08832323.2015.1081863
Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Does Ethicality Wane With Adulthood? A Study of
the Ethical Values of Entrepreneurship Students
and Nascent Entrepreneurs
Fernando Lourenço, Natalie Sappleton & Ranis Cheng
To cite this article: Fernando Lourenço, Natalie Sappleton & Ranis Cheng (2015) Does
Ethicality Wane With Adulthood? A Study of the Ethical Values of Entrepreneurship
Students and Nascent Entrepreneurs, Journal of Education for Business, 90:7, 385-393, DOI:
10.1080/08832323.2015.1081863
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2015.1081863
Published online: 18 Sep 2015.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 34
View related articles
View Crossmark data
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji]
Date: 11 January 2016, At: 19:40
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS, 90: 385–393, 2015
Copyright Ó Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0883-2323 print / 1940-3356 online
DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2015.1081863
Does Ethicality Wane With Adulthood? A Study of
the Ethical Values of Entrepreneurship Students and
Nascent Entrepreneurs
Fernando Lourenço
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
Institute for Tourism Studies, Macau SAR, China
Natalie Sappleton
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
Ranis Cheng
Sheffield University, Sheffield, UK
The authors examined the following questions: Does gender influence the ethicality of
enterprise students to a greater extent than it does nascent entrepreneurs? If this is the case,
then is it due to factors associated with adulthood such as age, work experience, marital
status, and parental status? Sex-role socialization theory and moral development theory are
used to support the development of hypotheses. A total of 128 undergraduate business
enterprise students and 204 nascent entrepreneurs participated in this study. Ordinary least
squares regression was used to produce estimates to support hypothesis testing. The findings
suggest implications for entrepreneurship education and future research in this area.
Keywords: business enterprise students, business responsibility, entrepreneurship, gender,
ethics, nascent entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship education is a critical intervention to
stimulate entrepreneurial behavior, an enterprise culture, to
promote business startups and minimize failure rates. In
higher education (HE), courses in entrepreneurship first
emerged and grew in the United States in the late 1970s,
later spreading into Europe, and more recently increasing
in status in developing countries such as the BRIC nations
(Lourenço & Jones, 2006). As an educational discipline,
entrepreneurship is also beginning to embrace and tackle
issues such as ethics, corporate social responsibility as well
as sustainable development to support social wellbeing,
environmental protection and economic prosperity. The
growth of the sustainability agenda worldwide necessitates
the development of business education and knowledge that
suits the modern business environment. The power of mass
Correspondence should be sent to Fernando Lourenço, Institute for
Tourism Studies, Colina de Mong-Ha, Macau SAR, China. E-mail: fernandolourenco@ift.edu.mo
media, social networks, and the Internet may have also
played a role in this development. Greater connectivity
means that any wrong doings of corporations can be easily
recognized, shared and admonished by consumers across
the world.
Evidence of how responsibility can improve the competitiveness and financial performance of businesses has been
documented in a broad range of studies (Peloza, 2009).
This is exemplified in a number of special issues of management education journals, focusing, for example, on: education for sustainable development (Egri & Rogers, 2003;
Rusinko & Sama, 2009; Starik, Rands, Marcus, & Clark,
2010), ethics and social responsibility (Beggs, Dean, Gillespie, & Weiner, 2006; Giacalone & Thompson, 2006b), and
responsible management education (Forray & Leigh, 2012).
There is still a lot be learned, however, particularly in
entrepreneurship, which arguably is still an emerging subdiscipline of business and management. One difficulty with
the previous literature is that researchers have tended to
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
386
F. LOURENÇO ET AL.
evaluate the ethical perceptions and attitudes of business
students while extrapolating the findings to business owners
or executives (Bampton & Maclagan, 2009). Where businesspeople have been studied, it is rare for researchers to
study samples of entrepreneurs. Rather, the ethical attitudes
and actions of line managers (Harris, 1990), business executives (Dawson, 1997), or employees in single occupations
such as accountants (Jones & Hiltebeital, 1995) have been
examined. We contend that it is important to study the attitudes of those engage in entrepreneurship, rather than managers because entrepreneurs’ personal value system and
that of the organization are often one and the same (Sethi &
Sama, 1998).
Business education has an important role to play in shaping the values and attitudes of students who will eventually
become business practitioners, entrepreneurs, and leaders.
A broad range of studies has examined the ethical values of
business students and practitioners; however, little research
has explicitly focused on those engaged in entrepreneurship
courses. In this study we aimed to investigate the relationship between aspects of adulthood (gender, age, work experience, marital status, and parental status) and business
ethical values among undergraduate enterprise students and
nascent entrepreneurs. Following Reynolds (1997), nascent
entrepreneurs are defined as individuals committing time
and resources to starting up a new business. Sex-role socialization theory and moral development theory are used to
explain the assumptions made in this research.
The following section begins with review of previous
studies on business ethics education leading to an exploration how gender differences may influence the ethical values of learners. The effect adulthood has on the moral
development of individuals is discussed and a series of
hypotheses regarding the relative manner in which female
and male enterprise students and nascent entrepreneurs
respond to ethical business statements are proposed.
Hypotheses are then tested using two samples of business
enterprise undergraduates and nascent entrepreneurs. We
conclude with implications for practice and future research.
BUSINESS ETHICS: STUDENTS, ADULTS, AND
GENDER
The business school is a critical agent in the socialization
process (Langenderfer & Rockness, 1989; Peery, 1968). It
has the potential to influence the process of moral development and, hence, the ethical behavior of students and future
practitioners (for example, see Rest, 1979). Critics have
suggested that conventional business education prescribes a
mindset that favors profit maximization and materialism
whereby aspects such as social responsibility and ethicality
are neglected (Ghoshal, 2005; Giacalone & Thompson,
2006a; Mitroff, 2004). Education of this type may promote
morally reprehensible behaviors in business students. For
example, studies on cheating behavior found that business
students are more likely to cheat on exams (McCabe, Butterfild, & Trevi~no, 2006). Moreover, business students are
more likely to engage in unethical behaviors, have higher
propensity for material rewards, tend to favor Machiavellian actions (Tang, Chen, & Sutarso, 2008). Similarly, work
by Klein, Levenburg, McKendall, and Mothersell (2007)
indicates that business students have lax attitudes toward
ethical behavior.
The literature, nevertheless, also provides findings that
contradict those conclusions. For example, there are metaanalyses of business ethics research failing to establish any
differences between business and nonbusiness students
(Borkowski & Ugras, 1998). Neubaum, Pagell, Drexler,
McKee-Ryan, and Larson (2009) failed to establish any differences between business and nonbusiness students on
aspects such as ethical attitudes, moral philosophy, and attitudes toward profitability and sustainability. There are also
studies that suggest a positive impact of business education
toward developing ethical values (Lopez, Rechner, &
Olson-Buchanan, 2005), developing attitudes toward sustainable development (Neubaum et al., 2009) and corporate
environmental practices (Slater & Dixon-Fowler, 2010).
The topic of gender differences in ethics has been widely
studied, and not just in the business and management literature. Several studies have found that female students are
more ethical than their male counterparts (Beltramini,
Peterson, & Kozmetsky, 1984; Chai, Lung, & Ramly,
2009). There is also evidence that females place greater
value on corporate ethical, environmental, and societal
responsibilities (L€ams€a, Vehkaper€a, Puttonen, & Pesonen,
2008). Some literature suggests that the sex-role socialization process may influence us at an early age in ways that
meet the stereotype that accords to our biological sex. For
example, according to Gilligan (1982), there is a tendency
for women to make judgments based on an ethics of care.
This concerns relationships, caring and compassion that
relate to oneself and a wider range of potential beneficiaries. It is suggested that men are more likely to judge ethical
dilemmas based on justice or rule-based reasoning processes. The rationalized moral justification tends to suit self
or corporate interest and may influence men to make less
ethical decisions. The profit maximization and shareholder
value that is taught in conventional business education may
have reinforced the notion of business in accordance with
the stereotypical male sex role.
There is evidence, nevertheless, indicating that gender
differences eventually disappear when individuals reach
adulthood and become professionals, possibly because
exposure to professional roles enforces similarities between
sexes in ethical behavior (Betz, O’Connell, & Shepard,
1989). As individuals age, they are repeatedly exposed to
social norms that have the potential to influence their values
and behaviors via the socialization process (Mujtaba &
Sims, 2006). These social norms have their own ethical
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
ETHICAL VALUES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDENTS
standards and values. Social norms are attached to different
institutions, such as families, culture, schools, media, workplace, and networks. More exposure to social norms and
ethical standards will take place as an individual grows into
adulthood. This phase of life will affect their values toward
ethics, as well as values that fit their current roles (Mujtaba
& Sims, 2006). Serwinek (1992) suggests that such changes
are due to the effect of social influences that increase the
conservative position on ethics held by individuals as they
age. The longer a person is exposed to standards permeating
all life activities, the more likely a person will be to accept
those standards. Known unethical behaviors can potentially
jeopardise adults’ financial security as well as their status
quo in business and in society (Lerner, 1980).
Based on the findings and assumptions derived from the
literature discussed previously, the first hypothesis was proposed to examine if gender differences disappear among
adult nascent entrepreneurs engaging in business startup
program compared to undergraduate business enterprise
students:
Hypothesis 1 (H1): Gender would be significantly
related to ethical values of enterprise students but
not among adult nascent entrepreneurs.
387
business students have positive attitudes toward sustainability and have stronger intentions to work for responsible
companies compared to junior business students (Neubaum
et al., 2009).
