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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between CEO business education and firm financial performance. Design/methodology/approach -An analysis of the relationship between three-year and fiveyear shareholder return as measured by dividend and change in share price and CEO educational qualification was performed. Findings -No relationship was found between CEO MBA, business, or other qualification and firm financial performance.Research limitations/implications -More research, particularly in the form of multinational longitudinal studies, should be undertaken on the relationship between CEO business and other qualifications and objective outcomes. A limitation of this study is that it was undertaken in one country and measured only firm financial performance. Practical implications -It is possible that business education has been over-emphasized as a prerequisite to successful management practice. It is also possible that the kind of management education that students have received is no longer appropriate to leadership at CEO level. Originality/value -Although many have blamed the GFC on business schools, there has been no examination of the relationship between CEO qualifications and firm financial performance in Australia, and little elsewhere. This study therefore fills a research gap.

There are questions about how ethics is best taught to undergraduate business students. There has been a proliferation in the number of stand-alone ethics courses for undergraduate students but research on the effectiveness of integrated versus stand-alone mode of delivery is inconclusive. Christensen et al. (J Bus Ethics 73(4):347-368, 2007), in a comprehensive review of ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability education, investigated how ethics education has changed over the last 20 years, including the issue of integration of these topics into the core course offerings. We use Brenner and Molander's (Harv Bus Rev 55(1):57-71, 1977) situational ethics survey instrument to examine the effect of the mode of delivery of business ethics education on undergraduate student responses. We found a significant difference on mode of delivery. Studies have also found interesting results in respect of the effect of cultural differences and gender on the effectiveness of business ethics instruction. While not the primary focus of this study, we also looked at the influence of gender and culture on students' responses. Our results indicate significant differences in respect of mode of delivery and culture. In contrast to other studies, we found that gender was not significant. We did test for any interactive effects of gender, culture and mode of delivery. However, no significant differences were found.

Purpose – This matched-pairs study of undergraduates at an Australian University investigates whether business ethics education has a positive effect on student ethical behaviour. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a matched-pairs design to look at responses before and after students have taken a semester-long unit in business ethics. The authors used ethical scenarios and analysed both the starting position and changes in responses for the total student group, and by gender and citizenship. Findings – The results from this matched-pairs study show ethics education has a limited impact on students’ responses to ethical dilemmas. Practical implications – Ethics subjects are now ubiquitous in business schools, but it may be time to consider alternatives to the philosophical normative teaching approach. Originality/value – This paper is significant in that it uses 142 matched pairs to look at responses before and after students have taken a semester-long unit in business ethics. This study provides qualified support for the proposition that business ethics education has an impact on students’ ethical decision making.

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