The past scene of hospitality ethics: A citation analysis perspective

Citation analysis

In this study, we employed citation analysis to enhance the objectivity of conclusions from large datasets. Citation analysis is a valuable and objective method for evaluating references within a particular field. It identifies influential studies and offers insights into the past of the specific field to comprehend its intellectual dynamics. According to Zupic and Cater (2015), this analysis is past-oriented and cannot detect the impact of new publications, as they do not receive high citations in a short period of time. However, researchers can use it to track the development of important references over a long period and measure progress by identifying significant papers in the field (Arici et al., 2021).

Bibliometric studies of the hospitality literature have been conducted, with some focusing on the intellectual structure of a single journal. However, this approach may overlook important ideas and concepts in other journals. To address this shortcoming, this study has been expanded to include some of the top journals in the hospitality field. We excluded tourism and other business journals for three reasons. Firstly, the study primarily focuses on hospitality ethics. Secondly, a broad focus can lead to a loss of focus and potential issues (Kenworthy and Verbeke, 2015). Finally, it should be noted that studies on hospitality ethics are primarily published in hospitality journals (Polat and Köseoglu, 2023). To this end, the entire corpus of seven leading hospitality journals was considered: Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management (JHMM); International Journal of Hospitality Management (IJHM); International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (IJCHM); Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (CHQ); Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (JHTM); Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research (JHTR); International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration (IJHTA). The initial stage of the selection process entailed a comprehensive examination of the impact factors and citescores associated with the journals under consideration. Subsequently, journal lists from other bibliometric studies were considered (Arici et al., 2021; Polat and Köseoglu, 2023; Wong et al., 2021a). Given the esteemed reputation of these journals, it is reasonable to conclude that they are capable of establishing a dominant position within the field of hospitality ethics, particularly in comparison to their competitors.

All peer-reviewed articles in English published in these journals were received up to December 2020. The entire period from 1960 to 2020 was analysed, encompassing 10,782 articles and 306,701 references. We relied primarily on references for our analysis. After acquiring the articles, we individually screened the titles of 306,701 references to determine their relevance to ethics by using specific keywords ‘corruption, morality, ethical decision-making, business ethics, codes of ethics, corporate ethics, reputation management, insider trading, white-collar crime, glass ceiling/gender equality, environmental issues (natural environment), corporate citizenship’, according to studies (Köseoglu et al., 2016; Polat and Köseoglu, 2023; Robertson, 2008; Sehitoglu et al., 2017). Two options are available for selecting keywords in review studies (Chen and Xiao, 2016): (1) using all keywords to identify structural features of domain knowledge at the macro level, and (2) using ‘important’ keywords to explore major research topics and their relationships at the micro level. The latter option is more commonly used for review studies as many empirical studies are conducted at the micro level. However, the practice of selecting only ‘important’ keywords that are frequently used in the field has long been questioned. This is because analysing only ‘important’ keywords may lead to overlooking innovative trends related to any topic or field. Therefore, in this study, we also included some low-frequency keywords to select relevant references in order to analyse hospitality ethics at a macro level. This approach aims to identify new concepts or issues emerging in hospitality ethics.

Traditional citation analysis involves searching databases for studies on hospitality ethics using relevant keywords. The most cited articles are then identified by analysing the reference lists of these studies. This study has adopted a revised approach as done by recent bibliometric studies (Arici et al., 2021; Köseoglu et al., 2022; Polat and Köseoglu, 2023). The first step involved downloading all articles published in the selected journals from the first issue until December 2020, including those unrelated to ethics, along with their references. Next, we analysed the references related to ethics. Our dataset only includes references related to ethics. Therefore, we have excluded references to other topics, such as methodological citations, as in traditional analysis. Only references related to ethics were evaluated.

The two authors individually reviewed the references (N = 306,701) to guarantee consistency, validity, and attain unanimity. The reference title was analysed based on the previously mentioned keywords. If there was any uncertainty regarding the ethical relevance of the reference, the full text was analysed. All references were labelled as “related” or “unrelated.” The authors debated any discrepancies in ethics-related references, ensuring an absolute consensus was achieved. Additionally, the researchers collaborated to review all references and guarantee that all references on ethics were accurately identified. In this process, we included articles and reviews published in journals as they are considered to be ‘certified knowledge’ (Polat et al., 2023). Editorial notes, book reviews, and comments were excluded to maintain consistency. After this process, the references’ authors’ names, publication years, titles, journal names, issues, and page numbers were matched to provide the standard in citations. Subsequently, a frequency analysis was performed, and the citation styles of references were aligned with APA standards to ensure consistency. Ultimately, a dataset comprising 9,664 unique references on ethics was obtained. All procedures were manually performed using Excel.

