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A cross-cultural
A cross-cultural assessment assessment
of attitudes of business students
toward business ethics
243
A comparison of China and the USA
Spero C. Peppas and Tyler T. Yu
Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether undergraduate and graduate business
students in China and the USA share similar attitudes with regard to business ethics.
Design/methodology/approach – Using an instrument derived from Becker and Fritzsche, this
study measured attitudes toward eight business ethics value statements. In addition, the survey asked
respondents to report the degree to which they believed that reports of corporate irresponsibility had
influenced their responses to the survey. Tests of significance were used to determine significant
differences.
Findings – Despite advances in communication, the influence of foreign firms now operating in
China, and the return to China of nationals who were educated in the USA, of eight business ethics
value statements examined, significant differences between the Chinese and US respondents were
found in all but one case.
Research limitations/implications – The data were drawn from the southern USA and from
eastern China. Future researchers may wish to replicate the study using samples from diverse
geographical areas in each country. This study could also be replicated to assess similarities and
differences between management and student samples.
Originality/value – The results of this study point out significant differences between Chinese and
US evaluations of the business ethics value statements examined. Given a history of years with little
interaction between these two nations and the cultural distance between China and the USA, studies
such as this provide useful information in the process of helping the people of these two nations better
understand one another. The findings should prove especially useful to those concerned with the
increasingly important issue of ethics in business operations.
Keywords Business ethics, Students, China, United States of America, Corporate social responsibility
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
With the fall of communism and a resulting trend toward capitalism in much of the
world, business interfaces that were unlikely a decade ago are now becoming
commonplace. It has long been shown that value orientations influence how managers
negotiate, conduct business, and relate to customers, partners, and investors (Holt,
1997; Tung and Miller, 1990; Davis and Rasool, 1988). In culturally homogeneous
groups, there is a greater likelihood that values of group members will coincide.
However, as globalization accelerates, business people of different cultures will find
themselves increasingly interacting with individuals possessing value systems Chinese Management Studies
Vol. 1 No. 4, 2007
perhaps different from their own. As a result, there is a greater likelihood that pp. 243-256
individuals working side by side to maximize shareholder value may not share similar q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-614X
values. DOI 10.1108/17506140710828523
CMS Significance and objective
1,4 Cultural distance is greatest where events of history have precluded the blending of
values through interaction between cultures, as is the case between many western and
eastern nations, in particular, the USA and China. Nevertheless, China’s transition to a
market-directed economy, coupled with its billion-plus inhabitants and a yearly
economic growth rate of 10-plus percent over the past three years (World Economic
244 and Financial Surveys, 2007), has made this country a sought-after market for US
companies. In addition to the growth of local business, many western firms have
established operations in China and are employing local talent. Further, many US firms
servicing China from afar are seeking the skills, knowledge, and abilities of Chinese
employees to help bridge language and cultural gaps between these two nations. As a
result, a need exists for each culture to better understand the other, so as to maximize
the probability of success of US-Sino collaborations.
At a time when there is growing interest in business ethics and corporate social
responsibility, it is the attitudes of future business leaders that will shape the direction
of business in the years to come (Ahmed et al., 2003). To this end, the objective of this
study was to examine whether undergraduate and graduate business students in China
and their US counterparts share similar attitudes with regard to business ethics. Given
the cultural distance discussed above and despite advances in communication, the
influence of foreign firms now operating in China, and the return to China of nationals
who were educated in the USA, it was hypothesized that there would be significant
differences in the attitudes of the two groups. It was believed that if similarities
and differences could be identified, universities and businesses would be in a better
position to address the issue of ethics in their operations.

