The Effect of Culture on the Academic Honesty of Marketing and Business Students

Two trends in marketing higher education include (a) growing opportunities for intercultural encounters in the classroom and (b) a growing concern about student academic honesty. Research regarding the relationship between specific cultural measures and academic honesty is sparse in the context of marketing and business programs in higher education. This study surveys marketing and business college students from 13 different countries about their perceptions of questionable behaviors concerning academic honesty and measures Hofstede's commonly studied cultural dimension of individualism/ collectivism as a direct test of the cultural hypotheses presented. As predicted, collectivist business students are more tolerant than individualist business students concerning questionable academic behaviors that are unilateral (e.g., copying material/ papers from the Internet or looking at another student's exam without the knowledge of the other student), collaborative (e.g., getting exam questions/answers from others or free riding in a group), and delaying (e.g., requesting due date/exam date delays or assignment extensions with false information). In alignment with the theory of reasoned action, results also show that a positive attitude about the value of teamwork (relative to individual work) mediates the effect between collectivism and questionable academic behaviors that are collaborative. The results and recommendations are particularly relevant to marketing educators teaching beginners to advanced courses in a culturally diverse classroom.