Understanding how business and economics higher education students ethically appraise corporate behaviour nowadays may contribute to anticipating how they will behave in the future as corporate actors and leaders. At present, students observe and perceive academic behaviour; in the future, they will make decisions and act within a corporate context. We investigated the hypothesis, which is concerned with consistency between the perceptions of the aforementioned two contexts evaluated at the same time (academic at present and corporate in a hypothetical future), through a questionnaire administered to business and economics undergraduate students at a top Portuguese institution. We found evidence of such consistency in perceptions. Students who perceived academic misconduct to be more serious also held more ethical views on corporate behaviour. Female students and students from higher education family backgrounds expressed stricter views on corporate ethics than those of their peers. By exploring this alignment, it is thus possible for higher education institutions to affect the ethical perceptions of academic (mis)conduct and promote more ethical behaviour at present and potentially in the future.

了解当今商业和经济学的高等教育学生如何从道德上评估公司行为，可能有助于预期他们将来作为公司行为者和领导者的行为。目前，学生观察和感知学术行为；将来，他们将在公司范围内做出决策并采取行动。我们通过对葡萄牙一家顶尖大学的商业和经济学本科学生进行问卷调查，调查了该假设，该假设与同时评估上述两种情况（当前的学术和假设的未来的企业）的感知之间的一致性有关。我们发现了这种观念上的一致性的证据。认为学术不端行为更加严重的学生对公司行为也持有更多的道德观念。女学生和来自高等教育家庭背景的学生对公司道德的看法比同龄人更为严格。通过探索这种契合，高等教育机构有可能影响对学术（不当）行为的道德观念，并在目前和将来促进更多的道德行为。