Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies
Attitudes towards accounting and intention to major in accounting: a logistic
regression analysis
Rita Amoah Bekoe, Godfred Matthew Yaw Owusu, Charles Gyamfi Ofori, Anthony Essel-Anderson,
Edem Emerald Welbeck,
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Attitudes towards accounting and Attitudestowards
intention to major in accounting: accounting
a logistic regression analysis
Rita Amoah Bekoe and Godfred Matthew Yaw Owusu 459
Department of Accounting, University of Ghana Business School,
University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
Charles Gyamfi Ofori
Department of Operations and Management Information Systems,
University of Ghana Business School, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
Anthony Essel-Anderson
Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, Berekuso, Ghana, and
Edem Emerald Welbeck
Department of Accounting, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the attitude of business students towards the accounting
profession and investigate the relationship between students’ attitude and their intention to pursue a degree
in accounting.
Design/methodology/approach – A self-administered survey was used to collect data from students from
the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS). A total of 457 questionnaires were used in the empirical
analysis. A binary logistic regression analysis technique was employed to analyse the data.
Findings – The logistic regression analysis demonstrates that intrinsic interest in the accounting discipline,
prior exposure to accounting at the senior high level and the desire to pursue professional accounting
qualification in future are good predictors of students’ intention to major in accounting. The results also
indicate family members, course instructors and other referent group play a crucial role in influencing
students’ intention to pursue a career in accounting.
Practical implications – The findings of this study have important implications for the
professional accountancy body and business educators interested in addressing the skill shortage in
the accounting profession.
Originality/value – This study does not only examine students’ attitude towards the accounting discipline
but also investigates how such attitudes influence intentions to major in accounting.
Keywords Ghana, Theory of planned behaviour, Logistic regression, Students 2019 intentions,
Accounting major
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
One topical issue that has received considerable interest in accounting research, particularly
in the field of accounting education is the shortages in the supply of professional
accountants to meet the ever-growing demand. Prior studies have shown that the demand
for professional accountants in many parts of the world, have over the years, exceeded the
supply (Chen, 2012; Nor et al., 2013; Van Zyl and de Villiers, 2011). Interestingly, while
countries are still struggling to deal with the shortages in the supply of professional
accountants, it is expected that the demand for accountants globally will increase in the
future due to the rapid growth in business activities (Coe, 2016). By implication, the
challenge of meeting the demand of accountants globally could worsen if urgent steps are Journal of Accounting in EmergingEconomies
not taken to address the deficit in the supply of accountants. While the reasons for the Vol. 8 No. 4, 2018pp. 459-475
global shortage in the supply of accountants remain an open question, a common theme © Emerald Publishing Limited
2042-1168
emerging from prior empirical works attribute the unfortunate trend to the continuous DOI 10.1108/JAEE-01-2018-0006
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JAEE decline in the number of university students who pursue accounting as a course major and
8,4 the unwillingness of some accounting graduates to pursue accounting as a career ( Jackling
and Calero, 2006; Cappelletto, 2010).
In part, the negative perceptions students have about the accounting profession have been
acknowledged to be an important source of this problem (Wells and Fieger, 2006). As pointed
out in some studies (Baxter and Kavanagh, 2013; Hiltebeitel et al., 2000), young people usually
460 develop their career aspirations based on preconceived ideas, inaccurate perceptions about
professions and their work environment. In the field of accounting, in particular, a number of
studies (Baxter and Kavanagh, 2013; Byrne and Willis, 2003; Jackling, 2001) document that
students who are usually not attracted to the accounting field perceive it to be uninteresting, a
discipline that requires good numeracy skills, full of rule memorising and a profession of
boring people who rarely work among others. Thus, stereotypical image of accounting has
been recognised to be a key contributing factor to the decline in the number of students
pursuing accounting as a course major in schools. Accordingly, a number of studies seeking to
examine how students perceive the accounting profession and the effect of such perceptions
on their choice of academic major and career decisions have emerged (Albrecht and Sack,
2000; Baxter and Kavanagh, 2013; Byrne and Willis, 2003; Jackling and Calero, 2006; Tang
and Seng, 2016). In particular most of these studies have explored the dominant factors that
influence students’ decision to pursue a career in accounting.
