Springer 2007

Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 79:121132

DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9391-7

Ethical Perceptions of Business Students:

Differences Between East Asia
and the USA and Among
Confucian Cultures

ABSTRACT. This paper reports the results of a survey of

842 undergraduate business students in four nations the
United States of America (the USA), the Peoples Republic
of China (the PRC), Japan, and the Republic of Korea (the
ROK). This survey asked students to respond to four scenarios with potentially unethical business behavior and a
string of questions related to the importance of ethics in
business strategy and in personal behaviors. Based on
arguments related to differences in recent historical experiences, the authors suggest that student responses may be as
different within the East Asian (Confucian) environment as
they are between this environment as a whole and the USA.
Survey results indicate a greater perception of ethical
problems and more importance placed on ethics per se in
business practices, as well as less of an emphasis on social
harmony (a key distinguishing characteristic of Confucian
values identified in prior research) on the part of USA
students. At the same time, substantial national differences
in response are also witnessed within the set of East Asian
students. A priori expectations as to the manner in which
these East Asian responses should vary based on differences
in recent historical experiences are partially, but not fully,
supported. The authors argue that the key value of the
reported research rests on a demonstration that national
differences within a common cultural (e.g., East Asian or
Confucian) area can be as great as differences across cultural
(East vs. West) areas and that practitioners of global business
must fine-tune their expectations as to acceptable business
and personal actions to accommodate specific national
historical experiences to be effective.
KEY WORDS: business ethics, Confucianism

Professors Chung and Eichenseher are professor of accounting at

their respective universities. Professor Taniguchis primary
field of study is economics.

Kun Young Chung

John W. Eichenseher
Teruso Taniguchi

Introduction
A substantial body of both empirical and discursive
research has appeared in recent years exploring the
significance of Confucian Values or Confucianism,
in general, in the context of business management.
Stimulated by the rapid economic development of
East Asian economies and the growing role of these
economies in the global marketplace, this literature
explores differences in business ethics (generally
acceptable business practices) between the West
and the Confucian East. Knowledge of these
differences is deemed to be a key ingredient for
business success for firms spanning these two areas in
their current and future operations.
The research reported in this paper expands our
knowledge of East/West differences in acceptable
business practices by systematically surveying current
attitudes towards acceptable behaviors, both business
and personal, held by 842 students of business in
major universities in four countries the United
States of America (USA), Japan, the Peoples
Republic of China (PRC), and the Republic of
Korea (ROK). In contrast to most prior research, we
attempt to fine-tune our knowledge of East/West
cultural differences related to ethical behavior by
exploring both differences between USA responses
and those in the latter three (Confucian) countries as
a block and differences among the latter three
(Confucian) countries.
In this context, we argue that Confucianism as discussed in much of the Western academic and business
literature has been oversimplified. Like all cultural sets
of values, Confucian or East Asian values are mediated
by historical social experience. Our East Asian sample

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Kun Young Chung et al.

countries have had quite varied economic and business

development over the past 100 years. While all three
countries felt pressure from Western colonial expansion in the 19th century, their paths of development
diverged substantially in the 20th century. Japan became an economic leader in Asia in the early 20th
century and a major competitor for Western countries
seeking economic penetration of China and the Korean
peninsula. Its subsequent militarization and defeat in
World War II created radical changes in the Japanese
economy and society and fostered early active participation in the global capitalist economy that unfolded in
the second half of the 20th century.
At the other end of the spectrum of modern historical experiences, China was slow to respond successfully to Western (and Japanese) economic
penetration. Its ultimate response in the middle of the
20th century was the formation of an apparently radical
anti-capitalist economic order, with central planning
and quite limited international exchange holding sway
into the 1980s. During the 30 years of Maoist
political hegemony, the central government of China
attempted massive change in Chinese cultural values,
including explicit attacks on Confucian values. Over
the past 20 years, China has opened substantially to
Western (as well as Japanese and Korean) business
influence, and developed a vigorous market-based, if
not fully capitalist, economy.
Korean experience over the past 100 years, in effect, combines elements of the varied experiences of
Japan and China. The Korean peninsula was subject to
strong (imperial) economic and cultural penetration
from Japan up thru the end of World War II in 1945. It
was subject to cold war tensions thereafter and the
scene of division and violent military confrontation.
Subsequent to the end of the Korean War in 1953, the
southern half of the peninsula (the ROK), with economic support from the USA, experienced construction of a capitalist economy. As in Japan during
this period, Korean capitalism developed with strong
government support of specific economic sectors.
Nonetheless, the ROK economy did not experience
substantial success in the global capitalist economy
until well into the 1970s. Its economic and business
success in the last half of the 20th century remains
somewhat uniquely threatened by the existence of a
residual Stalinist state the Democratic Peoples
Republic of Korea (the DPRK) on the northern half
of the Korean peninsula.