Work experience has also been examined in previous
studies concerned with business ethics and sustainable
entrepreneurship. Previous research also linked life experience with moral development theory to explain ethical
behavior (Rest, 1979). Once again, results are generally
mixed. For example, one empirical study failed to produce
any significant relationship between ethical perceptions and
years of work experience among business owners and
employees (Serwinek, 1992). Parsa and Lankford (1999)
found that experienced master of business administration
students exhibited lower ethical values compared to undergraduate students. Kraft and Singhapakdi (1991) found that
business managers exhibited less concern for ecology compared to business students. Another study found that students with greater levels of experience appear to be more
ethically oriented (Eweje & Brunton, 2010). Glover,
Bumpus, Sharp, and Munchus (2002) suggested that age
and years of work experience moderate the relationship
between gender and ethics. As previous studies offer little
consistency, this study draws on the theory of moral development to assume that age and work experience are positively related to values toward ethical business practice:
THE EFFECT OF ADULTHOOD
Greater exposure to social norms and ethical standards will
take place as an individual grows into adulthood. This
phase of life will affect their values toward ethics and values that fit their current roles (Mujtaba & Sims, 2006). The
theory of moral development as proposed by Kohlberg
(1969) and later extended in by Rest (1979) explains how
age is related to the development of ethical values. This theory suggests that morality and ethicality evolve over time,
via multiple moral developmental stages. The older an individual is, the longer the period of moral development a person will have. This leads to higher level of moral reasoning
that will influence ethical values and behaviors.
Age has been used in many empirical studies to examine
its effect on ethical reasoning and behavior. Empirical
investigations yield, to some extent, inconsistent outcomes.
For example, there are studies that have produced few significant differences between individuals of different ages in
terms of ethics (Burton & Casey, 1980; Eweje & Brunton,
2010). In one study, senior students displayed more unethical behavior than junior students (Tse & Au, 1997). There
is also a broad range of studies yielding contradictory findings. For example, Borkowski and Ugras’s (1998) metaanalysis of ethics studies found that older students exhibited
higher ethical attitudes than younger students. Rawwas and
Singhapakdi’s (1998) study also indicated that a person’s
ethical values grows with age. A recent study of undergraduate business students in the United States found that senior
H2: Among enterprise students and adult nascent entrepreneurs, age would be positively related to attitudes toward business ethics.
H3: Among enterprise students and adult nascent entrepreneurs, work experience would be positively related to
attitudes toward business ethics.
As argued in Serwinek (1992), we are all exposed to
social norms that influence our values and behaviors. Social
norms are attached to different institutions, such as families, culture, schools, media, workplace and networks. Having a family and children, will inevitably expose a person
to social norms associated with such life situation and roles
that requires care for others and nurturance. Individuals
learn and internalize these roles and ethical standards via
the socialization process and therefore develop their moral
attitudes and values that fit their current roles. Empirical
studies in this particular aspect are lacking and the findings
of those that do exist are inconclusive (Swaidan, Vitell, &
Rawwas, 2003). On the one hand, there are studies that did
not find any relationship between ethics and parental status
(Serwinek, 1992) and marital status (Rawwas & Isakson,
2000; Serwinek, 1992). On the other hand, Premeaux
(2005) discovered that married individuals are more likely
to cheat on exams and another study argued that outside
commitments increase the tendency toward cheating (Nowell, 1997). Erffmeyer, Keillor, and LeClair (1999) found
that married people are more likely to accept questionable
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
388
F. LOURENÇO ET AL.
practices compared to single individuals, and are more
likely to be classified as relativists or Machiavellians than
unmarried individuals. There is also a range of studies that
indicates that having family responsibilities may influence
a person’s ethical values and behavior. For example, Devitt
and Hise (2002) found that family responsibilities affect a
person’s ethical judgment and decision-making process.
Spence and Lozano (2000) found that informal mechanisms
(e.g., family) can influence business owners’ attitudes
toward ethical issues. Poorsoltan, Amin, and Tootoonchi
(1991) produced findings that suggest that married students
are more conservative and moral than those that are single.
This study follows the assumptions of sex-role socialization
theory (Blau, Ferber, & Winkler, 2006; Holmes, 2007) and
moral development theory (Kohlberg, 1984; Rest, 1979) to
suggest that marital status and parental status will significantly affect adult nascent entrepreneurs attitudes toward
business ethics:
H4: Among adult nascent entrepreneurs, marital status
would be positively related to attitudes toward business ethics.
H5: Among adult nascent entrepreneurs, parental status
would be significantly related to attitudes toward business ethics.
METHODOLOGY
Participants
This study includes a group of undergraduate business
enterprise students at a University Business School in the
Northwest of England and a group of nascent entrepreneurs
undergoing a government-funded business startup program
run by the same University. Training sessions designed to
assist individuals seeking to start-up and manage a small
business were exposed to these two sample groups. Participants completed and returned a survey that included multiple items examining attitudes toward business ethics. In
order to reduce socially desired responses, participants
were informed that the survey results would be treated
anonymously, their perceptions treated as confidential and
their data would not be used to assess their performance in
the training program. The returned questionnaires were collected via a designated box outside the classroom as an
additional anonymity strategy. A 100% response rate was
obtained although participation in the survey was strictly
and expressly voluntary. A total of 128 students and 204
nascent entrepreneurs completed the survey.
Measures and Analysis
Twelve statements probing respondents’ attitudes to a variety of ethical statements were used in the questionnaire.
Four items were adopted from the new environmental paradigm scale (Noe & Snow, 1990; Roberts, 1996), four items
from the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility
scale (Singhapakdi, Vitell, Rallapalli, & Kraft, 1996) and
another four items adopted the attitude toward business
ethics questionnaire (Etheredge, 1999). Examples of these
statements are social responsibility and profitability can be
compatible; good ethics is often good business; moral values are irrelevant to the business world; the only moral of
business is making money. The respondents rated their
agreement to each of the items using a 5-point Likert-type
scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly
agree).
The dependent variables for gender were coded 1 D
male and 2 D female. Occupation was coded 1 D student
and 2 D entrepreneur. The independent variables, age and
years of work experience, were treated as continuous variables. These two variables were used to represent the extant
length of exposure to social norms. Entrepreneurs that were
not married or living with partner were coded 0, and entrepreneurs that were married or living with a partner were
coded 1. Entrepreneurs without children were coded 0;
those with children were coded 1. These two variables were
used to represent the exposure to key life phase associated
to adulthood.
We adopted the statistical software program SPSS
(ver. 19) for Windows to analyze the data collected from
the questionnaires. The use of principal component analysis
supported the refinement of the constructs for hypothesis
testing. Ordinary least squares regression was used to produce estimates to support hypothesis testing. For ease of
interpretation, separate tests were run for the student and
entrepreneur samples.
FINDINGS
The age, years of work experience, and education level differ between the two samples (Table 1). Students were
around 12–14 years younger than the nascent entrepreneurs
and had 13–14 years less work experience, and the majority
of the student sample were single compared to around half
of the entrepreneur sample who were married or living with
partner and had children.
Principal components analysis with a varimax solution
was used to construct indices of ethics. Bartlett’s test of
sphericity was significant at p < .001 and a Kaiser-MeyerOlkin measure of sampling adequacy of 0.830 indicated
that it was acceptable to proceed with the analysis. Components with eigenvalues of 1 or above were selected and factors loadings above 0.4 were considered acceptable
(Stevens, 2002). The results of the principal components
analysis are reported in Table 2. All items loaded powerfully onto one of three factors with minimal cross loading.
Together, the factors explain 53.18% of the total variance
389
ETHICAL VALUES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDENTS
TABLE 1
Descriptive Characteristics
Student sample
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
Mean age (years)
Mean years of work experience
Educated to undergraduate level (%)
Has children (%)
Marital status (%)
Single
Married/living with partner
Other
Entrepreneur sample
Male (n D 84)
Female (n D 44)
Male (n D 100)
Female (n D 104)
21.2
2.2
100
0
21.9
3.2
100
2.3
36
17.1
39.1
51
34
15.2
44.1
49.5
94.0
3.6
2.4
70.5
29.5
0.0
42.2
50
7.8
47.7
46.8
5.5
in the data. Cronbach’s alpha scores were calculated for
each factor in order to determine reliability. Only factor 1
reached the minimum acceptable figure of 0.7 recommended by Nunnally (1978), and this factor is used for subsequent analysis.
Consistent with the previous literature, the regression
shows an effect for gender in the student sample, but this
variable loses its significance in the sample of nascent
entrepreneurs (see Table 3 for the results of the ordinary
least squares regression). Attitudes toward business ethics
are lower among male compared to female enterprise students. The t-test revealed that in statistical terms, female
students (M D ¡0.22, SD D 0.87) were more ethical than
male students (M D 0.49, SD D 1.07), t D 2.19, p < .001.
Attitudes toward business ethics were lower among enterprise students compared to nascent entrepreneurs. The
result derived from a t-test revealed that students (M D
0.25, SD D 1.06) were less ethical than nascent entrepreneurs (M D ¡0.15, SD D 0.94), t D 3.66, p < .001. As suggested by H1, there was no sex difference between nascent
entrepreneurs. Women and men indicate positive signs of
ethical attitudes. Hence women (M D ¡0.20, SD D 0.95)
and men (M D ¡0.11, SD D 0.91) nascent entrepreneurs
were not statistically different in our study, t D 0.65, p D
.515. This provides support for H1; however, the assumptions that age, years of work experience, marital status, and
parental status had an effect on the ethicality are not supported across all samples. This suggests a lack of support
for H2–H5.
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
This study indicates that female enterprise students are significantly more ethical than their male counterparts. This
study suggests that sex-role socialization has a role in shaping the attitudes of these young individuals. In the case of
female students, the stereotypical role played by women is
internalized at an early age and via this process they are
nurtured to be more caring, have greater concern with relationships and their behavior is more inclined to support
relationships in such a way as to gain approval by others
TABLE 2
Principle Component Analysis
Factor loadings
Factor 1
(a D .81)
If survival of business enterprise is at stake, then ethics and social responsibility must be ignored.a
To remain competitive in a global environment, business firms will have to disregard ethics and social responsibility.a
A person who is doing well in business does not have to worry about moral problems.