Wen et al. (2015) for instance examined students’motivation to pursue certified professional
accounting qualification in China and found among others, genuine interest, better
employment opportunities and the influences of personal relations to be significant predictors
of students’ decision to become professional accountants. Jackling and Keneley (2009) also
investigated that the factors influencing the supply of accounting graduates in Australia and
conclude that both intrinsic and extrinsic interests are crucial determinants of students’
decision to major in accounting. Within the Cambodian context, Tang and Seng (2016) find
students’ choice of accounting major to be positive and significantly associated with guidance,
personal characteristics and age. According to Tan and Laswad (2006), students’ major
intentions are influenced greatly by personal perception, perception of referents and perceived
control a student has over accounting relative to other business disciplines.
The evidence provided by the above studies clearly points to the fact that a complexity of
factors is responsible for the course major decision of business students in many parts of the
world. While the negative perception about the accounting profession largely discourages
students from considering the accounting option when deciding on their course major and/
or career path, there are other equally important factors that attract students to pursue
accounting. This study aims at providing some insights on the choice of accounting major
debate by examining the attitudes of University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) students
towards the accounting profession. The study explores whether students’ attitude towards
the accounting profession are in any way associated with their intention to major in
accounting or other business disciplines. The empirical analysis in the present study is
relevant for a number of reasons.
First, existing studies have mostly employed the data from the developed countries, such
as Australia, New Zealand, UK, Canada, Japan, (Marshall, 2003; Jackling and Keneley, 2009;
Sugahara and Boland, 2006; McDowall and Jackling, 2010) with a very little evidence from
developing countries (Tang and Seng, 2016; Ng et al., 2017). This study thus provides some
evidence from a developing country perspective, particularly from the African continent,
where the challenge of meeting the demand for accounting professionals is considered to be
a great concern.
Second, most existing studies have been conducted from countries where enrolment in
accounting degrees is generally acknowledged to be low relative to other business
disciplines (Birrell et al., 2005; Jackling and Keneley, 2009; Jackling and Calero, 2006;
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Marshall, 2003). However, this study provides evidence from a setting where enrolment in Attitudes
accounting programme is rather high and a more preferred option to business students than towards
the other business disciplines. Contrary to what pertains in some business schools in other accounting
jurisdictions, students’ preference for the accounting option in UGBS has consistently been
on the ascendency over the years compared to other business disciplines. Thus, the findings
of this study have important implications for countries where the accounting profession is a
less popular choice particularly among university business students. 461
The remaining parts of the paper are organised as follows: the next section provides
a brief review of theories frequently used to explain career choice decisions of students.
The subsequent section reviews prior literature and develops the hypotheses for the study.
The later sections of the paper provide the methodology, data analysis techniques and the
presentation of the results. The concluding sections of the paper provide a thorough
discussion of the results of the study, its implications on accounting education in general
and also provide directions for future research.
Theoretical review
The theory of reasoned action (TRA) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) have been the
most dominant theories employed in prior studies ( Jackling et al., 2012; Tang and Seng,
2016; Tan and Laswad, 2006) to investigate students’ career choice/course major intentions.
Developed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), the TRA posits that an individual’s behaviour or
outcome is usually preceded by intentions. According to Ajzen (1991), intentions represent
the key factors that influence a behaviour and hence, the stronger the intention of an
individual to engage in a behaviour, the greater the likelihood of the individual performing
the behaviour.
By implication, an individual’s intention defines his/her course of action. The TRA
assumes that individuals have complete control over their behaviour, hence, the stronger the
intentions to engage in a particular action or behaviour, the more likely it is that it will be
performed. From the perspective of the TRA, intentions are determined by two important
factors: attitude and subjective norms. The attitude of an individual largely describes the
disposition of that individual in evaluating a behaviour (whether positive or negative) in
question. Attitude is usually determined by a person’s beliefs about the consequences of
performing the behaviour.
Subjective norm, on the other hand, refers to the perceived social pressure on an
individual to perform or not to perform a particular behaviour. Thus, subjective norm
describes the tendency for an individual to exhibit a particular behaviour based on the
influences of other individuals or groups within the community they consider as important.
