2001–2010), the number of articles in this field of research increased by 44%.

Research Fields for the Period 2001–2010

Corporate scandals that occurred in the period 2001–2010 encouraged many researchers to pay additional attention to ethics education in accounting:

“ Such scandals have again questioned the business and accounting practices of these firms and the role played by their auditors .” (Dellaportas, 2006 , p. 391) “ The scandals […] remind us that accounting programs still need to teach ethical conduct .” (Shawver & Sennetti, 2009 , p. 663) “ Thus, considerable steps have been made in ethical accounting education, but, after the well-known recent accounting scandals, it seems absolutely essential to pay increasing attention to ethics in accounting and to improve ethical education for accountants .” (Melé, 2005 , p. 97) “ In light of the myriad accounting and corporate ethics scandals of the early 21st century, many corporate leaders and management scholars believe that ethics education is an essential component in business school education .” (Halbesleben et al., 2005 , p. 385)

Based on a selection of 23 articles for the period 2001–2010, the co-word analysis shows a more precise picture of the thematic landscape than it does in the previous period. To narrow down the results, the minimum number of occurrences of keywords was defined as 2. Out of 143 keywords, 24 met the reduction criteria.

A notable cluster derived by the co-word analysis (Fig.  5 , red) consists of words judgments , perceptions , unethical behavior , gender , perspectives , issues , multidimensional analyses and accounting ethics . On one hand, this cluster reveals a continued interest of researchers in the factors affecting ethical decision making, but on the other hand, it suggests an increasing importance of the perception of ethics. Perception is further connected with two main themes, one related to students (yellow) and the other related to professionals (blue). The last cluster (green) relates to the notion that the success of teaching ethics depends on the way ethics content is delivered. Despite the fact that the manner of teaching ethics is at this point in time not yet identified as an individual research cluster, the co-word analysis reveals that many authors already started exploring this field.

Co-word analysis for the period 2001–2010

Note : a) colors represent the clusters, b) lines represent the connections between the selected words, c) the size of both the label and the circle represents the weight of a word, d) the distance between words and the weight of the lines represents the relatedness between the words

Based on bibliographic coupling, the largest set of connected items consists of all articles (Table ​ (Table5). 5 ). The total number of the clusters identified is three (Fig.  6 ), of which the majority (19) were published in the Journal of Business Ethics.

Cluster labels and articles in clusters for ethics education in accounting in the period 2001–2010

In the period between 1991 and 2000, research mainly focused on the individual Factors affecting ethical decision-making process . In the subsequent period between 2001 and 2010, research built on the knowledge of the previous 10-year period and studied more thoroughly the individual factors, such as gender (Cohen et al., 2001 ; Liyanarachchi & Newdick, 2009 ; Marques & Azevedo-Pereira, 2009 ; Roxas & Stoneback, 2004 ) and age (Marques & Azevedo-Pereira, 2009 ), of which age was found to be an important determinant of relativism (Marques & Azevedo-Pereira, 2009 ). Regarding gender, results of some researchers show that females are more critical when evaluating ethical dilemmas and less likely to perform a questionable action described in dilemmas, when compared to males (Cohen et al., 2001 ). On the other hand, research by Marques and Azevedo-Pereira ( 2009 ) reveals just the opposite, in the dilemmas where gender differences exist males are more critical than females. In any case, gender results are situation-specific and have to be interpreted with caution. In addition, the question of which gender is more ethical depends on the culture (Roxas & Stoneback, 2004 ). Another explanation for the inconsistent results could be that most studies focus on main effects only. Liyanarachchi and Newdick ( 2009 ) show in their research that there is an interaction effect between gender and moral development on the propensity for blowing the whistle.

In addition to culture, researchers concentrated also on other situational factors, such as profession (Cohen et al., 2001 ), professional commitment (Elias, 2006 ), social pressure (O’Leary et al., 2007 ), and education (McManus & Subramaniam, 2009 ). When comparing students and professionals, the results reveal that professionals do not only rely more on utilitarianism, but are also less willing to perform a questionable action described in ethical dilemmas (Cohen et al., 2001 ). What is more, in Elias’ ( 2006 ) research, professionalism was found to positively influence moral judgment. The differences in moral judgment may exist due to the group situational factor, which means that individuals are more willing to take extreme actions (regardless whether ethical or unethical), while groups tend to make more neutral decisions (O’Leary et al., 2007 ). The research by McManus and Subramaniam ( 2009 ) confirms that ethics education at a university level can improve moral judgment. This and similar findings within the Factors affecting ethical decision-making process can be among the reasons why research in the period between 2001 and 2010 also developed around the topic The need to teach ethics .

The findings reported by the authors representing The need to teach ethics cluster emphasize that in order to succeed as knowledgeable professionals in a highly competitive and changeable business environment, students need to learn both technical and soft skills. Among soft skills, ethics education is crucial for the accounting profession (Dellaportas, 2006 ; Karaibrahimoğlu et al., 2009 ; McPhail, 2001 ; Melé, 2005 ; Molyneaux, 2004 ), hence accounting educators should strive to increase students' ethical awareness. One of the ethics education objectives, as defined by McPhail ( 2001 ), is thus the development of a broader view of the profession, in other words, students should be able to understand how their profession is positioned in a broader social and political context and develop moral sensitivity for others.

A newly developed Perception of ethics cluster reveals that students perceive ethics education as more important than faculty members (Adkins & Radtke, 2004 ) and that only 20% of accounting master’s degree students believe that ethics programs impact their decisions (Mayhew & Murphy, 2009 ). In any case, participation in a variety of different business courses that include ethics content may in fact lead to improved moral judgment and decreased pluralistic ignorance (Halbesleben et al., 2005 ).

Research Fields for the Period 2011–2020

To narrow down the results, based on 94 articles for the period 2011–2020, the minimum number of occurrences of keywords was defined as 5. Out of 522 keywords in this period, 23 met the threshold. For the co-word analysis, the resolution parameter was defined as 0.9 with the purpose of reducing the number of different clusters from 5 to 4 in order to achieve better interpretation.

Again, the thematic landscape presented in Fig.  7 overlaps with the clusters identified in Table ​ Table6. 6 . The co-word analysis groups the words business ethics , students , education , ethics education , accounting ethics , model , curriculum and accounting into a single theme (Fig.  7 , green) that corresponds to the three clusters focusing on teaching ethics from different perspectives, namely Accounting beyond technical skills, Integration of ethics in accounting education and Use of developed ethics frameworks (Table ​ (Table6). 6 ). The second theme, including decision making, business students, profession, behavior, values, sensitivity, gender, attitudes, organizations and ethical decision making (Fig.  7 , red), correlates with the Factors affecting ethical decision-making process cluster, where different factors influence the sensitivity of the ethical decision-making process. The last theme, with perceptions, ethics, impact, professional ethics and accounting education (Fig.  7 , blue), corresponds to the Perception of ethics cluster.

Based on bibliographic coupling, the largest set of connected items consists of 93 items (Table ​ (Table6) 6 ) and the total number of clusters identified is seven (Fig.  8 ). The majority of the articles were published in the Journal of Business Ethics (23 articles), followed by the Advances in Accounting Education: Teaching and Curriculum Innovations (8 articles) and Accounting Education (7 articles).

Ethics education in accounting was extensively studied in the last period from 2010 to 2020, when the number of articles published quadrupled, compared to the preceding period. Similar to the previous two periods, Factors affecting ethical decision-making process remains to date an important subfield of research. Nevertheless, the most significant breakthrough in this period is the development of four new research subfields, namely Accounting beyond technical skills, Integration of ethics in accounting education, Use of developed ethics frameworks and Professional values. These four clusters, focusing on why and how to teach ethics, evolved from the cluster that developed during the period of corporate scandals (i.e. The need to teach ethics) . As ethics education in accounting is not yet at the desired level, the research in the Lack of ethics topics cluster, identified for the period 1991–2000 , draws attention once again. And lastly, the Perception of ethics cluster grows compared to the previous period, due to the continuous changes in the environment on one hand and the constantly developing curriculums on the other.

Factors Affecting Ethical Decision-Making Process

Although the subfield Factors affecting ethical decision-making process was studied extensively in the previous two periods, the research on this topic continues, researches focus on both the individual (Nahar, 2018 ; Rodriguez Gomez et al., 2020 ) and situational factors (Driskill & Rankin, 2020 ; Hummel et al., 2018 ; Koh et al., 2011 ; Liu, 2018 ; Mladenovic et al., 2019 ; Nahar, 2018 ; Ramirez, 2017 ; Shawver & Miller, 2017 ; Taplin et al., 2018 ), with the latter gaining in importance. Among the situational factors, researchers have so far studied what effect do pressure (Koh et al., 2011 ), the importance of outcome (Koh et al., 2011 ), the pre-dispositional effect (Hummel et al., 2018 ), treatment effect (Hummel et al., 2018 ; Liu, 2018 ; Mladenovic et al., 2019 ; Ramirez, 2017 ; Shawver & Miller, 2017 ; Taplin et al., 2018 ), culture (Driskill & Rankin, 2020 ), and religion (Nahar, 2018 ) have on the ethical decision-making process. Further, building on the theories of profit maximization, Hummel et al. ( 2018 ) studied the effect of economics and business education on moral judgment. They did not find any differences in the predispositions of economics and business students, when compared to other majors and no effect of business education on moral judgment. Liu ( 2018 ) separated and studied the effects of ethics and auditing education on professional skepticism. While auditing education has no effect on professional skepticism, the effect of ethics education is, on the contrary, positive. Similarly, Mladenovic et al. ( 2019 ) confirmed that the effect of integrating ethics topic in accounting courses does positively affect the students’ ethical decision-making process. Ramirez and Palos-Sanchez ( 2018 ) went a step further and narrowed down the research focus on the effect of ethics education in higher education on willingness to comply with the law, with the results showing positive effect. If Ramirez and Palos-Sanchez ( 2018 ) defined clearly the scope of educational effect, it was Taplin et al. ( 2018 ) who narrowed down the ethics intervention to a short role-play intervention. In fact, role-playing was found to be an effective way to learn ethics. In addition, culture (Driskill & Rankin, 2020 ) and religion (Nahar, 2018 ) are reported as factors that influence the ethical decision-making process.

