Efforts to promote ethical behaviour in business and academic contexts have raised awareness of the need for an ethical orientation
in business students. This study examines the similarities and differences between the personal values of Iranian and Australian
business students and their attitudes to cheating behaviour in universities and unethical practices in business settings.
Exploratory factory analysis provided support for three distinct ethics factors—serious academic ethical misconduct, minor
academic ethical misconduct, and business ethical misconduct. Results reveal statistically significant differences between
the two cultural groups for ethical (altruism/universalism) values, and for attitudes to serious academic misconduct. No differences
were found between the two groups for attitudes to minor academic unethical practices or unethical business practices. Gender
influenced responses where females were found to indicate higher levels of unacceptability of unethical practices in academic
and business settings than males. This pilot study highlights the need for higher education institutions to develop and enforce
policies and practices to publicise, encourage and reinforce higher awareness of the need for adhering to ethical behaviour
in university studies as a necessary component of training business professionals.
Keywords Cheating behaviour - Academic and business dishonesty - Cultural differences - Demographic differences