Systematic review

In order to gain further insight, a systematic review of the full text of the references was conducted. A systematic review is an approach that identifies, analyses and evaluates all data on a particular research topic in an objective and reproducible manner (Çelik et al., 2023). The combination of citation analysis with systematic review can address some of the limitations of citation analysis, facilitate a deeper comprehension of a research domain, identify gaps in knowledge, and offer insights into prospective advancements within the field (Köseoglu et al., 2022).

Given the impracticality of subjecting 9,664 references to systematic review, a cut-off point was deemed necessary. However, there is no precise measure of what this cut-off point should be. Nevertheless, it has been observed that this threshold is typically set at 100 in similar studies (Arici et al., 2021; Çelik et al., 2023; Polat et al., 2024), and we have elected to adopt this approach. Consequently, 102 articles, each with a minimum of 14 citations, were identified and subjected to an in-depth systematic review.

Qualitative thematic content analysis was employed to analyse and interpret articles within the identified themes. This analysis identifies, analyses and reports themes based on the data set reviewed in the studies in question (Çelik et al., 2023). Furthermore, it identifies the most- and least-developed areas in the literature, thus facilitating future agenda setting (Polat et al., 2023).

The content of the studies within the identified themes was defined by all authors through a process of reading, analysis and coding in Microsoft Excel. Subsequently, as a quality control measure, the codings were reviewed and discrepancies were discussed until a consensus was reached. This approach is consistent with the principle of reproducibility, which necessitates concordance between multiple coders when evaluating the same study content (Polat et al., 2024). Themes were analysed in accordance with the TCM framework, in response to the call for a framework-based review. The TCM framework classifies scattered literature into theory, context, and methodology, which consolidates fragmented knowledge and identifies gaps (Polat et al., 2023). Furthermore, a research agenda for future researchers was established on the basis of this framework. The complete procedure is illustrated in Figure 1.OPEN IN VIEWER

The publication outlets

As previously stated, the citation analysis led to the inclusion of 102 studies that had received the greatest number of citations in the field of hospitality ethics research. Of these 102 studies, 61 were published in journals within H&T, while 41 were published in journals belonging to other academic disciplines (psychology: 11, business management: 10, business-general: 9, marketing: 7, environmental management: 4). A total of 34 different journals published the studies. The journals with the highest number of publications are listed in Table 2.

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Table 2.

The publication outlets of the most cited articles.

Journal	n
H&T journals
IJHM	22
IJCHM	9
Tourism management	9
CHQ	7
JHTR	5
Journal of sustainable tourism	5
Other	14
Total	61
Other disciplines
Journal of Applied psychology	8
Academy of management journal	4
Personnel psychology	3
Journal of management	2
Journal of organizational behavior	2
Journal of business research	2
Other	20
Total	41

In terms of H&T journals, IJHM (n: 22) is the most prominent and influential journal in hospitality ethics research. Additionally, the majority of the journals that stand out in this section are also hospitality journals. When journals in other disciplines are examined, psychology and business management journals are more prominent. The most cited journal is the Journal of Applied Psychology (n: 8). It should also be noted that other journals in this section are largely cited in the theme of organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB).

Citation analysis

The findings reveal five distinct theme which reflect the hospitality-ethics literature: (1) OCB (38 references), (2) Environmental concerns in hotels (39 references), (3) Environmental behaviours & attitudes of guests (16 references), (4) Reputation management (seven references), and (5) Ethical leadership (two references). We made significant inferences by analysing the thematic areas.

Environmental issues are receiving attention in the field of business ethics (BE). Researchers reviewing ethics-oriented articles in the Journal of Business Ethics (JBE) (Calabretta et al., 2011; Collins, 2000) and the Strategic Management Journal (Robertson, 2008), and H&T journals (Köseoglu et al., 2016; Sehitoglu et al., 2017) point out that environmental issues are one of the most researched topic. This research also announces a similar result: the most cited studies in ethics-oriented articles in the hospitality literature mainly (53.9%) focus on environmental issues.