Perception of Ethics

Age and gender are reported to be important determinants of the students’ perception of the importance of accounting ethics (Tormo-Carbó et al., 2016 ). This perception is influenced additionally by education, meaning that it is the students who have taken an ethics course that show an interest in including ethics topics into the curricula (Tormo-Carbó et al., 2016 ). Focusing on the students’ perception of their peers, Costa et al. ( 2016 ) report that students believe their peers have lower ethical standards than they do. Further, students perceive serving public interest as more important than auditors do and have a greater need to establish independence rules, which can be explained by their lack of experience. In other words, while auditors become more confident in their moral judgment with experience and perceive rules as constraints on their judgment, students feel more confident by following the rules. Although the students’ commitment to the public interest and independence was higher than the auditors’, the results reveal that auditors perceive questionable practices as less ethical than students (Barrainkua & Espinosa-Pike, 2018 ). Similar results were found when comparing students and accountants (Waldron & Fisher, 2017 ).

Lack of Ethics Topics in the Education Process

Ample research on ethics education in accounting has already been conducted with the aim of improving it, nevertheless, the lack of ethics topics in educational process still persists. Larrán Jorge et al. ( 2015 ) researched whether accounting programs integrated ethics or corporate social responsibility as a stand-alone course. The result shows that only half of the business schools in the sample offer at least one such course. In addition, there is a negative relationship established between school size and course inclusion, with larger schools being more robust and their transformation taking more time. All in all, limited training related to corporate social responsibility is indeed observed, however, it is also evident that students are aware of its importance and have thus room to claim more ethical and social themes in the future (Larrán et al., 2018 ).

The generally prevailing view of accounting students is that accounting information is prepared above all for the shareholder’s needs (Ferguson et al., 2011 ). The author further explains that “ accounting and business education fails to address the ethical assumptions that it is underpinned by and fails to acknowledge alternative ethical frameworks ” (Ferguson et al., 2011 , p. 24), which means that schools should be aware of their involvement in education of ethical accountants. All in all, the need to redesign accounting education (Al-Htaybat & Von Alberti-Alhtaybat, 2015 ) is evident throughout this research cluster.

Research Clusters Evolved from the Need to Teach Ethics

Cluster The need to teach ethics, identified in the preceding period of corporate scandals, developed further around four specific areas of research, namely the Integration of ethics in accounting education, Use of developed ethics frameworks, Accounting beyond technical skills, and Professional values.

The general opinion is that accounting educators not only need to move beyond teaching theory and standards to actually developing students' attitudes towards values and ethics (Caglio & Cameran, 2017 ), but also need to be aware that the perceived professional ethics is an important factor influencing students’ intention to major in accounting (Lee & Schmidt, 2014 ). Further, it is considered that while ethical values and professional identity should be developed within the university, the process itself should continue throughout the professional career, i.e. individuals need to understand their role within the wider economic and social system (Sin et al., 2011 ).

Technical skills are necessary, but not at all sufficient, in the accounting profession. Pierre and Rebele ( 2014 ) believe that the primary goal of accounting education should remain the development of technical skills, in the sense that students must first understand the subject/problem, before they can critically evaluate it (Pierre & Rebele, 2014 ). After this primary goal is achieved, educators should then start with the development of other student competencies. The problem is that through the education process students receive only limited soft skills, resulting in an expectation gap between student skills and the expectations of audit firms (Anis, 2017 ; Chaffer & Webb, 2017 ). Considering that accounting students value career growth and are willing to develop professional skills that are essential for the profession, ethical issues should certainly be integrated into accounting programs (Sarapaivanich et al., 2019 ). However, what raises concerns about the issue are the results of Sugahara and Boland ( 2011 ), revealing that only 55% of accounting academics agree that they should incorporate ethics topics into their curriculums.

Despite all the ample research on the topic, there is still no consensus on how ethics should be taught. Researchers recommend the use of innovative teaching methods, such as thematic approach (Blanthorne et al. 2017 ; Tweedie et al., 2013 ), active learning (Loeb, 2015 ), virtue ethics (Sorensen et al., 2017 ), giving voice to values (Christensen et al., 2018 ; Cote & Latham, 2016 ; Painter-Morland & Slegers, 2018 ), and role-playing (Bouten & Hoozée, 2015 ), rather than using the traditional ones. Another recommendation is the development of soft skills by applying real-life cases (Keevy, 2020 ).

Likewise, no consensus exists on whether ethics should be taught as a separate course or integrated into the curriculum (Blanthorne et al. 2017 ; Kelly & Earley, 2011 ; Needles Jr., 2014 ; Sugahara & Boland, 2011 ). Miller and Shawver ( 2018 ) studied the extent to which the Ethics Education Framework 2 is used in curriculums and found that its use is low, but also that it is increasing. Ethics is at any rate a complex topic, as there is no unique approach to teaching it, and for this reason it is up to the educators to decide which framework is the most suitable to achieve the ethics-related goals. Moreover, as ethical frameworks influence moral judgment, ethics decision-making frameworks should not only be included in the codes of conduct of professional bodies (e.g. IFAC, APESB), but also presented to both professionals and students (Martinov-Bennie & Mladenovic, 2015 ).

Using historiography , we analyze the chronological development of ethics education in the field of accounting research. The theoretical background starts with Kohlberg ( 1969 ) who was the first to identify the nature of morality. Almost two decades later, Rest ( 1986 ) went further and developed a four-step model of moral development. Both Kohlberg’s moral development and the neo-Kolbergian model (based on Rest’s) theories were also outlined by DeTienne et al. ( 2019 ) as being two of the main streams of research in moral development in business ethics. The historiography analysis reveals that the other streams of the moral development research identified by DeTienne et al. (2019), including moral identity, domain theory, moral automaticity, moral schemas and moral heuristic, are not referenced in the ethics education in accounting research, which pinpoints a research focus that is narrower than the broader research field of business ethics.

Besides research development, historiography reveals an overlap of shared knowledge between different research areas. Relatedly, the vast majority of articles (more precisely, 131 out of 133) were included in the bibliographic coupling analysis, showing bibliographic connections to other documents in the network. This positive development indicates that information and knowledge are shared across the scientific community. To see the impact of corporate scandals on research in the field, we divided the study’s timeframe into three distinct, namely the before, during, and after the major corporate scandals periods. The increase in the published articles was perhaps indeed small from the period before to the period during the corporate scandals, nevertheless, there was a major increase in the period after the scandals, when the number of the published articles quadrupled and the number of different clusters doubled, when compared to the preceding period. While some clusters persist and expand throughout the observed periods, others evolve as new research fields with a more specific focus. At any rate, the latter, despite representing a novel stream of research, build on and further develop previous knowledge. Using the bibliographic coupling analysis, we depict the development patterns of ethics education in accounting research in Fig.  9 .

Development patterns of ethics education in accounting research

Factors affecting ethical decision-making process is identified as a continuing cluster of research. In the first period (1991–2000), this field of research prevailed with 9 primary articles (out of 15 connected items). The importance of the cluster can be outlined by the fact that all articles from the list of the 5 most cited articles in this period (Table ​ (Table3) 3 ) belong to this research cluster (Eynon et al., 1997 ; Fischer & Rosenzweig, 1995 ; Green & Weber, 1997 ; Jones & Hiltebeitel, 1995 ; Karcher, 1996 ). In the second period (2001–2010), this was still a prominent field of research with 10 primary articles (out of 23 connected items). However, only 2 articles from this cluster (Cohen et al., 2001 ; Roxas & Stoneback, 2004 ) appear among the 5 most cited articles in this period. In the last research period (2011–2020), this cluster comprises only 16 primary (out of 93 connected) articles. Another interesting observation is that while individual factors remain similarly researched between the periods, the research on the effect of situational factors, as are social pressure and treatment effect, continues to grow .

Interestingly, the Lack of ethics topics in education process cluster was noted already before the major corporate scandals. Researchers have already highlighted the importance of ethics education (Gunz & McCutcheon, 1998 ; Loeb, 1991 ; McNair & Milam, 1993 ), which contributed to a further development of the cluster during the period of corporate scandals (2001–2010), when the need for ethics education became thoroughly investigated. In this period, 9 primary papers (out of 23 connected items) were identified in The need to teach ethics cluster, three of them among the 5 most cited in the period (De Lange et al., 2006 ; Dellaportas, 2006 ; McPhail, 2001 ), outlining the importance of ethics education in preventing similar ethical misconduct with consequences reaching far into the future and regain public trust in the accounting profession. However, the need for ethics education also raised additional questions. How should ethics be taught? Who should teach it? Do the characteristics of the learner matter? These are some of the questions that researchers sought to answer in the last research period (2011–2020). Accordingly, The need to teach ethics cluster evolved into more specific research areas, including Integration of ethics in accounting education, Use of developed ethics frameworks, Accounting beyond technical skills and Professional values, comprising in total 58 primary papers (out of 93 connected items), four of them among the 5 most cited in the period (Chabrak & Craig, 2013 ; Martinov-Bennie & Mladenovic, 2015 ; O’Leary & Stewart, 2013 ; Tweedie et al., 2013 ). Among the four newly evolved clusters, Accounting beyond technical skills reports the highest number of primary papers (19).

All in all, the increased number of clusters, identified with the bibliographic coupling analysis, and the increased number of articles within the clusters indicate together the increasing importance of teaching ethics in accounting. Despite ample empirical evidence published in the highest quality journals, the present study reveals that the implementation of ethics topics in accounting education is, although increasing, still not at a desirable level. Based on our literature review, the contributing factors to the current state of ethics education in accounting include the following reasons: (1) some schools are slow in implementing the necessary changes due to a lack of knowledge and commitment of academics, (2) after a successful implementation of ethics into the academic syllabi, its impact on the ethics-related goals may be limited, because the selected approach disregards certain relevant (individual or situational) factors that affect the ethical decision-making process, and (3) due to the abundant empirical evidence on the topic, it may be difficult to optimize the effect of ethics education, especially when among researchers no consensus has yet been reached regarding the questions such as the development of stand-alone courses or integrating ethics topics across the curriculum, how to account for individual factors, and last but not least, what innovative teaching methods provide the best results.