Jackling et al. (2012) explain that subjective norms are defined by reference to the perceived
approval or disapproval of behaviour by other important people in a society. The
application of the TRA according to Jackling et al. (2012) rests on the assumption that
individuals are perceived to consider the implications of their actions and also behave in
accordance with their beliefs about the outcomes of their actions and their evaluation of
those outcomes.
Ajzen (1988) extends the TRA to the TPB by arguing that the performance of an action
by individuals are based on their intentions and perceived behavioural control. Perceived
behavioural control generally refers to the ease or the difficulty in performing a particular
behaviour or the confidence in one’s ability to do same. It is a measure of the beliefs
regarding the possession of requisite resources and the opportunities for performing a given
behaviour (Madden et al., 1992). Therefore, Madden et al. (1992) conclude that the perceived
behavioural control over behaviour is likely to be greater for individuals with abundant
resources and opportunities. The implication of this theory is that if opportunities and
resources to perform a behaviour are not available, an individual may not likely perform
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JAEE a behaviour even if he/she has a positive attitude towards it and hold the belief that other
8,4 important individuals approve of it. Thus, in addition to attitude and subjective norms,
a third important predictor of behavioural intention and the behaviour of a person from the
tenets of TPB is the perceived behavioural control factor. The TPB framework is illustrated
in Figure 1.
From the TPB framework, the behaviour of an individual is defined by his/her intentions,
462 which is predicted by three factors: attitudes towards the behaviour, subjective norms and
perceived behavioural control. The framework depicts that if attitude, subjective norms
with respect to a behaviour and perceived behavioural control are favourable, the intention
to perform the behaviour by the individual is likely to be high. Again, the TPB framework
demonstrates that perceived behavioural control can also influence actual behaviour.
Since its introduction, the TPB has been applied across disciplines to explain a number of
behavioural issues. In the field of accounting particularly in accounting education, several
studies (Bagley et al., 2012; Tang and Seng, 2016; Tan and Laswad, 2006) have employed the
TPB framework to examine the career choice decisions of students in different contexts
within the last two decades. Guided by these theories, this study seeks to examine students’
perception towards accounting as a course and investigates the factors that drive their
intentions to pursue accounting as a course major.
Literature review and hypotheses development
In the accounting education literature, several factors have been identified by prior studies
to be important predictors of students’ decision to major in accounting. Nonetheless, the
attitude of students towards the accounting profession has been a major focus of most
empirical studies ( Jackling and Keneley, 2009; McDowall and Jackling, 2010; Marriott and
Marriott, 2003). Studies on attitudes towards accounting have usually employed the
accounting attitude scale (AAS) developed by Nelson (1991) in their analysis and generally
suggest that attitudes are determined by four factors: referent group, intrinsic interest,
perceptions of the work of accountants and the prestige of the profession. The next section
discusses these factors and how they affect the intentions of students to pursue a degree in
accounting.
Referent group factor
It is believed that the career choice decisions of students are usually not made without
recourse to some form from social expectations. Both the TPB and TRA assert that, decision
makers are usually under pressure from people they perceive as important when making
choices. This group of people includes parents, relatives, friends, teachers, career
counsellors and other professionals commonly referred to as the referent group. Some
studies have found that referent groups could have a profound influence on students’ career
choices and course majors at the university (Allen, 2004; Auyeung and Sands, 1997; Cohen
and Hanno, 1993; Felton et al., 1994; Mauldin et al., 2000; Tan and Laswad, 2006). While some
Subjective
norm
Perceived Intention Behaviour
behaviour
Figure 1.
The TPB framework Attitudes
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studies found the significant influence of referent groups on students’ intention to major in Attitudes
accounting (Auyeung and Sands, 1997; Mauldin et al., 2000; Tan and Laswad, 2006), others towards
did not find any significant relationship (Hermanson et al., 1995; Lowe and Simons, 1997). accounting
Some studies suggest that among the referent group, parental influence is the most
significant social normative factor that affects students’ decision to major in accounting
(Allen, 2004; Law, 2010; Jackling and Keneley, 2009; Tan and Laswad, 2006). Within the
Australian context, Jackling and Keneley (2009) found that parents play a significant role in 463
influencing students’ (especially international students) decision to major in accounting.