Studies examining environmental issues are diverse. Studies have looked at hotels’ perspectives on environmental issues or which types of hotels are more likely to do so. Results show that chain hotels are more aware of this issue (Mensah, 2006), while it is also reported that this issue takes a back seat to operational concerns (Bohdanowicz, 2005; Graci and Dodds, 2008; Kirk, 1998). One explanation could be the lack of environmental awareness and attention of hotel managers, based on studies conducted in Ankara/Turkey (Erdogan and Baris, 2007) and Hong-Kong (Chan, 2008, 2011). However, the implementation of environmental protection programs (EPP) improves overall- (Claver-Cortés et al., 2007; Rodríguez and Cruz, 2007) or financial-performance (Gil et al., 2001), reduces costs, and increases the success of marketing efforts (Kirk, 1995).

Another group of articles related to environmental issues examined the willingness of tourists/consumers to pay more for environmentally friendly products and their behaviour in response to environmental stimuli. Consumers who were unwilling to pay extra for green products in the 1990s (Kirk, 1995) continued to do so in the early 2000s. Because 73.4% of customers are unwilling to pay more for such products, as determined by Laroche et al. (2001). Han (2015) emphasized that tourists’ willingness to pay extra can be increased by making green hotels more attractive than non-green hotels. Achieving this is critical because human behaviour must first be changed to protect the environment (Bohdanowicz et al., 2011). Appropriate stimuli can activate behaviour. Goldstein et al. (2008) found that instead of descriptive norms (e.g., ‘the majority of guests reuse their towels’), normative messages (e.g., ‘the majority of guests in this room reuse their towels’) that are relevant to people’s current situation and make them feel part of a social group increase behaviour.

The third theme in the hospitality-ethics literature is OCB. Collins (2000), who investigated JBE in different periods, identified this title as one of the most cited topics. However, this topic did not receive much attention in previous reviews of H&T literature (Köseoglu et al., 2016). As a consequence, it can be deduced that OCB has become one of the key subjects in the hospitality ethics literature. Articles dedicated to this topic primarily focus on individual-level studies (e.g., Nadiri and Tanova, 2010; Williams and Anderson, 1991), with much less research carried out on unit-level cognitive studies (e.g., Ehrhart, 2004). Their contribution to the hospitality literature diverges from mainstream ethics research by linking ethics to other management problems, and by testing hypotheses.

Reputation management is the fourth theme most cited in the hospitality-ethics. Although reputation management has attracted attention in BE literature in previous years (Collins, 2000; Robertson, 2008), it has been less explored in the hospitality-ethics. The research results show that the reputation management has developed as an influential theme in the hospitality-ethics literature in the last 10 years. Two study (Ert et al., 2016; Yacouel and Fleischer, 2012) investigated which variables affect reputation at the enterprise level. In addition, Loureiro and Kastenholz (2011) investigated the effect of the hotels’ reputation on the attitudinal results of the customers.

Finally, the ethical leadership is the fifth theme in the hospitality-ethics literature. Two papers represent this theme. Brown et al. (2005) developed the construct of ethical leadership; Kim and Brymer (2011) investigated the effects of the ethical leadership.

Qualitative thematic content analysis

To deepen our understanding of relevant information and research components, identify knowledge gaps, and make predictions about the field’s future development. We reviewed the references on theories, contexts, and methodologies with the TCM framework.

First theme: OCB

As expressed, OCB studies contribute to hospitality-ethics literature by bridging ethics, OCB, and other management topics and testing contemporary theories rather than mainstream ethics research. The OCB is repeated frequently when the keywords are examined (n:18). Others are as follows: hotel industry/hotel (n:6), service quality (n:4), employees (n:4), job satisfaction (n:3), organizational support (n:3), organizational behaviour (n:2), employee attitudes (n:2), work engagement (n:2), organizational effectiveness (n:2), organizational identification (n:2), extra-role behaviour (n:2), meta-analysis (n:2).

