Perceptions Among UK Accounting and Business Students as to the Ethicality of Using Assignment Assistance Websites

Abstract

A number of websites have emerged in recent years that assist students seeking help in fulfilling academic requirements. This “assistance” often takes the form of fee-based access to solutions manuals, test banks, and essays, all of which allow students to circumvent the learning process. Prior research on college cheating in general reveals that business students are more likely to engage in academic misconduct which raises the concern that they will be more likely to use assignment assistance website (AAW) services. Using a series of structured group interviews, this qualitative study solicited the opinions of 58 UK university students in a variety of business majors regarding factors that might influence their decision to purchase AAW services. Fraud Diamond theory served as the foundation for discussion questions intended to explore student attitudes toward their capabilities for engaging AAW services, the opportunities that allow students to “get away” with using AAW-provided information, the pressures that motivate students to turn to AAW, and how they are able to rationalize this behavior. Analysis of student responses indicated that a number of internal and external factors appeared to inform student responses as to the propriety of engaging AAW services. Their responses mapped well onto the Fraud Diamond framework with two key themes emerging for each of the framework’s four elements. In turn, the themes for each element facilitated the development of a theoretical model to explain the attitudinal and situational factors that interact to increase the likelihood that students will engage AAW services.