A Cross-National Comparison of University Students' Perceptions Regarding the Ethics and Acceptability of Sales Practices

This scenario-based study examines the perceptions of university students in the United States and Australia regarding the ethics and acceptability of various sales practices. Study results indicate several significant differences between U.S. and Australian university students regarding the perceptions of ethical and acceptable sales practices. These differences centered on company-salesperson and salesperson-customer relationships. The findings are significant for the employer, and have consequences for customers and competitors. They also have implications for recruiters and managers of salespeople, academics with an interest in understanding cross-national differences in sales ethics, and educators preparing students for future careers as business professionals.     

The Effect of Culture and Religiosity on Business Ethics: A Cross-cultural Comparison

This article examined the effect of culture and religiosity on perceptions of business ethics among students in a tertiary institution in Malaysia. A structured questionnaire was developed with scenarios on various aspects of business ethics, and self-administered to the students in the business studies program. The results from 767 respondents showed that there were significant differences among the Malays, Chinese, and Indian students on seven scenarios namely selling hazardous products, misleading instructions, selling defective products, padding expense account, taking sick to take a day off, keeping quiet on defective products, and respond to supplier’s take good care of clients attitude. There was also an association between culture and religiosity. The MANOVA results also showed that culture and religiosity have an effect on perceptions of business ethics.     

Assessment of Chinese Students' Experience With Foreign Faculty: A Case Study From a Chinese University

This article compares Chinese students' responses to local Chinese versus American professors, and the effectiveness of the professors' respective teaching techniques. A case study made at a single university in China, which had a joint academic program with the United States, found that Chinese students preferred local Chinese professors to American professors in spite of the students' perception that the American professors' were more highly qualified, and despite the American professors' student-centered teaching styles. The Chinese students consider local Chinese professors to be more effective in teaching and they have higher expectation of the Chinese students than the U.S. professors. This article explores the differences between Chinese and Western teaching styles and proposes approaches needed to guide Chinese students from their familiar teacher-centered classrooms toward accepting a student-centered classroom approach. Recommendations are offered for improving Western ways of educating Chinese students in China.     

The Bologna Process and Internationalization for Higher Education in the U.S.

When U.S. colleges and universities internationalize, there are policy implications branching out of the change process and affecting nearly all higher education areas within the university or college. Government, state, and local entities all have a vested interest in internationalizing in the 21st century because of the growing interconnectedness that the world now shares. Schools of business are usually one the first areas on U.S. college and universities to invest in international programming, whether for outbound study abroad students to Europe or Asia, or receiving international students for a short-term exchange program or degree-seeking opportunities.     

Women as Managers in the United States and China: A Cross-Cultural Study

This article investigated Chinese and U.S. attitudes toward women as managers with the goal of establishing an empirical basis for comparison and understanding of the glass ceiling potential in each culture. The authors used the Women as Managers Scale (WAMS) to measure perceptions of 919 U.S. and Chinese participants. Results indicated differences in perceptions by gender and nationality. Overall, women were perceived less favorably as managers by Chinese and U.S. males as compared to perceptions of Chinese and U.S. female participants. Findings are discussed in terms of existing research and areas for future research are suggested.     

Cuba: The New Frontier of Study Abroad Programs for U.S. Students

The growing reconciliation between the United States and Cuba has created a unique opportunity for U.S. business and hospitality students to observe and experience first-hand an economy in marked transition. Attempting to balance the tenets of socialism with a rapidly growing reliance on capitalism creates a rare learning environment for students. This article presents the plan for a 10-day faculty-led study abroad program to Cuba. The program is divided between the two (arguably) most important destinations in Cuba: the economic and cultural center, Havana, and the tourism powerhouse of Varadero. At each destination, students are engaged in lectures, site visits, research, and cultural experiences.     

The Cultures of Insider Trading

Paul Bond is a lawyer who overheard two other lawyers at his office discussing the proposed purchase of a company by one of their clients. He proceeds to buy shares of this company. Would you rate Bond’s behavior completely fair, acceptable, unfair, or very unfair? I posed this vignette to samples of university students in China, Taiwan, and the U.S. Most students in the U.S. and Taiwan samples rated Bond’s behavior unfair or very unfair while most students in the China rated Bond’s behavior completely fair or acceptable. Perceptions of fairness are part of the culture of a country and culture affects business practices. I discuss culture, perceptions of fairness, and business practices in China, Taiwan, and the U.S.     

