IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/accted/v12y2003i3p261-281.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors explaining the choice of a finance major: the role of students' characteristics, personality and perceptions of the profession

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Worthington
  • Helen Higgs

Abstract

This paper examines the role of student characteristics, personality, and perceptions of the banking and finance profession in determining the choice of an undergraduate finance major. The data employed is drawn from a survey of first-year business students at a large Australian university. Student characteristics examined include gender, secondary school studies in accounting, business and economics, grade point average and attendance mode. Perceptions of the banking and finance profession revolve around questions of overall interest, relationships of persons working within the profession, the manner in which the profession deals with problems and tasks, and the nature of these problems. A binary probit model is used to identify the source and magnitude of factors associated with a student's choice of major. The evidence provided suggests that the choice of a finance major is a function of students' overall interest in the profession, perceptions of how the profession deals with problems and tasks, the nature of these problems and tasks, mode of attendance and, to a lesser extent, gender. The study emphasizes the need to incorporate factors associated with students' personality and perceptions in analyses of this type.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Worthington & Helen Higgs, 2003. "Factors explaining the choice of a finance major: the role of students' characteristics, personality and perceptions of the profession," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 261-281.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:accted:v:12:y:2003:i:3:p:261-281
    DOI: 10.1080/0963928032000088831
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0963928032000088831
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0963928032000088831?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosina Mladenovic, 2000. "An investigation into ways of challenging introductory accounting students' negative perceptions of accounting," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 135-155.
    2. Karen E. Dynan & Cecilia Elena Rouse, 1997. "The Underrepresentation of Women in Economics: A Study of Undergraduate Economics Students," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 350-368, December.
    3. Moy Yin Koh & Hian Chye Koh, 1999. "The determinants of performance in an accountancy degree programme," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 13-29.
    4. Easterlin, Richard A., 1995. "Preferences and prices in choice of career: The switch to business, 1972-1987," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-34, June.
    5. Clifford Oswick & Patrick Barber, 1998. "Personality type and performance in an introductory level accounting course : a research note," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 249-254.
    6. Ann L. Owen & Elizabeth J. Jensen, 2000. "Why Are Women Such Reluctant Economists? Evidence from Liberal Arts Colleges," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 466-470, May.
    7. Rumberger, Russell W. & Thomas, Scott L., 1993. "The economic returns to college major, quality and performance: A multilevel analysis of recent graduates," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, March.
    8. Anne Fortin & Joel H. Amernic, 1994. "A Descriptive Profile of Intermediate Accounting Students," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(S1), pages 21-73, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arnold, Ivo J.M., 2020. "Gender and major choice within economics: Evidence from Europe," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    2. Balasingham Balachandran & Michael Skully & Kevin Tant & John Watson, 2006. "Australian evidence on student expectations and perceptions of introductory business finance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 46(5), pages 697-713, December.
    3. Leiv OPSTAD, 2019. "Different Attitudes Towards Mathematics Among Economic And Business Students And Choice Of Business Course Major In Norway," Social Sciences and Education Research Review, Department of Communication, Journalism and Education Sciences, University of Craiova, vol. 6(2), pages 6-30, November.
    4. Hunjra, Ahmed Imran & Rehman, Kashif-Ur- & Ahmad, Abrar & Safwan, Nadeem & Rehman, Ijaz-Ur, 2009. "Factors explaining the choice of finance major: students’ perception towards finance profession," MPRA Paper 40687, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Beverley Jackling & Claude Calero, 2006. "Influences on Undergraduate Students' Intentions to become Qualified Accountants: Evidence from Australia," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 419-438.
    6. Pruijssers, Jorien Louise & Singer, Gallia & Singer, Zvi & Tsang, Desmond, 2023. "Social influence pressures and the risk preferences of aspiring financial market professionals," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew C. Worthington & Helen Higgs, 2000. "Student Perceptions of the Profession and the Decision to Major in Economics," School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 085, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology.
    2. Andrew Worthington & Helen Higgs, 2003. "Factors explaining the choice of a finance major: the role of students' characteristics, personality and perceptions of the profession," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21.
    3. Hunjra, Ahmed Imran & Rehman, Kashif-Ur- & Ahmad, Abrar & Safwan, Nadeem & Rehman, Ijaz-Ur, 2009. "Factors explaining the choice of finance major: students’ perception towards finance profession," MPRA Paper 40687, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ann L. Owen, 2010. "Grades, Gender, and Encouragement: A Regression Discontinuity Analysis," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 217-234, June.
    5. Rask, Kevin, 2010. "Attrition in STEM fields at a liberal arts college: The importance of grades and pre-collegiate preferences," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 892-900, December.
    6. Kugler, Adriana & Tinsley, Catherine H. & Ukhaneva, Olga, 2017. "Choice of Majors: Are Women Really Different from Men?," IZA Discussion Papers 10947, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Rask, Kevin & Tiefenthaler, Jill, 2008. "The role of grade sensitivity in explaining the gender imbalance in undergraduate economics," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 676-687, December.
    8. Tanvi Paras Kothari & Sameer Sudhakar Pingle, 2015. "Establishing the Relationship between Marketing Specialization and Personality Traits among Management Students," Paradigm, , vol. 19(2), pages 170-183, December.
    9. Fred H. Smith & Christina Zenker, 2014. "Still staying away: Women and the economics major – evidence from two Southern liberal arts colleges," Econometrics Letters, Bilimsel Mektuplar Organizasyonu (Scientific letters), vol. 1(2), pages 1-7.
    10. Aldónio Ferreira & Andrijani Santoso, 2008. "Do students’ perceptions matter? A study of the effect of students’ perceptions on academic performance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 48(2), pages 209-231, June.
    11. Patricia M. Flynn & Michael A. Quinn, 2010. "Economics: Good Choice of Major for Future Ceos," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 55(1), pages 58-72, May.
    12. David Sabiston & Ambrose Leung & Gianfranco Terrazzano, 2017. "Learning styles and performance in principles of economics: does the gender gap exist?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(4), pages 2935-2944.
    13. Lucas, Ursula & Meyer, Jan H.F., 2005. "‘Towards a mapping of the student world’: the identification of variation in students' conceptions of, and motivations to learn, introductory accounting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 177-204.
    14. Duff, Angus & Mladenovic, Rosina, 2015. "Antecedents and consequences of accounting students' approaches to learning: A cluster analytic approach," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 321-338.
    15. James V. Koch & Ziniya Zahedi, 2019. "The effects of role models on college graduation rates," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 43(3), pages 607-617, July.
    16. Garcia, Rene & Bonomo, Marco, 2001. "Tests of conditional asset pricing models in the Brazilian stock market," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 71-90, February.
    17. Kevin M. Baird & Venkateshwaran Narayanan, 2010. "The effect of a change in teaching structure on student performance," Asian Review of Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 18(2), pages 148-161, July.
    18. Sharron Xuanren Wang & Arthur Sakamoto, 2021. "Can Higher Education Ameliorate Racial/Ethnic Disadvantage? An Analysis of the Wage Assimilation of College-Educated Hispanic Americans," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, April.
    19. von Hippel, Paul T. & Bellows, Laura & Osborne, Cynthia & Lincove, Jane Arnold & Mills, Nick, 2016. "Teacher quality differences between teacher preparation programs: How big? How reliable? Which programs are different?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 31-45.
    20. Hadsell, Lester, 2020. "Not for want of trying: Effort and Success of women in principles of microeconomics," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:accted:v:12:y:2003:i:3:p:261-281. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAED20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.