The only moral of business is making money.
Moral values are irrelevant to the business world.
Mankind was created to rule over the rest of nature.a
Humans need not adapt to the natural environment because they can remake it to suit their needs.a
Social responsibility and profitability can be compatible.
Humans must live in harmony with nature in order to survive.
Good ethics is often good business.
The earth is like a spaceship with only limited room and resources.
The business world has its own rules.
a
Item was reverse-coded.
Factor 2
(a D .55)
Factor 3
(a D .44)
.749
.742
.717
.694
.634
.615
.568
.803
.721
.538
.84
.732
390
F. LOURENÇO ET AL.
TABLE 3
Ordinary Least Squares Regression, by Sample
Students
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
Constant
Gender
Experience
Age
Marital status
Children
F
R2
Adjusted R2
Entrepreneurs
B
SE B
b
3.18**
¡0.69***
0.03
¡0.10
1.08
0.19
0.03
0.05
.31
.08
¡.17
6.03***
.13
.11
B
SE B
b
0.16
¡0.04
0.00
¡0.01
¡0.18
0.16
0.48
.02
¡.02
0.42
0.14
0.00
0.02
0.15
0.16
¡.02
.05
¡.10
¡.10
.09
Note. For marital status and children, analysis was not conducted among
the student sample.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
(Barnett & Karson, 1989; McCabe, Ingram, & Dato-on,
2006). The stereotypical traits of male behavior reflect the
business ideal of the free market society where organizational success depends on the aggressive nature manifested
in the behavior of its employees (McCabe et al., 2006;
Spence, 1993; Spence & Buckner, 2000). Such values could
have been reinforced among male enterprise students via
their business education (Giacalone, 2004, 2007; Giacalone
& Thompson, 2006a) and this could potentially explain
their relatively low ethicality. This suggests implications
for business schools to improve the moral development of
male enterprise students, in particular, in order to develop
their values toward responsible business. This area proves
to be heating up in recent entrepreneurship journals in the
forms of ethics in entrepreneurship, responsible entrepreneurship, green entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and sustainable entrepreneurship.
Business ethics has been an integral aspect of most business curriculum. Entrepreneurship education can benefit by
building sustainability and ethicality into the content of its
content. For example, Paschall and W€
ustenhagen (2012)
offered suggestions regarding the use of role-play activities
to teach social responsibility and sustainability. Role-play
activities can be adapted where students have to start up
and run micro enterprises to teach entrepreneurship as well
as how to make a business sustainable, responsible, and ethical (McCormick & Gray, 2011). Moreover, students can
become the champions for their university, encouraging
pedagogics to develop new policies with the capacity to
create a responsible and entrepreneurial university (Lavine
& Roussin, 2012). There are opportunities to engage students in action research (Benn & Dunphy, 2009), where
critical thinking (Kearins & Springett, 2003) and systems
thinking (Porter & C
ordoba, 2009) are applied via servicelearning strategies (McCrea, 2010). This particular activity
allows students to engage in a range of community projects
to manage stakeholders’ expectations and to identify
entrepreneurial solutions that are sustainable and responsible (Collins & Kearins, 2007). There is scope for opportunity identification and innovation courses with a focus on
sustainable business practices and sustainable innovation
(Steketee, 2009; Viswanathan, 2012). There is also room
for courses on making specific business functions sustainable, responsible and ethical (Walker, Gough, Bakker,
Knight, & McBain, 2009). Furthermore, it is important to
raise the point that success can come from both sexes
throughout the learning process. Multiple cases and role
models from both sexes should be used to highlight this
point. The ultimate aim is to improve students awareness as
well as providing students with opportunities to implement
these ideas to do well in business (Cordano, Ellis, &
Scherer, 2003).
This study provides evidence that both male and female
adult nascent entrepreneurs are generally equal in terms of
their level of ethicality. This supports the argument that
gender differences between students disappear among older
samples and professionals (Betz et al., 1989). This has
implications for future research because it suggests that
enterprise students do not serve as a valid proxy to explain
the attitudes of nascent entrepreneurs who are older, have
longer work experience, and have different marital and
parental status. This study argues that the development of
ethical values can be due to the exposure of social norms
and influences associated to being in adulthood. This
study, nonetheless, informs us that being married or living
with a partner and having children has no effect on ethical
values toward business practice among nascent entrepreneurs. Similar to previous research (e.g., Burton & Casey,
1980; Eweje & Brunton, 2010), this study also failed to
uncover any relationship between work experience, age
and ethicality. Future statistical models should move
beyond simple socio-demographic variables to explain the
disappearance of the gender gap (Tavris, 1992). It has
been suggested that multidimensional social-psychologicalenvironmental constructs will contribute to a deeper understanding of ethical perceptions of individuals (Lan, Gowing, McMahon, Rieger, & King, 2008; McCabe et al.,
2006). Values held by each individual will have significant
impacts on the reasoning and decision-making process
leading to actual behavior (see the review of Lan et al.,
2008). Our personal values and perceptions of desirable or
ideal behavior will influence the evaluation of actions and
moral reasoning (Jones, 1991; Rokeach, 1967). Schwartz
(2005) argued that our priorities among different values
are only understood when judgments or actions have conflicting implications. How we prioritize values and make
trade-offs will inevitably influence our moral reasoning
processes and behaviors. Previous studies provide some
evidence to support these assumptions (for example, Fritzsche & Oz, 2007; Lan et al., 2008).
To overcome the limitations of the present study,
future researchers should examine social-psychological-
ETHICAL VALUES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDENTS
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
environmental constructs according to the way in which
values are formed during the socialization process. For
example, studies can be established by investigating the
values held by individual and family, school and university, peers and colleagues, workplace, previous education, work experience, and via other social groups and
social institutions (e.g., community, culture, business
sector). It is important to examine the influence of these
values on the moral development, moral reasoning,
moral decision making, and moral behaviors as well as
learning among business practitioners and entrepreneurs,
in particular.
CONCLUSION
We investigated the ethicality of undergraduate business
enterprise students and adult nascent entrepreneurs. The
findings indicate that male enterprise students have lower
ethical attitudes toward business compared to female
enterprise students and adult nascent entrepreneurs.
Moreover, a gender gap only exists between young enterprise students; this disparity disappears among the adult
nascent entrepreneurs. The findings suggest that being in
adulthood—as explained by age, work experience, marital status and parental status—is not a significant factor
that affects the ethicality of individuals. Future researchers will benefit from the examination of more complex
variables, such as the values associated with different
social groups and social institutions. This study contributes to business ethics studies and ethics education by
testing a range of previously held assumptions on two
samples that have, up to now, been neglected in this field
of research.
REFERENCES
Bampton, R., & Maclagan, P. (2009). Does a ‘care orientation’ explain
gender differences in ethical decision making? A critical analysis and
fresh findings. Business Ethics: A European Review, 18, 179–191.
Barnett, J. H., & Karson, M. J. (1989). Managers, values, and executive
decisions: An exploration of the role of gender, career stage, organizational level, function, and the importance of ethics, relationships and
results in managerial decision-making. Journal of Business Ethics, 8,
747–771.
Beggs, J. M., Dean, K. L., Gillespie, J., & Weiner, J. (2006). The unique challenges of ethics instruction. Journal of Management Education, 30, 5–10.
Beltramini, R. F., Peterson, R. A., & Kozmetsky, G. (1984). Concerns of
college students regarding business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 3,
195–200.
Benn, S., & Dunphy, D. (2009). Action research as an approach to integrating sustainability into MBA programs: An exploratory study. Journal of
Management Education, 33, 276–295.
Betz, M., O’Connell, L., & Shepard, J. M. (1989). Gender differences in
proclivity for unethical behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 8,
321–324.
391
Blau, F., Ferber, M. A., & Winkler, A. E. (2006). The economics of women,
men and work. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Borkowski, S. C., & Ugras, Y. J. (1998). Business students and ethics: A
meta-analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 17, 1117–1127.
Burton, R. V., & Casey, W. M. (Eds.). (1980). Moral development. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Chai, L. T., Lung, C. K., & Ramly, Z. (2009). Exploring ethical orientation
of future business leaders in Malaysia. International Review of Business
Research Papers, 50, 109–120.
Collins, E., & Kearins, K. (2007). Exposing students to the potential and
risks of stakeholder engagement when teaching sustainability: A classroom exercise. Journal of Management Education, 31, 521–540.
Cordano, K. M., Ellis, K. M., & Scherer, R. F. (2003). Natural capitalists:
Increasing business students’ environmental sensitivity. Journal of Management Education, 27, 144–157.
Dawson, L. M. (1997). Ethical differences between men and women in the
sales profession. Journal of Business Ethics, 16, 1143–1152.
Devitt, R. M., & Hise, J. V. (2002). Influences in ethical dilemmas of
increasing intensity. Journal of Business Ethics, 40, 261–274.
Egri, C. P., & Rogers, K. S. (2003). Teaching about the natural environment in management education: new directions and approaches. Journal
of Management Education, 27, 139–143.
Erffmeyer, R. C., Keillor, B. D., & LeClair, D. T. (1999). An empirical
investigation of Japanese consumer ethics. Journal of Business Ethics,
18, 35–50.
Etheredge, J. M. (1999). The perceived role of ethics and social responsibility: An alternative scale structure. Journal of Business Ethics, 18, 51–64.
Eweje, G., & Brunton, M. (2010). Ethical perceptions of business students
in a New Zealand university: Do gender, age and work experience matter? Business Ethics: A European Review, 19, 95–111.
Forray, J. M., & Leigh, J. S. A. (2012). A primer on the principles of
responsible management education: Intellectual roots and waves of
change. Journal of Management Education, 36, 295–309.
