The Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research was established in 1997 to supply and programs that ensure private sector responsibility and public accountability; promote thinking and scholarship on business and normative ethics; and provide research grants to the Zicklin Center’s many stakeholders.

The Center serves as a focal point for the normative inquiry in business at the Wharton School and, more generally, the University of Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, Center-sponsored research comes from a wide range of scholarly approaches and methods.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​