The trend of the number of articles increasing in the field of ethics in accounting is also outlined in the accounting education literature review by Apostolou et al. ( 2010 ). Overall, the majority of the existing literature reviews focus on the accounting education (Apostolou et al., 2010 , 2017 ; Rebele et al., 1991 ; Watson et al., 2007 ) or ethics in accounting (Uysal, 2010 ). To the best of our knowledge, the present study is novel in the sense that it combines both fields and gives a comprehensive overview of the historical development of the existing research in the field of ethics education in accounting.

Future Research

Based on historiography , the research in ethics education in accounting has mostly been based on Kohlberg’s ( 1969 ) theory of moral development and Rest’s ( 1979 ) measurement instrument, DIT. Both Kohlberg’s and Rest’s theories were also outlined by DeTienne et al. ( 2019 ) as two of the main streams of the research in moral development in business ethics. However, their work covered additional theoretical foundations that are currently used in the field of business ethics, including the domain theory, moral automaticity, moral schemas, and moral heuristic. These have not yet been as well applied in the ethics education in accounting literature. Nevertheless, incorporating these novel theoretical approaches may be warranted, because they are by their nature highly multidisciplinary. DeTienne et al. ( 2019 ) outline that this area is of high interest, in addition to academics, to philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists, and other professionals. For example, approaches similar to those used in neuro-accounting apply also to moral schemas. As this stream of research focuses on the development of brain structures, it must thus be supported by both neuroscience and psychology (Narvaez, 2008 ). The literature review of Tank and Farrell ( 2021 ) shows that neuro-accounting has attracted the attention of researchers only from 2007, so it is not surprising that it has not yet developed in the subfield of ethics education. Future research could therefore expand the existing theoretical background so as to include other theories that are not yet as well applied, which could lead to additional clusters within the historiography of ethics education in accounting.

Based on bibliographic coupling that presents the development patterns in the field of research, to encourage future research we next develop a research agenda. The past expansion and the current developments within the Factors affecting ethical decision-making process cluster suggest that this cluster is to persist in the future. We can nonetheless still expect novel research focusing on new factors that were disregarded or insufficiently investigated in the previous decades. In recent years, country-specific issues have attracted the interest of researchers (Arfaoui et al., 2016 ; Driskill & Rankin, 2020 ; Marzuki et al., 2017 ; Mohd Ghazali, 2015 ), however, the consistency of the results and their implications are still lacking. Moreover, an increase in the research related to the Islamic religion, conducted over the past decade (Musbah et al., 2016 ; Nahar, 2018 ; Zubairu, 2016 ), may indicate that the effect of different religions on the ethical decision-making process could become a prominent area of future research within this cluster.

In the last period (2011–2020), Use of developed ethics frameworks and Integration of ethics in accounting education were among the clusters that developed from The need to teach ethics cluster, which evolved during the second period (2001–2010). The common characteristic of the two clusters is their focus on the course design. It is therefore plausible to expect that the clusters will merge to form a prominent How to teach ethics cluster, thus reaching beyond the research questions of the two previous clusters by incorporating current developments, also related to the outbreak of Covid-19, into teaching. What could become a prominent research area within the new cluster is the effect of the online ethics courses. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020, education worldwide was forced to go online in the spring of the same year (Alassaf & Szalay, 2020 ; Sun et al., 2020 ). While the vast majority of the existing research has so far focused on the in-class ethics education (Arfaoui et al., 2016 ; Shawver & Miller, 2017 ), we expect a growing body of literature to focus mainly on the online methods. In fact, recent research (Sorensen et al., 2017 ) has already denoted this trend. Research questions in these clusters have so far included the identification of, on one hand, the most effective teaching approaches that are applied in ethics education, such as the thematic approach (Tweedie et al., 2013 ), active learning (Loeb, 2015 ), role-playing (Bouten & Hoozée, 2015 ), and on the other hand, the research questions related to whether ethics should be taught as a stand-alone course or using an integrated approach. This field merits additional insight, as despite extensive research no consensus on the topic has been reached to date (Dellaportas, 2006 ; Martinov-Bennie & Mladenovic, 2015 ). In addition, while most researchers have focused on comparing the effectiveness of traditional and innovative teaching methods, there is a lack of comparison between innovative methods.

The specific part of the Integration of ethics in accounting education cluster, which relates to virtue ethics (Sorensen et al., 2017 ), could merge with the Professional values cluster to form a new Professional values and virtues cluster . Moral virtues focus on character development and represent a permanent attitude towards moral behavior. Since the objectives of ethics education are to increase moral sensitivity, help individuals to make moral judgments, improve moral behavior and stimulate moral virtues, moral values and virtues are closely related and should therefore be treated in ethics education (Melé, 2005 ). The importance of moral virtues has been frequently addressed in the field of medical ethics (Toon, 2014 ), however, the existing lack of comparable research in ethics education in accounting can be identified as another research gap.

In the last period (2011–2020), the importance of developing soft skills in accounting education was addressed in the Accounting beyond technical skills cluster. This stream of research originated in the gap observed between the skills of accounting students and expectations of employers. Ma ( 2009 ), who examined the status of the business ethics research, reported that in the all-encompassing pursuit of profits in capitalist economies, the effect of business ethics on financial performance became one of the main determinants of the promotion of ethical behavior. Similarly, a new stream of ethics education in the accounting research, included in the Practical importance of ethics in accounting cluster, could investigate whether (and to what extent) the motivation for promoting soft skills, together with ethics and moral skills, has been redefined to include its effects on corporate financial performance.

While the Lack of ethics topics in education process cluster seems to evolve and implode in cycles, based on the latest research findings on the existent situation in accounting education, Perception of ethics is, on the contrary, a continuous cluster that not only provides an overview of the current state of ethics and its improvement, but is also expected to continue to exist in the future, due to continuous changes in the environment and the constantly developing curriculums. Future research development patterns of ethics education in the accounting research are presented in Fig.  10 .

Future research development patterns of ethics education in accounting research

Conclusion and Limitations

Looking at the existing research in the field of ethics education in accounting reveals a vast amount of work that researchers have already done on the topic. The objective of this paper however is to trace the evolution of ethics education in accounting, define the thematic landscapes and outline the subfields that constitute the ethics education in the accounting research. We attempted to accomplish this objective by performing historiography, bibliographic coupling and co-word analysis. Dividing the study’s timeframe into three different, i.e. the before, during and after the major corporate accounting scandals, periods allowed us to see the true impact of the corporate accounting scandals on the investigated research area. Moreover, our review highlights the most influential articles and journals in the field.

The theoretical backgrounds used in ethics education in accounting research are based on the fundamental theories from the field of business ethics, while research does not yet build on the newly developed concepts, such as moral identity, domain theory, moral automaticity, moral schemas and moral heuristics (DeTienne et al., 2019 ). These interdisciplinary approaches that have been applied in the business ethics research provide scholars with a venue of further research.

The present study gives a comprehensive overview of the topic and thus contributes to a more effective and efficient implementation of ethics education in accounting and future research. Although the importance of ethics education was outlined even before the corporate accounting scandals, the number of published articles quadrupled while the number of different clusters doubled in the period in the period following the scandals in comparison to the previous period, the implementation of ethics topics in accounting education is not yet at a desired level, due to a lack of knowledge in its implementation on one side and a lack of commitment from academics on the other. Moreover, the true impact of the implemented ethics education is still limited as a consequence of the numerous factors affecting its success. In each period, researchers describe additional factors that affect the ethical decision-making process, among which situational factors gain in their importance. The period of the corporate accounting scandals outlined The need to teach ethics , which resulted in four research areas developed in the last period, namely Integration of ethics in accounting education , Use of developed ethics frameworks , Accounting beyond technical skills , and Professional values. To improve the effectiveness of ethics education, educators should pay special attention to the course design and its development, especially in terms of the content and structure of the course, the ethics frameworks use and the teaching methods, with researchers recommending the use of innovative rather than traditional methods.

We expect researchers to continue studying the individual and situational factors, with the emphasis on the latter. Further, innovative teaching methods are proving to be more effective than the traditional ones, however, there is a lack of comparison between innovative methods. Moreover, the vast majority of research to date has focused on teaching ethics in the classroom. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak in March of 2020, which forced education to go online, we assume a growing body of literature to focus on online methods.

Like many before, this study too faces several limitations. Firstly, not all the existing articles related to the ethics education in accounting are necessarily included in the research. We decided to use as the database source the articles published in the English language in the Web of Science, within the science categories that comprise business and finance, business, education educational research and ethics. The final sample thus consist of the articles published between 1991 and 2020, and it is a fact that using different keywords or methods, or different research periods or science categories might result in the discovery of connections and developments invisible to this study. Secondly, using bibliographic coupling as a method for our research has proven to have its own limitations, since the analysis treats all citations equally and does not distinguish between different reasons for citing (support vs. criticism).

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Ivan Zupic for his helpful comments that improved the manuscript.

Author Contributions

The idea, literature search, data analysis were performed by TP. The first draft of the manuscript was written by TP and was critically revised by MZG. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

This work was supported by the University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business and Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) program P5-0161.

Declarations

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

1 Using asterisk in the search engine enabled the inclusion of related words (e.g. ethics, ethical, ethicality).

2 The framework was developed by Cooper et al. ( 2008 ) and expanded by Dellaportas et al. ( 2011 ). It is based on Rest’s ( 1986 ) four-component model of ethical decision making. The framework offers the students and professional accountants a learning tool to identify, analyze and resolve ethical dilemmas (Dellaportas et al., 2011 ).

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Contributor Information

Tamara Poje, Email: [email protected] .

Maja Zaman Groff, Email: [email protected] .

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Artificial intelligence based decision-making in accounting and auditing: ethical challenges and normative thinking

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

ISSN : 0951-3574

Article publication date: 21 June 2022

Issue publication date: 19 December 2022

This paper aims to identify ethical challenges of using artificial intelligence (AI)-based accounting systems for decision-making and discusses its findings based on Rest's four-component model of antecedents for ethical decision-making. This study derives implications for accounting and auditing scholars and practitioners.