A Cross Cultural Analysis of the Geographical Knowledge of U.S., Irish,Israeli, Mexican,and South Korean Business School Students

ABSTRACT

Geographical knowledge about foreign countries is considered to be a significant factor related to the successful marketing of goods and services in international markets-a not insignificant conclusion by experts given the sizable trade deficits run up by the United States in 2000 ($365 billion), 2001 ($346 billion), and 2002 ($435 billion).

Unfortunately, previous research has concluded that U.S. business school students-tomorrow's executives who will make decisions that will impact their firms' international operations-have inadequate levels of international geographical knowledge.

This article compares the geographical knowledge of U.S. business school students to that of business school students in four countries: Ireland, Israel, Mexico, and South Korea. The sub-par performance exhibited by the U.S. students and the impact of six independent variables on global geographical knowledge are used to develop a number of pedagogical conclusions designed to enhance the international geographical knowledge of U.S. business school students and students in foreign business schools and overcome the antipathy toward this subject matter that apparently exists within business schools and their various external constituencies.     

An Examination of Learning Preferences of U.S. and International Students

Learning styles and preferences are often discussed topics in educational psychology, but are less prevalent in business education. International students are another understudied segment of business education. This article reviews literature regarding learning styles and preferences and examines whether U.S. and international students have different learning preferences using the visual-aural-read/write-kinesthetic (VARK) model. The findings indicate a large percentage of both populations have multimodal learning preferences. For the students who have one preferred learning mode, differences do exist between international and U.S. students.     

Mexico

Not understanding the cultural aspects of doing business overseas can jeopardize the success of international negotiations, entry strategies, joint ventures, technology transfer, marketing, and human resources. This article reports a study of the perceptions of U.S. and Mexican executives concerning the importance of 15 cultural dimensions of doing business in Mexico (our second largest trading partner). It found that, whereas Mexican executives believed more strongly than U.S. executives that the cultural dimensions of doing business in Mexico were more important than the product or service offered and the accompanying terms of sale, the U.S. executives, surprisingly, assigned higher levels of importance to the 15 cultural variables. Both Mexican and U.S. executives strongly agreed on which of the 15 variables were most important. All eight subgroups of U.S. executives assigned higher levels of importance to the 15 cultural aspects of doing business in Mexico than did their Mexican counterparts. When four comparisons of the executives of the eight subsets of U.S. companies‐large vs. small, border location vs. nonborder location, doing business in Mexico vs. not doing business there, and doing business there more than 5 years (pre‐NAFTA) vs. doing business there 5 years or less (post‐NAFTA)—were made of the level of importance they attached to the cultural variables, no significant differences were found. Based on the study's findings, implications for doing business in Mexico are indicated. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Business goals in market versus transition economies: An exploratory comparison of Hungarian and U.S. MBA students

Developed market economies and transition economies are characterized by radically different institutional, economic, and cultural environments, which we expected would produce differences in business goals among MBA students. We measured differences between 103 Hungarian and 454 U.S. part‐time MBAs and found that U.S. respondents placed more importance on growth of the business, short‐term profits, staying within the laws, and honor, face, and reputation. Hungarians placed more emphasis on game and gaming spirit, and family values. Although the results showed significant differences on some business goals, they were not as great as the literature would suggest, indicating that some convergence has occurred since transition began. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Business Students' Perception of Ethics and Moral Judgment: A Cross-Cultural Study

Business relations rely on shared perceptions of what is acceptable/expected norms of behavior. Immense expansion in transnational business made rudimentary consensus on acceptable business practices across cultural boundaries particularly important. Nonetheless, as more and more nations with different cultural and historical experiences interact in the global economy, the potential for misunderstandings based on different expectations is magnified. Such misunderstandings emerge in a growing literature on "improper" business practices – articulated from a narrow cultural perspective. This paper reports an ongoing research on the cultural and contextual aspects of business ethics. The objective is to investigate how the perception/attitudes of business students towards the ethical dimension of doing business varies in different countries; Whether there are socio-cultural factors that influence the perception of ethicality in business practices. Research findings among business students in six countries: China, Egypt, Finland, Korea, Russia, and the U.S.A. are reported. While all groups had basic agreement on what constitutes ethical business practices, differences are found in the respondents' tolerance to damage resulting from "unethical" behavior. Without underestimating the role of national culture, variations in research results also point to the importance of current socio-political developments in the relevant countries. Implications for business teaching and management development are discussed.     

