[1] The Journal of Business Ethics was founded by Alex C. Michalos (Institute for Social Research and Evaluation, University of Northern British Columbia) and Deborah C. Poff (Department of Philosophy, Carleton University) and originally published by D. Reidel.

Professors Michalos and Poff served as the journal's Editors in Chief from its inception in 1982 to 2016.

Professor Freeman retired from the Journal in 2021 and was succeeded by Gazi Islam (Grenoble Ecole de Management).

The editors encourage a broad scope, and the JBE publishes original articles from a wide variety of methodological and disciplinary perspectives concerning ethical issues related to business that bring something new or unique to the discourse in their field.

Social Science Citation Index TD Net Discovery Service UGC-CARE List (India) Wanfang The Journal of Business Ethics has an impact factor of 5.9 and a five-year impact factor of 8.0 (2022).