Theoretical framework

Social-based theories are present in 60.5% (23/38) of the theoretical frameworks concerning OCB. These theories are commonly utilized while studying the antecedents of OCB. Social exchange theory (n: 15) is the most notable one. According to this theory, which is based on reciprocity, when employees are satisfied and supported by their leaders or co-workers, they respond with behaviours that benefit the organization, such as OCB. For example, the effect of variables on OCB as antecedents, such as organizational support and psychological empowerment (Chiang and Hsieh, 2012), organizational justice (Ehrhart, 2004), co-worker or customer-employee exchange (Ma and Qu, 2011) were examined in light of social exchange theory and positive effects were found. Additionally, social learning theory posits that people acquire new attitudes, values, and behaviours by observing and emulating dependable role models, without subjective evaluations. Consequently, the learning process may lead to employees exhibiting OCB. Walumbwa et al. (2010) utilized this theory to investigate how servant leadership behaviours influence OCB.

Motivation-based theories become visible in the theoretical framework after social-based theories. For example, Lyu et al. (2016) used the conservation of resources theory while investigating the effect of mediator variables on the relationship between abusive supervision and OCB. According to the theory, which argues that individuals seek to preserve and protect valuable resources when they perceive an actual or threatened loss of resources, the researchers examined that employees with abusive supervisors focus on protecting their resources and abandon OCB. Raub (2008) used the theory of reasoned action, which states that intentions and norms determine behaviour. Accordingly, a bureaucratic perception of the organization hinders the development of behavioural intentions for OCB.

Leader-member exchange (LMX) is another prominent theory. LMX posits that the leader can establish relationships with followers at different levels of distance and quality, and that followers with close and high-quality relationships will exhibit higher performance. Studies have shown that LMX increases OCB (Kim et al., 2010; Ma and Qu, 2011).

Because cultural structure is also effective in the development of OCB, several studies have examined this issue. These studies used structures that cannot be fully classified as theories. For example, Moorman and Blakely (1995), who investigated individualism-collectivism as an estimator of OCB, used the individualism-collectivism construct developed by Parsons and Shills in 1951 and found that collectivist values or norms increase OCB. Farh et al. (1997), while investigating the role of cultural modernity and tradition in the relationship between OCB and organizational justice, used the Chinese individual modernity and traditionality scale introduced by Yang and friends in 1989 and found that cultural structure affects the relationship between variables.

Context

Articles were classified according to their geographical focus to assess the research area of OCB studies. Except for five meta-analyses, all articles were conducted in a specific geographical region. Farh et al. (1997) focused on more than one country. The USA was the most studied country (n: 21). China (n: 4), Taiwan (n: 3) and South Korea (n: 2) were studied in more than one study. This shows that scientific production on OCB is largely based on examining “mainstream” countries.

Methodological approaches

First, we examined the articles in terms of measurement scales. Smith et al. (1983) were interested in behaviours that are not part of the official job duties, that are beneficial to the organization, and that are mostly altruistic in nature, and revealed two dimensions for this. First, altruism is to give complimentary support to others within the organization; second, generalized compliance means that the employee accepts and abides by the rules. However, as studies progressed, other dimensions were revealed. For example, Organ (1988) showed a five-dimensional structure: altruism (narrower than Smith et al.’s concept), conscientiousness (a similar and limited form of generalized compliance), sportsmanship (not grumbling about minor issues), courtesy (e.g., consultation with others before action), and civic virtue (commitment to the organization or being concerned with the organization’s operation). Podsakoff et al. (1990) were among the first researchers to use this structure. This structure has been used in many studies within the theme (Bell and Menguc, 2002; Chiang and Hsieh, 2012; Stamper and Dyne, 2001, 2003).

There are also several structures related to OCB (Dyne et al., 1994; Dyne and LePine, 1998). Some of these, which emerged later and have been given different names, are similar to Organ’s (1988) scale (LePine et al., 2002). For example, in Dyne et al.’s (1994) scale, the social participation dimension overlaps with altruism and courtesy, loyalty overlaps with sportsmanship and partially with civic virtue, and the obedience dimension overlaps with civic virtue and conscientiousness.

