Perceptions of Non-Accounting Business Majors about the Managerial Accounting Course

This study examines the perception of non-accounting business major students about the managerial accounting course. The knowledge of these perceptions will help determine whether educators need to be concerned about inspiring certain groups of students to be more aggressive in learning the material. We found that all non-accounting majors, regardless of their major field of study think the managerial accounting course is interesting and has real-world application. The finance and management major students think that the course is related to their field of study and it should be made a required course, but not the MIS and marketing major students. The higher the academic skills and the more the work experience, the greater is the student's perception that managerial accounting should be a required course and has real-world application. Based on the results, we suggest that development of teaching materials aimed at reinforcing the importance of managerial accounting topics to all business majors, particularly MIS and marketing majors may overcome some barriers to learning the subject. This research also has implications for Pacific Basin business schools as our findings indicate that Pacific Basin business schools that do not require non-accounting majors to take managerial accounting course should make it a required course for all undergraduate non-accounting majors.