IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/accted/v15y2006i2p167-187.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Students' beliefs, attitudes and intentions to major in accounting

Author

Listed:
  • Lin Mei Tan
  • Fawzi Laswad

Abstract

This study extends the literature that uses the theory of planned behaviour in examining the factors that impact on students' intentions to major in accounting and non-accounting disciplines. A survey of a sample of business students enrolled in an introductory accounting course in a New Zealand University was conducted to gather data about their intended academic majors, and their beliefs and attitudes towards majoring in accounting and non-accounting. The results show that three factors (personal, referents, and control) are determinants of students' intention to major in accounting or other business disciplines. Further analysis revealed that the students' major intentions are influenced by important referents' perceptions. In particular, parents appear to have a stronger influence on students' intentions to major in accounting. Comparisons of differential personal perceptions by accounting and non-accounting majors revealed that accounting majors hold positive perceptions of some of the qualities of the study of accounting and the accounting profession. Significant differences were also found in the control perception between accounting and non-accounting major students.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin Mei Tan & Fawzi Laswad, 2006. "Students' beliefs, attitudes and intentions to major in accounting," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 167-187.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:accted:v:15:y:2006:i:2:p:167-187
    DOI: 10.1080/09639280600787194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09639280600787194
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09639280600787194?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 search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Wells, Paul K., 2018. "How well do our introductory accounting text books reflect current accounting practice?," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 40-48.
    2. Satoshi Sugahara & Gregory Boland, 2006. "Perceptions of the certified public accountants by accounting and non-accounting tertiary students in Japan," Asian Review of Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 14(1), pages 149-167, July.
    3. Denise Jackson & Julia Richardson & Grant Michelson & Rahat Munir, 2022. "Attracting accounting and finance graduate talent – beyond the Big Four," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 3761-3790, September.
    4. Huikku, Jari & Myllymäki, Emma-Riikka & Ojala, Hannu, 2022. "Gender differences in the first course in accounting: An achievement goal approach," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(3).
    5. Teresa C. Herrador-Alcaide & Montserrat Hernández-Solís & J. Fortunato Hontoria, 2020. "Online Learning Tools in the Era of m-Learning: Utility and Attitudes in Accounting College Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Sabine Graschitz & Simona Holzknecht & Marcel Steller, 2023. "Perceived Attractiveness of Tax Consultancy and Auditing Professions: Insights From a German-Speaking Area," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    7. Tracey McDowall & Beverley Jackling, 2010. "Attitudes towards the accounting profession: an Australian perspective," Asian Review of Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 18(1), pages 30-49, May.
    8. Karlsson, Per & Noela, Massa, 2022. "Beliefs influencing students’ career choices in Sweden and reasons for not choosing the accounting profession," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    9. Pan, Peipei & Perera, Hector, 2012. "Market relevance of university accounting programs: Evidence from Australia," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 91-108.
    10. Fogarty, Timothy J., 2019. "Surrender Dorothy?: A commentary on Rebele and St. Pierre (2019)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    11. Beverley Jackling & Monica Keneley, 2009. "Influences on the supply of accounting graduates in Australia: a focus on international students," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 49(1), pages 141-159, March.
    12. 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).
    13. Siew Chin Wong & Jia Ying Lim & Chui Seong Lim & Kay Tze Hong, 2019. "An Empirical Study on Career Choices Among Undergraduates: A PLS-SEM Hierarchical Component Model (HCM) Approach," International Journal of Human Resource Studies, Macrothink Institute, vol. 9(2), pages 276-298, December.
    14. Apostolou, Barbara & Hassell, John M. & Rebele, James E. & Watson, Stephanie F., 2010. "Accounting education literature review (2006–2009)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 145-197.
    15. Suryani, Ani Wilujeng & Helliar, Christine & Carter, Amanda J. & Medlin, John, 2018. "Shunning careers in public accounting firms: The case of Indonesia," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 463-480.

    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:15:y:2006:i:2:p:167-187. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.