Academic Business Ethics in the United States

Introduction

The formal study of business ethics in the United States – unlike many disciplines in business schools – has emerged slowly, if steadily, over the last four decades Its most identifiable origins begin in the early 1980s with the emergence of dedicated faculty and curricula in the area of business ethics as well as in the allied fields of corporate responsibility and business in society. This trend was notably marked with the appointment of philosophers and management scholars to endowed chairs in those fields at prominent universities. Since that time, a wider range of colleges and universities have moved more deliberately to create specific academic programs, co-curricular institutes, and stand-alone departments in business ethics.

Research Centers

The two most prominent places for the academic study of business ethics in the United States are currently in the halls of the Wharton and Darden Schools at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Virginia,...