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Attitudes Toward Consumer and Business Ethics Among Canadian and New Zealand Business Students: An Assessment of 28 Scenarios

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Teaching Business Ethics

Abstract

Recent initiatives in business curricula have included emphases on global business and ethics. This paper combines these issues by comparing the ethical predisposition of business students in New Zealand with their Canadian counterparts. A sample of 360 students indicated that students in both countries generally hold high expectations for the behaviour of both business and consumers. Of the 28 scenarios evaluated, five exhibited significant differences between the two groups. In four cases, students from New Zealand expressed less tolerance for the questionable business practices, and in the other one the situation was reversed. Despite the relative congruence of attitudes exhibited by the students of the two countries, the fact that differences do exist is testimony to the increased risk inherent to international business.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Curtin University of Technology, Australia

    Jim Fisher

  2. University of Waikato, New Zealand

    David Taylor

  3. Eastern Michigan University, USA

    Sam Fullerton

Authors
  1. Jim Fisher
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  2. David Taylor
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  3. Sam Fullerton
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Fisher, J., Taylor, D. & Fullerton, S. Attitudes Toward Consumer and Business Ethics Among Canadian and New Zealand Business Students: An Assessment of 28 Scenarios. Teaching Business Ethics 3, 155–177 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009885904370

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