Thus, compared with other business majors, the role of parents is crucial in influencing their
children to pursue a career in accounting. This notwithstanding, a common trend emanating
from most existing studies (Tan and Laswad, 2006; Law, 2010) suggest that students have
higher motivation to comply with the opinions of their parents when deciding on their career
path. Based on the above discussion, this study hypothesises that:
H1. A positive relationship exists between the referent group factor and students’
intentions to major in accounting.
Intrinsic interest factor
The decision to major in a particular course at the university is also based on some personal
beliefs that can broadly be classified into intrinsic interest. Intrinsic interest refers to the
personal satisfaction one perceives to receive after undertaking an action ( Jackling and
Calero, 2006). Intrinsic interest is described by a number of factors, including genuine
interest in the field, opportunity to be creative, intellectual challenge of the course
curriculum, working challenge and the dynamics of the work environment. In terms of
students’ attitude towards accounting as a career option, it has been argued that high levels
of intrinsic interest are of significant importance (McDowall and Jackling, 2010). Specific to
the accounting profession, some studies have shown that students consider their intrinsic
interest as very important in their decision to major in accounting and consequently take up
a career in the field ( Jackling and Calero, 2006; Tan and Laswad, 2006; Auyeung and Sands,
1997; Adams et al., 1994; Mauldin et al., 2000). In particular, Adams et al. (1994) found that
intrinsic interest in terms of genuine interest in the field was a significant motivation for
students to pursue a career in accounting. These findings were supported by the results of
Auyeung and Sands (1997) who posit that personal interest in the subject is essential in
making a course major choice. The conclusion that can be drawn from these studies is that
students who have interest in accounting are more likely to pursue it as career option. Thus,
notwithstanding the fact that some past studies (Paolillo and Estes, 1982; Ahmed et al., 1997)
conclude that students do not place much emphasis on intrinsic interest in deciding
to major in accounting, the relevance of intrinsic interest in the decision of students
to major accounting cannot be overemphasised. Hence, this study proposed the
following hypothesises:
H2. There is a positive relationship between intrinsic interest and students’ intentions to
major in accounting.
Accountants’ work
Hiltebeitel et al. (2000) indicate that students tend to develop their career aspirations largely
based on preconceived ideas. This clearly suggests that any inaccurate and negative
perceptions of students about the work of the accountant would most likely affect their
interest in studying accounting and pursuing a career in the field. Available evidence from
empirical studies suggest that students generally perceive the content of accounting
programme to be rule memorisation, routine recording, boring and uninteresting and
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JAEE compliance driven (Inman et al., 1989; Parker, 2001; Allen, 2004; Byrne and Willis, 2005).
8,4 In most cases, students develop such negative perceptions in their first year of studying
accounting ( Jackling, 2002). To this end, Stice et al. (1997) argue that the foundation
or introductory accounting course is critical in shaping students’ perceptions about
the accounting programme. If students find the introductory accounting course to be
interesting, relevant and intellectually stimulating, they are more likely to major in it and
464 consequently take up a career in the field (Tan and Laswad, 2006).
Similarly, the perceptions people have about the work of accountants’ impacts hugely on
their decision to pursue a career in accounting. Tan and Laswad (2006) posit that the poor
perceptions and image of the public about the accounting profession negatively affects
students’ decision to major in the subject area. It is widely acknowledged that the society,
generally, perceives accountants to be antisocial, unflattering and dysfunctional misfits
(Parker, 2001; Murphy, 2000; Hunt et al., 2004). The work of the accountant has also been
perceived as being restricted to core accounting and auditing, time consuming, number
crunching work with little personal interaction and quite unpleasant (Marshall, 2003;
Mauldin et al., 2000). There is also the perception that one needs to have a strong
mathematical background, good numeracy, creativity and communication skills in order to
succeed in the accounting profession (Cohen and Hanno, 1993; Hermanson et al., 1995).
Albrecht and Sacks (2000), therefore, conclude that misleading information about what
accounting is and the work of the accountant is partly to be blamed for the shortage of
accountants. This is because the negative perceptions people have about the work of
accountants discourage people from developing an interest in the field. Based on the above
discussion, it is hypothesised that:
H3. Students with negative perceptions about the work of accountants have lower
intentions to major in accounting.
Professional prestige factor
The perceived prestige of the accounting profession plays a critical role in students’ decision
to major in accounting. Students who perceive the accounting profession to be prestigious
and has the potential for good earnings and job opportunities usually have greater
motivation to pursue a career in accounting (Mauldin et al., 2000; Tan and Laswad, 2006).
Some studies have also found that extrinsic factors, such as high salaries, job opportunities
among others influence students’ decision to take up a career in accounting (Felton
et al., 1994; Mauldin et al., 2000). Among these attributes, financial factors have been found
to significantly influence students’ choice of accounting as a major. High initial salary has
been found to be one of the factors that students consider before making a career choice.
Thus, students are likely to choose accounting as a career option if they perceive these
factors as favourable (Albrecht and Sacks, 2000; Tan and Laswad, 2006). By implication,
students who perceive the accounting profession to be prestigious are more likely to major
in accounting as a course of study, hence this study hypothesises that:
H4. There is a positive relationship between the perceived prestige of the accounting
profession and students’ intention to major in accounting.
Methodology
Sampling, research instrument and data collection
The sample comprised the second year students enrolled at the UGBS. UGBS is the premier
business school in Ghana and runs business courses with specialisations in: Accounting,
Banking and Finance, Insurance, Marketing, E-Commerce, Human Resource Management,
Public Administration and Health Services Management at the undergraduate level.
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Upon the successful completion of the general courses offered by the school during the first Attitudes
two years of study, a student is required to specialise in one of the aforementioned options. towards
Based on the objectives of this study, second year students who were yet to choose their accounting
area of specialisation were used as respondents.
The survey method of research was adopted and questionnaires were used mainly as the
instrument for the data collection. The questionnaire contained two main sections. The first
part of the questionnaire captured the personal information of the respondents. These 465
included their gender, age grouping and the programs they offered during their high school
education. Also, included in the first part of the questionnaire were their current Grade Point
Average (GPA) and the course major they intended to pursue at the beginning of their third
year of study.
The second part of the questionnaire consisted of 18 items adopted from the AAS used
in examining the attitude of the respondents towards the accounting profession. For each
of these items, the students were made to rate their level of agreement on a ten-point scale
with anchors ranging from one (complete disagreement) to ten (complete agreement).
Developed by Nelson (1991), the AAS has been employed in prior related studies (Marriott
and Marriott, 2003). Testing for internal consistency of the questionnaire resulted in a
Cronbach’s α coefficient of 0.731. Though lower than the α value 0.793 recorded by
Marriott and Marriott (2003), it is well within the recommended limits of at least 0.7
(Nunnally, 1978).
The questionnaire was administered in class to all second year students at the beginning
of the first semester of the 2016/2017 academic year. A total of 529 questionnaires were
administered to the respondent group. Out of this number, 474 were returned representing
89.60 per cent response rate. In total, 17 of the questionnaires received were however
excluded from the final analysis because respondents did not fully answer the questions set.
Data analysis procedures
Descriptive analysis was conducted on the characteristics of the respondents and the extent
of agreement for each of the AAS items by the respondents was determined. The AAS was
then subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to examine its psychometric properties.
The relationship between students’ attitude towards accounting and the intention to major
in accounting was ascertained by means of a logistic regression analysis.
Results
Characteristics of respondent
The results from the descriptive statistic of the respondents indicate that, in terms of age
groupings, majority of the students fell within the age bracket of 18–25 years with an
average of approximately 21 years. Majority (over 70 per cent) of the students studied
business during their senior high school education, followed by general arts which
accounted for 21 per cent of the total respondents. Out of the 457 students, 20 (representing
4 per cent) were non-Ghanaian students. In total, 67 per cent of the students had the
intention to major in accounting while 77 per cent also had the intention of pursuing a
professional accounting qualification in future. Table I provides the details of the
descriptive characteristics of the respondents.
