Ethical Cultures in Large Business Organizations in Brazil, Russia, India, and China Alexandre Ardichvili • Douglas Jondle • Brenda Kowske • Edgard Cornachione • Jessica Li • Thomas Thakadipuram Received: 9 September 2010 / Accepted: 7 July 2011 / Published online: 24 July 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract This study focuses on comparison of percep- tions of ethical business cultures in large business organi- zations from four largest emerging economies, commonly referred to as the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), and from the US. The data were collected from more than 13,000 managers and employees of business organizations in five countries. The study found significant differences among BRIC countries, with respondents from India and Brazil providing more favorable assessments of ethical cultures of their organizations than respondents from China and Russia. Overall, highest mean scores were provided by respondents from India, the US, and Brazil. There were significant similarities in ratings between the US and Brazil. Keywords Ethical business culture Á Business ethics Á BRICs Á Brazil Á Russia Á India Á China Á USA Introduction This study focuses on managers’ and employees’ percep- tions of the state of ethical cultures in business organiza- tions and explores similarities and differences among the four largest emerging economies, commonly referred to as the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). A recent review of the literature on ethical cultures in organizations from four Anglo-Saxon countries (USA, Canada, UK, and Australia) suggests that there are significant commonalities among these countries in perceptions of what constitutes ethical business culture (Ardichvili and Jondle 2009). However, comparative research on business ethics shows that perceptions of what constitutes ethical business culture are not universally shared around the world (Bailey and Spicer 2007; Christie et al. 2003; Jackson 2001; Robertson et al. 2003, 2008). Furthermore, although extant research includes comparisons among various developed and developing countries, none of the studies, to our knowl- edge, focused on comparisons of ethical business cultures in developed countries and four of the largest and most influential developing countries, commonly referred to as BRICs. The term BRICs was coined at the turn of this century by analysts at Goldman Sachs who argued that Brazil, Russia, India, and China deserve special attention as the largest and fastest growing emerging economies of the world, and that by 2050, combined GDP of these four A. Ardichvili (&) Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development, University of Minnesota, 330 Wulling Hall, 86 Pleasant Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA e-mail: ardic001@umn.edu D. Jondle Center for Ethics Business Cultures, Opus College of Business, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN, USA e-mail: DJJONDLE@stthomas.edu B. Kowske Kenexa Research Institute, Minneapolis, MN, USA e-mail: Brenda.Kowske@kenexa.com E. Cornachione University of Sao Paulo, Ave. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, Sao Paulo, Brazil e-mail: edgardbc@usp.br J. Li University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA e-mail: Jessica.Li@unt.edu T. Thakadipuram St. Claret College, Bangalore, KA, India e-mail: tomscmf@gmail.com 123 J Bus Ethics (2012) 105:415–428 DOI 10.1007/s10551-011-0976-9