Open AccessHow important is business ethics: evidence from Estonia
Author(s) -
Natalja Gurvitsh,
Jaan Alver,
Lehte Alver
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
zeszyty teoretyczne rachunkowości
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2391-677X
pISSN - 1641-4381
DOI - 10.5604/01.3001.0010.3190
Subject(s) - business ethics , philosophy of business , estonian , applied ethics , information ethics , business education , public relations , curriculum , professional ethics , business relationship management , sociology , engineering ethics , political science , business , higher education , business model , electronic business , marketing , pedagogy , law , engineering , linguistics , philosophy
How important is business ethics: evidence from EstoniaDuring recent decades, more and more attention has been paid to business ethics. There seems to be an increasing interest in the non-financial aspects of business. Stakeholders all over the world express their concern about embedding the principles of professional and business ethics into companies’ everyday activities. The main subject of this research is business ethics and the purpose is to find out the im-portance of professional and business ethics and determine its place in the modern business world as seen by Estonian business students and practitioners. To achieve the goals, the authors conducted a survey among Estonian graduate and undergraduate accounting and business students at Tallinn University of Technology and Estonian business practitioners. 587 responses were collected in the process. This infor-mation was compiled and analyzed based on status, gender, age, and specialization. The survey revealed that in Estonia people are familiar with business ethics; however, it is not of great interest to them. The results also indicate that professional and business ethics merit more attention and should be included as a required course in the curriculum of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In general, business ethics in Estonia was not ranked as “high”, which was also the case for both professional ethics at the work-place/university and also the importance and necessity of ethics in the modern business world