This paper reports on the experiences of international MBA students following a hybrid design for a business ethics course, which combined class-based lectures with "out-of-class" discussion supported by asynchronous communication tools. The e-learning component of the course was intended to generate discussion on the ethical assumptions of course participants, with each individual required to post a mini case study reflecting an ethical dilemma which s/he had faced at work. Using questionnaire and interview data, we report on the learning experiences of (...) participants following this experimental course. The results reveal a high level of intercultural dialogue between participants, with adopters showing greater awareness of their individual cultural biases in their case writing, a direct consequence of the on-line feedback and case discussion. These findings indicate that asynchronous tools have much to offer business ethics students, supporting ideas sharing and the exchange of cultural perspectives outside the physical boundaries of the classroom. (shrink)

Mutual perceptions of ethical behaviour among managers in nine EU-countries were quantatively measured and related to perceptions concerning "ease of cooperation". A strong positive correlation obtains: the more ethical a country is perceived to be, the higher it is valued as an international business partner. Germany, however, is a typical exception to this rule: German managers are perceived as the most ethical, but are considered relatively difficult to cooperate with.

Prior literature has demonstrated that religiosity is associated with a reduced acceptance of unethical business practices and financial reporting irregularities. On this premise, we examine whether religiosity, conceptualized as the degree of adherence to religious norms in the geographical area where a firm’s headquarters is located, has an impact on audit firms’ pricing decisions in the US. We measure the intensity of religiosity by the number of adherents relative to the total population in a county and demonstrate that increased religious (...) adherence operates as an institutionalized monitoring mechanism that decreases audit risk and audit costs, which is, in turn, reflected in reduced audit pricing. Additional tests suggest that the impact of religiosity on auditors’ pricing decisions is not differentiated by levels of auditor expertise but that audit fees are determined by an auditor’s relative location in a market sector and religious adherence. We conclude that religious adherence reduces the need for shareholders to bear the costs of monitoring agents, a finding which could be of importance for market participants and regulators. (shrink)