Fritzsche, D., & Oz, R. (2007). Personal values’ influence on the ethical
dimension of decision making. Journal of Business Ethics, 75, 335–343.
Ghoshal, S. (2005). Bad management theories are destroying good management practice. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4,
75–91.
Giacalone, R. A. (2004). A transcendent business education for the 21st
century. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 3, 415–420.
Giacalone, R. A. (2007). Taking a Red Pill to disempower unethical students: Creating ethical sentinels in business schools. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 6, 534–542.
Giacalone, R. A., & Thompson, K. R. (2006a). Business ethics and social
responsibility education: Shifting the worldview. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 266–277.
Giacalone, R. A., & Thompson, K. R. (2006b). From the guest co-editors:
Special issue on ethics and social responsibility. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 261–265.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Glover, S. H., Bumpus, M. A., Sharp, G. F., & Munchus, G. A. (2002).
Gender differences in ethical decision making. Women in Management
Review, 17, 217–227.
Harris, J. (1990). Ethical values of individuals at different levels in the organizational hierarchy of a single firm. Journal of Business Ethics, 9, 741–750.
Holmes, M. (2007). What is gender? London, England: Sage.
Jones, S. K., & Hiltebeital, K. M. (1995). Organizational influence in a
model of the moral decision process of accoutants. Journal of Business
Ethics, 14, 417–431.
Jones, T. M. (1991). Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issue-contingent model. Academy of Management Review, 16,
366–395.
Kearins, K., & Springett, D. (2003). Educating for sustainability: Developing critical skills. Journal of Management Education, 27, 188–204.
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
392
F. LOURENÇO ET AL.
Klein, H. A., Levenburg, N. M., McKendall, M., & Mothersell, W. (2007).
Cheating during the college years: How do business school students
compare? Journal of Business Ethics, 72, 197–206.
Kohlberg, L. (1984). Essays on moral development. San Francisco CA:
Harper and Row.
Kohlberg, L. (Ed.). (1969). Stage sequence: The cognitive-developmental
approach to socialization. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
Kraft, K. L., & Singhapakdi, A. (1991). The role of ethics and social
responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness: Students versus
managers. Journal of Business Ethics, 10, 679–689.
L€ams€a, A. M., Vehkaper€a, M., Puttonen, T., & Pesonen, H. L. (2008). Effect
of business education on women and men students attitudes on corporate
responsibility in society. Journal of Business Ethics, 82, 45–58.
Lan, G., Gowing, M., McMahon, S., Rieger, F., & King, N. (2008). A study
of the relationship between personal values and moral reasoning of undergraduate business students. Journal of Business Ethics, 78, 121–139.
Langenderfer, H., & Rockness, J. (1989). Integrating ethics into the
accounting curriculum: Issues, problems and solutions. Issues in
Accounting Education, 4, 58–69.
Lavine, M. H., & Roussin, C. J. (2012). From idea to action: Promoting
responsible management education through a semester-long academic
integrity learning project. Journal of Management Education, 36, 428–455.
Lerner, M. (1980). The belief in a just world. New York, NY: Plenum.
Lopez, Y. P., Rechner, P. L., & Olson-Buchanan, J. B. (2005). Shaping ethical perceptions: An empirical assessment of the influence of business
education, culture, and demographic factors. Journal of Business Ethics,
60, 341–358.
Lourenço, F., & Jones, O. (2006). Developing entrepreneurship education:
Comparing traditional and alternative teaching approaches. International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 4, 111–140.
McCabe, A. C., Ingram, R., & Dato-on, M. C. (2006). The business of
ethics and gender. Journal of Business Ethics, 64, 101–116.
McCabe, D. L., Butterfield, K. D., & Trevi~no, L. K. (2006). Academic dishonesty in graduate business programs: Prevalence, causes, and proposed
action. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 294–305.
McCormick, B., & Gray, V. (2011). Message in a bottle: Basic business
lessons for entrepreneurs using only a soft drink. Journal of Management Education, 35, 282–310.
McCrea, E. A. (2010). Integrating service-learning into an introduction
to entrepreneurship course. Journal of Management Education, 34,
39–61.
Mitroff, I. (2004). An open letter to the deans and the faculties of American
Business Schools. Journal of Business Ethics, 54, 185–189.
Mujtaba, B. G., & Sims, R. L. (2006). Socializing retail employees in ethical values: The effectiveness of the formal versus informal methods.
Journal of Business and Psychology, 21, 261–272.
Neubaum, D. O., Pagell, M., Drexler, J. A. Jr., McKee-Ryan, F. M., & Larson, E. (2009). Business education and its relationship to student personal moral philosophies and attitudes toward profits: An empirical
response to critics. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 8,
9–24.
Noe, F. P., & Snow, R. (1990). The new environmentalism paradigm and
further scale analysis. Journal of Environmental Education, 21(4), 20–
26.
Nowell, C. (1997). Undergraduate student cheating in the fields of business. Journal of Economic Education, 28, 3–13.
Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric theory. New York, NY: MacGraw-Hill.
Parsa, F., & Lankford, W. M. (1999). Student’s views of business ethics:
an analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 29, 1045–1057.
Paschall, M., & W€
ustenhagen, R. (2012). More than a game: Learning
about climate change through role-play. Journal of Management Education, 36, 510–543.
Peery, W. G. (1968). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in
the college years: A scheme. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston.
Peloza, J. (2009). The challenge of measuring financial impacts from
investments in corporate social performance. Journal of Management,
35, 1518–1541.
Poorsoltan, K., Amin, S., & Tootoonchi, A. (1991). Business ethics:
Views of future leaders. S.A.M. Advanced Management Journal, 56,
4–10.
Porter, T., & Cordoba, J. (2009). Three views of systems theories and their
implications for sustainability education. Journal of Management Education, 33, 323–347.
Premeaux, S. R. (2005). Undergraduate student perceptions regarding
cheating: Tier 1 versus Tier 2 AACSB accredited business schools.
Journal of Business Ethics, 62, 407–418.
Rawwas, M. Y. A., & Isakson, H. (2000). Ethics of tomorrow’s business
managers: The influence of personal beliefs and values, individual characteristics, and situational factors. Journal of Education for Business,
75, 321–330.
Rawwas, M. Y. A., & Singhapakdi, A. (1998). Do consumers’ ethical
beliefs vary with age? A substantiation of Kohlberg’s typology in marketing. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 6, 26–38.
Rest, J. R. (1979). Development in judging moral issues. Minneapolis,
MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Reynolds, P. D. (1997). Who starts new firms? Preliminary explorations of
firms-in-gestation. Small Business Economics, 9, 449–462.
Roberts, A. J. (1996). Green consumer in 1990s: Profile and implications
for advertising. Journal of Business Research, 36, 217–231.
Rokeach, M. (1967). Value survey. Sunnyvale, CA: Halgren Tests.
Rusinko, C. A., & Sama, L. M. (2009). Greening and sustainability across
the management curriculum: An extended journey. Journal of Management Education, 33, 271–275.
Schwartz, M. S. (2005). Universal moral values for corporate codes of
ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 59, 27–44.
Serwinek, P. (1992). Demographic & related differences in ethical views
among small businesses. Journal of Business Ethics, 11, 555–566.
Sethi, S. P., & Sama, L. M. (1998). Ethical behavior as a strategic choice by
large corporations: The interactive effect of marketplace competition,
industry structure and firm resources. Business Ethics Quarterly, 8, 85–104.
Singhapakdi, A., Vitell, S. J., Rallapalli, K. C., & Kraft, K. L. (1996). The
perceived role of ethics and social responsibility: A scale development.
Journal of Business Ethics, 15, 1131–1140.
Slater, D. J., & Dixon-Fowler, H. R. (2010). The future of the planer in the
hands of MBAs: An examination of CEO MBA education and corporate
environmental performance. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 9, 429–441.
Spence, J. T. (1993). Gender-related traits and gender ideology: Evidence
for a multifactorial theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 624–635.
Spence, J. T., & Buckner, C. E. (2000). Instrumental and expressive traits,
trait stereotypes, and sexist attitudes. Psychology of Women Quarterly,
24, 44–62.
Spence, L. J., & Lozano, J. F. (2000). Communicating about ethics with
small firms: Experiences from the U.K. and Spain. Journal of Business
Ethics, 27, 43–53.
Starik, M., Rands, G., Marcus, A. A., & Clark, T. S. (2010). From the guest
editors: In search of sustainability in management education. Academy
of Management Learning & Education, 9, 377–383.
Steketee, D. (2009). A million decisions: Life on the (sustainable business)
frontier. Journal of Management Education, 33, 391–401.
Stevens, J. P. (2002). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences
(4th ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Swaidan, Z., Vitell, S. J., & Rawwas, M. Y. A. (2003). Consumer ethics:
Determinants of ethical beliefs of African Americans. Journal of Business Ethics, 46, 175–185.
Tang, T. L.-P., Chen, Y.-J., & Sutarso, T. (2008). Bad apples in bad (business) barrels:The love of money, machiavellianism, risk tolerance, and
unethical behavior. Management Decision, 46, 243–263.
ETHICAL VALUES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDENTS
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
Tavris, C. (1992). The mismeasure of woman: Why women are not the better sex, the inferior sex, or the opposite sex. London, England: Touchstone Books.
Tse, A. C. B., & Au, A. K. M. (1997). Are New Zealand business students
more unethical than non-business students. Journal of Business Ethics,
16, 445–450.
393
Viswanathan, M. (2012). Curricular innovations on sustainability and subsistence marketplaces: Philosophical, substantive, and methodological
orientations. Journal of Management Education, 36, 389–427.
Walker, H. L., Gough, S., Bakker, E. F., Knight, L. A., & McBain, D. (2009).
Greening operations management: An online sustainable procurement
course for practitioners. Journal of Management Education, 33, 348–371.