The basic premise of this research is that these

varying recent historical experiences give rise to
predictable differences in sensitivity to problems in
ethical business behavior and normative values
related to business and personal interaction across the
current Confucian Japanese, Chinese, and Korean
societies. These societies should, accordingly, not
appear homogeneous to foreign business parties.
Our ultimate contribution to business practices,
thus, rests on the extent to which our findings
illuminate, and we at least partially explain, the
specific ways in which acceptable business practices
vary in specific East Asian countries.
The following section, after briefly reviewing
basic differences between Western and Confucian
values related to business as articulated in prior
published works, expands upon the above historical
summaries to predict probable differences across our
four sample countries in responses to various business scenarios and value judgments. Subsequent
sections describe our empirical research methods,
survey results, and provide concluding remarks.

Confucian values and their country-specific

characteristics
The general statement of confucian values and their effect
on business
In a broad sense, Confucian values are usually contrasted with Western (European) values which stress
individual human rights and freedom. It is generally
asserted that Confucian societies place greater
emphasis on hierarchical relationships (filial piety),
observance of standardized rituals, and social harmony. A recent qualitative study by Tan and Chee
(2005) identifies the following characteristics of
Confucianism: diligence, perserverance, filial piety,
thriftiness, respect for authority, value of collective
effort, harmony, humility, and magnanimous behavior. Ding (2006) further argues that the Confucian
tradition tends to stress humility over personal gain.
The long-term historical effect of Confucianism
on economic (business) development is intimately
tied to the cultural evolution of the Chinese imperial
tradition. Beginning with the Han dynasty in the
second century B.C.E., social norms as articulated by
the historical figure Confucius from a prior period of

Ethical Perceptions of Business Students

disunity were used to bolster the power and
authority of the imperial system. The Confucian
tradition was extensively articulated over time as an
official ideology of the unified Chinese state and
passed on to other East Asian societies (including
Japan and Korea) along with other elements of
Chinese culture. In effect, this tradition eventually
inhibited the evolution of capitalism as experienced
in Europe, for it supported a structure of imperial
economic dominance which sought state (imperial)
control of key resources and communication networks and threatened expropriation of assets accumulated by private entrepreneurs.
Penetration of East Asia by Western economic
interests beginning in the 19th century, of course,
had drastic effects on imperial state ideology. Much
of the intellectual debate in China, Japan, and Korea
over the following 150 years centered on the compatibility of Confucian social norms per se and
Western (capitalist or socialist) forms of economic
development. By the second half of the 20th century, imperial economic policies had largely been
parsed out of perceptions of Confucianism, leaving a
personal value system with implications for individual or corporate business behavior.
The issue of whether or not this current form of
(private) Confucianism aids or hinders business development has been debated in recent academic writing.
Ding (2006), for example, suggests that its stress on
personal harmonious relationships facilitates business
transactions. Romar (2002) suggests that a Confucian
approach to management is quite positive since it
reinforces hierarchies required in business management
and stresses moral leadership and societal contributions.
On the other hand, Cheung and King (2004) argue that
Confucian values inhibit (positive) utilitarian choice.
From a different angle but with the same general negative conclusion, Koehn (2001) argues that excess
authoritarianism in Confucianism breeds distrust and
can block the use of individual competencies. Finally,
Yang (1996) examines Confucianism in the light of the
writings of Adam Smith and suggests that its denial of
rational egoism is basically incompatible with market-based economic systems.
The contingent nature of Confucianism
Several current authors recognize the heterogeneity
of Confucianism over time and space and the need