Values
Researchers from a wide range of disciplines have studied western cultures with
regard to values (Yoo and Naveen, 2002; Kirkman and Shapiro, 2001; Briley et al., 2000;
Chanchani and MacGregor, 1999; Vasquez and Taylor, 1999). Alternatively, using a set
of eastern as opposed to western values, in order to adequately capture a social value
system that was distinctly Confucian, other researchers (Bond, 1991a, b, 1996; Bond
et al., 1992) have examined non-western cultures, specifically the Chinese culture.
The consensus of researchers is that there is still much to be learned about
similarities and differences in values, including ethics values, among individuals of
different demographic, cultural and sub-cultural backgrounds and that additional
research is needed. It has been established that people are characterized by their
prevailing value systems (Hofstede, 1980) and that expectations, motivation, and
behaviors can be better understood and predicted by studying values (Holt, 1997).
Hofstede (1993), considered by many to be the father of the idea that national culture
affects management, has described culture as the “programming of the mind” and has
established that cultural factors influence the way that business is conducted.
While many authors have focused on differences in values, Hofstede’s (1983) classic
study is perhaps the best-known comparative study of national values. In this
longitudinal study covering 50 countries, he measured four value dimensions
(individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity/femininity)
and found significant differences existed that had an effect on how people in different
countries approached management. He found that US Americans were individualistic
rather than collectivist, relatively comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguous A cross-cultural
situations, valued assertiveness and other traditional “masculine” rather than assessment
“feminine” values, and tended not to accept hierarchy and the notion that some
individuals in society have power and others do not. While some authors (Hill, 2007)
disagree with Hofstede’s conclusions, his classic study is still valued for its
contributions linking national culture and management. Other researchers, focusing on
these and other cultural values, found that US core values include individual 245
achievement, self-reliance, a belief in equality of opportunity, competitiveness, hard
work, materialism, informality, directness, timeliness, and a belief that change is good
(Daniels and Radebaugh, 1995; Griffin and Pustay, 1996; Harris and Moran, 1996).
With regard to China, Confucianism, an ideology distant to most US Americans, has
been identified as the major force influencing Chinese values (Xing, 1995). This driving
ideology has had an impact on Chinese culture for over 2000 years and is based upon a
framework for day-to-day, as well as business, relationships with others (Hill, 2007).
Confucianism, as a moral system, defines five relational virtues: humanity/
benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. In addition,
unlike US values, Chinese values stress hierarchical norms, that is, how people should
behave in the relationships of ruler/subject, father/son, husband/wife, elder/younger
brother, and friend/friend. With regard to business, Confucian ideology underlies
organizational structure including superior/subordinate relationships, business
etiquette and ceremony, as well as other types of work relationships (Xing, 1995). It
has further been shown that face, reciprocity, long-term orientation, thrift and frugality
are additional values that have an effect on Chinese social and business behaviors
(Vatikiotis, 1998; Papadimos, 2002).

Ethics values and business – the US perspective

With regard to ethics values and business, a number of studies have examined
business ethics in the USA (Ford and Richardson’s (1994) and O’Fallon and Buttetfield’s
(2005) reviews of the empirical literature on ethical decision-making) and have
attempted to assess similarities and differences based on demographics, such as
gender and age.
An examination of gender-related business ethics research revealed mixed findings
with about half of the studies reporting that females were prone to more ethical
behavior than men (Betz et al., 1989; Malinsowski and Berger, 1996; and Deshpande,
1997). At least two authors expanded upon the gender-dependent ethics issue by
including a situational dimension. Dawson (1997) found that among professional
salespeople, females made ethics decisions based on relationships and exhibited higher
ethics scores than did males when “relational” issues were involved. Women’s and
men’s scores were not significantly different, however, in “non-relational” situations. In
another study, Hoffman (1998), focused on women managers working in a large
southeastern US firm and discovered that women were more ethical than men with
respect to unsafe products, but not more ethical in cases of product misrepresentation.
Wahn (2003) also found that men were more willing than women to engage in unethical
competitive practices and to go along with organizational pressures to engage in
unethical behaviors.
A number of studies have examined linkages between age and ethics values.
Deshpande (1997) found that older managers were bothered more by certain kinds of
CMS unethical behavior than were younger managers. In another study showing a positive
1,4 correlation between age and ethics, Allmon et al. (2000) found that older students
appeared to have more ethical attitudes regarding classroom behavior than did
younger students. With similar results from business professionals, Peterson et al.
(2001) also found that business people became “more ethical” with age. On the other
hand, Roozen et al. (2001) found that employees exhibiting higher levels of ethical
246 behavior tended to be young, with limited work experience and a low level of corporate
responsibility. Examining how senior business executives ranked their preferences for
various ethical principles, how strongly they believed in these principles, as well as
how the rankings related to the way executives expected business decisions to play
out, Das (2005) concluded that there were few significant differences in terms of several
individual characteristics, including age and gender.
Other researchers have compared ethics values in the US with those in other
countries and have suggested that there was no link between nationality and business
ethics. In a study of USA and UK business students, Whipple and Swords (1992) found
that nationality did not significantly influence responses toward ethics. In another
study, Grünbaum (1997) studied US and Finnish business students and found that
differences in terms of ethics values were small. Other comparative studies have
yielded quite different results. Non-US citizenship was significantly linked to unethical
behavior by White and Rhodeback (1992). McDonald and Kan (1997) found that there
were significant differences between “western” expatriates and Hong Kong nationals
working in Hong Kong, with expatriates indicating lower agreement levels to unethical
behaviors. Many others including Armstrong and Sweeney (1994), Singhapakdi et al.
(1994, 1995), Jackson and Artola (1997), Chan and Armstrong (1999), Roxas and
Stoneback (2004), and Ford et al. (2005) also found that nationality had an effect on
ethics values in different parts of the world.

