Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35125566›Full record

ArticleJournal of business ethics : JBE2023

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

Matthias Fink, Johannes Gartner, Rainer Harms, Isabella Hatak

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of business ethics : JBE, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
8.3field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Ethics: The Elixir of Publications.The Indian journal of radiology & imaging · 2025
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 4 institutions in 5 countries.

Matthias FinkIFI Institute for Innovation Management, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstrasse 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
Johannes GartnerSchool of Economics and Management (SKJCE), Lund University, Box 117, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
Rainer HarmsFaculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Ravelijn 2109, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
Isabella HatakSwiss Institute of Small Business & Entrepreneurship (KMU-HSG), University of St. Gallen, Dufourstrasse 40a, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Johannes Kepler University of Linz · ATLund University · SEUniversity of St. Gallen · CHUniversity of Twente · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

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 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.

Indexed as

AutonomyCompetitionDeontological/consequentialist ethicsEthical orientationResearch misconductSurvey

Identifiers

PMID35125566
PMCPMC8800552
OpenAlexW4210375710

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.