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for caution in describing Confucian values and their

effect on business. Lam (2003) and Zhu (2000) stress
the need to examine the evolution of a value system
such as Confucianism in interaction with economic
development. Wong (2005) cautions against viewing
Chinese history as static in the articulation of its
dominant (Confucian) value system. Ralston et al.
(1999) and Erdener (1998) highlight a shift in business-related values over the past two decades in
China, i.e., movement towards a more individualistic Confucianism. Specific historical circumstances in the evolution of Confucianism in Japan
and Korea are discussed by Boardman and Kato
(2003) and Whang (1998/9), respectively.
The point of the following discussion is to draw
on the recent differential historical experiences in
China, Japan, and Korea to predict ways in which
individuals, particularly current students of business
in institutions of higher education, in these three
countries may differ in their perceptions of acceptable business and personal behavior. It must be
recognized, of course, that all three countries have
been drawn into the global capitalist economy
albeit at different times over the past 60 years.
Thus, educated young citizens of all three countries
are likely to be closer in values to a benchmark
Western model current U.S. perceptions in our
study now than they would have been in the
middle of the 20th century.
Japanese Confucian values
Historically speaking, Japanese society took the lead
in East Asia in entering the current global economy,
being stripped of military capacity and integrated into the trade and investment patterns of the USA
following defeat in World War II. It can be asserted
that this integration into a Western-determined
global economy was quite traumatic for Japanese
society. Japan had mimicked many facets of Western
culture from the Meiji Restoration (1867) onwards
but had not been colonized in any sense by Western
powers, leaving it perhaps more isolated at least
more independent than China through the first
half of the 20th century. Furthermore, the country
lacked a strong material resource base for further
industrialization a primary rationale for Japanese
imperialism in Asia in the first place creating
substantial uncertainty as to its ability to compete in
the USA-led global economy. Japan experienced

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Kun Young Chung et al.

remarkable success in economic development from

1952 (the formal end of USA occupation) through
the late 1980s. Economic growth over the past two
decades has been much slower, a time during which
there has been erosion in job security (a partial end
to lifetime employment) and growing concerns
for unemployment.
The combination of relatively early entry into the
global capitalist economy and recent declines in
economic growth (similar to recent Western European experience) suggests that Japanese society may
be further away from its traditional Confucian roots
than other East Asian societies. It may also be more
attuned to the rigors of competition in the global
marketplace. At the same time, it is worthwhile in
this comparative context to consider some potentially unique characteristics of such roots. A seminal
work by sociologist Ruth Benedict The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946) stressed the relative
importance of harmony (wa) in Japanese Confucianism, as opposed to benevolence (jin) as the
cornerstone of Chinese Confucianism. In short, this
nuanced difference in the adaptation of Confucianism in general is likely to lead to greater emphasis on
group norms and avoidance of individualistic
behavior. Several authors, e.g., Kawai (1976), argue
that this had resulted in the evolution of situational
ethics in Japanese society, where emphasis on
group (national) harmony largely eliminates the
search for absolute values, and in effect, individual
responsibility beyond conformity to group norms.
Chinese Confucian values
China is clearly the most recent entrant into the global
capitalist economy of our four sample countries.
Confucian values, as a potentially positive construct,
have only recently re-emerged in the PRC, following
substantial anti-Confucian campaigns during the lifetime of Mao Ze-Dong (ending in 1976). Chinese
society has seen a radical transformation of attitudes
towards and acceptable behaviors in business over
the past 25 years. Following the strongly anti-capitalist ideological campaigns of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a marketbased economy with extensive international
dimensions has evolved. This evolution has both
positive and negative elements and has led to a quite
noticeable generational divide in China. On the
positive side, income per capita has greatly increased