As research progressed, scholars began to think that the OCB dimensions could be conceptually combined into different subgroups (LePine et al., 2002). For example, Williams and Anderson (1991) suggested that citizenship behaviours towards individuals (OCB-I) and towards the organization (OCB-O) are different. In this context, altruism and courtesy dimensions suit OCB-I; sportsmanship, civic virtue, and conscientiousness dimensions suit OCB-O. This conceptualization can be seen as the second important step toward OCB (Podsakoff et al., 2009).

Traditional OCB measurements might not be appropriate for service businesses (Ma and Qu, 2011) because these businesses differ from others. For instance, employees establish a closer relationship with customers and represent the organization outside (Bettencourt et al., 2001). Service-oriented OCB is a concept that was introduced in response to this need. Bettencourt et al. (2001), who made one of the first definitions for this, developed the three-dimensional service-oriented OCB scale by combining the previous OCB scales with the service quality scale. The loyalty dimension is the representation and protection of the company’s products and services as well as its image to outside; the service delivery dimension is the fulfilment of the promises of the enterprise by the employees in a reliable, sensitive, and courteous manner; the participation dimension is the taking initiative of the employees and especially their communication with the business and co-workers to increase the service quality (Bettencourt et al., 2001; Tang and Tang, 2012). Some of the studies used specific OCB scales; OCB-I and OCB-O (Buil et al., 2016; Cropanzano et al., 2003; Kim et al., 2010; Ma and Qu, 2011); service-oriented OCB (Ma and Qu, 2011; Sun et al., 2007; Tang and Tang, 2012).

Second, we examined the articles in terms of methodology. Two articles are prepared as SLR. Podsakoff et al. (2000) showed that 30 potentially different citizenship behaviours had been described in the literature. Since they conceptually overlap in several ways, they are grouped under seven common themes: (1) helping behaviour, (2) sportsmanship, (3) organizational loyalty, (4) organizational compliance, (5) individual initiative, (6) civic virtue, and (7) self-development. Podsakoff and MacKenzie (1997), on the other hand, by examining the articles on the effect of OCB on organizational performance, discovered that helping behaviour increases organizational performance the most.

Other articles (n: 36) were prepared empirically. Five of these are meta-analysis studies. Some of meta-analysis investigated the relationship of a specific variable with OCB. For example, the LMX-OCB relationship (Ilies et al., 2007); co-worker effects on OCBs (Chiaburu and Harrison, 2008). LePine et al. (2002) investigated the relations of OCB’s dimensions with different variables (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, fairness, trait conscientiousness, and leader support) separately. Organ and Ryan (1995) examined the antecedents of OCB and found that job satisfaction is the strongest predictor. Podsakoff et al. (2009) investigated the outcomes of the OCB and found that the strongest was reward recommendation at the individual level and unit performance at the organizational level.

The 31 empirical articles were prepared as quantitative research. Four have longitudinal data (two-wave, from 3 weeks to 1 year), and 27 have cross-sectional data. All these studies collected data with questionnaires. Furthermore, we analysed articles’ samples, or units of analysis. The same articles may have more than one sample or unit of analysis; consequently, the sum of occurrences is different from the 31 studies. Thus, we counted the number of occurrences, which was 55. The most frequently used unit of analysis is employees (n: 38; 69%). Another prominent group is managers (n: 11; 20%). Student (n: 3) and customer (n: 3) samples are seen in small numbers (Table 3). In addition, studies collected data at the unit- (Ehrhart, 2004), organization- (Sun et al., 2007; Yoon and Suh, 2003), and individual-level (n: 30).

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Table 3.

Overview of the main features of the clusters.

