Ethics and religion in higher education: Evidence from United Arab Emirates universities

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of Islamic value on ethical behavior including other factors identified in the literature. The focus of the paper is to investigate to what extent does Islamic value impact ethical behavior of United Arab Emirates (UAE) university students.

Design/methodology/approach

The research is based on a quantitative approach using a questionnaire survey from 500 anonymous respondents covering five major universities within the UAE region. The identified constructs have been utilized to test a theoretical model using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique.

Finding

The results revealed that education and code of ethics and Islamic values are dominant predictors to elevate ethical behavior, as well as the role of religion has a positive impact on ethical behavior. The survey results revealed a reverse relationship between new technology and ethical behavior.

Research limitations/implications

The measures of factors used to rate university students' perception of ethical behavior are a possible limitation of the research study.

Originality/value

No empirical study was found in the literature that specifically investigates the relationships between Islamic value and ethical behavior in the UAE region. The paper fills an important gap in the literature on ethics.

Citation

Fantazy, K. and Abdul Rahim A. Al Athmay, A.-A. (2014), "Ethics and religion in higher education: Evidence from United Arab Emirates universities", International Journal of Commerce and Management, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 180-196. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCoMA-02-2014-0018