An investigation of Indian student attitudes towards entrepreneurs and managers Dennis Barber III Miller School of Entrepreneurship, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA Suhail Mohammad Ghouse Dhofar University, Dhofar, Oman John Batchelor University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida, USA Francesca Chaher College of Business, University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida, USA Michael L. Harris Miller School of Entrepreneurship, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA, and Shanan G. Gibson College of Business and Technology, Texas A&M University Commerce, Commerce, Texas, USA Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of business students in India toward business managers (not self-employed) and entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach – Students’ perceptions of the ethical behaviors of business managers and entrepreneurs were measured using the Bucar and Hisrich (2001) model. The scale comprises 20 behavioral descriptors, and the students were asked to indicate the degree to which they believed entrepreneurs and business managers would consider these actions as ethical. Findings – Responses to general items of ethical behavior demonstrated a difference in the perception of Indian students between business managers and entrepreneurs. Originality/value – This study contributes to the field of entrepreneurship in two ways. One involves the results of the hypothesis testing presented herein to evaluate the perceptions of business students in India toward entrepreneurs and business managers. The second contribution is comparing these results to that of a similar study using a US sample (Batchelor et al., 2011) to compare the differences in perceptions toward entrepreneurs and business managers across these two nations. Keywords India, Ethics, Management, Entrepreneurship Paper type Research paper Introduction There are differing perspectives on the ethical standing of entrepreneurs and business managers. Managers face difficult decisions and ethical dilemmas on a regular basis Entrepreneurs and managers 377 Received 6 September 2018 Revised 13 January 2019 10 July 2019 Accepted 23 October 2019 Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies Vol. 12 No. 3, 2020 pp. 377-398 © Emerald Publishing Limited 2053-4604 DOI 10.1108/JEEE-09-2018-0091 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/2053-4604.htm