Design/methodology/approach

This research is rooted in the hermeneutics tradition of interpretative accounting research, in which the reader and the texts engage in a form of dialogue. To substantiate this dialogue, the authors conduct a theoretically informed, narrative (semi-systematic) literature review spanning the years 2015–2020. This review's narrative is driven by the depicted contexts and the accounting/auditing practices found in selected articles are used as sample instead of the research or methods.

In the thematic coding of the selected papers the authors identify five major ethical challenges of AI-based decision-making in accounting: objectivity, privacy, transparency, accountability and trustworthiness. Using Rest's component model of antecedents for ethical decision-making as a stable framework for our structure, the authors critically discuss the challenges and their relevance for a future human–machine collaboration within varying agency between humans and AI.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature on accounting as a subjectivising as well as mediating practice in a socio-material context. It does so by providing a solid base of arguments that AI alone, despite its enabling and mediating role in accounting, cannot make ethical accounting decisions because it lacks the necessary preconditions in terms of Rest's model of antecedents. What is more, as AI is bound to pre-set goals and subjected to human made conditions despite its autonomous learning and adaptive practices, it lacks true agency. As a consequence, accountability needs to be shared between humans and AI. The authors suggest that related governance as well as internal and external auditing processes need to be adapted in terms of skills and awareness to ensure an ethical AI-based decision-making.

• Artificial intelligence

Decision-making

Lehner, O.M. , Ittonen, K. , Silvola, H. , Ström, E. and Wührleitner, A. (2022), "Artificial intelligence based decision-making in accounting and auditing: ethical challenges and normative thinking", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal , Vol. 35 No. 9, pp. 109-135. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-09-2020-4934

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Othmar Manfred Lehner, Kim Ittonen, Hanna Silvola, Eva Ström and Alena Wührleitner

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

Companies and financial service firms alike increasingly use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to aggregate and transform data from various sources and derive better decision-relevant information in complex environments ( Jarrahi, 2018 ; Joseph and Gaba, 2020 ) to gain economic benefits. AI can be seen as an umbrella term in this global mega-trend that includes Big Data approaches ( Gepp et al ., 2018 ; Salijeni et al ., 2018 ) and sophisticated machine learning algorithms ( Kellogg et al ., 2020 ; Lindebaum et al ., 2020 ) to learn from the data and model the future ( Chen et al ., 2012 ; Earley, 2015 ).

Advanced AI-based accounting software ( Ristolainen, 2017 ) also cannot easily be compared to classic accounting information systems, as it constantly changes its own design and programming through learning and gradually matches the cognitive capabilities of humans in certain tasks ( Munoko et al ., 2020 ; Vasarhelyi et al ., 2017 ). At the same time, the speed of processing data already outmatches any human workforce ( Raisch and Krakowski, 2021 ) when it comes to the more repetitive, yet cognitive demanding tasks in accounting and auditing ( Cooper et al ., 2019 ; Kokina and Blanchette, 2019 ). As an example, the identification of key contract terms of complex lease, loan and other debt contracts for classification under IFRS 9 are now executed by AI-empowered smart robots ( Cooper et al. , 2019 ) [1] in far less time. The implied agency of AI, such as in the above mentioned autonomous IFRS classification, raises several questions, e.g. on the accountability ( Bebbington et al. , 2019 ), the traceability of such a classification and the underlying ethical dimensions concerning the impact on workforce and society ( Jarrahi, 2018 ; Munoko et al. , 2020 ). As Gunz and Thorne (2020) state: “ Of particular concern to those who address ethical considerations in the workplace is what has become known as a responsibility gap; that is, the extent to which or the possibility that the adoption of technology will lead to the abdication of ethical responsibility for the consequences of decisions by real people, and here, accountants and taxpayers ” (p. 153).

Accordingly, the societal and ethical implications of AI have also been picked up by policymakers, for example as noted in the European Union (EU) AI strategy ( Csernatoni, 2019 ) or in the OECD guidelines ( Boza and Evgeniou, 2021 ). In these, policymakers demand that AI benefits people and the world, ensures a fair society, has transparent and responsible disclosure, be robust, secure and safe throughout their lifetimes and have developers accountable for its proper functioning. Of course, all this needs to be considered as foundational to AI-based decision-making in the context of accounting, yet these motivating terms do little to clarify the actual processes and their ethical evaluation in the scope of accounting and auditing ( Holt and Loraas, 2021 ).

Fitting to the nascent stage of research on this topic we find differing conceptualisations of human–machine (AI) collaborations throughout the literature. Agrawal et al . (2019) for example, posit that in the foreseeable future, AI will only enhance human decision-making. In contrast ( Jarrahi, 2018 ), Mulgan (2018) and also Lehner et al . (2021) already foresee a shift towards partly autonomous digital actors as decision-makers in the future. Research on ethical issues associated with AI-based decision-making ( Dignum, 2018 ; Leyer and Schneider, 2021 ; Vincent, 2021 ), its related algorithms ( Martin, 2019b ) and Big Data ( Lombardi et al ., 2015 ) in the (broader) fields of accounting and auditing however remains scarce apart from a few recent highlights that provide substance and a future research agenda ( Gunz and Thorne, 2020 ; Kellogg et al. , 2020 ; Marrone and Hazelton, 2019 ). Munoko's et al. (2020) insights on ethics in an AI-based auditing shall be emphasised here as example.

Consequently, we provide a comprehensive, scholarly substantiated, yet critical elaboration of the potential ethical challenges of an AI-based decision-making in accounting. With this, we want to assist researchers by looking more in-depth at the AI-based decision-making processes and related ethical challenges. At the same time, our discussion provides managers and policy makers a basis to make informed decisions concerning the potential organisational and regulatory layouts for an AI-based accounting and auditing future.

Our research methodology is rooted in the hermeneutics tradition ( Prasad, 2002 ) of interpretative accounting research ( Chua, 1988 ; Lehman, 2010 ; Lukka and Modell, 2010 ; Parker, 2008 ). True to the sociomateriality of the matter at hand ( Orlikowski and Scott, 2008 ) our research embraces the interdisciplinary, paradigmatic anchoring of the five principal researchers, who have academic, as well as practical backgrounds in accounting, auditing, sociology and information sciences ( Dwivedi et al. , 2021 ; Jeacle and Carter, 2014 ).

Our paper is structured as follows. After providing a literature background on ethical decision-making, we first narratively (theory-driven, semi-systematically) review and interpret associated AI-based decision-making contexts in ABS/AJG ranked scholarly articles from 2015 to 2020 and identify related ethical challenges in these. Second, to provide a solid framework for our following conceptual discussion of the moral antecedents of ethical decision-making, which includes the perspective of cognitive states ( Bedford et al ., 2019 ; Orlitzky, 2016 ) of both involved humans and AI, we utilise the well-established Rest’s four-component model of morality ( Rest, 1986 , 1994 ) and map the found challenges to it. Rest's model is one of the most salient ones in terms of accounting research use ( Baud et al ., 2019 ; Lombardi et al. , 2015 ; Lombardi, 2016 ; Sorensen et al ., 2015 ). It looks at moral behaviour as a prerequisite for ethical decision-making and builds on rational traditions while also considering the actors' cognitive states. This is especially important given that we expect a human and AI collaboration in the near future, which may potentially lead to a competition between purely rational cognition and value-based moral interpretation amongst the involved actors, for example when it comes to levels of certainty or doubt over some scenarios. Finally, our paper ends with a critical and normative discussion of the findings in terms of potential future human–machine collaborations, from which we suggest theoretical as well as practical implications and future research.

Ethical decision-making and AI in accounting

A background on ethical decision-making.

In general, ethical decision-making refers to the process in which individuals use their personal moral base to determine whether a certain action is right or wrong ( Christopoulos et al ., 2016 ; Kish-Gephart et al ., 2010 ; Sturm, 2015 ). This process is thus characterised by moral issues and agents, both embedded in organisational and societal contexts. A moral issue arises when an individual's behaviour can either help or damage others. A moral agent is an individual who acknowledges the presence of a moral issue and acts according to their personal moral code ( Zollo et al ., 2016 ). Factors that constitute an ethical or unethical decision vary between individuals, communities and environments ( Christopoulos et al. , 2016 ). Thus far, two main approaches have emerged in the literature on ethical decision-making: rational (connected to measurable outcomes) and intuitive (led by an intrinsic morality) traditions ( McManus, 2018 ; Zollo et al. , 2016 ). To first reconcile both traditions, Zollo et al. (2016) consider moral intuition as a forerunner to an ethical decision-making process to be blended with rational moral reasoning and introduces the concept of synderesis , as the natural capacity or disposition (habitus) of humans to generally allow a simple apprehension of what is good. However, by introducing machine actors, this stream of research might not be particularly helpful as the presence of a conditio humana in AI is precisely what needs to be questioned and not assumed! What is more, given the ability of AI to perform complex cognitive processes together with its autonomous learning and adapting, it becomes clear that any framework to understand AI-based ethical decision-making needs to include a perspective on the underlying cognitive states of the involved actors.

One of the most salient models on moral processes as antecedent for ethical decision-making in the literature is Rest's (1986 , 1994) four-component model ( Fleischman et al ., 2017 ; Shawver and Shawver, 2018 ; Valentine and Godkin, 2019 ; Zollo et al. , 2018 ). It is rooted in the rational tradition as described above, but entails an awareness of actors' cognitive states ( Hirsh et al ., 2018 ). This model presumes that an ethical decision results when individuals complete the following four psychological processes: (1) attain moral awareness/sensitivity regarding the existence of an ethical issue, (2) apply moral judgement to the problem to decide what is right, (3) formulate and possess moral motivation to act ethically and (4) develop moral character, that is power, to translate their ethical intent into appropriate moral behaviour ( Paik et al ., 2017 ; Weber, 2017 ; Zollo et al. , 2016 ).

Moral awareness is the first and most important component in Rest's ethical decision-making process because it determines whether a situation contains moral content and can and should be considered from a moral perspective ( Morales-Sánchez and Cabello-Medina, 2013 ). The decision-maker in this step exhibits “sensitivity”, as referred to by Rest (1994) , towards considering others' and their welfare. A lack of moral awareness can lead to unethical decision-making due to situational, individual and motivational bias influence ( Kim and Loewenstein, 2021 ; McManus, 2018 ). For example, McManus' (2018) paper discusses how hubris leads to individuals' failure to display moral awareness within their decision-making.

