Special issue of the Asian Journal of Business Ethics on global survey of business ethics (GSBE) reports 2022–2024 from Asia, Australia, and Russia–China: Mainland

Abstract

This study investigates the teaching, research, and training of business ethics in Mainland China over the period of 2011–2023 and compares it with those prior to 2011. The results from the questionnaire survey of 43 experts, desktop research, and personal observations reveal that (1) in Mainland China, the field of business ethics has grown stronger over the last decade, which is evident in more academic associations, publications in terms of books and journal articles, projects funded, courses offered, and so forth; (2) CSR seems to be the most popular theme in the business ethics–related teaching, research, and training; (3) Chinese experts are optimistic about the teaching, research, and training on business ethics for the next 5 years; (4) it is anticipated that the business ethics–related teaching, research, and training in Mainland China will encounter some obstacles for the next 5 years, which need to be overcome.

Introduction

As a part of the global survey (Rossouw, 2011), Zhou et al. (2011) conducted a study on business and economic ethics teaching, research, and training in East Asia, about 10 years ago. In Mainland China, they identified the local terminology of business ethics and offered an overview of training, teaching, and research in business and economic ethics with the main themes and the major issues for the following 5 years.

Since 2012, great changes have taken place in teaching, research, and training in the field of business ethics in Mainland China, and remarkable progress has been made. Research on business ethics in Mainland China has surged since then. Over the last decade, some review articles have been published in the field of business ethics in Mainland China, in both Chinese and English journals (e.g., Dong et al., 2023; Du et al., 2022; Lu, 2015; Yin & Quazi, 2018). Nevertheless, they mainly focused on the research part of this field, and often just on one main topic of business ethics research in Mainland China, for instance, contextualization of CSR research in China (Yin et al., 2020), CSR communication (Dong et al., 2023), and CSR as part of human resource management (Xiao et al., 2020). Therefore, the review of the research in business ethics is incomplete. Moreover, the teaching and training of business ethics in Mainland China have often been neglected in the current literature.

As more than 12 years have passed since the last comprehensive overview of teaching, research, and training of business ethics in Mainland China, it is now a good time to conduct a new survey, especially to capture the changes over the last decade.

Methodological considerations

In this research, multiple methods were applied to collect data from different sources, including a questionnaire survey, desktop research, and personal observations. Specifically, desktop research was adopted to search for information on business ethics on the internet while personal observation generally involves observations and insights of individual scholars regarding business ethics.

Questionnaire survey

A sample of experts was identified based on their experience and reputation about teaching, research, and training in business ethics. Due to the large amount of research content, the respondents need to invest a great amount of time in participating in the questionnaire survey. To ensure an acceptable level of response rate, appropriate respondents should have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the teaching and research in the field of business ethics in Mainland China. In order to improve the efficiency of the research and obtain high-quality information, those active and renowned Chinese experts were selected for our survey. Specifically, we targeted those who have been active in business ethics research and teaching, generally with more than 10 years of experience. All these experts are working at business schools of influential universities in Mainland China. In this way, we surveyed a special expert sample, covering most of the influential experts in business ethics teaching, research, and training in Mainland China.

The questionnaire used for collecting data was basically the standard questionnaire designed for the Global Survey of Business Ethics 2022–2024, which was translated into Chinese. However, we have added some questions based on the specific situation of China. The modifications to the standard questionnaire were mainly done to show the unique characteristics and changes in the teaching, research, and training of business ethics in Mainland China. The survey on scholars not only investigated the teaching and research of the experts themselves, but also their understanding and evaluation of the overall situation of teaching and research in the field of business ethics in Mainland China. The survey consisted of both structured and unstructured questions.

A personal invitation letter was sent with the questionnaire to the targeted experts one-on-one via email by the senior author of this article, who has maintained long-term communication and cooperation with these experts. The letter invited the experts to voluntarily participate in this survey and also informed them that their names—given their participation—would be listed in the attachment of our report. They had 1 week to fill out the questionnaire. For those who did not finish it on time, the senior author reminded them by email. All the questionnaires were completed within 2 weeks. Finally, 46 invitations were sent out and ultimately 43 experts responded (see the list of the experts in the Appendix), resulting in a valid response rate of 93.48%.

The sampled experts are from 36 influential universities, located in all seven major regions (i.e., Northeast, North, East, South, Central, Northwest, and Southwest). All experts are affiliated with business schools, 27 are professors, and 16 are associate professors. All 43 experts mastered English as a foreign language. Sixteen are female and 27 are male. Thirty-eight experts hold PhD degrees, 4 have master’s degrees, and only one has a bachelor’s degree. Regarding their educational background, the majority are educated in management, except 1 in philosophy, 1 in economics, 1 in law, and 1 in ideology.

