Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine attitudes of undergraduate and graduate business students in China and the USA with regard to business codes of ethics. Design/methodology/approach Respondents were instructed to assume that an Ethical Practices Code had been drawn up by firms operating in the industry in which they intended to work and were asked to indicate their levels of disagreement/agreement with seven statements relating to the possible consequences of such a code. Tests of significance were used to analyze responses for the USA and Chinese groups. In addition, the effect on responses of a course in ethics was examined. Findings Despite the recent attention focused on corporate irresponsibility and the possible adverse effects on US consumers of outsourcing to China, the findings indicate that, with one exception, attitudes toward codes of ethics were not significantly different between the Chinese and USA respondents. Research limitations/implications Future researchers may wish to replicate this study using management and student samples randomly drawn from diverse geographical areas in each country and track changes that may occur over time. Practical implications The findings should prove useful in helping government and business understand attitudes toward codes of ethics and aid in the development of such codes. Originality/value At a time of growing concern about corporate social responsibility, the findings should prove especially useful to those concerned with the increasingly important issue of ethics in business operations. Given the cultural distance and history of years with little interaction between China and the USA, studies such as this provide insight and help build mutual understanding between the people of these two countries.
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