Abstract:

The interest in ethical issues has increased in the context of higher education in business administration, and in more specifically in accounting. However, despite the interest that, generally speaking, business ethics has generated in the academic community – especially during the last two decades – the timely and relevant field of accounting ethics has so far not received the proper attention that it deserves.

In Spain, the current economic crisis and a number of well-known corporate accounting scandals – especially in the financial sector – have intensified widespread concern for accounting ethics issues. However, despite their importance, specific courses and modules on accounting ethics are not common in Spanish universities. Furthermore, even in such scarce cases where these courses are taught, there is very little consensus on their objectives and methodologies.

The aim of this paper is threefold. Firstly, we attempt to examine business students’ overall perception of business ethics and, specifically, their views on the importance and goals of accounting ethics. Secondly, we intend to investigate whether differences exist between the perceptions from students who have previously taken business ethics courses and those who have not. Thirdly, we wish to assess the effectiveness of accounting ethics courses.

This study was conducted throughout a survey delivered to 551 students of the Bachelor of Business Administration at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain. Findings of the study suggest that students perceived accounting ethics education as important to them. Results also illustrate that there are significant differences in perceptions of the importance of ethics goals in accounting courses depending on whether students have previously attended ethics courses or not. In addition, students show interest in the introduction of ethics in their curricula, especially by officially incorporating a business ethics course into their degrees.