OCB (38 references)	Theory	Main Theoretical framework	Social exchange theory (n: 15) - LMX (n: 3)Social identity theory (n: 2) - Social learning theory (n: 1)Psychological empowerment theory (n: 2)
	Context	Geographical focus	USA (n: 21) - China (n: 4) - Taiwan (n: 3) - South Korea (n: 2) - Switzerland (n: 1) - Spain (n: 1) - Northern Cyprus (n: 1)- Kenya (n: 1)
	Method	Research method	Empirical (n: 36) Quantitative (n: 31) - meta-analysis (n: 5)Theoretical (n: 2)SLR (n: 2)
		Type of quantitative data	Cross-sectional (n: 27) - longitudinal (n: 4)
		Data collection method	Questionnaire (n: 31)
		Unit of analysis	Employees (n: 38) Hotel (n: 10) - restaurant (n: 6) - Finance (n: 5) Other service sector (n: 3) - other (n: 14)Manager (n: 10) Hotel (n: 1) - restaurant (n: 3) Travel agency (n: 1) - not specified (n: 5)Student (n: 2)Customer (n: 3) Travel agency (n: 1) - restaurant (n: 1) - not specified (n: 1)
		Data analysis	Regression analysis (n: 17) - SEM (n: 13) - path analysis (n: 3) - correlation analysis (n: 1) - factor analysis (n: 1)
Environmental issues in hotels (39 references)	Theory	Main theoretical framework	Resource-based theory (n: 4) - ‘win-win’ argument (n: 3)Stakeholder theory (n: 3) - Equity theory (n: 1) - Agency theory (n: 1)Upper echelons theory (n: 1)
	Context	Geographical focus	Spain (n: 11) - UK (n: 4)Other European countries (n: 12) Sweden-Poland-Turkey-Austria-France-Germany-Greece-Italy-Portugal-Cyprus-Malta-MonacoHong-Kong (n: 5) - USA (n: 4) - Malaysia (n: 2)Canada (n: 1) – Egypt (n: 1) - Ghana (n:1)Not specified (n: 4)
	Method	Research method	Empirical (n: 34) Quantitative (n: 22) - qualitative (n: 7) - mixed (n: 5)Theoretical (n: 5) Conceptual (n: 2) – non-SLR (n: 2) - SLR (n: 1)
		Type of quantitative data	Cross-sectional (n: 32) - longitudinal (n: 2)
		Data collection method	Questionnaire (n: 22)Secondary data (n: 10) Government-industry reports (n: 7) Web page (n: 2) - online visitor comments (n: 1)Interview (n: 7) - observation (n: 2) - case study (n: 3)
		Unit of analysis	Hotel managers (n: 26) Environmental managers (n: 10) - top managers (n: 3) – Sales & marketing (n: 3) - quality manager (n: 1) – Chief engineer (n: 1) - not specified (n: 8)Hotel owners (n: 4) - hotel employees (n: 1)Tourists (n: 1)Representatives (n: 3) Government agencies (n: 1) - non-governmental agencies (n: 1) - trade association (n: 1)
		Data analysis	Content analysis (n: 10) - regression analysis (n: 8)Descriptive (n: 8) - ANOVA (n: 4) - SEM (n: 2)t test (n: 2) –Chi-square (n: 2) - Hierarchical cluster analysis (n: 1)Mann-Whitney U test (n: 1)Canonical correlation analysis (n: 1)
Environmental behaviours & attitudes of consumers (16 references)	Theory	Main theoretical framework	VBN (n: 2) - MGB (n: 2) - TPB (n: 1) - social identity theory (n: 1) - social comparison theory (n: 1)
	Context	Geographical focus	USA (n: 6) - Spain (n: 2) - Greece (n: 1) - Taiwan (n: 1)South Korea (n: 1) - not specified (n: 2)
	Method	Research method	Empirical (n: 14) Quantitative (n: 13) - meta-analysis (n: 1) Theoretical (n: 2)SLR (n: 2)
		Type of quantitative data	Cross-sectional (n: 13)
		Data collection method	Questionnaire (n: 12) - experiments (n: 1)
		Unit of analysis	Hotel guests (n: 4) - hotel managers (n: 3) - tourists (n: 2) –Hotel employees (n: 1) - student (n: 1) - consumers (n: 1)Not specified (n: 1)
		Data analysis	SEM (n: 6) - regression analysis (n: 3)t test (n: 3) - ANOVA (n: 1) - Cluster analysis (n: 1)
Reputation management (7 references)	Theory	Main theoretical framework	Model of delight and satisfaction (n: 2)Emotional theory (n: 1) - S-O-R model (n: 1)Rational expectation theory (n: 1)
	Context	Geographical focus	USA (n: 2) - Israel-Canada-Portugal-Taiwan-South Korea (n: 1)London (n: 2) - Milan-Paris-Barcelona (n: 1)
	Method	Research method	Empirical (n: 7) Quantitative (n: 7)
		Type of quantitative data	Cross-sectional (n: 7)
		Data collection method	Questionnaire (n: 5) - secondary data (n: 3) - experiments (n: 2)
		Unit of analysis	Consumers (n: 3) - students (n: 1) - Airbnb users (n: 1) - tourists (n: 1)
		Data analysis	SEM (n: 3) - regression analysis (n: 3) - ANCOVA (n: 1)
Ethical leadership (2 references)	Theory	Main theoretical framework	Social learning theory (n: 1)
	Context	Geographical focus	USA (n: 1)
	Method	Research method	Empirical (n: 2) Quantitative (n: 2)
		Type of quantitative data	Cross-sectional (n: 2)
		Data collection method	Questionnaire (n: 2)
		Unit of analysis	Hotel managers (n: 1) - students (n: 1)
		Data analysis	SEM (n: 2)