Ethics values and business: the Chinese perspective

Recently, Leung (2004) posited that US ethical judgment is based on trust, equity,
responsibility, and commitment, while in China, the relational constructs of “jen”
(moral excellence), “guanxi” (networks of informal relationships and exchanges of
favors that dominate business activity), “xinong” (personal trust), and face form the
basis of ethics values and decisions. Leung further suggested that managers in Sino-US
joint ventures must balance these two approaches if harmony between the partners is
to be maintained. In an exploratory study of business students in China, Egypt,
Finland, Korea, Russia and the USA using four business scenarios, Ahmed et al. (2003)
found that students from all countries were in basic agreement as to what constitutes
good-bad ethics. However, there was disparity among the respondents with regard to
their views of the potential harm resulting from unethical practices.
Chinese perceptions of the present state of business ethics in China was the focus of
research conducted by Wright et al. (2003). Based on data obtained from participants in
a management development program, their findings with regard to whether
participants believed there had been a decrease in corruption in the private sector in
the last five years were inconclusive, with approximately a 50/50 split in the responses.
On the other hand, in terms of a similar query with regard to the public sector, the
majority of respondents believed that corruption had not decreased. Overall, the
findings of this study point to a society in transition with different views as to what
path to follow. Noteworthy is the conclusion of these authors that the best hope for A cross-cultural
significant positive change with regard to business ethics lies with those employed by assessment
“small businesses” (less than 50 employees) in that this group seemed highly aware of
the effects of corruption on China’s image as a good place to conduct business.
In another study examining perceptions of corruption in China, using a sample of
Chinese working for US and European companies in China, Pedersen (2006) concluded
that business practices have improved over the past 10-15 years. This author further 247
attributed this improvement to an increase in the number of foreign companies in
China and the return of Chinese who were educated abroad. Further, concurring with
Pedersen with respect to the notion that the influx of foreign enterprises has had an
effect on business practices in China, Xin (2006) suggests that globalization and
competitive advances in hardware and software bring with them ethics and
corporate concepts that must be embraced. He concludes that the increasing acceptance
of corporate social responsibility/accountability (environmental, economic, and social)
by Chinese enterprises is due largely to the influence of foreign companies in China.
In a recent study, based on the premise that China’s transition to a “socialist market
economy” has resulted in corrupt business practices, Shafer et al. (2007) compared US
and Chinese managers’ responses on the perceived role of ethics and social
responsibility scale (PRESOR). Hypothesizing that Chinese managers would believe
ethical and socially responsible business conduct to be less important than their US
counterparts, they queried a sample of practicing managers enrolled in part-time MBA
programs in the USA and China. Interestingly, they found that nationality did not have
a consistent impact on PRESOR scores. Despite these findings, there continues to be a
general perception of business corruption in China. In fact, in 2005 the National
Corporate Responsibility Index ranked China 66 out of 80 countries in terms of
corruption, environmental management, and corporate governance. In addition,
Transparency International ranked China second worst in terms of engaging in bribery
in developing nations (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2006).

