The effect of students' ethics learning experiences to develop ethical reasoning abilities: a comparative study between Japanese and Chinese students

This study measures the ethical reasoning ability among undergraduate business students from Japan and China for the purpose of assisting the international convergence of accounting ethics education. This study also examined the effect that students' learning experiences had on their overall ethical reasoning abilities. The sample was collected via a questionnaire-based survey administered at four Japanese universities and two Chinese universities in October 2007. A total of 174 undergraduate business students participated from Japan and 174 from China. Rest's defining issues test (DIT) was applied to compute students' ethical reasoning abilities. The results indicate that the average ethical reasoning ability of Chinese students was higher than that of their Japanese counterparts. It was also discovered that ethics learning experiences obtained in secondary schools were useful for both groups of students. It was found that in these two countries, an understanding of the ethical reasoning abilities of undergraduate students is required before a successful international convergence of accounting ethics education programmes can take place.