Despite a wealth of prior research (e.g., Wynd and Mager, 1989; Weber, 1990; Harris, 1991; Harris and Guffey, 1991; McCabe
et al., 1991; Murphy and Boatright, 1994; Gautschi and Jones, 1998), little consensus has arisen about the goals and effectiveness
of business ethics education. Additionally, accounting academics have recently been questioned as to their commitment to accounting
ethics education (Gunz and McCutcheon, 1998). The current study examines whether accounting students' perceptions of business
ethics and the goals of accounting ethics education are fundamentally different from the perceptions of accounting faculty
members. The study uses a survey instrument to elicit student and faculty responses to various questions concerning the importance
of business ethics and accounting ethics education. Statistical analyses indicate that students consider both business ethics
and the goals of accounting ethics education to be more important than faculty members. Implications of these results for
accounting faculty members interested in accounting ethics education are discussed.
accounting ethics - expectations gap - faculty - perceptions - students