Regarding their activities (see Table 1), almost all of the experts (n = 42, 97.7%) are engaged in business ethics–related teaching. This is closely followed by research participation (n = 37, 86.0%), showcasing a commitment to advancing knowledge in the field of business ethics. Training and consulting are also significant activities, with over half of the respondents (55.8%, n = 24) being involved, reflecting a practical application of business ethics knowledge. In addition, about one-third of these experts (n = 15, 34.9%) take part in social activities with broader societal ethical issues. Lastly, participation in government policy-making is the least common, yet still notable, with 11.6% (n = 5) of respondents involved, illustrating a direct influence on the legislative or regulatory aspects of business ethics.

Table 1 Number of experts involving business ethics–related activities

The majority of the sampled experts had over 10 years of business ethics teaching experience, with 48.8% (n = 21) falling in the range of 11–20 years and 16.3% in the range of more than 21 years. Also, nearly one-quarter of these experts (23.3%, n = 10) had 6–10 years of experience. Meanwhile, there is a small group (11.6%, n = 5) with under 5 years of experience.

Among the 43 surveyed experts, 41 participated in the business ethics research. Over 60% of them (n = 27, 62.8%) had 11–20 years of research experience in the field of business ethics. Specifically, 44.2% (n = 19) of the experts have been involved in business ethics–related research for 11–20 years, and a substantial segment (n = 8, 18.6%) had more than 21 years of experience. Meanwhile, a notable portion (25.6%) of the experts have conducted research in this area for 6–10 years. Merely two of them (4.7%) had research experience below 5 years. In general, this distribution of the research experience suggests that the surveyed experts represent a well-established and experienced community in the field of business ethics research.

Desktop search

To assess business ethics research, a desktop search looked at relevant publications. As the term business ethics was defined in a broad sense, we first used as the search keywords the following five business ethics–related terms: Qiye Lunli (Business Ethics), Shangye Lunli (Business Ethics), Jingji Lunli (Economic Ethics), Guanli Lunli (Management Ethics), and Qiye Shehui Zeren (Corporate Social Responsibility). The adoption of such keywords facilitated the comparison between the results of the current study and the previous study, as the same terms were also employed in the 2011 survey (Zhou et al., 2011). Moreover, under the new development philosophy, the government of China set up the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. Academic scholars have been paying closer attention to sustainable development, under the key term Qiye Kechixu Fazhan (Corporate Sustainable Development), which was therefore included as one search keyword. Our analysis of publications includes both academic articles and published books, applying the methodology of desktop search.

Specifically, academic articles were retrieved from the Chinese Academic Journals Network, the same database used in our survey of 2011. Included are only articles in the Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI), which are generally recognized as of high quality in Mainland China. (According to our observation, many Chinese scholars have published business ethics–related articles in English journals over the last decade, yet those articles were not included in our study.) Relevant articles about Qiye Lunli (Business Ethics), Shangye Lunli (Business Ethics), Jingji Lunli (Economic Ethics), and Guanli Lunli (Management Ethics) were identified in the titles of articles, whereas the themes of Qiye Shehui Zeren (Corporate Social Responsibility) and Qiye Kechixu Fazhan (Corporate Sustainable Development) were searched with the terms Shehui Zeren (Social Responsibility) or Kechixu Fazhan (Sustainable Development) along with Qiye (Corporate) in the titles of articles. In addition, CiteSpace analysis has been applied for academic articles, checking specific research topics focused on by scholars.

As for the search of books, however, it is extremely hard to apply the same method we adopted in our survey of 2011 because the Google Books search engine has been no longer accessible in Mainland China since March 2010. Therefore, books were searched on the Publication Data Center of China National Archives of Publications and Culture, which is the biggest and the only national database of publications in Mainland China. Similar to the search for journal articles, books were searched with the same keywords in the titles of books, except that books with the themes of Qiye Shehui Zeren (Corporate Social Responsibility) and Qiye Kechixu Fazhan (Corporate Sustainable Development) were searched with the terms Shehui Zeren (Social Responsibility) or Kechixu Fazhan (Sustainable Development) in the titles, plus Qiye (Corporate) in the themes. As in the survey of 2011, translated books were not accounted for. The databases were accessed in December 2023.

Regarding business ethics–related research projects, we looked at the projects funded by two major national foundations: the National Social Science Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation. The data were retrieved from their websites: http://fz.people.com.cn/skygb/sk/index.php/index/seach/487 and https://fund.cingta.com/, with keywords including “qiye + shehui zeren” (corporate + social responsibility), “qiye + kechixufazhan” (corporate + sustainability), “qiye lunli” (business ethics), “shangye lunli” (business ethics), “jingji lunli” (economic ethics), and “guanli lunli” (management ethics). Years of publications range from 1991 to 2023.