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Does Ethicality Wane With Adulthood? A Study of
the Ethical Values of Entrepreneurship Students
and Nascent Entrepreneurs
Fernando Lourenço, Natalie Sappleton & Ranis Cheng
To cite this article: Fernando Lourenço, Natalie Sappleton & Ranis Cheng (2015) Does
Ethicality Wane With Adulthood? A Study of the Ethical Values of Entrepreneurship
Students and Nascent Entrepreneurs, Journal of Education for Business, 90:7, 385-393, DOI:
10.1080/08832323.2015.1081863
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2015.1081863
Published online: 18 Sep 2015.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 34
View related articles
View Crossmark data
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji]
Date: 11 January 2016, At: 19:40
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS, 90: 385–393, 2015
Copyright Ó Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0883-2323 print / 1940-3356 online
DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2015.1081863
Does Ethicality Wane With Adulthood? A Study of
the Ethical Values of Entrepreneurship Students and
Nascent Entrepreneurs
Fernando Lourenço
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
Institute for Tourism Studies, Macau SAR, China
Natalie Sappleton
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
Ranis Cheng
Sheffield University, Sheffield, UK
The authors examined the following questions: Does gender influence the ethicality of
enterprise students to a greater extent than it does nascent entrepreneurs? If this is the case,
then is it due to factors associated with adulthood such as age, work experience, marital
status, and parental status? Sex-role socialization theory and moral development theory are
used to support the development of hypotheses. A total of 128 undergraduate business
enterprise students and 204 nascent entrepreneurs participated in this study. Ordinary least
squares regression was used to produce estimates to support hypothesis testing. The findings
suggest implications for entrepreneurship education and future research in this area.
Keywords: business enterprise students, business responsibility, entrepreneurship, gender,
ethics, nascent entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship education is a critical intervention to
stimulate entrepreneurial behavior, an enterprise culture, to
promote business startups and minimize failure rates. In
higher education (HE), courses in entrepreneurship first
emerged and grew in the United States in the late 1970s,
later spreading into Europe, and more recently increasing
in status in developing countries such as the BRIC nations
(Lourenço & Jones, 2006). As an educational discipline,
entrepreneurship is also beginning to embrace and tackle
issues such as ethics, corporate social responsibility as well
as sustainable development to support social wellbeing,
environmental protection and economic prosperity. The
growth of the sustainability agenda worldwide necessitates
the development of business education and knowledge that
suits the modern business environment. The power of mass
Correspondence should be sent to Fernando Lourenço, Institute for
Tourism Studies, Colina de Mong-Ha, Macau SAR, China. E-mail: fernandolourenco@ift.edu.mo
media, social networks, and the Internet may have also
played a role in this development. Greater connectivity
means that any wrong doings of corporations can be easily
recognized, shared and admonished by consumers across
the world.
Evidence of how responsibility can improve the competitiveness and financial performance of businesses has been
documented in a broad range of studies (Peloza, 2009).
This is exemplified in a number of special issues of management education journals, focusing, for example, on: education for sustainable development (Egri & Rogers, 2003;
Rusinko & Sama, 2009; Starik, Rands, Marcus, & Clark,
2010), ethics and social responsibility (Beggs, Dean, Gillespie, & Weiner, 2006; Giacalone & Thompson, 2006b), and
responsible management education (Forray & Leigh, 2012).
There is still a lot be learned, however, particularly in
entrepreneurship, which arguably is still an emerging subdiscipline of business and management. One difficulty with
the previous literature is that researchers have tended to
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
386
F. LOURENÇO ET AL.
evaluate the ethical perceptions and attitudes of business
students while extrapolating the findings to business owners
or executives (Bampton & Maclagan, 2009). Where businesspeople have been studied, it is rare for researchers to
study samples of entrepreneurs. Rather, the ethical attitudes
and actions of line managers (Harris, 1990), business executives (Dawson, 1997), or employees in single occupations
such as accountants (Jones & Hiltebeital, 1995) have been
examined. We contend that it is important to study the attitudes of those engage in entrepreneurship, rather than managers because entrepreneurs’ personal value system and
that of the organization are often one and the same (Sethi &
Sama, 1998).
Business education has an important role to play in shaping the values and attitudes of students who will eventually
become business practitioners, entrepreneurs, and leaders.
A broad range of studies has examined the ethical values of
business students and practitioners; however, little research
has explicitly focused on those engaged in entrepreneurship
courses. In this study we aimed to investigate the relationship between aspects of adulthood (gender, age, work experience, marital status, and parental status) and business
ethical values among undergraduate enterprise students and
nascent entrepreneurs. Following Reynolds (1997), nascent
entrepreneurs are defined as individuals committing time
and resources to starting up a new business. Sex-role socialization theory and moral development theory are used to
explain the assumptions made in this research.
The following section begins with review of previous
studies on business ethics education leading to an exploration how gender differences may influence the ethical values of learners. The effect adulthood has on the moral
development of individuals is discussed and a series of
hypotheses regarding the relative manner in which female
and male enterprise students and nascent entrepreneurs
respond to ethical business statements are proposed.
Hypotheses are then tested using two samples of business
enterprise undergraduates and nascent entrepreneurs. We
conclude with implications for practice and future research.
BUSINESS ETHICS: STUDENTS, ADULTS, AND
GENDER
The business school is a critical agent in the socialization
process (Langenderfer & Rockness, 1989; Peery, 1968). It
has the potential to influence the process of moral development and, hence, the ethical behavior of students and future
practitioners (for example, see Rest, 1979). Critics have
suggested that conventional business education prescribes a
mindset that favors profit maximization and materialism
whereby aspects such as social responsibility and ethicality
are neglected (Ghoshal, 2005; Giacalone & Thompson,
2006a; Mitroff, 2004). Education of this type may promote
morally reprehensible behaviors in business students. For
example, studies on cheating behavior found that business
students are more likely to cheat on exams (McCabe, Butterfild, & Trevi~no, 2006). Moreover, business students are
more likely to engage in unethical behaviors, have higher
propensity for material rewards, tend to favor Machiavellian actions (Tang, Chen, & Sutarso, 2008). Similarly, work
by Klein, Levenburg, McKendall, and Mothersell (2007)
indicates that business students have lax attitudes toward
ethical behavior.
The literature, nevertheless, also provides findings that
contradict those conclusions. For example, there are metaanalyses of business ethics research failing to establish any
differences between business and nonbusiness students
(Borkowski & Ugras, 1998). Neubaum, Pagell, Drexler,
McKee-Ryan, and Larson (2009) failed to establish any differences between business and nonbusiness students on
aspects such as ethical attitudes, moral philosophy, and attitudes toward profitability and sustainability. There are also
studies that suggest a positive impact of business education
toward developing ethical values (Lopez, Rechner, &
Olson-Buchanan, 2005), developing attitudes toward sustainable development (Neubaum et al., 2009) and corporate
environmental practices (Slater & Dixon-Fowler, 2010).
The topic of gender differences in ethics has been widely
studied, and not just in the business and management literature. Several studies have found that female students are
more ethical than their male counterparts (Beltramini,
Peterson, & Kozmetsky, 1984; Chai, Lung, & Ramly,
2009). There is also evidence that females place greater
value on corporate ethical, environmental, and societal
responsibilities (L€ams€a, Vehkaper€a, Puttonen, & Pesonen,
2008). Some literature suggests that the sex-role socialization process may influence us at an early age in ways that
meet the stereotype that accords to our biological sex. For
example, according to Gilligan (1982), there is a tendency
for women to make judgments based on an ethics of care.
This concerns relationships, caring and compassion that
relate to oneself and a wider range of potential beneficiaries. It is suggested that men are more likely to judge ethical
dilemmas based on justice or rule-based reasoning processes. The rationalized moral justification tends to suit self
or corporate interest and may influence men to make less
ethical decisions. The profit maximization and shareholder
value that is taught in conventional business education may
have reinforced the notion of business in accordance with
the stereotypical male sex role.
There is evidence, nevertheless, indicating that gender
differences eventually disappear when individuals reach
adulthood and become professionals, possibly because
exposure to professional roles enforces similarities between
sexes in ethical behavior (Betz, O’Connell, & Shepard,
1989). As individuals age, they are repeatedly exposed to
social norms that have the potential to influence their values
and behaviors via the socialization process (Mujtaba &
Sims, 2006). These social norms have their own ethical
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
ETHICAL VALUES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDENTS
standards and values. Social norms are attached to different
institutions, such as families, culture, schools, media, workplace, and networks. More exposure to social norms and
ethical standards will take place as an individual grows into
adulthood. This phase of life will affect their values toward
ethics, as well as values that fit their current roles (Mujtaba
& Sims, 2006). Serwinek (1992) suggests that such changes
are due to the effect of social influences that increase the
conservative position on ethics held by individuals as they
age. The longer a person is exposed to standards permeating
all life activities, the more likely a person will be to accept
those standards. Known unethical behaviors can potentially
jeopardise adults’ financial security as well as their status
quo in business and in society (Lerner, 1980).
Based on the findings and assumptions derived from the
literature discussed previously, the first hypothesis was proposed to examine if gender differences disappear among
adult nascent entrepreneurs engaging in business startup
program compared to undergraduate business enterprise
students:
Hypothesis 1 (H1): Gender would be significantly
related to ethical values of enterprise students but
not among adult nascent entrepreneurs.
387
business students have positive attitudes toward sustainability and have stronger intentions to work for responsible
companies compared to junior business students (Neubaum
et al., 2009).