Descriptive statistics on attitudes towards the accounting profession
Table II provides results of the descriptive statistics on the attitudes of students towards the
accounting profession. Panel 2 of Table II presents the general scores for each of the AAS
items. Taken together, the item “accounting profession is well-respected” had the highest
average score (Mean ¼ 8.83, SD ¼ 1.59) while “Accounting being a prestigious profession”
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JAEE
8,4 Variable Frequency Percentage
Gender
Male 260 57
Female 197 43
Age group
466 below 18 years 14 3
18–25 years 435 95
26–30 years 8 2
Programme studied in high school
Business 338 74
Science 19 4
General arts 95 21
Home economics 3 1
Others 2 0
Nationality
Ghanaian 437 96
Non-Ghanaian 20 4
Intention to major in accounting
Yes 308 67
No 149 33
Intention to pursue professional accounting qualification
Yes 351 77
No 106 23
Current GPA
3.6–4.0 193 42
Table I. 3.0–3.59 181 40
Demographic 2.0–2.99 54 12
description of 1.50–1.99 7 2
respondents 1.00–1.49 6 1
was ranked second highest (Mean ¼ 8.26, SD ¼ 2.13). The least average score item was
“accountants are boring people” (Mean ¼ 3.20, SD ¼ 3.25). These findings are similar to the
study of Marriott and Marriott (2003) who also had students scoring above 8 for the
same items. The results of this study suggest that the sampled students who were yet to
make their course major decision generally have a positive attitude towards accounting.
Subsequent panels of Table II presents the result of independent sample t-test based on
the demographic characteristics of the respondents. Panel 3 presents the average scores in
terms of the courses respondents pursued at senior high school and whether differences
exist between students’ who studied business during their secondary school education and
non-business students. In all, 12 of the items showed significant difference in attitudes
between students who did business in the senior high school and the non-business students.
These items are marked with asterisks (*) in the table.
Panel 4 presents the average scores based on whether or not they have interest in
pursuing a certified professional accounting qualification in the future. In total, 12 items
showed substantial differences between these two samples. Of the 12 statements that
showed differences in the attitude scores, those who had an interest in taking a professional
certification had higher average scores than those who had no interest in taking the
professional certification for 11 of the items. In terms of gender only two items showed
significant difference between males and females. The average scores for the males were
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Attitudes
towards
accounting
467
Table II.
Descriptive statistics
of attitude towards
the accounting
profession
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General SHS course Professional certification Gender GPA Nationality
Item Code Mean SD Non-business Business p-value Yes No p-value Male female p-value low high p-value Ghanaian Non-Ghanaian p-value
A1 8.83 1.59 8.62 8.9 0.1 8.99 8.3 0.00* 8.9 8.72 0.24 8.88 8.81 0.74 8.87 7.89 0.01*
A2 5.56 2.84 5.69 5.51 0.56 5.48 5.89 0.19 5.4 5.77 0.16 4.68 5.69 0.01* 5.55 5.78 0.74
A3 7.38 2.73 7.1 7.48 0.2 7.64 6.51 0.00* 7.26 7.54 0.27 7.55 7.39 0.66 7.46 5.58 0.00*
A4 3.2 3.25 3.86 2.97 0.01* 2.87 4.32 0.00* 3 3.46 0.14 2.91 3.2 0.51 3.10 5.37 0.00*
A5 8.26 2.13 7.88 8.39 0.03* 8.43 7.66 0.00* 8.17 8.37 0.32 8.34 8.25 0.75 8.27 7.89 0.45
A6 5.19 3.23 5.31 5.15 0.65 5.11 5.48 0.31 5.03 5.4 0.23 5.14 5.17 0.94 5.17 5.74 0.45
A7 4.45 3.08 4.49 4.43 0.86 4.34 4.84 0.14 4.43 4.47 0.87 5.43 4.24 0.00* 4.36 6.39 0.01*
A8 7.7 2.64 7.15 7.89 0.01* 8.09 6.47 0.00* 7.86 7.49 0.14 7.94 7.71 0.51 7.78 5.84 0.00*
A9 7.32 3.07 5.75 7.87 0.00* 8.01 5.14 0.00* 7.4 7.22 0.54 7.47 7.34 0.75 7.36 6.32 0.15
A10 4.88 3.14 4.19 5.12 0.01* 5.36 3.32 0.00* 5.14 4.52 0.04* 5 4.86 0.74 4.88 4.71 0.82