Terminology and key recurrent concepts

Among the 42 experts with Chinese as their native language, 18 translated the English term “business ethics” as “shangye lunli” (商业伦理), 7 as “qiye lunli (xue)” [企业伦理 (学)], and 14 as either “shangye lunli” (商业伦理) or “qiye lunli” (企业伦理). “shangye lunli” (商业伦理) and “qiye lunli” (企业伦理) seem to be interchangeable in the Chinese context. Other terms mentioned are “guanli lunli” (管理伦理), “qiye shehui zeren” (企业社会责任), and “kechixu fazhan” (可持续发展).

Teaching business ethics

Changes in teaching business ethics

Based on the average score in Table 2, we find that there have been significant positive changes in various aspects of business ethics–related teaching in Mainland China over the past decade. Specifically, the teaching of business ethics gained more importance by public administrations, became more prevalent in itself and in the environment of business schools, received more support from business schools and other courses, got more teaching resources, and strengthened the motivations and capabilities of teachers. All the surveyed experts considered the importance attached by public administrations to business ethics teaching and education as well as the prevalence of business ethics teaching to show either “some improvement” (4) or “significant improvement” (5). In addition, the prevalence of, importance attached by public administrations to, and teaching resources available to business ethics teaching ranked the top 3, with a mean of 4.77, 4.70, and 4.67 (on a scale of 1–5), respectively. The lowest average score is for the support for business ethics courses from other courses in business schools (4.12), indicating a relatively small, but still positive, change in terms of the integration of business ethics in or support from other courses in business schools.

Table 2 Changes in business ethics teaching over the last decade

Teaching courses

Most of the Chinese experts participated in the teaching for both undergraduate and MBA students (see Table 3). In the undergraduate programs, a total of 32 Chinese experts taught, with 21 mandatory courses and 14 elective courses. For the duration, it was most likely for a course to have 32 (or 36) classes. The common course names were qiye lunli (xue) [企业伦理 (学)], shangye lunli (xue) [商业伦理 (学)], or qiye shehui zeren (企业社会责任). In addition, 40 Chinese experts offered courses for MBA students. These courses were predominantly mandatory (n = 36). The duration of the courses could be either 16 or 32 classes, in most cases. The second most courses were offered for undergraduates (n = 32). Some experts delivered more than one course. There were 21 mandatory and 14 elective courses. Most of these courses were of 32 classes.

Table 3 Teaching courses of Chinese experts

There were also less than one-fourth and one-third of Chinese experts who delivered courses in EMBA programs (n = 14). The courses for EMBA students were mostly mandatory.

Nevertheless, it was so far uncommon to have business ethics courses for PhD students (n = 6) and academic masters (n = 10). Out of 43 Chinese experts, only 6 provided business ethics courses in PhD programs. These courses were in most cases elective. They were on corporate social responsibility theories, management innovation and sustainability, green management and carbon neutralization, and so forth.

Themes in teaching business ethics and their importance

The coverage of business ethics themes varied in the courses (see Table 4). The two most frequently mentioned topics were corporate social responsibility and stakeholder management, both of which had 100% support. To some extent, it showcases the central importance of these two themes in the business ethics curriculums. Other themes that were covered by more than 80% of respondents included sustainability, leadership and ethics management, integrity, Chinese traditional culture, professional ethics, creating shared value, and business and wealth creation (ordered from high to low percentages). Themes with Chinese characteristics, such as socialist core values, a community of shared future for humankind, common prosperity, and high-quality development, also received relatively wide attention. On the contrary, three themes, including whistleblowing, conflict and terrorism, and religion and spirituality in economy and business, were included by less than 25% of teachers, suggesting these themes might be relatively less prioritized or deemed less relevant by the majority of business ethics courses.

Table 4 Topics included in the business ethics courses taught by experts

The importance of each theme in the business ethics courses was rated on a reversed scale, where 1 denotes “very important” and 5 “should not be included.” Therefore, the lower the score, the more important the theme is considered to be. The results in Table 5 reveal that the most important themes in business ethics–related course teaching (in bold) were corporate social responsibility, integrity, and sustainability, with the strongest mean scores of 1.14, 1.14, and 1.19, respectively, being considered the most important among all. Their low standard deviations of less than 0.400 further indicate a strong consensus on their importance. In addition, themes with Chinese characteristics, such as Chinese traditional culture, a community of shared future for humankind, socialist core values, common prosperity, and high-quality development, were all rated as important or above, with average scores between 1 and 2. Nevertheless, two themes, conflict and terrorism and religion and spirituality in the economy and business, were regarded by Chinese experts to be only roughly important in business ethics courses. Their mean scores were both above 3, in an interval from 1 to 5. This corroborates the above finding that only a small portion of Chinese experts included these themes in their business ethics curriculum.

