2008 - Marketing Educators' Association

INVESTIGATING PLAGIARISM: CREATION AND VALIDATION OF EXPLORATORY MEASURES
Joel Herche, University of the Pacific, Eberhardt School of Business,
Stockton, CA 95211; jherche@pacific.edu
The need to develop theory to aid understanding of
attitudes and behaviors toward plagiarism has grown
with the social acceptance of the practice. Syllabi
from marketing classes are filled with policies
targeting the practice and school guidelines are
being developed to deal with its ubiquitous
presence.
Though plagiarism is being viewed with increasing
scorn by administrations and instructors, it is
becoming more frequently observed as the Internet
and various online electronic information sources
make access easier. Case analyses of many of the
prominent business school assignments are easily
located for sale online. With this increase have come
new and creative detection tools such as Turnitin,
iThenticate, plagiarism.org and others.
In the interest of encouraging discussion and theory
development on the topic, two scales were
empirically developed: the Plagiarism Avoidance
Index (PAI) and the Discipline for Plagiarism Index
DPI). Following Churchill’s (1979) paradigm for
measurement development, the reliability and
validity of the new measures were evaluated.
ABSTRACT
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other academic venues. Administration of the
measures could be used to craft a useful policy or to
better appreciate how a given policy will be
perceived. Although the PAI and DPI were
developed to measure behaviors and opinions, the
motivations that drive students to plagiarize are
likely to be found to be rich and complex.
As marketing educators, this readership should be
concerned with the perception of our discipline and
its commitment to encouraging noble ethical conduct
among our charges. Disagreements regarding what
that conduct represents and/or the means by and
extent to which related behavior should be regulated
may be surprisingly common.
Emotions run high among those holding polarized
beliefs regarding policies and standards for
academic institutions to adopt. Empirical research,
though it is an admittedly imperfect tool, perhaps
offers the best inadequate resource available to
resolve the differences. Because of the implications
for the credibility of our profession and the legal and
conceptual links between plagiarism and property
rights, the issue rightfully continues to be a topic of
passionate debate.