Predicting intention of business students to behave ethically in the Indian context: from the perspective of Theory of Planned Behaviour
Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning
ISSN: 2042-3896
Article publication date: 28 September 2021
Issue publication date: 9 May 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand business students' intention to behave ethically in general, and in particularly in the business context of a developing country, India.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper surveyed 250 final semester MBA students from different business schools in Indore city of Madhya Pradesh in India. The study employed the most popular behavioural theory, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to understand the intention of business students to behave ethically. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse direct effects of the constructs on behavioural intention, and the overall model.
Findings
Findings revealed that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control are positively related and have strong influence on ethical behavioural intention of business students. All constructs together explain 67 percent variance in intention. Attitude alone contributes 46 percent in explaining variance in ethical behavioural intention.
Research limitations/implications
Business ethics field can benefit from this study as it provides an empirical explanation of the contribution of each factor that is, attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control, in ethical behavioural intention of business students. This is directly beneficial for business schools and for education policymakers as the information can help policymakers to understand the potential of existing business ethics education. This study is limited to a data set of 250 business students in the context of a single country which cannot be generalized. So, there is need for research of this type in a more collaborative international context.
Originality/value
To the best of my knowledge, this is the first study in the Indian context to predict the intention of business students to behave ethically, using the TPB model. This study contributes valuable knowledge to the domain of business ethics, behavioural studies as well the field of business education, and suggests to explore ways to strengthen the three constructs attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control, as these constructs were found to have a strong influence in forming ethical behavioural intention of business students of business schools in India.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to the editor and anonymous HESWBL reviewers for their constructive comments to improve the quality of this article.
Ethical approval statement: Verbal informed consent was obtained from the institutes and participants with the condition that the information which they will provide would be anonymous and the evaluations will confidential and independent of their any personal identification.
Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest has been declared by author.
Citation
Marmat, G. (2022), "Predicting intention of business students to behave ethically in the Indian context: from the perspective of Theory of Planned Behaviour", Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 437-458. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-05-2021-0090
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited