A Systematic Literature Review for the Development of Ethics in Social Businesses

One of the new fields of study in recent years is related to business ethics and its development. The research literature indicates that, in general, examples of ethical values can be seen in some social entrepreneurs and in particular social businesses more than other businesses. Considering that the research in this field is very little and it needs to be studied as much as possible to identify the dimensions and factors affecting it, therefore, in this study, it will be investigated what elements on the development of social business ethics is considered. The present study is descriptive, practical in terms of purpose and is based on systematic review method. The statistical population includes all studies in the field of development of entrepreneurial ethics and social businesses in the period from the beginning of publication until 2022 and includes 832 research. The failure of transferring the teachings of business ethics to the real work environment and the lack of explanatory theories and models in this field are among the findings of the present study and the most important research gap identified. Furthermore, conducting the systematic literature review by Whetten framework and exploit the model of grounded theory structure, are other findings of this research.