Work experience has also been examined in previous
studies concerned with business ethics and sustainable
entrepreneurship. Previous research also linked life experience with moral development theory to explain ethical
behavior (Rest, 1979). Once again, results are generally
mixed. For example, one empirical study failed to produce
any significant relationship between ethical perceptions and
years of work experience among business owners and
employees (Serwinek, 1992). Parsa and Lankford (1999)
found that experienced master of business administration
students exhibited lower ethical values compared to undergraduate students. Kraft and Singhapakdi (1991) found that
business managers exhibited less concern for ecology compared to business students. Another study found that students with greater levels of experience appear to be more
ethically oriented (Eweje & Brunton, 2010). Glover,
Bumpus, Sharp, and Munchus (2002) suggested that age
and years of work experience moderate the relationship
between gender and ethics. As previous studies offer little
consistency, this study draws on the theory of moral development to assume that age and work experience are positively related to values toward ethical business practice:
THE EFFECT OF ADULTHOOD
Greater exposure to social norms and ethical standards will
take place as an individual grows into adulthood. This
phase of life will affect their values toward ethics and values that fit their current roles (Mujtaba & Sims, 2006). The
theory of moral development as proposed by Kohlberg
(1969) and later extended in by Rest (1979) explains how
age is related to the development of ethical values. This theory suggests that morality and ethicality evolve over time,
via multiple moral developmental stages. The older an individual is, the longer the period of moral development a person will have. This leads to higher level of moral reasoning
that will influence ethical values and behaviors.
Age has been used in many empirical studies to examine
its effect on ethical reasoning and behavior. Empirical
investigations yield, to some extent, inconsistent outcomes.
For example, there are studies that have produced few significant differences between individuals of different ages in
terms of ethics (Burton & Casey, 1980; Eweje & Brunton,
2010). In one study, senior students displayed more unethical behavior than junior students (Tse & Au, 1997). There
is also a broad range of studies yielding contradictory findings. For example, Borkowski and Ugras’s (1998) metaanalysis of ethics studies found that older students exhibited
higher ethical attitudes than younger students. Rawwas and
Singhapakdi’s (1998) study also indicated that a person’s
ethical values grows with age. A recent study of undergraduate business students in the United States found that senior
H2: Among enterprise students and adult nascent entrepreneurs, age would be positively related to attitudes toward business ethics.
H3: Among enterprise students and adult nascent entrepreneurs, work experience would be positively related to
attitudes toward business ethics.
As argued in Serwinek (1992), we are all exposed to
social norms that influence our values and behaviors. Social
norms are attached to different institutions, such as families, culture, schools, media, workplace and networks. Having a family and children, will inevitably expose a person
to social norms associated with such life situation and roles
that requires care for others and nurturance. Individuals
learn and internalize these roles and ethical standards via
the socialization process and therefore develop their moral
attitudes and values that fit their current roles. Empirical
studies in this particular aspect are lacking and the findings
of those that do exist are inconclusive (Swaidan, Vitell, &
Rawwas, 2003). On the one hand, there are studies that did
not find any relationship between ethics and parental status
(Serwinek, 1992) and marital status (Rawwas & Isakson,
2000; Serwinek, 1992). On the other hand, Premeaux
(2005) discovered that married individuals are more likely
to cheat on exams and another study argued that outside
commitments increase the tendency toward cheating (Nowell, 1997). Erffmeyer, Keillor, and LeClair (1999) found
that married people are more likely to accept questionable
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
388
F. LOURENÇO ET AL.
practices compared to single individuals, and are more
likely to be classified as relativists or Machiavellians than
unmarried individuals. There is also a range of studies that
indicates that having family responsibilities may influence
a person’s ethical values and behavior. For example, Devitt
and Hise (2002) found that family responsibilities affect a
person’s ethical judgment and decision-making process.
Spence and Lozano (2000) found that informal mechanisms
(e.g., family) can influence business owners’ attitudes
toward ethical issues. Poorsoltan, Amin, and Tootoonchi
(1991) produced findings that suggest that married students
are more conservative and moral than those that are single.
This study follows the assumptions of sex-role socialization
theory (Blau, Ferber, & Winkler, 2006; Holmes, 2007) and
moral development theory (Kohlberg, 1984; Rest, 1979) to
suggest that marital status and parental status will significantly affect adult nascent entrepreneurs attitudes toward
business ethics:
H4: Among adult nascent entrepreneurs, marital status
would be positively related to attitudes toward business ethics.
H5: Among adult nascent entrepreneurs, parental status
would be significantly related to attitudes toward business ethics.
METHODOLOGY
Participants
This study includes a group of undergraduate business
enterprise students at a University Business School in the
Northwest of England and a group of nascent entrepreneurs
undergoing a government-funded business startup program
run by the same University. Training sessions designed to
assist individuals seeking to start-up and manage a small
business were exposed to these two sample groups. Participants completed and returned a survey that included multiple items examining attitudes toward business ethics. In
order to reduce socially desired responses, participants
were informed that the survey results would be treated
anonymously, their perceptions treated as confidential and
their data would not be used to assess their performance in
the training program. The returned questionnaires were collected via a designated box outside the classroom as an
additional anonymity strategy. A 100% response rate was
obtained although participation in the survey was strictly
and expressly voluntary. A total of 128 students and 204
nascent entrepreneurs completed the survey.
Measures and Analysis
Twelve statements probing respondents’ attitudes to a variety of ethical statements were used in the questionnaire.
Four items were adopted from the new environmental paradigm scale (Noe & Snow, 1990; Roberts, 1996), four items
from the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility
scale (Singhapakdi, Vitell, Rallapalli, & Kraft, 1996) and
another four items adopted the attitude toward business
ethics questionnaire (Etheredge, 1999). Examples of these
statements are social responsibility and profitability can be
compatible; good ethics is often good business; moral values are irrelevant to the business world; the only moral of
business is making money. The respondents rated their
agreement to each of the items using a 5-point Likert-type
scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly
agree).
The dependent variables for gender were coded 1 D
male and 2 D female. Occupation was coded 1 D student
and 2 D entrepreneur. The independent variables, age and
years of work experience, were treated as continuous variables. These two variables were used to represent the extant
length of exposure to social norms. Entrepreneurs that were
not married or living with partner were coded 0, and entrepreneurs that were married or living with a partner were
coded 1. Entrepreneurs without children were coded 0;
those with children were coded 1. These two variables were
used to represent the exposure to key life phase associated
to adulthood.
We adopted the statistical software program SPSS
(ver. 19) for Windows to analyze the data collected from
the questionnaires. The use of principal component analysis
supported the refinement of the constructs for hypothesis
testing. Ordinary least squares regression was used to produce estimates to support hypothesis testing. For ease of
interpretation, separate tests were run for the student and
entrepreneur samples.
FINDINGS
The age, years of work experience, and education level differ between the two samples (Table 1). Students were
around 12–14 years younger than the nascent entrepreneurs
and had 13–14 years less work experience, and the majority
of the student sample were single compared to around half
of the entrepreneur sample who were married or living with
partner and had children.
Principal components analysis with a varimax solution
was used to construct indices of ethics. Bartlett’s test of
sphericity was significant at p < .001 and a Kaiser-MeyerOlkin measure of sampling adequacy of 0.830 indicated
that it was acceptable to proceed with the analysis. Components with eigenvalues of 1 or above were selected and factors loadings above 0.4 were considered acceptable
(Stevens, 2002). The results of the principal components
analysis are reported in Table 2. All items loaded powerfully onto one of three factors with minimal cross loading.
Together, the factors explain 53.18% of the total variance
389
ETHICAL VALUES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDENTS
TABLE 1
Descriptive Characteristics
Student sample
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
Mean age (years)
Mean years of work experience
Educated to undergraduate level (%)
Has children (%)
Marital status (%)
Single
Married/living with partner
Other
Entrepreneur sample
Male (n D 84)
Female (n D 44)
Male (n D 100)
Female (n D 104)
21.2
2.2
100
0
21.9
3.2
100
2.3
36
17.1
39.1
51
34
15.2
44.1
49.5
94.0
3.6
2.4
70.5
29.5
0.0
42.2
50
7.8
47.7
46.8
5.5
in the data. Cronbach’s alpha scores were calculated for
each factor in order to determine reliability. Only factor 1
reached the minimum acceptable figure of 0.7 recommended by Nunnally (1978), and this factor is used for subsequent analysis.
Consistent with the previous literature, the regression
shows an effect for gender in the student sample, but this
variable loses its significance in the sample of nascent
entrepreneurs (see Table 3 for the results of the ordinary
least squares regression). Attitudes toward business ethics
are lower among male compared to female enterprise students. The t-test revealed that in statistical terms, female
students (M D ¡0.22, SD D 0.87) were more ethical than
male students (M D 0.49, SD D 1.07), t D 2.19, p < .001.
Attitudes toward business ethics were lower among enterprise students compared to nascent entrepreneurs. The
result derived from a t-test revealed that students (M D
0.25, SD D 1.06) were less ethical than nascent entrepreneurs (M D ¡0.15, SD D 0.94), t D 3.66, p < .001. As suggested by H1, there was no sex difference between nascent
entrepreneurs. Women and men indicate positive signs of
ethical attitudes. Hence women (M D ¡0.20, SD D 0.95)
and men (M D ¡0.11, SD D 0.91) nascent entrepreneurs
were not statistically different in our study, t D 0.65, p D
.515. This provides support for H1; however, the assumptions that age, years of work experience, marital status, and
parental status had an effect on the ethicality are not supported across all samples. This suggests a lack of support
for H2–H5.
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
This study indicates that female enterprise students are significantly more ethical than their male counterparts. This
study suggests that sex-role socialization has a role in shaping the attitudes of these young individuals. In the case of
female students, the stereotypical role played by women is
internalized at an early age and via this process they are
nurtured to be more caring, have greater concern with relationships and their behavior is more inclined to support
relationships in such a way as to gain approval by others
TABLE 2
Principle Component Analysis
Factor loadings
Factor 1
(a D .81)
If survival of business enterprise is at stake, then ethics and social responsibility must be ignored.a
To remain competitive in a global environment, business firms will have to disregard ethics and social responsibility.a
A person who is doing well in business does not have to worry about moral problems.
