Ethics in purchasing and supply management - a literature review

The moral challenges that arise in relation to procurement have long been addressed in the literature. These challenges vary from time to time depending on the economic situation, geographical location, and cultural context. It is therefore important to examine how such challenges and their interpretations have changed. The aim of this paper is to review the literature on ethics published since the turn of the millennium. The review covers 102 papers from Scopus. The results show that in recent years there has been significant change in the topics (a shift away from classical ethical issues towards social responsibility and sustainability), and in the geographical location of research (typically the USA and Europe but increasingly also Asia and Africa). Although recent research has responded to changes in legislation and local issues, there is a lack of research on the impact of COVID and of supply chain disruption.