The business ethics curriculum: An exploration of external and internal influences, academic plan elements, and other environmental variables comprising the undergraduate business ethics curriculum in AACSB-accredited schools of business

The purpose of this study was to examine the current undergraduate business ethics curriculum in AACSB-accredited business schools in the U.S. to determine what external and internal influences affected the curriculum, what academic plan elements and other environmental variables comprised the current business ethics curriculum, and what differences existed among the business ethics curriculum in programs based on institutional control, size, or approach to including business ethics in the undergraduate curriculum. A literature review in the areas of curriculum and curriculum design guided the conceptual framework for the study.;A web-based survey was designed to collect quantitative and qualitative data from informants regarding the business ethics curriculum in their programs. Results indicated the current business ethics curriculum in AACSB-accredited business programs addresses all of the elements of Lattuca and Stark's Academic Plan, which include an ethics-related learning goal; content in a variety of subjects and at a variety of levels; a sequence that has been applied to it; learners' needs addressed; appropriate and innovative learning processes; the necessary resources including faculty; assurance of learning at the program level; and has been adjusted an average of 2.6 times in the last 5 years.;Exploratory factor analysis was performed on the external and internal influence items, and five factors were extracted. Other environmental variables found to be important to the business ethics curriculum were faculty training, approach to including ethics in the curriculum, ethical culture, perseverance, and whether the program had adopted a standard ethical decision-making process (EDMP). Results indicated that most programs have ethics taught by faculty who have received specialized training in teaching ethics, most programs offer an ethics course in addition to integrating ethics throughout a variety of other courses, and most programs have faculty who promote a positive ethical culture. Only 21% of the programs have adopted a standard ethical decision-making process for use within their curriculum.;Few statistically significant differences were found based on institution control, primary mission, curriculum approach selected or any other variable. AACSB-accredited business programs were found to be quite similar in respect to their business ethics curriculum.