Journals Proceedings

Abstract

In this era of globalization, ethical matters are overlooked by many in everyday life. This also holds true for businesses, as is evident in news reports on the unethical conduct of businesspeople, such as the breach of trust, cheating, and other irresponsible practices. Such events raise the question of how well business ethics is practiced by businesspeople. Therefore, we conducted a study to determine the extent to which business ethics are practiced by businesspeople owning small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We also reviewed how business ethics practiced among the Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera-owned SMEs differ. We employed a questionnaire survey to obtain data. One hundred respondents were chosen as the sample. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The findings show that the level of business ethics practiced among Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera-owned SMEs are high for personal values and moderately high for social responsibility management, ways of conducting business, and interacting with others in business settings. The data also show that there is no difference in the practice of business ethics between the Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera businesspeople, except in their way of conducting business, where the Bumiputera businesspeople are found to be more ethical. Though the mean difference is small, this indicates that Bumiputera businesspeople are more concerned about ethics than non-Bumiputera businesspeople are. The implications of this study are relevant to the stakeholders in the entrepreneurship training programs. The study implies that people should be exposed to business ethics to avoid unhealthy business practices in Malaysia.