Mapping the intellectual structure of contemporary business ethics research

To map the intellectual structure of business ethics research in the last decade, this study identified the most important publications and the most influential scholars as well as the correlations among these scholar’s publications. In this study, bibliometnc and social network analysis techniques are used to investigate the intellectual pillars of the business ethics literature. By analyzing 21,952 citations of 643 articles published in SSCI journals in business ethics area between 1997 and 2006, this study maps a knowledge network of business ethics studies. The results of the mapping can help identify the research direction of business ethics research and provide a valuable tool for researchers to access the literature in this area.