Since there were no qualitative studies among the studies, only quantitative data analyses were used to test the hypotheses. 17 studies used regression analysis and 13 Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). In addition, five studies were meta-analyses; path analysis (n: 3), correlation analysis (n: 1), and factor analysis (n: 1) were the other techniques used.

Theory

This research has revealed that existing studies in the field largely lack theoretical underpinning. The practice-oriented and hypothesis-testing character of research has often prevented the discovery and development of specific theories or theoretical frameworks specific to the field. Therefore, theoretically, a more precise and detailed effort is needed to strengthen hospitality-ethics. Although the reviewed literature addresses 20 different theories, nine were examined only once. This leaves the theoretical foundations relatively limited, and the field can be seen as suffering from a lack of scientific robustness.

The most used theories in ethics research have been identified as social exchange theory (first-theme), resource-based theory (second-theme), VBN and MGB (third-theme), and model of delight and satisfaction (fourth-theme). In future studies, the utilization of artificial intelligent (AI) systems by tourists (such as chatbots, social service robots, etc.) should be scrutinized from an “ethical” standpoint. This implies that ethical considerations should underlie the inquiry into how tourists perceive AI systems and their behavioural intentions towards the products presented via these technologies. Presently, there is a dearth of empirical research on this subject in the hospitality literature. In this instance, one can incorporate ethical considerations as an antecedent variable into Gursoy et al.’s (2019) AI device use acceptance model and assess its impact on the utilization of AI-supported systems. Although this model is frequently utilized within the tourism literature (e.g., Alsaad, 2023; Ladeira et al., 2023; Lin et al., 2020), ethical concerns have not been analysed for their effects. Another theory applicable in this context is Westaby’s (2005) “behavioural reasoning theory”. In this theoretical framework, ethical considerations may impact the connections between “reasons against usage” and global motives and intentions. While previous research explains the behaviour and attitudes of tourists in the context of AI-enabled systems, it falls short of understanding the impact of ethical understandings or concerns.

Method and context

The results showed that researchers mostly (91.1%) adopted empirical analysis for examining hospitality-ethics. The survey/questionnaire technique (72%) has been overwhelmingly used for data collection. Most of the research collected data from employees and/or hotel managers (Table 3). This choice may have been a natural reflection of the study topic or research questions. However, we promote qualitative, mixed-design, scenario-based, or experimental studies to go further than descriptive studies and develop the theoretical foundation of hospitality-ethics. This can increase the breadth and depth of existing knowledge and provide new insights. For example, studies should be done to understand the attitude-behaviour conflict more deeply and develop more concrete suggestions. On the other hand, the number of studies utilising cross-sectional data is greater than that of studies employing longitudinal data. This represents a notable limitation. Given the significance of the subject matter, its expansive scope, and the frequency of shifts in perspective, there is a clear need for long-term studies that gather data from a range of time points.

We also analysed the geographical focus of the articles. The USA is the most prominent country in studies on OCB and environmental attitudes of consumers/tourists, and Spain in EPP research. However, these two countries are not solely responsible for the emergence of ethical problems, nor is research conducted in these two countries alone sufficient to solve them. Moreover, the understanding of ethics is influenced by cultural context. For such reasons, conducting studies in other countries would clarify the current situation worldwide. We also recommend cross-country analysis and comparison of findings for a group of countries or two countries with similar or different characteristics.

When investigating the geographical distribution, another aspect that draws attention is the harmony between the geographical focus of the research and the countries where the researchers exist. In addition to revealing the regionalism of research, this can also be interpreted as closeness/collaboration between universities and enterprises. This cooperation can be an essential tool for better embedding ethics in organizations.

Agenda for various ethical topics

It is seen that various sub-themes of hospitality-ethics still have gaps. Although it is the most researched area, we anticipate that environmental ethics will remain current in the long-run. Because we are all aware of environmental degradation and the sector’s contribution to it. In this context, animal rights and welfare literature has a significant gap.

Second, a limited number of studies have been done on glass ceiling/gender equality, ethical decision-making, white-collar crime, and insider trading, which are search terms. Among them, gender equality is as important as economic and social sustainability (Araújo-Vila et al., 2021) and is also included in the UN Sustainable Development goals. In addition, gender inequality is discussed more than gender equality in H&T (Araújo-Vila et al., 2021) requires that the issue be handled with an ethical dimension.

Third, ethical decision-making is a crucial issue because the employees’ approach in this context affects all organizational decisions and the relations with its internal and external stakeholders. This is one of the most researched subjects in BE (Lehnert et al., 2015; Ma, 2009); however, it has attracted limited attention in hospitality-ethics. Accordingly, the issue should be examined from a multiplicity of perspectives, including the individual characteristics of leaders (e.g., age, cognitive moral development, education, biases, gender) or organisational factors (e.g., size, external environment, codes of ethics, ethical climate).

Fourth, a gap exists in hospitality-ethics education. Hultsman (1995), Walle (1995) stated that ethical issues in hospitality education are taught from general business subjects, and in this case, exceptional cases related to tourism can be overlooked. The Tourism Education Futures Initiative has identified five value-based principles that will guide the future of tourism education. One of these principles is ‘ethics’, in which definitions, discussions, and practices unique to hospitality are made (Sheldon et al., 2011). In addition, there are studies proposing discipline-based education models that can be used in H&T (Horng et al., 2019) or culinary (Shani et al., 2013) ethics education or examining which cases should be included in the education content (Yeung, 2004). However, in addition to the general principles, it is unclear which case-based applications that exemplify the situation in the field are included in the training or which cases should be given weight. This gap offers essential opportunities to researchers.

Implications

The study offers a comprehensive review of hospitality ethics and proposes that sensitivity to ethical principles can be an effective means of promoting positive outcomes at the individual, team and organisational levels. Primarily, our study can assist managers in identifying and comprehending this literature, thereby facilitating more efficacious decision-making on managerial issues by directing them to articles that are more pertinent to the specific challenges they encounter.

Secondly, hospitality organisations should endeavour to educate managers at all levels in order to facilitate the development and adoption of ethical principles. Training programmes can be an effective means of ensuring that managers are aware of the importance of ethics and of developing appropriate behavioural patterns in their daily practices. Thirdly, businesses may wish to consider incorporating personality traits that have been identified as predictors of ethical decision-making into their recruitment processes. These include an individual’s level of moral development, moral standards, moral courage (Balaji et al., 2022), their approach to defining and evaluating ethical issues (Valentine et al., 2014), and their trustworthiness (Farmer, 2018).

Limitations and future research

This research is not free from limitations. First, the scope of this study is limited to articles and reviews in seven journals. Future research can overcome this limitation by including other journals in H&T or different domains, as well as conference papers, books, and dissertations. Second, this research did not analyse trends. This restriction demonstrates the necessity for future studies in which the research period is subdivided to see periodic variations. Third, we attempted to develop a broad list of keywords to provide a comprehensive perspective of research on hospitality ethics. Still, this list may need to be updated in the future according to developments in human life. The fourth limitation arises from the technical limitations of citation analysis. New publications do not have as much time to be cited as older ones. Therefore, citation analysis may not indeed reveal the impact of all publications.

The review revealed that a multitude of variables were examined in the studies included. Therefore, a SLR to identify the most researched variables and their interrelationships with ethics in future studies would be a valuable contribution to the field. An in-depth analysis of the antecedents, consequences, mediators, and moderators of hospitality ethics can enhance our understanding of this complex subject. Furthermore, it is worth noting that our review period concludes in 2020. Subsequent review studies may examine trends and issues in hospitality ethics that have emerged since that time.