A11 4.68 3.06 4.19 4.86 0.04* 4.7 4.64 0.86 4.66 4.71 0.88 5.34 4.59 0.07 4.73 3.56 0.11
A12 7.53 2.81 5.8 8.12 0.00* 8.29 5.04 0.00* 7.77 7.2 0.03* 7.35 7.66 0.42 7.61 5.79 0.01*
A13 7.51 2.84 5.81 8.11 0.00* 8.17 5.34 0.00* 7.72 7.22 0.06 6.92 7.7 0.04* 7.56 6.35 0.09
A14 7.3 3.05 5.5 7.94 0.00* 8.27 4.18 0.00* 7.34 7.25 0.76 6.81 7.48 0.10 7.41 4.89 0.00*
A15 6.48 2.73 6.04 6.63 0.05* 6.79 5.46 0.00* 6.69 6.19 0.05 6.66 6.47 0.6 6.49 6.05 0.49
A16 7.44 2.61 7.65 7.36 0.30 7.45 7.46 0.97 7.33 7.58 0.32 7.6 7.39 0.55 7.37 8.95 0.01*
A17 6.06 2.65 6.55 5.89 0.02* 5.98 6.39 0.16 5.95 6.2 0.33 6.37 5.97 0.26 6.07 5.74 0.59
A18 6.58 2.95 5.66 6.91 0.00* 7.07 5.02 0.00* 6.63 6.52 0.69 6.2 6.67 0.23 6.63 5.39 0.08
Notes: Description of codes are given in Table AI. *Significance at 1 or 5 per cent
JAEE higher compared with the females for both items (Panel 5 of Table II). Panels 6 and 7 of
8,4 Table II present mean scores and differences in attitudes based on GPA and nationality
of students, respectively.
Exploratory factor analysis of AAS
The 18 items measuring attitudes towards the accounting profession were subjected to EFA
468 to examine its dimensionality. Tests of model adequacy yielded satisfactory results which
showed that the data were sufficient for factor analysis to be carried out (KMO measure of
sampling adequacy¼ 0.851, Bartlett’s test p-valueo0.01). By employing the principal
components extraction using varimax rotation method, four factors (similar to the work of
Jackling et al., 2012) were extracted explaining a total of approximately 56 per cent of the
variance. Each of these factors had eigenvalues ranging between 1.02 and 5.19. The first factor
which explains the highest amount of variation (28 per cent of total variation) contained
indicators that largely describe how people perceive accounting as a discipline. Among the
items that loaded on this factor, “Accounting is interesting” and “I like Accounting” recorded
the highest loadings with factor loadings of 0.843 and 0.812, respectively. In line with existing
literature, this factor is labelled as the intrinsic interest factor.
The second factor consisted of indicators that relate to the influence of some identified
individuals who are key in the career choice decision of students. Consistent with the
literature, this factor was termed as the referent group and included items such as “My
family would like me to become an accountant” (factor loading of 0.802), “My course advisor/
lecturer thinks I should become an accountant” (factor loading of 0.689). The third factor
labelled as accountant’s work contains items that describe the work of an accountant. The
items that loaded on this factor includes “Accounting is a lot of fixed rules; it does not
involve conceptual skills or judgement” (factor loading of 0.766), “Accountants are number-
crunchers, they seldom work with people” (factor loading of 0.668), “Accountants work
alone more than work with people” (factor loading of 0.636). The last factor consisted of
indicators that describe the kind of prestige people associate with the accounting profession
which is referred to as professional prestige. Items that “loaded on this factor included”;
“Being an accountant has a lot of prestige” (factor loading of 0.616), “The accounting
profession is well-respected” (factor loading of 0.541). Table III provides details of the results
of the exploratory factor analysis.
A comparison of the average values for the factors extracted was conducted and the
results as shown in Table IV indicate that among the four factors extracted, “Professional
prestige” had the highest overall average score compared with the other three factors (Mean
¼ 7.12). This was followed by the intrinsic interest, referent group and the accountant’s
work in their respective order. Analysis of variance test result indicates that substantial
differences exist in the average scores among the four factors (F¼ 3.34, p¼ 0.003). Post hoc
tests also show that the differences in average values exist among all the pairs of factors.