Methodology
The primary purpose of this study was to determine if US and Chinese graduate and
undergraduate business students, the future of business in these two countries, held
significantly different attitudes toward a series of business ethics value statements. It
was hypothesized that significant differences would be found.

Data collection
Questionnaires were administered to traditional and non-traditional business students
enrolled in graduate and undergraduate programs in a private university in the
southeastern US and in two public universities in eastern China. The data were gathered at
regular class meetings at the universities. Students enrolled in more than one course were
instructed to complete only one questionnaire. No attempt was made to contact students
who were not present during the survey period. In order to isolate the effects of nationality,
only the responses of US and Chinese citizens were used for each respective sample.

Measurement instrument
The questionnaire used for the US and Chinese samples consisted of a demographic
information section and an ethics survey. The demographic section gathered
CMS information on nationality, gender, age, program of study, and whether respondents
1,4 had taken a course in ethics (defined as a course with “ethics” in the title).
The questions focusing on ethics were derived from a survey used by Becker and
Fritzsche (1987) and used by Peppas in a stream of research (Peppas and Peppas, 2000,
and Peppas, 2006). Students were asked to indicate their levels of disagreement/
agreement, on a scale of 1 (disagree) to 5 (agree), with eight business ethics value
248 statements. In addition, the survey asked respondents to report the degree to which
they believed that reports of corporate irresponsibility had influenced their responses
to the survey. A final open-ended question asked respondents to list any other factors
influencing their responses to the questionnaire.

Methods of analysis
The demographic data were analyzed to provide frequencies. Responses to the
business ethics value statements were analyzed by calculating and comparing mean
scores for each statement for the US and Chinese groups. Tests of significance
(independent samples T-test for equality of means) were conducted to
determine significant differences ( p , 0.05). Frequencies were calculated for the
responses to the question asking the groups to indicate the degree to which their
responses to the ethics value statements had been influenced by reports of corporate
misconduct. Responses to the open-ended question regarding other influencing factors
were categorized.

Results and discussion

Demographics
Of the 305 respondents in this research, 123 were Chinese nationals and 182 were US
citizens, with a male/female ratio of 61/39 for the Chinese and 51/49 for the US. Ages
ranged from 18 to 41 for the Chinese group, with a mean age of 24.5, and from 22 to 52
for the US group, with a mean age of 30.3. Approximately, 70 percent of respondents
were between the ages of 23 and 33. The majority of the respondents had work
experience (98 percent of the US group and 62 percent of the Chinese group). All of the
respondents were enrolled in their University’s School of Business, with 41 percent of
the Chinese sample and 96 percent of the US sample pursuing MBA degrees. Those
respondents reporting that they had taken a course in ethics included 55 percent of the
Chinese and 84 percent of the US sample.

Assessment of the ethics value statements

The survey provided respondents with the eight Likert-type statements below and
with instructions to indicate their level of disagreement/agreement with each
statement. The statements were scaled from 1 (disagree) to 5 (agree), with only the
end-points labeled. An odd point scale was used to provide a neutral (3) position. The
following paragraphs compare the responses of the Chinese and US groups with regard
to the business ethics value statements. All but 1 of the 8 statements (Statement No. 6)
showed significant differences between the two groups. Table I summarizes the
results.
Doing what is ethically right is good business in the long run. The means of the
Chinese and US respondents were 4.25 and 4.55, respectively, indicating strong
agreement with this statement, with the US group showing a significantly stronger
 Survey responses (percent)
Business ethics value statement Nationality Mean t-Value Sig. 1 ¼ Disagree 2 3 4 5 ¼ Agree