Table 5 Importance of themes in the business ethics courses

Chinese textbooks

Chinese textbooks published on business and economic ethics have experienced a great increase. There were 87 textbooks in total with the six keywords concluded in the book titles published from 2011 to 2023, compared to 32 textbooks published before the year of 2011.

Specifically, as shown in Fig. 1, quantities of published textbooks on all six themes have increased through these years, with the biggest increase on the theme of Shangye Lunli (Business Ethics) from six textbooks before 2011 to 42 textbooks between 2011 and 2023, showing that Shangye Lunli (Business Ethics) was the most popular theme of textbooks. Before the year of 2011, Qiye Lunli (Business Ethics) was the hottest theme of textbooks, with 19 textbooks published. There was also a rise in the number of textbooks on Qiye Lunli from 2011 to 2023, with a number of 26. Textbooks published on themes of Jingji Lunli (Economic Ethics), Guanli Lunli (Management Ethics), and Qiye Shehui Zeren (Corporate Social Responsibility) all increased slightly, from 1 to 2, from 3 to 6, and from 3 to 8, respectively. It is also noteworthy that there was no textbook published on Qiye Kechixu Fazhan (Corporate Sustainable Development) before 2011, yet 3 textbooks on this theme were published from 2011 to 2023.

Fig. 1

Quantities of textbooks

Prospect of teaching business ethics

The majority of the experts, accounting for over 60%, are “moderately optimistic” about the future of business ethics–related teaching over the next 5 years in Mainland China, suggesting a generally positive but cautiously optimistic view of the future of teaching in this field. Moreover, about one-quarter of experts (n = 11, 25.6%) are “very optimistic.” In sum, a cumulative percentage of 86.1% of experts are optimistic (moderately or very) about the future of business ethics–related teaching in Mainland China. This indicates a predominantly positive outlook among the participants, with only a small fraction expressing uncertainty (n = 4, 9.3%) or lack of optimism (n = 2, 4.7%).

Obstacles of teaching business ethics

Forty Chinese experts responded to the question regarding the obstacles faced by business ethics teaching in Mainland China. Many Chinese experts (n = 13) primarily underscore that the understanding and importance attached to ethical issues still need to be improved, especially the (business) school’s engagement to and support for the business ethics curriculum. Besides, it is suggested that business ethics teaching should integrate theories and practices (n = 12). There is also a need for the development of teaching materials (n = 11), including teaching cases, in particular, Chinese cases, and for the cultivation of high-quality teachers (n = 7). Regarding the teaching content, it is important to balance the internationalization and localization (n = 6), to be further standardized (n = 5), and to reflect the new changes (n = 3). Finally, the teaching methods should also be improved (n = 3), for instance, to avoid empty preaching.

In sum, business ethics teaching experienced significant growth over the last decade. Business ethics courses, under the names of qiye lunli (xue) [企业伦理 (学)], shangye lunli (xue) [商业伦理 (学)], or qiye shehui zeren (企业社会责任), were offered to all levels of programs. Such courses were mostly common for the MBAs and undergraduates, and relatively less so in the PhD programs. In terms of the teaching themes, CSR and stakeholder management were considered to be the most important ones, and those with Chinese characteristics also received significant attention. Nearly 90% of experts are optimistic with the future of the business-ethics teaching in Mainland China. For further development, it was suggested to have improvements in the following areas: the (business) school’s engagement; teaching staff, and course guidelines extended to undergraduate programs.

Research on business ethics

Changes in business ethics research

Similar to the business ethics teaching discussed above, business ethics research is also regarded as having positive changes, in terms of importance attached and prevalence, in Mainland China over the last 10 years. Regarding the importance attached by Chinese experts, all 43 respondents in our sample experienced “some improvement” or “significant improvement,” resulting in a mean score of 4.53 (see Table 6). Likewise, the prevalence of business ethics research was evaluated as having, in general, improved to a large extent (with an average of 4.44), compared with 10 years ago.

Table 6 Changes in business ethics research

Themes in academic articles

The development of research on business ethics has been flourishing since 2011. Articles published in Chinese have blossomed with respect to both quantity and depth of themes. Our analysis regarding research themes is mainly based on the publications in Chinese.

General development in article publications

There were 3280 academic articles in total with the six keywords concluded in the article titles published from 2011 to 2023, compared to 2665 academic articles published from the 1980s to 2010. The number of academic articles has been growing quickly since the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century.

Specifically, focused research areas have been changed through these years. As for academic articles, more publications have emerged on themes of Corporate Social Responsibility, more than doubled, as shown in Fig. 2. There was also some increase in the number of articles on economic ethics. Such rise might be due to the academic reflections on critical worldwide events such as the great financial crisis in 2008 and significant societal change including the entry of Mainland China to a new normal in economic development.