and consumer goods are now available in China to

an extent undreamed of 30 years ago. On the negative side, income inequality has also mushroomed
from a base of virtual equality (shared poverty),
labor markets have become quite competitive with
an end to guaranteed employment and welfare
benefits for at least authorized urban residents
(employees of state-owned enterprises), environmental degradation has become a ubiquitous problem, and moral/ethical uncertainty has replaced the
relative certainty of Marxist ideology.
One might very well question the relevance of
Confucian Values in China from 1949 forward,
although certain clearly recognizable facets of current
Chinese business practices, e.g., the importance of
personal relationships (guanxi) and saving face
(mianzi), can be associated with traditional Confucian
values (Ang and Leong, 2000). We suggest that the
economic expansion (and turmoil) of recent years,
combined with the prior period of Maoist indoctrination, is likely to render the attitudes of Chinese
citizens different in several regards from those of
other East Asian (Japanese and Korean) citizens.
Attitudes in China may be conditioned on two
potentially contradictory, but relatively unique,
dimensions of recent Chinese history: (1) residual
Marxist morality with an emphasis on economic
equality, social welfare as a dominant element of
public policy, and an inherent distrust of marketbased capitalism; and (2) recent hyper-competition
in the Chinese economy with growing uncertainty
as to the viability of existing (state-owned) enterprises and threats of unemployment. If both of these
forces are salient in the formation of the attitudes of
university business students, one is likely to observe a
disconnect between normative values and current
perceptions, e.g., respondents may feel business
enterprises have social obligations which are not met
in practice. On the level of personal relationships and
actions, residual Confucian values with an emphasis
on group harmony may apply in a fashion similar to
that observed in Japan.
Korean Confucian values
The Korean peninsula served historically as the
transmission belt for Confucianism, as well as Buddhism, from China to Japan. The Republic of Korea
differs religiously, however, from China and Japan in
the existence of an extensive Christian community,

Ethical Perceptions of Business Students

the residual of more successful efforts by Western
missionaries during the 19th and 20th centuries. As
with China and Japan, the 20th century was quite
turbulent for Korean society. Opening up to foreign
influence later than these two nations, the Korean
peninsula became a battleground for foreign influence (Japanese, Chinese, and Russian) at the end of
the 19th century and a formal Japanese colony from
1910 to 1945. It also became a major battleground at
the onset of the Cold War, leading to the formation
of a capitalist, but quite authoritarian, regime in the
South (the ROK).
Despite substantial aid from the USA (and its
central military presence), the ROKs economy was
slow to grow in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1970s the
ROK emerged as one of the four Asian Dragons
(including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan) that
experienced substantial economic growth thru
export-oriented industrialization a model pioneered
in East Asia by Japan. Authoritarian political rule and
endemic economic corruption, nonetheless, characterized Korean society through the end of the 1980s.
Political struggle, often with violence, eventually led
to widely-recognized democratic reforms. Although
it has recovered relatively quickly, the ROK was at
the heart of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, along
with Indonesia and Thailand. Corruption within its
economy remains a common perception.
Conjectures as to the differential impact of this
recent economic and political history on the ethical
perceptions of business students in the ROK are
possible. While the dilution of Confucian Values
over the past 50 years may be similar to that witnessed in China and Japan, greater salience as to
corruption in the ROK economy in recent years
may render ROK citizens more skeptical of the
importance of ethical behavior in economic success
and somewhat more materialistic, in general. On the
other hand, active political struggles for human (and
democratic) rights are a sign that citizens of the
ROK still seek normative (Confucian, Buddhist, or
Christian) values in human relationships.

Research methods
Differences in acceptable business and personal
behavior were examined empirically by asking upper
level university students of business in the USA, the