Doing what is ethically right is good business in the Chinese 4.25 3 8 7 25 57

long run * 2 2.644 0.009
US 4.55 1 2 5 26 56
Let the buyer beware * Chinese 3.57 4.302 0.000 7 7 26 41 19
US 2.97 16 20 28 22 14
Business people working in my field tend to ignore Chinese 3.08 10 18 32 34 6
5.604 0.000
ethical considerations when doing business * US 2.38 19 43 22 13 3
Whatever is good business is good ethics * Chinese 2.79 16 28 25 21 10
3.808 0.000
US 2.26 30 36 17 11 6
For managers to act in the interests of shareholders Chinese 3.36 10 16 23 30 21
2 3.725 0.000
alone, and not also in the interest of employees and US 3.87 3 7 21 37 32
consumers, is unethical *
Religious beliefs should play no role in making Chinese 2.68 23 25 22 20 10
2 0.740 0.460
business decisions US 2.79 17 27 30 12 14
As a result of stiffer competition today, many Chinese 3.56 2.385 0.018 4 11 28 40 17
business people find themselves forced to resort to US 3.26 8 16 25 43 8
practices which are considered shady, but which
appear necessary to survive *
Business people exist for the sole purpose of creating Chinese 2.37 36 20 19 22 3
3.960 0.000
and delivering value satisfaction at a profit to US 1.84 44 35 15 5 1
themselves. Therefore, business decisions should be
made without regard to moral issues *