Fig. 2

Quantities of published academic articles

Regarding specific research content, we applied CiteSpace to generate a visualized analysis of published academic articles. Figure 3 shows the visualization graph of academic articles published in 2010 and before, while Fig. 4 shows that in 2011–2023.

Fig. 3

A visualization of academic articles published in 2010 and before. : Shehui Zeren (Social Responsibility). : Jingji Lunli (Economic Ethics). : Harmonious Society. : Middle and Small-Sized Enterprises. : Enterprise. : Qiye Lunli (Business Ethics). : Countermeasure. : Model. : Circular Economy

Fig. 4

A visualization of academic articles published in 2011–2023. : Shehui Zeren (Social Responsibility). : Information Disclosure. : Financing Constraints. : State-Owned Enterprise. : Jingji Lunli (Economic Ethics). : Low Carbon Economy. : Qiye Lunli (Business Ethics) : Enterprise. : Corporate Reputation. : Brand Equity. : Innovation

Comparing Figs. 3 and 4, we can conclude that research contents on business ethics have significantly expanded, and academic articles in more research fields are more closely connected with each other. In addition, Fig. 4 clearly shows that research on the theme of corporate social responsibility has now taken a prominent position among all.

Qiye Lunli (Business Ethics)

In total, there have been 60 academic articles with titles containing Qiye Lunli since 2011, whereas the number was 112 before 2011. The quantity has been slightly going down after 2012, in which year 15 academic articles were published, the highest during 2011–2023. 2014 was also a big year for scholars publishing articles regarding Qiye Lunli, with 8 research papers. In each of the other years, there were only several research articles published.

Shangye Lunli (Business Ethics)

There have been 36 academic articles with titles containing Shangye Lunli since 2011, whereas the number was 39 before 2011, generally no substantive change. Each year, there were several research articles published except in 2023, in which year there were no published academic articles.

Jingji Lunli (Economic Ethics)

There were only 43 academic articles with titles containing Jingji Lunli before 2011, whereas the number became 168 after 2011, a really big jump. Especially from 2011 to 2018, the development was quite flourishing in this field.

Guanli Lunli (Management Ethics)

There were 288 academic articles with titles containing Guanli Lunli before 2011. However, the number goes down to 41 after 2011. Only several academic articles were published each year during 2011–2023.

Qiye Shehui Zeren (Corporate Social Responsibility)

There were 1074 academic articles with titles containing Qiye Shehui Zeren before 2011, but the number went sharply up to 2449 after 2011, that is, it more than doubled. For each year between 2011 and 2023, the number of published academic articles is beyond 100. Scholars have been enthusiastic about this theme.

Qiye Kechixu Fazhan (Corporate Sustainable Development)

There were 1109 academic articles with titles containing Qiye Kechixu Fazhan before 2011, but the number dropped to 526 after 2011, that is, a significant decrease.

Themes in books

General development in book publications

Since 2011, there have been 661 books published in Chinese with six keywords in titles, whereas only 274 books were published before the year 2011, that is, the number of books has increased to more than two times.

Comparing the six major themes, books on corporate social responsibility have increased most significantly (see Fig. 5), more than four times that before 2011. In addition, books on corporate sustainable development have almost doubled its number.

Fig. 5

Quantities of published books

Qiye Lunli (Business Ethics)

There have been 36 books with the term Qiye Lunli in the title since 2011, which is just the same as the number of books before 2011 (see Fig. 5). 2019 and 2011 were the two years with the biggest and second biggest number of books, whereas in each of the other years, there were only several books published.

Shangye Lunli (Business Ethics)

A total of 25 books have been published with the term Shangye Lunli in the title since 2011, whereas the number was 14 before 2011, a significant increase. Especially in 2022, 5 books were published, the most during these years.

Jingji Lunli (Economic Ethics)

77 books have been published with the term Jingji Lunli in the title since 2011, whereas the number was 76 before 2011, that is, almost no change. A few books were published in each year. The quantities are smallest in 2018 and 2021, which are both 3. Comparatively, 2020 is the year with the largest number, 9 books being published.

Guanli Lunli (Management Ethics)

Eleven books have been published with the term Guanli Lunli in the title since 2011, whereas the number was 9 before 2011, a slight increase in the number. The total numbers, however, are both quite small.

Qiye Shehui Zeren (Corporate Social Responsibility)

A total of 103 books were published with the term Qiye Shehui Zeren in the title before 2011, whereas the number is 449 after 2011, that is, more than fourfold.

Qiye Kechixu Fazhan (Corporate Sustainable Development)

Thirty-six books were published with the term Qiye Kechixu Fazhan in the title before 2011, whereas the number nearly doubled to 63 after 2011. 2015 is the year with the largest number of books on this theme, with 10 books published.

