Academic Dishonesty in Graduate Business Programs: Prevalence, Causes, and Proposed Action
Abstract
Little is currently known about cheating among graduate business students. We collected data from more than 5,000 business (mostly MBA) and nonbusiness graduate students at 32 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada during the 2002–2003 and 2003–2004 academic years to test a series of hypotheses regarding the prevalence of graduate business student cheating and reasons why these students cheat. We found that graduate business students cheat more than their nonbusiness-student peers. Correlation results found cheating to be associated with perceived peer behavior, as well as the perceived certainty of being reported by a peer, and the understanding and acceptance of academic integrity policies by students and faculty. But, regression analysis results suggest that perceived peer behavior has the largest effect. Drawing from these findings and past research on undergraduate students, we propose strategies that business schools and faculty can use to promote academic integrity in graduate business programs.
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Business students are more likely to exhibit unethical behavior compared to students in other disciplines.
“Research suggests that business students are more likely to exhibit unethical behavior compared to students in other disciplines (Grenness, 2023;Harvey et al., 2020;McCabe et al., 2006;Parks-Leduc et al., 2022).”
From Ethical use of artificial intelligence based tools in higher education: Are future business leaders ready? (2025) · cites this paper as McCabe et al., 2006
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- Authors
- McCabe, D. L., Butterfield, K. D., & Treviño, L. K.
- Affiliations
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- Washington State University (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Venue
- Academy of Management Learning & Education
- Publisher
- Academy of Management
- Published
- 2006-09
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 294-305
- ISSN
- 1537-260X (ISSN-L)
- 1944-9585
- OpenAlex
- W1978283268
- Cited by
- 720
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 51 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 51 · 2015: 47 · 2014: 44 · 2013: 50 · 2012: 43
- FWCI
- 58.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Academy of Management Learning and Education (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Academic integrity and plagiarism
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Ethics in Business and Education
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Management and Marketing Education
- Keywords
- academic dishonesty, cheating, graduate business students, MBA students, academic integrity, academic integrity policy, business schools
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