Note: *Significant at the 0.05 level of significance

A cross-cultural
assessment

Results
249

Table I.
CMS response than their Chinese counterparts. Interestingly, both groups felt more strongly
1,4 about this statement they did about any other of the eight value statements, with
57 percent of Chinese and 66 percent of the US group indicating level-5 agreement.
Only three Chinese respondents and two US respondents indicated disagreement with
this statement.
The agreement of both groups to this statement may be based on an accepted belief
250 that, in both societies, doing what is “right,” in general, will pay off in the long run. For
the Chinese, Buddhist and other socio-cultural values emphasize a long-term
orientation and a life plan. Reincarnation, for example, is a belief commonly held by
many, and getting good karma for oneself and one’s children by doing the right thing is
a common goal. Similarly in the USA, Judeo-Christian teachings emphasize the “golden
rule” as a behavioral foundation leading to reward in the long run. The findings with
regard to this ethics value may be an extension of these beliefs.
It is surprising, however, that the US sample would agree significantly more strongly
with this statement given the findings with regard to the question asking participants
what effect reports of corporate misconduct had on their responses. A total of 32 percent
of the Chinese sample compared to 22 percent of the US sample indicated that reports
had affected their responses. These authors are hard pressed to explain this anomaly.
Let the buyer beware. This statement yielded significantly different means for the
Chinese and US groups, with responses (3.57 and 2.97, respectively) near the middle of the
scale, but on opposite sides. The US group appeared divided in its response to this
statement; approximately 41 percent of US group indicated partial or total agreement and
36 percent partial or total disagreement with this statement. The Chinese respondents
were not similarly split in their responses; 60 percent of the Chinese group indicated partial
or total agreement, but only 15 percent showed partial or total disagreement.
It is perhaps not surprising that, given the recent transition of China’s command
economy to a more capitalistically driven model, the Chinese respondents would tend
to indicate stronger agreement with this statement than their US counterparts. In China,
in the past, the state would protect its people. Unlike in the USA, in China the consumer
movement and consumer protection laws are still in an infancy state. It is therefore
understandable that Chinese respondents might see themselves as more vulnerable to
the perhaps less than scrupulous actions of business and believe that they must be
vigilant to protect their self interests.
Business people working in my field tend to ignore ethical considerations when doing
business. This statement elicited significantly different mean responses, tending
toward opposite ends of the scale and showing the greatest difference between the two
groups of any of the value statements. With mean scores of 3.08 and 2.38, respectively,
the Chinese and US samples indicated differing beliefs with respect to whether
individuals take ethical considerations into account in their business dealings.
Showing more skepticism than the US group, 40 percent of the Chinese group indicated
partial or total agreement with the statement, while 62 percent of the US group showed
partial or total disagreement.
The findings with regard to this statement appear to support the results in No. 2,
above. As members of a mature, capitalist, mixed economy, US respondents perhaps
believe that ethical behavior in business is, to some extent, set forth in law and, in
many cases, by corporate and/or industry codes of conduct. As a result, business
people cannot ignore ethical considerations when doing business. While such laws and
corporate policies are sure to be developed and enforced in China’s nascent A cross-cultural
market-driven economy, at present it appears that the Chinese respondents did not assessment
believe that ethical considerations had a major influence on business decisions.
Whatever is good business is good ethics. As might be expected given the responses of
both groups to statement 1 above, both the Chinese and US respondents disagreed with
this notion (means ¼ 2.79 and 2.26, respectively). This result may be interpreted to mean
that the respondents of both groups possess an ethics value set which is separate and 251
distinct from the day-to-day operations of the business enterprise (Becker and Fritzsche,
1987). Also noteworthy is that the US group disagreed significantly more strongly with
this statement than did their Chinese counterparts, with 66 percent of the US group
indicating partial or total disagreement compared to only 44 percent of the Chinese.
For managers to act in the interest of shareholders alone, and not also in the interest
of employees and consumers, is unethical. The Chinese, with a mean score of 3.36, and
the US group, with a mean score of 3.87, agreed with this value statement, although the
US sample agreed significantly more strongly. Both groups thus expressed their belief
that good ethics would imply going beyond attempts to maximize shareholder value
with over half of the Chinese and two-thirds of the US respondents indicating at least
partial agreement with this statement.
Maximization of shareholder value is a tenet that has been taught in US business
schools for many years and, with the recent emphasis on corporate social
responsibility, the US respondents’ position on this statement is not surprising.
What is surprising, however, is that the Chinese respondents, having come from the
Chinese welfare state with its emphasis on the welfare of society as a whole, would
have agreed significantly less strongly than US Americans.
Religious beliefs should play no role in making business decisions. With mean scores
that were the most similar to any in the survey, the mean responses of the Chinese and
US groups were not significantly different in terms of religion and business (2.68 and
2.79, respectively). With almost half of respondents in both groups in partial or total
disagreement (48 and 44 percent, respectively, as compared to 30 and 26 percent,
respectively, who agreed), respondents indicated their belief that business decisions
should be based, at least in part, on religious principles.
Religious affiliation or strength of religious beliefs was not assessed in this study.
However, the findings with regard to this value statement would seem to be supported by
the discussion under value statement No. 1, above. While the predominant religions in
both countries are quite dissimilar in their dogma, there is a certain basic commonality.
For the followers of these religions in both countries, practicing the religion implies
adhering to a set of comprehensive ethical standards. Perhaps, these respondents are
indicating that business decisions should not be exempt from these values.
As a result of stiffer competition today, many business people find themselves forced
to resort to practices which are considered shady, but which appear necessary to survive.
Although both groups tended to agree with this statement, the responses of the Chinese
and US groups were significantly different, with mean scores of 3.56 and 3.26,
respectively. About 57 percent of Chinese were in partial or total agreement with this
proposition compared to 51 percent of the US group. Only 4 percent of the Chinese and
8 percent of the US groups were in total disagreement. The stronger agreement on the
part of the Chinese respondents may indicate their perceptions of the difficulties to be
faced in navigating a society in transition.
CMS Business people exist for the sole purpose of creating and delivering value satisfaction
1,4 at a profit to themselves. Therefore, business decisions should be made without regard to
moral issues. Both groups disagreed, albeit significantly differently, with this
statement, with a mean score for the Chinese of 2.37 and for the US of 1.84. In the
Chinese group, approximately 56 percent of respondents partially or totally disagreed
with this concept, while in the US group the corresponding number was 79 percent.
252 The findings of a recent survey conducted for the University of Maryland’s
Program on International Policy Attitudes (The Wall Street Journal, 2006) may help
explain the significant difference in the responses of the two groups. The study reports
that 74 percent of Chinese as opposed to 71 percent of US Americans agreed with the
statement “the free enterprise system and free market economy is the best system on
which to base the future of the world.” With capitalism in its infancy in China, it
appears that the Chinese respondents in the study at hand may be indicating that they
are embracing the notion of “free” enterprise more literally than their US counterparts.