Themes in national research projects funded by grants

We found a total of 293 business ethics–related national-level research projects. Among them, 170 projects were funded by the National Social Science Foundation, and 123 by the National Natural Science Foundation.

Among the keywords, the search with “qiye + shehui zeren” (i.e., corporate + social responsibility) resulted in a predominant stake (n = 238, about 80%) of all projects. It was followed by, from high to low, “jingji lunli” (economic ethics) (n = 33), “qiye + kechixufazhan” (corporate + sustainability) (n = 10), “qiye lunli” (business ethics) (n = 7), “guanli lunli” (management ethics) (n = 5), and “shangye lunli’ (business ethics) (n = 2).

The total number of projects in the years 2012–2023 was about four times that of the years 2000–2011, with 222 versus 57, respectively. This increase was mainly due to the rise of a number of projects relating to corporate social responsibility (CSR). Such CSR-related projects were 199 in the years 2012–2023, which was over five times that in the years 2000–2011 (n = 33). In addition, the number of projects relating to “jingji lunli” (economic ethics) as well as “shangye lunli” (business ethics) was equal in these two intervals. In contrast, the number of “guanli lunli” (management ethics) went down to 0 in 2012–2023, from 4 in 2000–2011.

Themes identified from the expert survey

Data from the survey on Chinese experts show that corporate social responsibility was the most common research theme. Among the 39 experts (who filled out the open question regarding the main research themes), 23 of them explicitly listed corporate social responsibility (including CSR reporting, CSR as a platform, and so forth) as (one of) their primary research topic. Some other common themes included ESG (6), fundamental issues in business ethics (6), sustainability (5), corporate philanthropy (5), Chinese traditional culture and business ethics (5), ethics in human resource management (5), corporate moral management (5), and responsible leadership (4). Topics such as stakeholders, immoral behaviors, corporate governance, ethics of multinational enterprises, social enterprise, business ethics teaching, and low-carbon and green innovation were also mentioned.

Academic associations

In 2014, the first Forum on Chinese Enterprises, Management, and Ethics was launched and held meetings for 10 consecutive years. In the same year, the Corporate Social Responsibility Professional Committee of the China Enterprise Management Research Association (later renamed as Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development Professional Committee) was established. Late in 2018, the Management Thoughts and Business Ethics Society of the Chinese Academy of Management was founded. These academic associations were mainly in the management field.

Journals

As the same as about 10 years ago (Zhou et al., 2011), no academic journal in Mainland China was dedicated to business ethics. However, many journals welcome submissions with business-ethics themes, as shown above, the information regarding the academic articles.

Prospect for business ethics–related research

Experts are optimistic about the prospect of business ethics research in Mainland China for the next 5 years. The mean score provided by 43 experts on this issue is 4.19 (out of 5), slightly greater than 4 (i.e., “somewhat optimistic”). Some optimism is suggested, but with some caution.

Research themes for the next 5 years

According to the survey, business ethics in the digital era is highly emphasized as an important research theme for the next 5 years in Mainland China. Corporate social responsibility as well as ESG are considered to be in need of continuing academic attention. Other themes include environment and low-carbon, traditional Chinese culture and business ethics, sustainability, ethical/responsible leadership, ethics in human resource management, ethics in international business, fundamental issues in business ethics, and corporate moral management. Common prosperity, a theme advocated by Chinese society, was also highlighted.

Obstacles of business ethics research

The obstacles of business ethics research in Mainland China are the shortage of high-quality empirical data, research talents, and research funds. In addition, the publication outlets for business ethics research are limited, which makes the research outputs difficult to get published.

It seems that some obstacles are associated with the limitations of the current business ethics research. It is thus suggested that Chinese experts integrate theories with practices, clarify fundamental concepts and issues in business ethics, conduct research in business ethics with Chinese characteristics, and avoid over-homogeneity of research topics.

To sum up, business ethics research has for the last decade developed remarkably, which is manifested in the increasing number of publications of articles and books, research projects, and academic associations. Particularly, there was a surge in the research of corporate social responsibility. Experts are “somewhat optimistic” about the future of business ethics research. They expect topics such as CSR and ESG to receive continuing attention for the next 5 years. There is a need to develop high-quality datasets and cultivate excellent researchers.

Training on business ethics

In Mainland China, there are some training and consulting firms and/or institutions that provide business ethics–related training services. Nevertheless, the analyses below were based on the survey of experts at universities.

Changes in business ethics–related training

Business ethics–related training has changed in Mainland China, compared with 10 years ago. Table 7 shows on average experts acknowledged that the importance attached by firms to the business ethics–related training was higher (4.12), and the prevalence of such training was greater (4.05) than before 2011. Yet, the increase in training was somewhat smaller than in teaching and research.

