Confucius remains one of the largest contributiors to Asian culture and philosophy. Confucius lived more than 500 years before the birth of Christ, yet the teachings of Master Kung continue to lie at the heart of the moral philosophies and the ethical decision making of Japan, China, Korea, and many other countries of the Pacific rim. At the heart of this 2200 year old philosophy are core values such as "filial piety," duty, and collectivism. At times, these values contrast with the Western values of individualism, liberty, equality, and individual rights. The researchers of this study set out to find differences and similarities between the business ethics perceptions of university students from the US, China, Japan, and Korea. The study aimed to find differences between Western and Eastern business ethics, yet the results also found vast differences between the ethical perceptions of the three Asian countries as well.

Sampling 842 business students from the US, China, Japan, and Korea, a questionnaire of 76 questions was administered to the students. The responses to all 76 questions were based on a nine-point Likert scale, with one end of the scale as "completely disagree" and the other as "completely agree."

The first part consisted of 32 questions on four business scenarios. An example of one of the scenarios presented was:

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 indi-
vidual responsible for appraising trade-in
values for the dealership, leading to a poten-
tial over-appraisal of the traded-in value.

The remaining 44 questions were opinion questions on business practices and interpersonal relationships.



The results were as follows: