Academic Misconduct among Business Students: A Comparison of the US and UAE

Abstract

A survey of 345 undergraduate business students from amedium-sized south eastern regional university and 164 undergraduates from a medium-sized university in the United Arab Emirates found that 71% of all respondents admitted to academic misconduct in a recent 1-year period, a percentage similar to McCabe’s(2005) finding that an average of 70 % of undergraduate students admitted to recent academic misconduct. Business students from the Middle East were significantly less likely to perceive various academic misconduct behaviors as forms of serious cheating compared to business students from the US. Hofstede’s(2001) cultural dimension of individualism/collectivism and Ajzen’s (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50, 179–211, 1991) theory of planned behavior are discussed as likely explanations of reported academic misconduct differences between the two countries.