Truth, consequences and culture: A comparative examination of cheating andattitudes about cheating among US and UK students

As Post (1996) observes, accounting firms are unique among multinationals. They are more likely than firms in almost any other category to go abroad. They also have less choice in location as their expansion is determined lar gely by the desired locations of their clients (Anderson and Gatignon, 1986 ). Given the widespread global presence of such firms, it can be argued tha t the global audit firm is uniquely at risk from variations in ethical perc eptions across nations. This study extends the U.S. accounting literature o n determinants of cheating among accounting students to the U.K. Based on t he work of Cohen et al. (1993) it develops a model that suggests that stude nts in lower "uncertainty avoidance" countries will be both less likely to cheat, and when they do cheat, will be driven by internal rather than exter nal mode. Our results supported the model as proposed as our results indica ted that U.S. students were more likely to cheat and were more responsive t o external stimuli than were the U.K. students.