Moral judgement is the second component in which the decision-maker makes a moral judgement on an identified ethical issue, that is judgement on “what is considered as morally correct” ( Zollo et al. , 2016 ). The decision-maker in this phase assesses “good” and “bad” ( Morales-Sánchez and Cabello-Medina, 2013 ) outcomes regardless of personal interest. Thus, he/she can decide “which course of action is more morally justifiable” ( Morales-Sánchez and Cabello-Medina, 2013 ).

A robot may not injure or harm a human indirectly through its inaction.

A robot must obey human beings' orders, except where such orders would conflict with the first law.

A robot must protect its own existence providing this protection does not conflict with the first and second laws.

Finally, moral character (or behaviour) is the fourth component, which involves the execution and implementation of previously found moral intention ( Rest, 1986 , 1994 ). Translating moral motivation and intention into moral character however also depends on individual and environmental challenges ( Hannah et al ., 2015 ) and the given agency. Such agency for AI in accounting would involve conferring formal decision-making power to the AI-based accounting system and necessitates the trust of those following its recommendation.

Rest's established four component model as a framework for ethical decision-making as a process will provide a proven structure for us to evaluate the specific influence of the identified ethical challenges in an AI-based future and guide our normative thinking when we summarise and elaborate on the potential future of human–machine collaboration in accountancy.

AI and ethical decision-making in the accounting and auditing literature

Gong (2016) focuses on ethical decision-making in accounting in his critical book review. He suggests that actors and the complexity of their interactions are a major source of ethical dilemmas. This complexity will only be aggravated with the addition of smart, AI-based robotic co-workers ( Huang and Vasarhelyi, 2019 ) as actors with varying degrees of agency (i.e. agreed power). Hence, transferring the recent insights of Dillard and Vinnari (2019) on critical dialogical accountability to these future scenarios of robot–human interactions, it may be interesting to determine who the responsible actors are and might be ( Dalla Via et al ., 2019 ).

To add another dimension, Martin (2019b) researches complex algorithms used in machine learning as the basis of all AI actors. These algorithms ( Kellogg et al. , 2020 ) are inherently value-laden and create positive and negative moral consequences based on ethical principles ( Brougham and Haar, 2017 ; Martin, 2019b ). Martin (2019b) further conducts a comprehensive ethical review about software developers as the source of these algorithms and discusses their responsibility and accountability. AI-based algorithms' core concept implies that they learn independently from the available data and do not follow predefined rules ( Lindebaum et al. , 2020 ). Therefore, data are the underlying “fuel”, and potential source of bias, of algorithms and thus have to be accurate and meaningful during training and real-time application ( Al-Htaybat and von Alberti-Alhtaybat, 2017 ; Arnaboldi et al ., 2017b ; Baker and Andrew, 2019 ; Gepp et al. , 2018 ; Warren et al ., 2015 ).

Munoko et al. (2020) study the ethical implications of AI in auditing. Similar to Jarrahi (2018) they both distinguish between three scenarios of a human–machine collaboration in their study with varying related ethical issues. The first step of an AI implementation is called the assisted AI, designed to “support humans in taking action”. Augmented AI is the second step in which parts of the decision-making process are handled by AI ( Losbichler and Lehner, 2021 ). The third step, albeit in the more distant future, is the autonomous (or strong) AI, where AI decides which data to include for its decision-making and also has been given agency and trust to execute these decisions ( Glikson and Woolley, 2020 ; Lehner et al. , 2021 ). Each of these scenarios displays a different agency level for the AI and thus some of the components in Rest's model will become more or less relevant.

Research design

This paper is rooted in the hermeneutics tradition ( Bleicher, 2017 ; Francis, 1994 ; Prasad, 2002 ) of interpretative accounting research ( Chua, 1988 ; Francis, 1994 ; Lukka and Modell, 2010 ; Parker, 2008 ) and is based on a theory-driven, semi-systematic literature review. Our interpretation of the literature follows the hermeneutic circle in which the reader and the data engage in a form of dialogue. In this, the pre-understandings of the researchers play a key role and are crucial for drawing meaning from the text. In our case, our research team consists of five people from different academic backgrounds, who bring to the table theoretical and practical accounting/auditing know-how, and an embeddedness in sociological theory and computer/information sciences ( Dumay and Guthrie, 2019 ; Jeacle and Carter, 2014 ). Based on the above, the hermeneutic tradition also demands a critical and reflexive attitude to identify potentially unwanted pre-conceptualisations and ideologies and an awareness of the intrinsic transitions from conceptual pre-configurations to configurations and ultimately to potential re-configurations upon additional texts ( Bleicher, 2017 ; Shalin, 2007 ).

The identified articles in our review are thus not meant to tell the story, but rather to induce and inspire our own narrative on the ethical challenges by providing the situative contexts and insights from which we can identify these. In addition, despite our strong endeavours to achieve a form of qualitative validity, for example through inter-coder reliability measures, it is not our claim to derive some sort of universal truth or test from our inquires but rather to pragmatically derive insights and inspire future accounting research from a variety of angles.

Data collection

To build the basis and identify the ethical challenges, we follow the recommendations of Parker and Northcott (2016) and Snyder (2019) and conduct a theoretically informed, narrative literature review, which semi-systematically synthesises a topic through interpretation. A semi-systematic or “narrative” review approach is designed for “ topics that have been conceptualized differently and studied by various groups of researchers within diverse disciplines ” Snyder (2019) .

This approach provides an understanding of complex areas based on a qualitative content analysis rather than measuring effect sizes. Following Snyder (2019) , Denzin (2018) and Parker and Northcott (2016) , such an undertaking allows the detection of themes, theoretical perspectives and theoretical concept components. In our case, these themes are the ethical challenges in AI-based decision-making in accounting. Our protocol concerning the identification and selection of the articles is detailed in the next section, with our thinking grounded in a theoretical sampling strategy, employing, as Parker and Northcott (2016) indicate, a “ … gradual broadening of sample selection criteria as the researcher develops their theory, particularly with a view to its encompassing wider variations that permit theoretical generalisation ”.

Artificial intelligence “AND” (critics “OR” critique)

Artificial intelligence “AND” (challenges “OR” implications)

Artificial intelligence “AND” future

Artificial intelligence “AND” (ethics “OR” moral “OR” justice)

Robotic process automation “OR” robot

Smart machines

This initial, broad-ranging search elicited 2,969 journal articles, including duplicates due to overlapping of different search terms. Next, the duplicated articles were eliminated, leaving 2,472 articles. True to the nature of a semi-structured review, that aims for understanding and rich insights rather than completeness or clear boundaries, we then reduced the amount of “somewhat” relevant articles to a more manageable number that seemed to provide actual insights (compared to for example simply describing a novel technology). We did this in two steps: First by an interpretive reading of the abstracts , which filtered out articles irrelevant to our deeper interest to find out more about ethical challenges in decision-making situations in combination with the technologies as listed above. This interpretive analysis decreased our sample to 609 articles. In our second step, we read the remaining 609 articles' introductions, discussions and conclusions sections to assess whether the respective article was providing deeper insights into ethical decision-making processes and situations. We discarded 482 articles of the 609 as these were not providing actual discussions or settings of some form of decision-making with the help of AI or Big data.

At the same time, we also added 11 articles outside of our original sampling that were heavily cited and seemed particularly relevant in the 609 selected articles, because they provided further and deeper insights, regardless of their ABS/AJG journal classification . This led to the inclusion, for example, of four articles from the International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, a 2 rated ABS/AJG journal.

This two-step reduction (and expansion) process overall: 2,472 (discarding 1,863) → 609 (discarding 482, adding 11) → 138, resulted in our final sample of 138 articles from 43 journals. It became already clear at this stage, that some journals tend to attract certain topics, with roughly 20% (8) of these 43 journals contributing the majority (76) of the articles. Please see Tables 1 and 2 for a list of all journals.

Many higher-ranked dedicated accounting journals have not embraced AI or related Big Data, whereas highly ranked management journals, for example the Journal of Business Ethics and also some of the Academy of Management journals are already quite attentive to this topic and context.

Data evaluation

We followed Denzin (2018) in our interpretivist approach to a thematic analysis. This approach identifies data patterns as stories or “meaningful units”, given that language constitutes social meaning. In other words, rather than comparing individual reports, our analysis focused on identifying similarities and dissimilarities and resulting patterns across the narrations of the situations in the articles. The intention was to analyse depicted situations and processes in detail in terms of their settings and the relevance of ethical decision-making in these. From the 138 articles, 1,671 meaningful units (as detailed and exemplified in the three examples below) were extracted for further analyses using ATLAS.TI qualitative coding software. These meaningful units typically comprise one or few connected sentences that deal with a certain situation or process and are clearly connected (see Table 3 for examples).

It is noteworthy that at this stage the researchers' judgements and previous experience may strongly influence such research. Completely preventing this situation may be futile. Thus, we used several measures to enhance the qualitative validity of this study and included various checks and balances ( Parker and Northcott, 2016 ), such as protocolled inter-coder reliability measures. Consequently, all five authors and two research assistants, read and coded the meaningful units. For this, memos were written by the individual researchers, based on emerging questions about potential patterns and codings ( Parker and Northcott, 2016 ). Any disputed topics were brought up and discussed until all researchers had reached a coding convergence. This reading and coding by such a large number of researchers was necessary to enhance intercoder-reliability.

This data analysis method thus involved the joint interpretation of the various expressions and manifestations of AI in decision-making situations by the five plus two coders. The 1,671 meaningful units were coded inductively and recursively (i.e. a newly emerged code found in later stages might be applied to earlier text fragments when re-reading), resulting in 238 first-order codes. These codes were then aggregated into 50, more comprehensive and abstract, second-order codes, as we gradually developed a more holistic understanding of the essence of the first-order codes. Finally, we further condensed and aggregated these second-order codes based on their essence into five challenges of objectivity, privacy, transparency, accountability and trustworthiness as inductive top-level themes ( Denzin, 2018 ).