Table 7 Changes in business ethics–related training

Types of training on business ethics

Out of 43 surveyed Chinese experts, nearly 80% of them (79.1%, n = 34) have offered business ethics–related training. Regarding the types of trainees, about three-quarters (74.4%, n = 32) of experts delivered training to corporate personnel and five experts to personnel of governmental departments. Such distribution of a number of experts providing training across types of trainees indicates a strong focus on the corporate sector, which is consistent with the nature of “business” ethics training.

Themes in training on business ethics

With an open question, experts were invited to list the topics of business ethics training. Based on content analysis (particularly qualitative factor analysis), we extracted the following common main topics: corporate social responsibility and ESG, ethical decision-making in business, compliance management, corporate moral management, corporate ethical culture, and the relationship between business ethics and competitive advantages.

Prospect for business ethics–related training

The prospect for business ethics–related training for the next 5 years was not as optimistic as that for teaching and research. The average score reported by 41 surveyed experts was 3.85, which fell in the interval between “not sure” and “somewhat optimistic.”

Training themes for the next 5 years

Experts were invited to indicate the five most noteworthy business ethics–related training themes in Mainland China for the next 5 years. The most mentioned themes of business ethics–related training were ESG, CSR (including international CSR), digitalization and ethics, and ethical decision-making in business. Other frequently recommended themes included sustainability, stakeholder (management), double-carbon (i.e., carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality), Chinese traditional culture and business ethics, corporate moral management, ethical leadership, and professional ethics.

Obstacles of business ethics training

Business ethics–related training is predicted to encounter some hindrances in Mainland China for the next 5 years. In the view of Chinese experts, the primary obstacle that needs to be overcome is the insufficient importance attached by corporations, represented by their entrepreneurs and top managers. Other obstacles include an inadequate supply of good trainers and teachers and a relative lack of high-quality training materials and cases (especially those pinpointing to real questions and local practices in Mainland China). More support from the government and supportive social context (e.g., public opinions, economic pressures, and media) are also suggested to further promote business ethics–related training.

In summary, there was some growth in the business ethics–related training of Chinese experts. Nevertheless, the training developed not as significantly as the teaching and research of business ethics. (It might be partly due to the survey data reported by academic experts.) In addition, the target audience of business ethics training was mainly firms. The training themes were closely linked with corporate management, such as CSR and ESG. Some new themes, such as digitalization and ethics, were also viewed to be important for training in the next 5 years. For further developments, there was a need to have more importance attached by the firms and more attention and energy allocated by experts.

Conclusions and discussions

Based on the results from the questionnaire survey, desktop research, and personal observations, we draw the following conclusions:

• (1) In Mainland China, the field of business ethics has grown stronger over the last decade. This growth is evident in many aspects of teaching, research, and training on business ethics. More academic associations and research institutions exist today. More importance has been attached to teaching, research, and training, and a greater prevalence of these areas has been reached. There are more publications in terms of books, journal articles, and projects funded by grants for national research, as well as more business ethics–related courses offered across multiple levels of high-degree education.

Such growth may be due to the government and a broad range of stakeholders in the societies promoting firms to be committed to business ethics and corporate social responsibility in the last 10 years. For instance, the idea of environmental protection, including the concept of “clear waters and green mountains are as good as mountains of gold and silver,” has been endorsed, and relevant policies have been carried out, e.g., “carbon neutrality and peak carbon dioxide emissions.” All these initiatives had profound impacts on the goals and operations of many businesses. Starting in 2015, the tough battle against poverty became widespread across the nation and finally succeeded in 2021. Recently, the Third Distribution was supported to encourage the development of philanthropy and to narrow the income gap. Relatedly, “Common Prosperity” was emphasized to be a basic pursuit. In addition, new regulations were launched to promote CSR and ESG, especially for those of the listed firms. For instance, in September 2018, the China Securities Regulatory Commission revised the “Guidelines for Governance of Listed Companies,” adding a chapter to stipulate listed companies to disclose ESG information.

In addition, the developments, especially those in business ethics teaching, were also supported by the policies and regulations on business ethics education. China National MBA Education Supervisory Committee recognized business ethics as a core course in 2018. In the same year, the Office of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee issued the course guidelines of business ethics. The annual national conference on business ethics and corporate social responsibility teaching in MBA programs has been held since 2012.

• (2) In terms of the themes, CSR seems to be the most popular in the business ethics–related teaching, research, and training. It was included in the teaching topics by all experts. The number of articles and books on CSR increased, by over two and four times, respectively. Recently, ESG began to gain increasing attention.