125

PRC, the ROK, and Japan to complete a four-page

questionnaire which contained questions related to
four specific business scenarios (32 questions in
total), opinions on general propositions regarding
business operations and interpersonal relationships
(44 questions, in total), and some brief demographic
data. Answers to the base 76, non-demographic,
questions were all recorded on a nine-point Likert
scale with endpoints labeled completely disagree
and completely agree. Constructed in English, the
questionnaire was translated into Chinese, Korean,
and Japanese by native speakers fluent in English. In
total, 842 usable responses were obtained thru direct
administration in classrooms by this papers co-authors
and assistants 288 in the USA, 248 in Japan, 221 in
the ROK, and 85 in the PRC. Respondents were
quite homogenous as to age, with a range of 1824
and a median of 21. Approximately 40% of
respondents were female, with no noticeable gender
differences in response.
Survey results are reported and discussed in the
following section in the following manner:
(1) Results for different question types reactions to business scenarios, normative questions as to corporate business policies, likely
results of different business policies, permissible personal behaviors, and the universal/
contingent nature of personal ethical codes.
(2) Question-by-question differences between
USA responses and those from the three
East Asian countries in the aggregate, focusing on questions that indicate significant difference as gauged by ANOVA-based F-tests.
(3) Question-by-question differences among the
three East Asian countries, focusing once
again on questions with significant differences in responses as gauged by ANOVAbased F-tests.
Before presenting these results, we outline briefly
the four business scenarios presented in our
questionnaire:
(1) Scenario One: An automobile salesman,
warned by the customer that the vehicle
being traded in has a serious engine problem,
does not pass this information on to the individual responsible for appraising trade-in

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Kun Young Chung et al.

values for the dealership, leading to a potential over-appraisal of the traded-in value.
(2) Scenario Two: A manager in a retail store
observes a salesperson in the store exaggerating the value of items for sale to customers.
The manager does nothing to alter this
behavior.
(3) Scenario Three: A retailer offers selected
pieces of sets of quality dinnerware at substantial discounts to customers, failing to
inform them that these sets have been discounted by the manufacturer, and complete
sets will never be available.
(4) Scenario Four: An automobile dealer sells a
new car with a one-year warranty. The
buyer returns the car to the dealer for
repair several times within the warranty
period and receives minor transmission
repairs. After the warranty expires, the
dealer informs the owner of a major problem with the transmission and charges for a
full overhaul.

(2) Responses to the next set of questions outlined in Table I normative corporate policy issues reflect relatively high
importance placed on ethics and social
responsibility in the ideal corporate world.
(3) Responses to questions related to the actual
effect on corporate success of an emphasis
on ethics and social responsibility are somewhat more ambiguous. Respondents indicated a strong positive relationship between
these normative values and long-term profitability, but indicated a parallel importance
for communication in business effectiveness
and some willingness to ignore the normative values when corporate survival was
threatened.
(4) In response to questions regarding permissible individual personal actions, subjects
exhibited reluctance to take actions threatening the dignity and welfare of others.
(5) Finally, responses to questions regarding ethical or moral principles indicated moderate
support for the conditional nature of such
principles and substantial skepticism as to
their universality.

Survey results
General results
East Asian versus U.S. responses
Table I provides the overall means and standard
deviations for subject responses to selected survey
questions (statements). In all cases, subjects were
asked to respond on a nine-point Likert scale, with
the endpoints being labeled completely disagree
(point 1) and completely agree (point 9).
These overall responses can be summarized as
follows:
(1) In response to the business scenarios, scenarios 1 and 4 elicited the most extreme
responses (agreement as to the existence of
ethical problems). Both of these scenarios
involve issues of automobile functioning and
may be viewed, in contrast to scenarios two
and three, as related to safety rather than just
value in consumption. As would be
expected, the would act the same
responses are negatively correlated with the
problem exists responses.

Table II provides the results of (ANOVA) F-tests of

differences in response for the questions listed in
Table I between East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, and
Korean) subjects as a block and U.S. subjects.
Generalizable differences between U.S. and East
Asian responses include:
(1) Higher perceptions of ethical problems in the
business scenarios and responses of less likelihood of similar action on the part of U.S.
subjects. This is particularly the case with the
first two scenarios, which involve explicit
suppression of product quality information or
misrepresentation of product value.
(2) Relative similar responses to the normative
importance of ethics and social responsibility
in corporate policies, with U.S. subjects more
likely to see a high level of corporate social
responsibility above and beyond profitability.