To exemplify this process, please see Table 3 , with examples of meaningful units and their coding.

As a final step, the five plus two researchers conducted an intense two-day workshop, along with two additional outside academics from sociology and accounting, referred to as “advocati diaboli” to identify potential flaws in our thinking, and we critically discussed the five identified challenges and clarified their scope. In this workshop the seven researchers went through one challenge after the other and looked at several archetypical situations in which these challenges were depicted in the selected papers (see Table 4 for an indication of authors and articles). Using these found situations and the challenges identified in these, we then debated what an ethical decision-making process would look like in these, and how, when, and why, the identified challenges would inhibit it. For this, we mapped these challenges to our chosen framework of the four components of Rest's process model to provide a solid theoretical anchoring for our debates and bring in a well-established structure of the processes and antecedents of ethical decision-making. Thus, while the challenges evolved inductively through the interpretation and aggregation of the coded meaningful units (second order codes to themes), they were then connected to the individual components of ethical decision-making and discussed given different scenarios of a human–machine collaboration from the data.

In the following section we present our findings of the five emerged themes in detail with examples from the data and discuss their consequences for the components in Rest's process model.

Results: five challenges to AI-based ethical decision-making in accounting

Objectivity.

Objectivity and related bias problems were a salient and repeating topic in our findings when it comes to decision-making. For example, Sun (2019) writes about the application of deep-learning in audit procedures for information identification and its challenges based on barely traceable bias and overly complex data structures. In addition, Arnaboldi et al. (2017a) explore social media and Big Data's information alteration and consequently biased decision-making processes. Leicht-Deobald et al. 's (2019) study also explains the use of AI in evaluating people's job and loan applications and finds ample evidence of discrimination. Nevertheless, the literature also provides examples of how AI has helped overcome accounting and auditing bias. For example, Sánchez-Medina et al. (2017) study the impact of a change in norms on the going-concern status (to the better) based on auditors' use of AI.

Looking deeper at the contexts in the articles, algorithms underlying AI and Big Data were identified as the contributing factors to most ethical challenges for AI-based decisions. These algorithms, for example, were seen to process people's loans, warn of potential credit loss and identify payment patterns ( Buhmann et al. , 2019 ; Kellogg et al. , 2020 ). However, these algorithms are the output of human work, and the supplied data stems from the past and is often selected by humans, hence bearing the potential of bias. Consequently, rather than asking whether AI can be objective, the questions could be as follows: How can humans make objective algorithms? Is the data they feed the algorithms free of inherent bias? Training an AI system to ignore race, gender and sexual orientation and make its loan decisions based on other information is possible. However, such a system can only be created with the help and moral awareness of human experts who create and train AI systems.

This particular challenge of objectivity thus mainly impacts the second and third components: moral judgement and moral motivation in Rest's model as both will be flawed given biased information or algorithms. It needs to be dealt with accordingly, for example through clear guidelines and awareness building for developers and employees. On the other hand, AI can also provide opportunities to overcome human bias, as Daugherty et al. (2019) for example state, “ What if software programs were able to account for the inequities that have limited the access of minorities to mortgages and other loans? In other words, what if our systems were taught to ignore data about race, gender, sexual orientation, and other characteristics that are no t relevant to the decisions at hand? ” (p. 60)

Privacy (and data protection)

Privacy and related data protection problems were found to be another key challenge associated with adopting AI-based decision-making in an accounting setting ( Martin, 2019a ; West, 2019 ; Wright and Xie, 2017 ). Privacy is one of the most salient drivers of ethical concerns due to the rapid and largely unregulated increase in Big Data for use in AI-based systems ( Arthur and Owen, 2019 ; Shilton and Greene, 2017 ). As AI evolves and chooses the sources of its data autonomously, its use of personal information is achieving a new level of power and speed that may not easily be comprehendible by users nor transparent. Conceptualising this, Martin (2019a) for example states: “ … the results here suggest consumers retain strong privacy expectations even after disclosing information. Privacy violations are valued akin to security violations in creating distrust in firms and in consumer (un)willingness to engage with firms ” (p. 65). Strongly related to this, Wright and Xie (2017) focus on the importance of expectation management and state: “ Companies can effectively set, and re-affirm, privacy expectations via consent procedures preceding and succeeding data dissemination notifications ” (p. 123).

Research on privacy in the context of algorithmic AI is limited as researchers have mostly focused on data privacy and violations in general ( West, 2019 ). Big Data has been at the foundation of this research ( Alles, 2015 ; Warren et al. , 2015 ) due to its increasing introduction into the specific context of accounting and auditing ( Baker and Andrew, 2019 ). For example, Gepp et al. (2018) write about Big Data techniques in auditing research and practice and explore current trends and future opportunities.

When it comes to privacy and data protection, Blockchains are often seen as an accounting and auditing innovation, given its data storage in a secure, distributed ledger ( Cai, 2021 ; McCallig et al ., 2019 ). Blockchains provide tamper-proof encrypted storage of data that also allows traceability of who has entered and changed the data. Such traceability is important for auditing and creates transparency for the stored data and is also important for building trust, as will be discussed later. Moll and Yigitbasioglu (2019) see that access to distributed ledgers in the blockchain and Big Data with algorithmic AI will automate decision-making to a large extent. These technologies may significantly improve financial visibility and allow more timely intervention due to the perpetual nature of accounting. However, contrary to data protection, the impact of leaked documents to prevent fraudulent activities (for example in Wikileaks) should not be underestimated as Andrew and Baker (2020) examine in the context of US oil interests in Nigeria. Moreover, West (2019) proposes the term “data capitalism” and examines how surveillance and privacy logics are currently being redefined. He states: “ Data capitalism is a system in which the commoditization of our data enables an asymmetric redistribution of power that is weighted toward the actors who have access and the capability to make sense of information ” (p. 20). The challenge of privacy thus interferes with the third component in Rest's model, moral motivation, as it includes deliberate and non-deliberate violations.

Widespread criticism towards under- and over-regulation of data protection ( Huerta and Jensen, 2017 ), specifically in the European Union's (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can be seen as a good indicator of politicians' and experts' difficulty of foreseeing the development of digital, data-driven, AI-based business models, for example those used in FinTechs. So far, in the USA, there is no similar regulation on data protection, aside from some cover within the California Consumer Privacy Act 2020 and the proposed Algorithmic Accountability Act. In Australia, the Australian Privacy Act 1988 however is comparable to the GDPR. Article 22 of the GDPR further grants the right of a human intervention when it comes to decisions. In other words, individuals have a right to ask a human to review the AI's decision-making to determine whether or not the system has made a mistake. This places a legal obligation on the business to be able to make such a judgement which requires the explainability of AI-based decisions. Such judgements would need traceability of the factors that influenced the decision and also transparency concerning the inner workings of the algorithms behind the decisions. The broad scope and impact of this demanded transparency is discussed next.

Transparency

(In)transparency as a challenge to AI-based decision-making became often only indirectly evident in the scenarios. One of the reasons for this may be the severe under specification of the nature and scope of transparency. In these cases, transparency was often only described as an important boundary condition for other concepts such as trust or accountability. Glikson and Woolley (2020) for example (referring back to Pieters (2011) ) explore the role of transparency in facilitating trust and confidence in AI.

In addition to data transparency concerning its collection, creation, manipulation and use ( Albu and Flyverbom, 2016 ), the literature allowed us to identify another major problem which is that algorithms and consequently the resulting decisions are often not transparent and explainable ( Buhmann et al. , 2019 ; Martin, 2019b ). Neural networks as backbones for AI ( Ristolainen, 2017 ) are often identified as black boxes based on proprietary code and structures (sometimes even implemented in discrete, untransparent hardware devices), which technology companies are unwilling to share with the public. These artificial neural networks include biologically inspired algorithms modelled loosely on the human brain for deep, reinforcement based learning ( Sun, 2019 ; Sun and Vasarhelyi, 2018 ). This reinforcement learning means that the AI learns from the outcomes in comparison to its predictions. Thus, a neural-network-based, deep-learning AI constantly adapts and changes its behaviour based on environmental responses. However, such environmental influences are highly complex and partially random. In these, AI's behaviour can be seen as neither deterministic nor transparent (see for example Glikson and Woolley (2020) ). AI's lack of transparency also makes it difficult to uncover any potential biases (see the objectivity challenge above), which may come either from the algorithmic code or from the data with which an algorithm has been trained (accidentally or deliberately learnt later on). Therefore, it needs constant monitoring and traceability to decide the source of the identified bias.

Technology firms have increasingly become conscious of this topic after several scandals. Consequently, these firms, for example Google, recently published videos and other material to raise ethical awareness regarding the lack of transparency in algorithms ( Leicht-Deobald et al. , 2019 ). Moreover, auditing standards now often demand that the auditor will be held liable for an audit failure based on accounting and auditing information system decisions. This situation additionally emphasises the need for transparent and explainable AI decision-making that provides traceability and auditability of its algorithms ( Munoko et al. , 2020 ). That said, even if such traceability would be technically achievable, if it may not be explainable in easy terms or understandable by most professionals (including auditors), it would still be of limited use. Consequentially, knowledge of the underlying concepts of AI algorithms, their use scenarios and their limitations are required to ensure explainability and thus transparency of algorithms. Yet, concerning the algorithms, even software developers struggle because of highly complex code that has accumulated over time and in different teams.

From another, contrarian perspective, complete transparency in certain situations may be neither possible nor desirable ( Martin, 2019b ; Robertson et al. , 2016 ) as it may violate privacy (see literature in the previous section), subjectivise employees (see for example ( Mehrpouya and Salles-Djelic, 2019 )) or reveal trade secrets. Thus, the demand for, and level of transparency differs between cases ( Kemper and Kolkman, 2019 ). For example, the transparency needed for corporate social responsibility ( Cortese and Andrew, 2020 ) differs from that for an algorithm that decides where to place an advertisement ( Albu and Flyverbom, 2016 ) or whom to hire ( Glikson and Woolley, 2020 ). From an organisational perspective, Albu and Flyverbom point out: “ In most accounts, transparency is associated with the sharing of information and the perceived quality of the information shared. This narrow focus on information and quality, however, overlooks the dynamics of organizational transparency ” (p. 268)

Finally, it is important to be aware of the fact that if all the processes involved in an algorithm's decisions are made transparent, people could begin to easily manipulate the (self-learning) algorithms based on that understanding ( Arnaboldi et al. , 2017b ; Leicht-Deobald et al. , 2019 ) and particularly influence the data fed to the algorithm in order to get “favourable” results.

