“What do you do when no one is watching?"

The objective of this research was to analyze the impact of motivational orientation, perceived opportunity, and the likelihood of dishonest behavior on the academic dishonesty of business students during online exams in the context of Emergency Remote Education (ERE). This is a predominantly quantitative study, operationalized through the application of a questionnaire (180 students from a Brazilian federal university) and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling, specifically the Partial Least Squares method. Additionally, the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) technique was employed to gather perceptions of the main reasons for the increased occurrence of cheating during online studies. It was identified that unauthorized collective collaboration, cheating, and plagiarism were the most recurring unethical behaviors during this period, justified by the pursuit of higher grades. The CSD pointed out the lack of supervision and punishment, as well as the ease of communication during the online period, as reasons for the increased presence of cheating in ERE compared to face-to-face education. The structural model revealed (i) a negative relationship between motivational orientation and academic dishonesty and (ii) a positive relationship between perceived opportunity and the likelihood of dishonest behavior on academic dishonesty. The study provides empirical evidence of students' perceptions during online exams, offering a potential explanation for (un)ethical behavior and its frequency, as well as a proxy for understanding university behavior in this context.