An Exploratory Comparison of Ethical Perceptions of Mexican and U.S. Marketers

This is a study of the effects of a number of background variables on ethical perceptions of Mexican and U.S. marketers. This research investigates how a marketer’s personal religiousness, relativism, and the ethical values influence in perceptions of the degree of ethical problems in hypothetical marketing scenarios. It also examines differences between Mexican and U.S. marketers on these variables. The results show significant differences in perception between the countries, and we discuss the implications of these differences for cross-cultural business activities. The authors wish to thank Rebecca McLaughlin for her help with data collection in Mexico     

Business Ethical Values in China and the U.S.

The research presented in this paper focuses on business ethical values inChina, a country in which the process of institutional transformation has left cultural values in a state of flux. A survey was conducted in China and the U.S. by using five business scenarios. Survey results show similarities between the Chinese and American decision choices for three out of five scenarios. However, the results reveal significant differences in rationales, even forsimilar decisions. The implications of similarities and differences between the U.S. and Chinese samples are discussed.     

A Comparative Study on Perceived Ethics of Tax Evasion: Hong Kong Vs the United States

This article begins with a review of the literature on the ethics of tax evasion and identifies the three main views that have emerged over the centuries, namely always ethical, sometimes ethical, and never or almost never ethical. It then reports on the results of a survey of HK and U.S. university business students who were asked to express their opinions on the 15 statements covering the three main views. The data are then analyzed to determine which of the three viewpoints is dominant among the sample population. Although it was found that HK scores were significantly different from the U.S. scores, both HK and U.S. respondents were opposed to the view that tax evasion is always or almost always ethical. The strongest arguments justifying tax evasion were in cases where the government was corrupt, the tax system was unfair and unaffordable. The weakest arguments for justifying tax evasion were in cases where there was a selfish motive. The underlying cultural differences are further explored in hope of accounting for differing perceptions of ethics of tax evasion. Policy implications for increasing people’s awareness of ethics on tax evasion are also highlighted.     

A Cross-Cultural Study of the Ethical Orientations of Senior-Level Business Students

This study is a cross cultural investigation into the ethical orientations of business students in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Data were collected using a variation of an instrument developed by Dubinsky and Levi (1985) which measures the ethical orientation of respondents in a presumed retail environment. The instrument was subjected to test of reliability and validity and found to be very robust. No significant differences were found in the ethical disposition of Canadian and U.S. business students. However, a significant difference was found between the Canadian and U.S. students and those of Mexico. Implications are drawn for ethics education/training and areas are identified for future research.     

Business ethics judgments: A cross-cultural comparison

With the increased attention paid to ethical issues in business practice, there is interest in the ethics gap between the U.S. and the U.K. and in the ramifications for educating college students for business management positions. This paper examines the differences in ethics judgments between U.S. and U.K. business students. The results indicate that differences in their demographic profiles do not influence their ethics judgments. However, consistently higher business ethics of female students from both countries are discussed in relation to providing business ethics education.Thomas W. Whipple is Professor of Marketing at Cleveland State University. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Communication, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Marketing Education, andJournal of Travel Research. He is the co-author ofSex Stereotyping in Advertising (Lexington, 1983).Dominic F. Swords is Director of Studies for Part Time MBA Programmes at Henley Management College in the U.K. His research interests include the Economics of European Integration and the relationship between Business Ethics and Business Policy.     

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Corporate Social Responsibility Orientation: Hong Kong vs. United States Students

This study examined the orientation toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) of 165 U.S. and 157 HongKong business students. Although respondents from both countries viewed CSR as a construct in much the same way, many differences were found in the types of responsibilities considered most important. Specifically, Hong Kong students gave economic responsibilities more weight and non economic responsibilities less weight than did U.S. students.     

Marketing Accounting Services in the U.S. and Norway

Abstract

This study compares the general perceptions of marketing and the marketing experiences and training by accountants in the United States and Norway. The results of this study indicate there are differences in perceptions of marketing held by accountants in the U.S. and Norway and in their marketing practices. Accountants in the U.S. held stronger opinions on the importance of marketing accounting services, whereas accountants in Norway believed more strongly that reputation for quality work was more important than marketing. Over two-thirds of Norway accountants reported they did not use marketing concepts in their practice while over half of U.S. accountants indicated they did. A majority of Norway accountants indicated they did not need marketing because their clients come to them when they need their services. These findings demonstrate the importance of being cognizant of the differences in marketing professional services as accountants expand their understanding of global business and accounting practices.