The only moral of business is making money.
Moral values are irrelevant to the business world.
Mankind was created to rule over the rest of nature.a
Humans need not adapt to the natural environment because they can remake it to suit their needs.a
Social responsibility and profitability can be compatible.
Humans must live in harmony with nature in order to survive.
Good ethics is often good business.
The earth is like a spaceship with only limited room and resources.
The business world has its own rules.
a
Item was reverse-coded.
Factor 2
(a D .55)
Factor 3
(a D .44)
.749
.742
.717
.694
.634
.615
.568
.803
.721
.538
.84
.732
390
F. LOURENÇO ET AL.
TABLE 3
Ordinary Least Squares Regression, by Sample
Students
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
Constant
Gender
Experience
Age
Marital status
Children
F
R2
Adjusted R2
Entrepreneurs
B
SE B
b
3.18**
¡0.69***
0.03
¡0.10
1.08
0.19
0.03
0.05
.31
.08
¡.17
6.03***
.13
.11
B
SE B
b
0.16
¡0.04
0.00
¡0.01
¡0.18
0.16
0.48
.02
¡.02
0.42
0.14
0.00
0.02
0.15
0.16
¡.02
.05
¡.10
¡.10
.09
Note. For marital status and children, analysis was not conducted among
the student sample.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
(Barnett & Karson, 1989; McCabe, Ingram, & Dato-on,
2006). The stereotypical traits of male behavior reflect the
business ideal of the free market society where organizational success depends on the aggressive nature manifested
in the behavior of its employees (McCabe et al., 2006;
Spence, 1993; Spence & Buckner, 2000). Such values could
have been reinforced among male enterprise students via
their business education (Giacalone, 2004, 2007; Giacalone
& Thompson, 2006a) and this could potentially explain
their relatively low ethicality. This suggests implications
for business schools to improve the moral development of
male enterprise students, in particular, in order to develop
their values toward responsible business. This area proves
to be heating up in recent entrepreneurship journals in the
forms of ethics in entrepreneurship, responsible entrepreneurship, green entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and sustainable entrepreneurship.
Business ethics has been an integral aspect of most business curriculum. Entrepreneurship education can benefit by
building sustainability and ethicality into the content of its
content. For example, Paschall and W€
ustenhagen (2012)
offered suggestions regarding the use of role-play activities
to teach social responsibility and sustainability. Role-play
activities can be adapted where students have to start up
and run micro enterprises to teach entrepreneurship as well
as how to make a business sustainable, responsible, and ethical (McCormick & Gray, 2011). Moreover, students can
become the champions for their university, encouraging
pedagogics to develop new policies with the capacity to
create a responsible and entrepreneurial university (Lavine
& Roussin, 2012). There are opportunities to engage students in action research (Benn & Dunphy, 2009), where
critical thinking (Kearins & Springett, 2003) and systems
thinking (Porter & C
ordoba, 2009) are applied via servicelearning strategies (McCrea, 2010). This particular activity
allows students to engage in a range of community projects
to manage stakeholders’ expectations and to identify
entrepreneurial solutions that are sustainable and responsible (Collins & Kearins, 2007). There is scope for opportunity identification and innovation courses with a focus on
sustainable business practices and sustainable innovation
(Steketee, 2009; Viswanathan, 2012). There is also room
for courses on making specific business functions sustainable, responsible and ethical (Walker, Gough, Bakker,
Knight, & McBain, 2009). Furthermore, it is important to
raise the point that success can come from both sexes
throughout the learning process. Multiple cases and role
models from both sexes should be used to highlight this
point. The ultimate aim is to improve students awareness as
well as providing students with opportunities to implement
these ideas to do well in business (Cordano, Ellis, &
Scherer, 2003).
This study provides evidence that both male and female
adult nascent entrepreneurs are generally equal in terms of
their level of ethicality. This supports the argument that
gender differences between students disappear among older
samples and professionals (Betz et al., 1989). This has
implications for future research because it suggests that
enterprise students do not serve as a valid proxy to explain
the attitudes of nascent entrepreneurs who are older, have
longer work experience, and have different marital and
parental status. This study argues that the development of
ethical values can be due to the exposure of social norms
and influences associated to being in adulthood. This
study, nonetheless, informs us that being married or living
with a partner and having children has no effect on ethical
values toward business practice among nascent entrepreneurs. Similar to previous research (e.g., Burton & Casey,
1980; Eweje & Brunton, 2010), this study also failed to
uncover any relationship between work experience, age
and ethicality. Future statistical models should move
beyond simple socio-demographic variables to explain the
disappearance of the gender gap (Tavris, 1992). It has
been suggested that multidimensional social-psychologicalenvironmental constructs will contribute to a deeper understanding of ethical perceptions of individuals (Lan, Gowing, McMahon, Rieger, & King, 2008; McCabe et al.,
2006). Values held by each individual will have significant
impacts on the reasoning and decision-making process
leading to actual behavior (see the review of Lan et al.,
2008). Our personal values and perceptions of desirable or
ideal behavior will influence the evaluation of actions and
moral reasoning (Jones, 1991; Rokeach, 1967). Schwartz
(2005) argued that our priorities among different values
are only understood when judgments or actions have conflicting implications. How we prioritize values and make
trade-offs will inevitably influence our moral reasoning
processes and behaviors. Previous studies provide some
evidence to support these assumptions (for example, Fritzsche & Oz, 2007; Lan et al., 2008).
To overcome the limitations of the present study,
future researchers should examine social-psychological-
ETHICAL VALUES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDENTS
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
environmental constructs according to the way in which
values are formed during the socialization process. For
example, studies can be established by investigating the
values held by individual and family, school and university, peers and colleagues, workplace, previous education, work experience, and via other social groups and
social institutions (e.g., community, culture, business
sector). It is important to examine the influence of these
values on the moral development, moral reasoning,
moral decision making, and moral behaviors as well as
learning among business practitioners and entrepreneurs,
in particular.
CONCLUSION
We investigated the ethicality of undergraduate business
enterprise students and adult nascent entrepreneurs. The
findings indicate that male enterprise students have lower
ethical attitudes toward business compared to female
enterprise students and adult nascent entrepreneurs.
Moreover, a gender gap only exists between young enterprise students; this disparity disappears among the adult
nascent entrepreneurs. The findings suggest that being in
adulthood—as explained by age, work experience, marital status and parental status—is not a significant factor
that affects the ethicality of individuals. Future researchers will benefit from the examination of more complex
variables, such as the values associated with different
social groups and social institutions. This study contributes to business ethics studies and ethics education by
testing a range of previously held assumptions on two
samples that have, up to now, been neglected in this field
of research.
REFERENCES
Bampton, R., & Maclagan, P. (2009). Does a ‘care orientation’ explain
gender differences in ethical decision making? A critical analysis and
fresh findings. Business Ethics: A European Review, 18, 179–191.
Barnett, J. H., & Karson, M. J. (1989). Managers, values, and executive
decisions: An exploration of the role of gender, career stage, organizational level, function, and the importance of ethics, relationships and
results in managerial decision-making. Journal of Business Ethics, 8,
747–771.
Beggs, J. M., Dean, K. L., Gillespie, J., & Weiner, J. (2006). The unique challenges of ethics instruction. Journal of Management Education, 30, 5–10.
Beltramini, R. F., Peterson, R. A., & Kozmetsky, G. (1984). Concerns of
college students regarding business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 3,
195–200.
Benn, S., & Dunphy, D. (2009). Action research as an approach to integrating sustainability into MBA programs: An exploratory study. Journal of
Management Education, 33, 276–295.
Betz, M., O’Connell, L., & Shepard, J. M. (1989). Gender differences in
proclivity for unethical behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 8,
321–324.
391
Blau, F., Ferber, M. A., & Winkler, A. E. (2006). The economics of women,
men and work. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Borkowski, S. C., & Ugras, Y. J. (1998). Business students and ethics: A
meta-analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 17, 1117–1127.
Burton, R. V., & Casey, W. M. (Eds.). (1980). Moral development. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Chai, L. T., Lung, C. K., & Ramly, Z. (2009). Exploring ethical orientation
of future business leaders in Malaysia. International Review of Business
Research Papers, 50, 109–120.
Collins, E., & Kearins, K. (2007). Exposing students to the potential and
risks of stakeholder engagement when teaching sustainability: A classroom exercise. Journal of Management Education, 31, 521–540.
Cordano, K. M., Ellis, K. M., & Scherer, R. F. (2003). Natural capitalists:
Increasing business students’ environmental sensitivity. Journal of Management Education, 27, 144–157.
Dawson, L. M. (1997). Ethical differences between men and women in the
sales profession. Journal of Business Ethics, 16, 1143–1152.
Devitt, R. M., & Hise, J. V. (2002). Influences in ethical dilemmas of
increasing intensity. Journal of Business Ethics, 40, 261–274.
Egri, C. P., & Rogers, K. S. (2003). Teaching about the natural environment in management education: new directions and approaches. Journal
of Management Education, 27, 139–143.
Erffmeyer, R. C., Keillor, B. D., & LeClair, D. T. (1999). An empirical
investigation of Japanese consumer ethics. Journal of Business Ethics,
18, 35–50.
Etheredge, J. M. (1999). The perceived role of ethics and social responsibility: An alternative scale structure. Journal of Business Ethics, 18, 51–64.
Eweje, G., & Brunton, M. (2010). Ethical perceptions of business students
in a New Zealand university: Do gender, age and work experience matter? Business Ethics: A European Review, 19, 95–111.
Forray, J. M., & Leigh, J. S. A. (2012). A primer on the principles of
responsible management education: Intellectual roots and waves of
change. Journal of Management Education, 36, 295–309.
