Academic Misconduct among Business Students: A Comparison of the US and UAE
A survey of 345 undergraduate business students from a medium sized southeastern 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.