Influences on attitudes
The survey included a question asking respondents to self-report, on a five-point scale
(1 ¼ very little to 5 ¼ very much), the degree to which their responses to the ethical
value statements had been influenced by reports of corporate irresponsibility. Only
22 percent of the US respondents indicated an influence of four or greater, compared
with 32 percent of the Chinese sample. For the US group, the remaining responses were
almost equally distributed among the other three positions (Table II). The Chinese
responses were less equally distributed, with significantly different means of 2.98 for
the Chinese group and 2.47 for the US respondents. It is interesting to note that the
mean response for both groups appeared to indicate that reports of corporate
irresponsibility did not have a major impact on responses.
An open-ended question also asked respondents to list other events or factors
influencing their answers to the survey. Responses were grouped into five categories
with corresponding frequencies as indicated in Table III.

Degree of influence Chinese responses (percent) US responses (percent)

1 ¼ Very little 13 26
Table II. 2 23 26
Influence on attitudes 3 32 26
of reports of corporate 4 16 19
irresponsibility 5 ¼ Very much 16 3

Influence Chinese responses (percent) US responses (percent)

Work experiences 5 20
Personal beliefs 5 13
Personal experiences 15 12
Table III. Religious beliefs 1 2
Other influences Educational experience 0 2
on attitudes No response 74 51
A total of 89 US and 32 Chinese cited other influences as having an effect on their A cross-cultural
responses. It is interesting to note that 20 percent of the US respondents (98 percent of assessment
whom had work experience) reported experiences in the workplace played a role in their
attitudes. Of the Chinese respondents (62 percent of whom had work experience), only
5 percent listed influences generated in the workplace as having affected their responses.
The most often cited influence for this group was personal experiences, at 15 percent. For
both groups, educational experience and religious beliefs appeared to have little influence. 253
Conclusion and limitations
Given recent economic growth in China and predictions that this country’s economic
output will soon surpass that of all other nations, gaining a better understanding of the
mindset of Chinese future business leaders is essential. By providing insight into the
thinking of Chinese business students with regard to business ethics and by comparing
these findings to the evaluations of US business students, this study fills a gap in the
literature and provides the basis for future research. In this time of globalization of
markets and production, and declining trade and investment barriers, the results of
this study should prove useful to practitioners and academicians as individuals from
these two cultures find themselves interacting, with ever increasing frequency, on the
global business stage.
As is often the case, research points out the need for additional research to overcome
limitations of this study. Future researchers may wish to replicate this study using
samples randomly drawn from diverse geographical areas in each country so that the
results would be more readily generalizable. It would also be of interest to examine
whether Chinese students exhibit a closer similarity to students of other nations with
regard to attitudes toward business ethics than to the group to which they were
compared in the present study. In fact, a multi-country study, comparing the attitudes
toward business ethics of students across the globe would shed valuable insight into
this important issue. In addition, future researchers may wish to replicate this study
and assess similarities and differences between management and student samples.
Finally, longitudinal studies should be useful in monitoring the winds of change in the
nations examined.
The results of this study have pointed out significant differences between Chinese
and US evaluations of the business ethics value statements examined. Given a history
of years with little interaction between these two nations and the cultural distance
between China and the US, these results are, perhaps, not surprising. Studies such as
this, pinpointing differences and similarities, provide useful information in the process
of helping the people of these two nations better understand one another and should
prove especially useful to those concerned with the increasingly important issue of
ethics in business operations.

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About the authors

Spero C. Peppas, PhD, is a Professor of Marketing and International Business and Director of the
Center for International Business at Georgia Gwinnett College, a unit of the University System of
Georgia, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA. He has taught in the US and Europe where he has been
recognized for his teaching and research in the areas of international marketing and
management. He has served as Marketing Specialist for the United Nations and the ILO as well
as for the governments of Senegal and Benin in developing small- and medium-sized businesses.
Spero C. Peppas is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: speppas@ggc.usg.edu
Tyler T. Yu, PhD, is a Professor of Economics and Accounting at Georgia Gwinnett College, a
unit of the University System of Georgia, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA. He has taught in the
US and China where he received awards for teaching and research. His research and consulting
focus on international economics and finance. E-mail: tyu@ggc.usg.edu

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