Transparency as a challenge thus interferes with many components in Rest's model, as it can be seen as a prerequisite to achieve a moral awareness and precludes others from assessing various decision outcomes as would be necessary for a moral motivation . It also can be seen as an important precursor for accountability and trustworthiness, as discussed in the next section, thus also impacting moral character (behaviour).

Accountability

Accountability has been well explored in the accounting and auditing literature ( Abhayawansa et al ., 2021 ; Ahn and Wickramasinghe, 2021 ; Cooley, 2020 ). Bebbington et al. (2019) for example examine accounting and accountability in the Anthropocene and Dalla Via et al. (2019) scrutinise how the different types of accountability (process or outcome) influence information search processes and, subsequently, decision-making quality. Furthermore, Brown et al. (2015) discuss how accounting and accountability can promote a pluralistic democracy, which acknowledges power differentials and beliefs. Thoughts that can be applied to the context of humans and AI collaborating and making decisions together. However, few studies actually examine accountability in the context of AI-based accounting systems apart from early but comprehensive insights from Munoko et al. (2020) in the context of auditing.

When software developers (and computer scientists) design an algorithm, they also design the delegation of accountability within the decision-making process ( Buhmann et al. , 2019 ; Martin, 2019b ; Martin et al. , 2019 ). Algorithms are sometimes designed to disassociate individuals from their responsibility by precluding users from taking an active role within the decision-making process. Therefore, inscrutable algorithms are autonomous and have less human intervention. Inscrutable algorithms ( Buhmann et al. , 2019 ) designed to be difficult to understand may force great accountability on their designers. Furthermore, if an algorithm is extremely complicated and difficult to understand, then the AI provider shall be held responsible, rather than the management and auditors ( Kellogg et al. , 2020 ; Martin, 2019b , 2020 ; Munoko et al. , 2020 ).

The argument that algorithms and Big Data are complicated to explain and often poorly understood does not relieve an organisation and individual from accountability, nor from making proper use of the data ( Arnaboldi et al. , 2017b ). Otherwise, companies would have a motivation to create complex systems that help them avoid accountability ( Martin, 2019b ; Martin et al. , 2019 ). From the perspectives of the individual, Arnaboldi et al. (2017b) further state “ that accountants timidly observe big data at a distance without taking the lead as expected by accounting associations ” (p. 765) and Appelbaum et al. (2020) propose a framework for auditor data literacy and demand that “ In this data-centric business environment, acquiring the knowledge and skills of data analysis should be a current professional priority ” (p. 5).

What is more, Ananny and Crawford (2018) see that even algorithm designers often cannot explain how a complex system works in practice or which parts of the algorithm are vital for its operation. They also add that the more an individual knows about a system's inner processes, the more he/she should be held accountable, similar to remarks by Arthur and Owen (2019) . Ananny and Crawford (2018) further suggest that people must hold systems accountable by examining them, rather than privileging a type of accountability that needs to check inside systems. Cross-examining human-machine systems allows one to see them as sociomaterial phenomena ( Orlikowski and Scott, 2008 ) that do not contain complexity but enact complexity by connecting to and intertwining with human and non-human assemblages ( Lewis et al. , 2019 ; Miller and Power, 2013 ).

Understanding that humans' responsibility is not limited to the use of AI algorithms can be seen as the first step towards promoting ethical AI-based systems. Numerous human impacts are embedded in algorithms, including auditors' criteria choices, the selection of training data, semantics and increasingly visual interpretation. Therefore, ethical algorithmic accountability must consider algorithms as objects of human creation and interaction and moral intent, including the intent of any group or institutional processes that may influence an algorithm's design or data feed. Lastly, human actors' agency (including power differentials) must also be considered when they interpret algorithmic outputs in the course of making higher-level decisions. This also means to focus on the coordination of responsibilities between accountants/auditors and specialists ( Griffith, 2020 ) and needs to be strongly embedded in the “good governance” of such technologies. For example Brennan et al. (2019) find that challenges to good governance such as: “ the accountability towards data ownership, having a voice in questioning data integrity or privacy around performance evaluations and assurance of such data become critical ” (p. 10).

While in traditional organisational settings human agency is well connected to accountability, it seems far less clean cut in the context of AI-based decision-making. Thus, the challenge of accountability impacts the first, third and fourth components of Rest's model. First, moral awareness needs to be implemented by humans, thus for any ethical decision-making, we first have to ensure accountability for developers of algorithms and providers of data. Second, as personal interests are generally influenced by the level of accountability, it influences any moral motivation in human-machine settings. Third, as decision-making in AI is based on all three factors: human-made algorithms applied within AI, partly human-supplied, partly AI-selected data as a basis, and the delegation and distribution of agency between humans and AI as decided by humans, any normative calls for moral behaviour will need to understand accountability as rooted in the complex interplay between the various involved actors and see AI decision-making as embedded in a sociodynamic, sociomaterial system ( Lawrence and Phillips, 2019 ; Orlikowski and Scott, 2008 ).

Trustworthiness

Trust is broadly defined as an individual's willingness to be vulnerable to another person ( Martin, 2018 ). Trust is also strongly related to control, in other words to “ mechanisms used by individuals and organizations to specify, measure, monitor, and evaluate others ' work in ways that direct them toward the achievement of desired objectives ” ( Long and Sitkin, 2018 , p. 725).

In accounting and auditing, trust has been studied at three levels: an individual's general trust disposition, trust in a specific firm and institutional trust in a market or community ( Adelopo and Rufai, 2018 ; Chaidali and Jones, 2017 ; Glikson and Woolley, 2020 ; Mahama and Chua, 2016 ; Whelan, 2018 ). The concept and design of technology, the surrounding communication and the context of firms that employ technology can influence users' perception of its trustworthiness. Certain designs may inspire consumers to overly trust a particular technology in their interaction with the system, often through the lure of gamification ( Thorpe and Roper, 2017 ). Martin et al. (2019) state that this scenario can be considered the fourth level of trust. Trustworthiness ( Cui and Jiao, 2019 ) in AI is not only about what a system or decision-making process states it will do (integrity, ability) but also about having confidence that if the system's process cannot be understood, it will still be done in a manner that supports human interests (benevolence) ( Mayer et al. , 1995 ). What is more, as Glikson and Wolley point out ( 2020 ): “ Users are not always aware of the actual technological sophistication of AI; while in some cases highly intelligent machines are acting in their full capacity, in others the capability may not be fully manifest in their behaviour ” (p. 628)

The literature provides a variety of views on trust challenges related to AI, mostly related to the biases stemming from algorithms. As discussed, these biases can stem from issues related to responsibility, unethical use of shared data, transparency problems and the lack of accountability ( Glikson and Woolley, 2020 ). According to a study of US consumers, people generally tend not to trust AI's decisions ( Davenport and Kokina, 2017 ). The reason is that most people are not aware of how advanced algorithms work or how they come to conclusions. This brings with it the further notion of a propensity of trust ( Alarcon et al. , 2018 ), which has not been addressed in research on AI so far, in other words whether the individual's ability to trust would change between human and machine actors as counterparts and recipients in the context of accounting.

In addition, trustworthiness and corresponding trust were seen to be highly relevant to human–AI relationships because of the perceived risk embedded in these relations and the complexity and non-determinism of AI behaviour ( Etzioni, 2017 ; Jeacle and Carter, 2011 ). Although an algorithm is initially designed by humans, AI systems that learn on their own are not explicitly taught under any moral guidance. Accounting professionals using AI often have no choice but to trust these systems. Normally, the basic unit of trust between humans is the physical appearance of the trustee. However, given that AI is intangible, AI embedment plays an important role in trust development between humans and AI ( Glikson and Woolley, 2020 ). Successfully integrating AI systems into the workplace critically depends on how much employees trust AI ( Jarrahi, 2018 ) and a humanisation of the technological actors seems to help. Hence, AI-based robots are given human names (e.g. Roberta) and communicate in ways that are familiar to office workers ( Leitner-Hanetseder et al. , 2021 ).

Trust and more specifically trustworthiness in this case can be seen as catalyst for any agency and meaningful engagement and thus as a necessary prerequisite for moral behaviour. If humans do not trust the decision-making processes of AI in accounting that are running in the background, then these decisions will not be taken up (lack of institutional trust). What is more, even if AI is trusted enough to come to the right conclusions and make the right decisions, a distrust by humans based on rational factors (e.g. lack of ethical guidelines for AI decisions) or irrational ones (e.g. refusal to take orders from machines) might compromise the execution of such decisions (lack of organisational trust). Thus, besides acting as a catalyst for moral behaviour in the Rest model, the different forms of trust can also be seen as strong moderators of all other ethical challenges and thus always indirectly concern all four components in our ethical decision-making model.

Summing up, not all of the identified ethical challenges influence Rest's four components for ethical decision-making equally, as summarised and illustrated in Figure 1 . While trustworthiness can be seen as a catalyst and a prerequisite to overcome any of the other four potential challenges, the other challenges typically predominantly (but not exclusively) influence only one or two components. Another interesting case was the challenge of transparency, which was seen to moderate the impact of an objectivity related challenge on the moral judgement and moral motivation components and also builds an antecedent for accountability.

One word of caution, while we were able to identify potential impacts of the challenges on an ethical decision-making process, the strength of these impacts on the individual components in Rest's model however may be moderated by the level of human–machine collaboration and related tasks and agency distributions ( Jarrahi, 2018 ; Munoko et al. , 2020 ).

