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Ethical Orientation and Research Misconduct Among Business Researchers Under the Condition of Autonomy and Competition

Fink, Matthias ; Gartner, Johannes LU ; Harms, Rainer and Hatak, Isabella (2023) In Journal of Business Ethics 183(2). p.619-636
Abstract

The topics of ethical conduct and governance in academic research in the business field have attracted scientific and public attention. The concern is that research misconduct in organizations such as business schools and universities might result in practitioners, policymakers, and researchers grounding their decisions on biased research results. This study addresses ethical research misconduct by investigating whether the ethical orientation of business researchers is related to the likelihood of research misconduct, such as selective reporting of research findings. We distinguish between deontological and consequentialist ethical orientations and the competition between researchers and investigate the moderating role of their... (More)

The topics of ethical conduct and governance in academic research in the business field have attracted scientific and public attention. The concern is that research misconduct in organizations such as business schools and universities might result in practitioners, policymakers, and researchers grounding their decisions on biased research results. This study addresses ethical research misconduct by investigating whether the ethical orientation of business researchers is related to the likelihood of research misconduct, such as selective reporting of research findings. We distinguish between deontological and consequentialist ethical orientations and the competition between researchers and investigate the moderating role of their perceived autonomy. Based on global data collected from 1031 business scholars, we find that researchers with a strong deontological ethical orientation are less prone to misconduct. This effect is robust against different levels of perceived autonomy and competition. In contrast, researchers having a consequentialist ethical orientation is positively associated with misconduct in business research. High levels of competition in the research environment reinforce this effect. Our results reveal a potentially toxic combination comprising researchers with a strong consequentialist orientation who are embedded in highly competitive research environments. Our research calls for the development of ethical orientations grounded on maxims rather than anticipated consequences among researchers. We conclude that measures for ethical governance in business schools should consider the ethical orientation that underlies researchers’ decision-making and the organizational and institutional environment in which business researchers are embedded.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Autonomy, Competition, Deontological/consequentialist ethics, Ethical orientation, Research misconduct, Survey
in
Journal of Business Ethics
volume
183
issue
2
pages
619 - 636
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • pmid:35125566
  • scopus:85123864092
ISSN
0167-4544
DOI
10.1007/s10551-022-05043-y
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Funding Information: Rainer Harms' part of the article is based on the study funded by the Basic Research Program of the HSE University.
id
132517e5-2ee9-4dfc-ba88-96389a1a5e9b
date added to LUP
2022-02-08 10:01:12
date last changed
2024-03-21 05:38:11
@article{132517e5-2ee9-4dfc-ba88-96389a1a5e9b,
  abstract     = {{<p>The topics of ethical conduct and governance in academic research in the business field have attracted scientific and public attention. The concern is that research misconduct in organizations such as business schools and universities might result in practitioners, policymakers, and researchers grounding their decisions on biased research results. This study addresses ethical research misconduct by investigating whether the ethical orientation of business researchers is related to the likelihood of research misconduct, such as selective reporting of research findings. We distinguish between deontological and consequentialist ethical orientations and the competition between researchers and investigate the moderating role of their perceived autonomy. Based on global data collected from 1031 business scholars, we find that researchers with a strong deontological ethical orientation are less prone to misconduct. This effect is robust against different levels of perceived autonomy and competition. In contrast, researchers having a consequentialist ethical orientation is positively associated with misconduct in business research. High levels of competition in the research environment reinforce this effect. Our results reveal a potentially toxic combination comprising researchers with a strong consequentialist orientation who are embedded in highly competitive research environments. Our research calls for the development of ethical orientations grounded on maxims rather than anticipated consequences among researchers. We conclude that measures for ethical governance in business schools should consider the ethical orientation that underlies researchers’ decision-making and the organizational and institutional environment in which business researchers are embedded.</p>}},
  author       = {{Fink, Matthias and Gartner, Johannes and Harms, Rainer and Hatak, Isabella}},
  issn         = {{0167-4544}},
  keywords     = {{Autonomy; Competition; Deontological/consequentialist ethics; Ethical orientation; Research misconduct; Survey}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{619--636}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Journal of Business Ethics}},
  title        = {{Ethical Orientation and Research Misconduct Among Business Researchers Under the Condition of Autonomy and Competition}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05043-y}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10551-022-05043-y}},
  volume       = {{183}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}