Ethical Perceptions of Business Students

127

TABLE I
Overall Responses to Selected Survey Questions (N = 842)

Questions related to business scenarios:

Scenario 1:
Scenario 2:
Scenario 3:
Scenario 4:
Questions related to normative corporate policies:
1. Ethics and social responsibility are the most important
dimensions of corporate policy
2. Corporate planning discussions should include ethics
and social responsibility
3. Business has a social responsibility beyond making
profits
Questions related to actual corporate success:
1. Output quality is essential for success; while ethics and
social responsibility are not
2. Communication is more important for effectiveness
than ethics and social responsibility
3. Ethics and social responsibility are essential for longterm profitability
4. Global competitiveness requires a disregard for ethics
and social responsibility
5. When survival is threatened, ethics and social responsibility can be ignored
Questions related to permissible personal actions:
1. Irrespective of benefits, potential harm to others is
always wrong
2. One should never act to threaten the dignity or welfare
of another individual
3. It is never necessary to sacrifice others welfare
Questions related to personal morality and/or ethics:
1. No ethical principles are absolutely universal
2. What is ethical varies by situation and society
3. Moral standards are personal rules and should not be
used to judge others
4. Rigid ethical codes can stand in the way of better
human relations
5. The permissibility of lying is totally situationally
dependent

Ethical problem exists

Would act the same
Ethical problem exists
Would act the same
Ethical problem exists
Would act the same
Ethical problem exists
Would act the same

Mean

Standard Deviation

7.61
2.67
6.60
3.77
5.81
4.38
7.78
2.25

1.94
2.14
2.11
2.43
2.43
2.59
1.94
2.00

7.20

1.81

7.70

1.53

7.04

1.98

3.09

2.35

5.94

2.45

7.74

1.56

3.09

2.24

3.61

2.18

6.47

2.07

7.37

1.81

6.32

2.27

4.79
6.88
5.28

2.61
1.95
2.23

5.77

1.92

6.10

2.21

All responds measured on a nine-point Likert scale: 1 = completely disagree; 9 = completely agree.

Kun Young Chung et al.

128

TABLE II
East Asian Versus U.S. Responses to Selected Survey Questions

Questions related to business scenarios:

Scenario 1:
Scenario 2:
Scenario 3:
Scenario 4:

Ethical problem exists

Would act the same
Ethical problem exists
Would act the same
Ethical problem exists
Would act the same
Ethical problem exists
Would act the same

Questions Related to Normative Corporate Policies:

1. Ethics and social responsibility are the most
important dimensions of corporate policy
2. Corporate planning discussions should include
ethics and social responsibility
3. Business has a social responsibility beyond
making profits
Questions related to actual corporate success:
1. Output quality is essential for success; while
ethics and social responsibility are not
2. Communication is more important for effectiveness than ethics and social responsibility
3. Ethics and social responsibility are essential for
long-term profitability
4. Global competitiveness requires a disregard for
ethics and social responsibility
5. When survival is threatened, ethics and social
responsibility can be ignored
Questions related to permissible personal actions:
1. Irrespective of benefits, potential harm to others
is always wrong
2. One should never act to threaten the dignity or
welfare of another individual
3. It is never necessary to sacrifice others welfare
Questions related to personal morality and/or ethics:
1. No ethical principles are absolutely universal
2. What is ethical varies by situation and society
3. Moral standards are personal rules and should not
be used to judge others
4. Rigid ethical codes can stand in the way of better
human relations
5. The permissibility of lying is totally situationally
dependent
Overall N = 842: 288 in the USA and 554 in East Asia.
** Significant at .01 level; * Significant at .05 level.

East Asian Mean U.S. Mean

F-Stat

7.26
2.98
6.39
4.05
5.88
4.34
7.73
2.40

8.27
2.06
6.99
3.24
5.66
4.45
7.87
1.96

27.15**
18.08**
7.80**
10.78**
0.78
0.17
0.49
4.61*

7.26

7.10

0.74

7.60

7.87

2.92

6.69

7.72

27.10**

3.40

2.51

13.95**

6.96

3.99

207.52**

7.79

7.65

0.76

3.33

2.62

9.63**

3.74

3.36

2.87

6.77

5.89

17.64**

7.59

6.94

12.54**

7.08

4.85

116.21**

5.65
6.94
5.73

3.11
6.76
4.38

112.28**
0.79
37.00**

5.97

5.36

9.58**

6.81

4.71

104.98**

Ethical Perceptions of Business Students

(3) Much greater likelihood of East Asian subjects responding that output quality and/or
organizational communication can be more
important in practice than corporate ethics
and social responsibility. These same (East
Asian) subjects were also significantly more
likely than U.S. subjects to view global competitive pressures as mitigating the emphasis
place on ethics and social responsibility.
(4) Finally, in the areas of permissible personal
behaviors and the universality of ethical and
moral codes, substantial differences appear
that are consistent with general notions of
the differences between Confucian and
Western value systems. The responses of
East Asian subjects, on the whole, indicate
much more emphasis on social harmony
(e.g., opposition to actions that harm others)
and ethical and moral standards that are
individualistic and situationally determined.