• (3) Chinese experts are optimistic about the teaching, research, and training on business ethics for the next five years. On average, experts rated the prospect of teaching and research more than “moderately optimistic.” There is some caution about the business ethics–related training, with a mean score between “not sure” and “somewhat optimistic.” The training might be constrained by limited resources and the attention of Chinese experts. Compared with teaching and research, training is usually not the priority of Chinese experts.

• (4) The business ethics–related teaching, research, and training in Mainland China will encounter some obstacles for the next five years. Specifically, there was insufficient importance attached to business ethics teaching by business schools and to business ethics training by corporations and their managers. In addition, teaching, research, and training have not been well integrated into business ethics practices, especially in the Chinese context. Moreover, there was a lack of high-quality teachers, researchers, and trainers. Furthermore, in terms of research, empirical studies were predominant, with insufficient normative research. It might be related to the background of Chinese experts, with a majority of academic training in management and a relatively small portion with philosophy or ethics degrees. In sum, these obstacles to the further advancement need to be overcome in the future.

There is room for further developments in business ethics teaching, research, and training. We propose the following suggestions:

• (1) Strengthen the teaching of business ethics at the undergraduate and PhD levels. While it was widespread in the MBA programs, teaching business ethics was incomplete at the undergraduate level, and it was so far uncommon to have business ethics courses for PhD students. The PhD courses shall also facilitate the cultivation of new generations of scholars and teachers in the field of business ethics. Therefore, in the future, it is highly desirable to enhance teaching at the undergraduate level and in PhD programs. The further development needs not only the involvement of more universities, but also the support from the government. For instance, the course guidelines of business ethics could be more specified and extended to undergraduate and PhD courses.

• (2) Business ethics research in Mainland China should be further advanced. While more high-quality research will be conducted, sections specializing in business ethics in the journals, or even a journal of business ethics, will be beneficial. In addition, in terms of research themes, fundamental questions of business ethics and economic ethics should be further explored.

• (3) There is large room for improvement in business ethics training. Compared to teaching and research, training in business ethics was under-developed. In the future, firms should have a better understanding of the importance of business ethics training. Chinese experts should also allocate more of their attention and limited resources to the training of business ethics.

Appendix: Experts participating in the survey

Twenty-seven professors and 16 associate professors, from Business Schools/Management Schools of 36 Universities:

CHAO Gang, Professor, School of Business Administration, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

CHEN Honghui, Professor, School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

FENG Tianli, Associate Professor, School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

HU Fuzhao, Associate Professor, School of Business, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.

JIANG Peng, Associate Professor, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing.

LI Enping, Professor, Economics and Management of School, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province.

LI Ying, Professor, Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

LI Jinyi, Associate Professor, School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

LI Shuncai, Associate Professor, School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei Province.

LIU Chuanjun, Professor, School of Economics and Management, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province.

LIU Haijian, Professor, Nanjing University Business School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.

LIU Jianzhun, Professor, School of Economics and Management, Tiangong University, Tianjing.

LIU Xiaoxiao, Associate Professor, School of Management, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian Province.

LIU Yuyu, Associate Professor, Business School, Renmin University of China, Beijing.

MO Shenjiang, Professor, School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

NIU Qibin, Professor, School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing.

QIAN Xiaojun, Professor, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing.

REN Bing, Professor, Nankai Business School, Nankai University, Tianjin.

SHEN Guanglong, Professor, Nankai Business School, Nankai University, Tianjin.

SU Yong, Professor, School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai.

TIAN Hong, Professor, School of Business and Management, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin.

WANG Xinchao, Associate Professor, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing.

WANG Yiqin, Associate Professor, School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province.

XING Yiqun, Professor, School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang.

XU Changyong, Associate Professor, School of Economics and Management, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin.

XU Weitong, Associate Professor, Office of Student Affairs, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

XU Xixiong, Professor, School of Economics and Business Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing.

XU Yuehua, Professor, School of Management, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong Province.

YANG Dongning, Associate Professor, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing.

YI Kaigang, Professor, School of Business Administration, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

YIN Juelin, Professor, School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

ZHANG Kejing, Professor, Glorious Sun School of Business and Management, Donghua University, Shanghai.

ZHANG Zengtian, Associate Professor, School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui Province.

ZHANG Zhe, Professor, School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province.

ZHAO Xiaoping, Associate Professor, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai.

ZHAO Yanhai, Associate Professor, School of Management, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu.

ZHENG Haidong, Professor, School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum, Qindao, Shandong Province.

ZHENG Qinqin, Professor, School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai.

ZHOU Weizhong, Professor, CUFE Business School, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing.

ZHOU Yong, Professor, School of Management, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei Province.

ZHOU Zucheng, Professor, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai.

ZHU Bixiang, Professor, School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.

ZHU Shaoying, Associate Professor, School of Business, Guangxi University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

(All participants have consented to their identities being disclosed in publications of the GSBE.)