As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes a structural pillar of management education, MBA programs increasingly function as critical precursor AI credential pathways that shape the moral compass of future business leaders. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior and Rest’s Four-Component Model, this study investigates the determinants of ethical awareness and its downstream influence on Behavioral Intention and Perceived Risk among 198 MBA students. Utilizing a quantitative design, the conceptual model was validated through Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression and mediation analysis.

The results demonstrate substantial explanatory power for the primary mediator, Ethical Awareness (R² = .694), revealing that AI Awareness, AI Perception, and the Institutional Ethics are significant predictors (p < .001). Notably, Ethical Awareness serves as a robust conduit, explaining significant variance in both Behavioral Intention (R² = .629, β = .877) and Perceived Risk (R² = .618, β = .955). Interestingly, Moral Reasoning showed a non-significant effect (p = .068), suggesting that Institutional Ethics exerts a more dominant influence than Moral Reasoning in high-stakes technological contexts. These findings underscore that ethical awareness is a cultivated educational outcome rather than an auxiliary byproduct of AI usage, emphasizing the critical role of institutional design in fostering responsible AI leadership and providing a framework for integrating "ethics-by-design" — the deliberate embedding of ethical principles into AI curricula from the outset — into professional AI credentials.