National differences within East Asian responses

Table III probes the results presented in Tables 1
and 2 even further by testing for differences in the
responses of East Asian subjects based on national
differences.
In support of the notion that Confucian Values
are not homogeneous, but rather conditioned on
specific recent historical experiences, it can be pointed
out that the same number of statistically significant
differences (at the 0.05 level) for 16 of 24 questions
can be seen in Table III as in Table II. The apparent
materiality of differences magnitude of significant
F-statistics and questions with noticeable differences
vary, however, between these two tables. Important
differences include:
(1) Less salient differences among East Asian subjects as to the likelihood of similar responses
(acting the same) to scenarios one and two,
with Korean subjects indicating greater likelihood of similar response to both scenarios.
(2) Much greater diversity in response to questions regarding normative corporate policy
among East Asian subjects than between
U.S. and East Asian subjects. Differences in

129

this area across East Asian countries are quite

noticeable but difficult to interpret in a
coherent fashion. Most salient are the
responses to notion that business has a social
responsibility beyond making profits. Chinese and Korean subjects clearly agree with
this notion to a lesser extent than Japanese
subjects, whose responses approximate those
shown for U.S. subjects in Table II.
(3) A somewhat consistent pattern with relatively
low cross-country differences in East Asian
responses to questions about ethical corporate
behavior and actual business success. In particular, Chinese respondents are noticeably
less likely than Japanese and Korean subjects
to view product quality as equally important
with ethical behavior and social responsibility, more likely to view ethics and social
responsibility as essential for long-term profitability, and less likely to respond that ethics
and social responsibility can be ignored in the
context of threatening enterprise survival.
(4) Much greater consensus within East Asia
than between East Asia and the U.S. as to
permissible personal actions, with somewhat
uniform responses that harm to others is not
allowable (i.e., that social harmony is paramount). Nevertheless, in this comparative
environment, Chinese responses appear
nominally contradictory strongly supporting the notion that potential harm to others
is wrong regardless of benefits, but less likely
to object to the notion that it is never necessary to sacrifice the welfare of others.
(5) Clearly less substantial differences within
East Asia than between East Asia and the
U.S. in the area of personal ethical codes.
The most notable within East Asia difference is a more positive Chinese response to
the notions that no ethical principles are
absolutely universal, and that what is ethical
varies by situation and society.

Summary and conclusions

The survey results reported in Tables II and III are
generally consistent with our prior discussion of

Kun Young Chung et al.

130

TABLE III
Within East Asia Differences in. Responses to Selected Survey Questions

Questions related to business scenarios:

Scenario 1:
Scenario 2:
Scenario 3:
Scenario 4:
Questions related to normative corporate policies:
1. Ethics and social responsibility are the most
important dimensions of corporate policy
2. Corporate planning discussions should include
ethics and social responsibility
3. Business has a social responsibility beyond making
profits
Questions related to actual corporate success:
1. Output quality is essential for success; while ethics
and social responsibility are not
2. Communication is more important for effectiveness
than ethics and social responsibility
3. Ethics and social responsibility are essential for longterm profitability
4. Global competitiveness requires a disregard for
ethics and social responsibility
5. When survival is threatened, ethics and social
responsibility can be ignored
Questions related to permissible personal actions:
1. Irrespective of benefits, potential harm to others is
always wrong
2. One should never act to threaten the dignity or
welfare of another individual
3. It is never necessary to sacrifice others welfare
Questions related to personal morality and/or ethics:
1. No ethical principles are absolutely universal
2. What is ethical varies by situation and society
3. Moral standards are personal rules and should not be
used to judge others
4. Rigid ethical codes can stand in the way of better
human relations
5. The permissibility of lying is totally situationally
dependent
N = 554: 85 in China; 248 in Japan; and 221 in Korea.
** Significant at .01 level; * Significant at .05 level.