Fritzsche, D., & Oz, R. (2007). Personal values’ influence on the ethical
dimension of decision making. Journal of Business Ethics, 75, 335–343.
Ghoshal, S. (2005). Bad management theories are destroying good management practice. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4,
75–91.
Giacalone, R. A. (2004). A transcendent business education for the 21st
century. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 3, 415–420.
Giacalone, R. A. (2007). Taking a Red Pill to disempower unethical students: Creating ethical sentinels in business schools. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 6, 534–542.
Giacalone, R. A., & Thompson, K. R. (2006a). Business ethics and social
responsibility education: Shifting the worldview. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 266–277.
Giacalone, R. A., & Thompson, K. R. (2006b). From the guest co-editors:
Special issue on ethics and social responsibility. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 261–265.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Glover, S. H., Bumpus, M. A., Sharp, G. F., & Munchus, G. A. (2002).
Gender differences in ethical decision making. Women in Management
Review, 17, 217–227.
Harris, J. (1990). Ethical values of individuals at different levels in the organizational hierarchy of a single firm. Journal of Business Ethics, 9, 741–750.
Holmes, M. (2007). What is gender? London, England: Sage.
Jones, S. K., & Hiltebeital, K. M. (1995). Organizational influence in a
model of the moral decision process of accoutants. Journal of Business
Ethics, 14, 417–431.
Jones, T. M. (1991). Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issue-contingent model. Academy of Management Review, 16,
366–395.
Kearins, K., & Springett, D. (2003). Educating for sustainability: Developing critical skills. Journal of Management Education, 27, 188–204.
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
392
F. LOURENÇO ET AL.
Klein, H. A., Levenburg, N. M., McKendall, M., & Mothersell, W. (2007).
Cheating during the college years: How do business school students
compare? Journal of Business Ethics, 72, 197–206.
Kohlberg, L. (1984). Essays on moral development. San Francisco CA:
Harper and Row.
Kohlberg, L. (Ed.). (1969). Stage sequence: The cognitive-developmental
approach to socialization. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
Kraft, K. L., & Singhapakdi, A. (1991). The role of ethics and social
responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness: Students versus
managers. Journal of Business Ethics, 10, 679–689.
L€ams€a, A. M., Vehkaper€a, M., Puttonen, T., & Pesonen, H. L. (2008). Effect
of business education on women and men students attitudes on corporate
responsibility in society. Journal of Business Ethics, 82, 45–58.
Lan, G., Gowing, M., McMahon, S., Rieger, F., & King, N. (2008). A study
of the relationship between personal values and moral reasoning of undergraduate business students. Journal of Business Ethics, 78, 121–139.
Langenderfer, H., & Rockness, J. (1989). Integrating ethics into the
accounting curriculum: Issues, problems and solutions. Issues in
Accounting Education, 4, 58–69.
Lavine, M. H., & Roussin, C. J. (2012). From idea to action: Promoting
responsible management education through a semester-long academic
integrity learning project. Journal of Management Education, 36, 428–455.
Lerner, M. (1980). The belief in a just world. New York, NY: Plenum.
Lopez, Y. P., Rechner, P. L., & Olson-Buchanan, J. B. (2005). Shaping ethical perceptions: An empirical assessment of the influence of business
education, culture, and demographic factors. Journal of Business Ethics,
60, 341–358.
Lourenço, F., & Jones, O. (2006). Developing entrepreneurship education:
Comparing traditional and alternative teaching approaches. International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 4, 111–140.
McCabe, A. C., Ingram, R., & Dato-on, M. C. (2006). The business of
ethics and gender. Journal of Business Ethics, 64, 101–116.
McCabe, D. L., Butterfield, K. D., & Trevi~no, L. K. (2006). Academic dishonesty in graduate business programs: Prevalence, causes, and proposed
action. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 294–305.
McCormick, B., & Gray, V. (2011). Message in a bottle: Basic business
lessons for entrepreneurs using only a soft drink. Journal of Management Education, 35, 282–310.
McCrea, E. A. (2010). Integrating service-learning into an introduction
to entrepreneurship course. Journal of Management Education, 34,
39–61.
Mitroff, I. (2004). An open letter to the deans and the faculties of American
Business Schools. Journal of Business Ethics, 54, 185–189.
Mujtaba, B. G., & Sims, R. L. (2006). Socializing retail employees in ethical values: The effectiveness of the formal versus informal methods.
Journal of Business and Psychology, 21, 261–272.
Neubaum, D. O., Pagell, M., Drexler, J. A. Jr., McKee-Ryan, F. M., & Larson, E. (2009). Business education and its relationship to student personal moral philosophies and attitudes toward profits: An empirical
response to critics. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 8,
9–24.
Noe, F. P., & Snow, R. (1990). The new environmentalism paradigm and
further scale analysis. Journal of Environmental Education, 21(4), 20–
26.
Nowell, C. (1997). Undergraduate student cheating in the fields of business. Journal of Economic Education, 28, 3–13.
Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric theory. New York, NY: MacGraw-Hill.
Parsa, F., & Lankford, W. M. (1999). Student’s views of business ethics:
an analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 29, 1045–1057.
Paschall, M., & W€
ustenhagen, R. (2012). More than a game: Learning
about climate change through role-play. Journal of Management Education, 36, 510–543.
Peery, W. G. (1968). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in
the college years: A scheme. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston.
Peloza, J. (2009). The challenge of measuring financial impacts from
investments in corporate social performance. Journal of Management,
35, 1518–1541.
Poorsoltan, K., Amin, S., & Tootoonchi, A. (1991). Business ethics:
Views of future leaders. S.A.M. Advanced Management Journal, 56,
4–10.
Porter, T., & Cordoba, J. (2009). Three views of systems theories and their
implications for sustainability education. Journal of Management Education, 33, 323–347.
Premeaux, S. R. (2005). Undergraduate student perceptions regarding
cheating: Tier 1 versus Tier 2 AACSB accredited business schools.
Journal of Business Ethics, 62, 407–418.
Rawwas, M. Y. A., & Isakson, H. (2000). Ethics of tomorrow’s business
managers: The influence of personal beliefs and values, individual characteristics, and situational factors. Journal of Education for Business,
75, 321–330.
Rawwas, M. Y. A., & Singhapakdi, A. (1998). Do consumers’ ethical
beliefs vary with age? A substantiation of Kohlberg’s typology in marketing. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 6, 26–38.
Rest, J. R. (1979). Development in judging moral issues. Minneapolis,
MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Reynolds, P. D. (1997). Who starts new firms? Preliminary explorations of
firms-in-gestation. Small Business Economics, 9, 449–462.
Roberts, A. J. (1996). Green consumer in 1990s: Profile and implications
for advertising. Journal of Business Research, 36, 217–231.
Rokeach, M. (1967). Value survey. Sunnyvale, CA: Halgren Tests.
Rusinko, C. A., & Sama, L. M. (2009). Greening and sustainability across
the management curriculum: An extended journey. Journal of Management Education, 33, 271–275.
Schwartz, M. S. (2005). Universal moral values for corporate codes of
ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 59, 27–44.
Serwinek, P. (1992). Demographic & related differences in ethical views
among small businesses. Journal of Business Ethics, 11, 555–566.
Sethi, S. P., & Sama, L. M. (1998). Ethical behavior as a strategic choice by
large corporations: The interactive effect of marketplace competition,
industry structure and firm resources. Business Ethics Quarterly, 8, 85–104.
Singhapakdi, A., Vitell, S. J., Rallapalli, K. C., & Kraft, K. L. (1996). The
perceived role of ethics and social responsibility: A scale development.
Journal of Business Ethics, 15, 1131–1140.
Slater, D. J., & Dixon-Fowler, H. R. (2010). The future of the planer in the
hands of MBAs: An examination of CEO MBA education and corporate
environmental performance. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 9, 429–441.
Spence, J. T. (1993). Gender-related traits and gender ideology: Evidence
for a multifactorial theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 624–635.
Spence, J. T., & Buckner, C. E. (2000). Instrumental and expressive traits,
trait stereotypes, and sexist attitudes. Psychology of Women Quarterly,
24, 44–62.
Spence, L. J., & Lozano, J. F. (2000). Communicating about ethics with
small firms: Experiences from the U.K. and Spain. Journal of Business
Ethics, 27, 43–53.
Starik, M., Rands, G., Marcus, A. A., & Clark, T. S. (2010). From the guest
editors: In search of sustainability in management education. Academy
of Management Learning & Education, 9, 377–383.
Steketee, D. (2009). A million decisions: Life on the (sustainable business)
frontier. Journal of Management Education, 33, 391–401.
Stevens, J. P. (2002). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences
(4th ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Swaidan, Z., Vitell, S. J., & Rawwas, M. Y. A. (2003). Consumer ethics:
Determinants of ethical beliefs of African Americans. Journal of Business Ethics, 46, 175–185.
Tang, T. L.-P., Chen, Y.-J., & Sutarso, T. (2008). Bad apples in bad (business) barrels:The love of money, machiavellianism, risk tolerance, and
unethical behavior. Management Decision, 46, 243–263.
ETHICAL VALUES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDENTS
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 19:41 11 January 2016
Tavris, C. (1992). The mismeasure of woman: Why women are not the better sex, the inferior sex, or the opposite sex. London, England: Touchstone Books.
Tse, A. C. B., & Au, A. K. M. (1997). Are New Zealand business students
more unethical than non-business students. Journal of Business Ethics,
16, 445–450.
393
Viswanathan, M. (2012). Curricular innovations on sustainability and subsistence marketplaces: Philosophical, substantive, and methodological
orientations. Journal of Management Education, 36, 389–427.
Walker, H. L., Gough, S., Bakker, E. F., Knight, L. A., & McBain, D. (2009).
Greening operations management: An online sustainable procurement
course for practitioners. Journal of Management Education, 33, 348–371.