Discussion: contributions, implications and outlook

In the previous section we examined the identified dominant ethical challenges and their impact on different components in Rest's ethical decision-making process. In an ideal setup of human–machine collaboration, the human brain could ideate and make the final decisions, whereas AI would combine and analyse raw data and present the resulting information tailored automatically for different purposes ( Raisch and Krakowski, 2021 ). What is more, the detailed examination of the individual components in Rest's model also demonstrates the necessity for future accounting leaders to understand how to make competent and situational use of AI ( Brougham and Haar, 2017 ; Leitner-Hanetseder et al. , 2021 ) and where the limits of AI might be ( Losbichler and Lehner, 2021 ). Organisations would have to ensure a humanistic human–machine relationship by carefully guiding and governing the related processes.

One takeaway from the combined insights of this research might be the necessity to create (or broaden the scope) of an intra-firm governance committee to oversee and (internally) audit AI-based processes and related Big Data. This committee could critically examine algorithmic development, AI learning through presented data as well as the training of respective users; and subsequently review the decisions made in such humanmachine symbioses. Such an AI-governance committee could also develop ethical guidelines for the future of more autonomous AI and identify the related potential damage of AI-based algorithms a priori to come up with specific regulations. Future research on this would need to combine humanistic, legal/governance, accounting/auditing and information sciences perspectives to tackle questions such as the nature of fairness in AI, of good (model) governance of Big Data or the best practices concerning the development, training and use of AI-based accounting systems ( Andreou et al ., 2021 ; Brennan et al. , 2019 ; Cullen and Brennan, 2017 ). Such endeavours would also connect well to ongoing research and practice on corporate sustainability accounting and reporting ( Grisard et al ., 2020 ; Mitnick et al ., 2021 ) concerning environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. After all, Big Data and AI will have a strong influence on the sustainability of a firm and may even be instrumental in the assurance of sustainability reports ( Boiral et al ., 2019 ; Silvola and Vinnari, 2021 ). Consequently, we expect the good (model) governance of AI and Big Data to become part of future assurance practises (similar to auditing risk models) and influence at least the G score of the ESG factors.

This article further contributes to the literature on accounting as subjectivising but at the same time mediating practice in a socio-material context ( Miller and Power, 2013 ). It does so by providing a solid base of arguments that on the one hand, an AI-based accounting system as hybrid, networked actor with evaluative power over others cannot make ethical decisions on its own because it lacks the necessary preconditions in terms of Rest's model of components as antecedents. On the other hand, we also find that AI provides very strong support to other actors and enhances overall systemic decision-making by linking often widely dispersed actors and further data-rich arenas that were previously inaccessible because of cognitive limitations. What is more, as AI is bound to pre-set goals and still subjected to human made conditions despite its autonomous learning and adaptive practices, it will always lack true autonomous agency even if such would be formally bestowed ( Murray et al ., 2021 ; Tasselli and Kilduff, 2021 ; ter Bogt and Scapens, 2019 ).

An ethical AI-based decision-making process needs to start in the development phases of its underlying algorithms, demanding developers' moral awareness in the design phase to allow for later explainability and auditability. In other words, if the first and vital component of moral awareness is not enacted during an algorithm's design process, then all following process steps may fail. In the context of Weberian notions of formal and substantive rationality, Lindebaum et al. (2020) thus recognise algorithms as supercarriers of formal rationality ( ter Bogt and Scapens, 2019 ). Algorithmic decision-making enforcing a formal rationality may imply the end of human (and thus moral) choices, not only through the suppression of substantive rationality but also through the transformation of substantive rationality into formal rationality via formalisation. In other words, the aim of achieving ethical AI poses challenges predominantly to its specific formalisation ( Eccles, 2016 ; Lydenberg, 2013 ) as in order to “teach” AI-based algorithms human morality, this morality must first be conceptualised (formalised) in a manner that can be learnt, thus processed, by an algorithm ( Lindebaum et al ., 2016 ; Lindebaum et al. , 2020 ).

Following our conversation in the previous paragraph on the accountability of algorithms, it becomes clear that allocating decision-making power solely to AI will result in unethical decisions ( Kovacova et al ., 2019 ; Leicht-Deobald et al. , 2019 ; Lindebaum et al. , 2020 ; Zollo et al. , 2016 ) and the way forward may be a human–machine symbiosis with careful checks and balances in place. Additional research on the nature of this transformation in accounting is urgently needed ( Munoko et al. , 2020 ), particularly bringing in critical voices and perhaps also a turn towards normative thinking of how we want to create our future in the identified human–machine symbiosis. A further, related discussion on the societal values that would guide AI implementation and decision-making in accounting seems necessary. Does a short-term shareholder value goal setting even provide the “right” guidance for AI systems in their decision-making? Current “human” managerial mitigation and a subjective stakeholder orientation based on moral and zeitgeist awareness may be completely missing in such decision-making. In other words, would the rationalism of AI, which strictly follows the learnt rules of the game, not inevitably lead to an unwanted dystopia based on inherent, yet partly veiled and mitigated, value schemes in our society? What is clear though is that from a socio-material perspective ( Orlikowski, 2016 ), AI as accounting apparatus with its numerous embedded instruments of valuation will inevitably shape both values and valuers ( Kornberger et al ., 2017 ; Salijeni et al ., 2021 ).

An interesting perspective for future theoretical research in this area can also be found in the calls for a more dialogic accounting (DA), following for example Manetti et al . (2021) . True to the (necessary) interdisciplinary and critical nature of research into the ethical decision-making in future scenarios of human–machine collaboration, it seems prudent to rethink the nature of accounting information as a whole. Furthermore, the societal implications of an AI-based decision-making, together with the multi-modal, technology-driven turn in (sustainability) reporting ( Busco and Quattrone, 2018 ; Larrinaga and Bebbington, 2021 ; Quattrone et al ., 2021 ) might benefit from the inclusion of and dialogue with the stakeholders in specific decision-making processes.

Besides the theoretical, there are very clear practical implications of our findings and debate. As AI becomes stronger, additional guidelines and organisational structures need to be developed to maintain control of it while profiting from its strengths and versatility. Humans must always continue to exercise control over the execution of AI-based decisions to ensure moral behaviour and continuously examine the outcomes and arising ethical implications of AI decision-making. Simply implementing “textbook” boundaries in an AI-based accounting system will lead to a dystopia, because of the inevitably rational and morally devoid, albeit highly efficient execution by the machines. Accounting and auditing scholars interested in the larger societal implications of auditing as a practice and institution must however consider such a possibility to stay motivated in further exploring the ethical dimensions of AI-based technologies in our field. From a functionalist perspective, Asimov's three laws of robotics inevitably fall short when it comes to decision-making in a formalised accounting system that does not regard humans as more than consumers or a labour force.

We set out to provide a comprehensive, substantiated and critical conversation of the potential ethical challenges of AI-based decision-making in the larger area of accounting to assist researchers in driving the agenda forward and to allow policymakers and managers to make informed decisions concerning organisational challenges and necessary adaptions.

Looking deeply into the identified potential challenges, and the potential impact of these on the antecedents of ethical decision-making (based on Rest) in a human–machine collaboration, we have identified some key areas to focus on. The most salient ones were the importance of achieving transparent and auditable algorithmic designs, the importance of achieving trustworthiness, and the inevitably shared accountability between humans and AI because of their shared agency.

AI changes our profession and its organisational and societal relevance rapidly. While scholars and practitioners agree on the significance of ethical perspectives in our understanding of this change, and regulators discreetly stipulate human accountability even in complex AI scenarios, many of the connected debates remain on the surface. With this article we wanted to raise awareness of the necessity to look deeper into the specifications, processes and antecedents of ethical decision-making to address arising challenges by acting on a granular level.

From a normative perspective, after working for more than two years with the material, the five authors are unanimous in their opinion that the only humanist way forward is to aim for and create a scenario of a human–AI collaboration in accounting that still allows humans and societal values to guide certain decisions. In this, power and agency of humans and AI need to be carefully balanced, otherwise ethical decision-making cannot be assured in the future.

Findings summarised: ethical challenges and their potential relations to Rest's model

List of all 43 article-contributing journals, in grey, source of 80% of articles

Insights into fields and classifications of the 43 article-contributing journals and articles

Examples of meaningful units and the stepwise coding towards emerging themes as challenges

To better illustrate this context, we suggest the reader watch this short video of an AI-based accounting system https://tinyurl.com/aaaj-aicontext .

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Research involvement of medical students in a medical school of India: exploring knowledge, attitude, practices, and perceived barriers

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Introduction: Research in the medical discipline significantly impacts society by improving the general well-being of the population, through improvements in diagnostic and treatment modalities. However, of 579 Indian medical colleges, 332 (57.3%) did not publish a single paper from the year 2005 to 2014," indicating a limited contribution from medical fraternity In order to probe in to the cause of this a study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude, practices (KAP) and perceived barriers to research among students of a medical school in Delhi, India. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students and the data on academic-cum-demographic information, assessment of knowledge, attitude, practices and barriers to research was collected using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire. Chi-square test was used to check the association of various factors with the KAP of research. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: A total of 402 (N) subjects were enrolled in the study. Majority were male (79.6%) and from clinical professional years (57%). Majority (266, 66.2%) of the subjects had adequate knowledge. Of the study subjects (61,15%) having inadequate knowledge of research, sixty percent were from pre- and para- clinical years, while around 70 % of those having good knowledge were from clinical professional years. However, only 16.9% of the participants had participated in a research project, and only 4.72% had authored a publication. Sixty one percent of study subjects having a positive attitude towards research, were from pre- and para- clinical years. Among the study subjects having a positive attitude towards research, over 60% were from pre- and para- clinical years. The barriers for conducting research were mostly; lack of funds/laboratory equipment/infrastructure (85.1%), lack of exposure to opportunities for research in the medical (MBBS) curriculum (83.8%), and lack of time (83.3%). There was a statistically significant association between knowledge and attitude towards research with a professional year of study. Conclusions: The study revealed that while most of the students had a positive attitude towards research as well as an adequate knowledge of research, there was a poor level of participation in research. These challenges can be overcome by incorporating research as a part of the medical school curriculum from early years on, setting aside separate time for research, and establishing student research societies that can actively promote research.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Funding Statement

This study did not receive any funding.

Author Declarations

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The ethics committee of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Medical College and Hospital, New Delhi gave ethical approval for this work.

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Data Availability

All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors.

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