Ethical problem exists

Would act the same
Ethical problem exists
Would act the same
Ethical problem exists
Would act the same
Ethical problem exists
Would act the same

China

Japan

Korea

F-Stat

6.88
2.99
7.49
3.02
5.60
4.42
8.09
2.16

7.43
2.58
5.90
4.06
5.60
4.11
7.60
2.44

7.23
3.44
6.52
4.45
6.31
4.56
7.73
2.45

1.46
5.57**
12.04**
6.77**
3.73*
1.21
1.17
0.43

6.85

7.12

7.57

3.86**

8.35

7.28

7.68

9.61*

5.51

7.79

5.92

52.16**

1.71

4.24

3.09

26.44**

7.01

7.29

6.57

5.02**

8.28

7.45

7.99

8.31**

3.05

3.64

3.10

2.42

3.12

3.77

3.93

2.83*

8.01

6.27

6.84

17.48**

7.84

7.42

7.68

1.59

6.45

7.19

7.21

4.16**

6.27
7.68
5.04

5.14
6.87
5.65

5.99
6.74
6.09

6.76**
5.29**
5.36**

6.19

5.78

6.10

1.53

6.91

6.83

6.75

0.17

Ethical Perceptions of Business Students

differences both between Western and East Asian
(Confucian) values and among East Asian countries
with different recent historical experiences. At a
personal level, East Asian subjects clearly placed
greater emphasis on social harmony (less willingness
to harm the interests of others) and indicated greater
skepticism towards the notion of universal ethical
and moral codes. Based on responses to our business
scenarios and questions regarding the effects of ethical
business behavior, it would appear that U.S. students
are much more attuned to (educated as to) the need
for ethical behavior in business. Of course, the
extent to which this greater relative sensitivity to
ethical business behavior plays out in practice as U.S.
students progress in their professional careers is not
addressed in this research.
In a general sense, the number of significant differences within the East Asian subject pool reported
in Table III strongly support the notion that
Confucian Values are not monolithic and vary
based on recent national historical experiences.
Nonetheless, our conjectures in Section Confucian
values and their country-specific characteristics as
to how specific differences in recent historical
experiences across East Asian countries might affect
specific differences in ethical perceptions are only
partially supported by the results shown in Table III.
As suggested, we find traces of potentially contradictory Chinese attitudes towards the interplay
between ethics and profits in business as the potentially contradictory effects of residual Marxist (anticapitalist) morality and extreme business competition
come to bear. For example, Chinese subjects indicate greater relative importance for ethics and social
responsibility over product quality, but also are least
likely to indicate that businesses have a social
responsibility beyond making profits. Certain Korean responses (particularly indicated likelihood or
behaving as described in our ambiguous business
scenarios) also support the notion that the focus on
business corruption in that nation has made citizens
more skeptical and perhaps materialistic. On the
other hand, our results provide little evidence that
Japanese subjects are either more attuned to global
competitive pressures or uniquely focused on social
harmony.
The key contribution of this research to multinational business practices rests not in suggestions for
specific business behaviors or expectation for specific

131

geographical environments. Rather, it demonstrates

at a national level how broad cultural characterizations such as Confucianism must be modified in
entering specific environments, suggesting that
understanding recent historical experiences may be a
key to identifying the ways in which these modifications should proceed. The authors intend to proceed in this line of research by boring down in the
East Asian world to differences in ethical perceptions
within distinct regions of Greater China different areas of Coastal PRC, Hong Kong, Taiwan,
and Singapore - with varying recent historical
experiences.

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Kun Young Chung

Keimyung University,
Daegu, Republic of Korea
John W. Eichenseher
School of Business,
University of Wisconsin-Madison,
975 University Ave, Madison, WI, 53706, U.S.A.
E-mail: jeichen@bus.wisc.edu
Teruso Taniguchi
Momoyama Gakuin University,
Osaka, Japan