Logistic regression analysis
To determine whether the four factors extracted from the EFA process were good predictors
of students’ intentions to pursue a career in accounting, a composite score for each factor
was computed using the factor loadings for their respective indicators as weights. This
process ensured that the composite score for each construct included in the regression
analysis reflects the relative contribution of each indicator to the respective factor. A logistic
regression is subsequently employed to analyse the relationship between attitude towards
the accounting profession and intentions to pursue a career in accounting. Similar to other
related studies (Baxter and Kavanagh, 2013; Jackling et al., 2012), a number of the
demographic variables are also included in the model as controls.
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Attitudes
Factors
Intrinsic Referent Accountant’s Professional towards
Indicators interest group work prestige accounting
Accounting is interesting 0.843
I like accounting 0.812
I would enjoy being an accountant 0.704
Accountants are not boring people 0.560 469
Accountants interact with lots of people 0.443
My family would like me to become an accountant 0.802
My course advisor/lecturer thinks I should become
an accountant 0.689
My peers would think I made a good career decision
if I became an accountant 0.678
The availability of job opportunities will make me
choose accounting 0.558
Accounting is a lot of fixed rules; it does not involve
conceptual skills or judgement 0.766
Accountants are number-crunchers; they seldom work
with people 0.668
Accountants work alone more than work with people 0.636
Accounting is just a lot of rule memorising 0.578
Accounting requires skills and background in
mathematics 0.720
Being an accountant has a lot of prestige 0.616
The accounting profession is well-respected 0.541
Accounting is a profession, on par withmedicine and law 0.413
The workload required makes accounting difficult 0.385 Table III.
Eigenvalues 5.19 2.47 1.37 1.02 Results of exploratory
Percentage of variance explained 28.81 13.75 7.61 5.67 factor analysis
Factor Mean score SD
Intrinsic interest 7.12 0.46
Referent group 6.62 1.25 Table IV.
Accountant’s work 4.97 0.43 Average values
Professional prestige 7.59 1.05 of factors
The logistic regression model for the study is given as:
LogitðAiÞ ¼ b1Intrinsic Factorþb2Referent Groupþb3Accountant’s work
þb4Professional Prestigeþb5GPAþb6Genderþb7SHSþb8Prof
þb9Nationalityþ e:
Ai represents the dependent variable in the model which is coded as “1” if a student has the
intention of majoring in accounting and “0” or otherwise. The other independent variables
are described as follows: GPA ¼ grade point average of student; SHS ¼ programme
student offered in senior high school; Prof ¼ intention of the student to pursue a
professional accounting qualification.
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JAEE Logistic regression results and discussions
8,4 Goodness of fit tests of the model indicates that the model performs very well. This is
evidenced by the Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness of fit test, which indicates that the data
given fits the logistic regression model ( χ2¼ 4.13, p¼ 0.845). Also, the model explains about
59 per cent of the total variation as the Nagelkerke R2 value was 0.586. The model also
correctly classified 86.8 per cent of the cases, which was greater than the initial classification
470 of 68.7 per cent of the cases when the explanatory variables were not introduced into the
model. Table V presents the result of the logistic regression analysis.
The result shows a positive and highly significant relationship between intrinsic
interest and intention to pursue accounting ( p-valueo1 per cent). Thus, consistent with
prior studies (Tan and Laswad, 2006; Tang and Seng, 2016) findings from this study
indicate that the personal interest of an individual is a key predictor of his/her intention to
pursue a career in accounting. Students who show greater interest in the accounting
programme are more likely to major in accounting at the university level than their peers
with a little or no interest. From the perspective of TPB, the interest of an individual is
considered to be a key driver of that individual’s willingness to perform a particular action
(Porter and Woolley, 2014). This suggests that intrinsic interests are more likely to influence
students’ intention to major in accounting. Marriott and Marriott (2003) also posit that at
the commencement of their course, students’ interest in accounting is quite high. From the
results, an increase in the students’ interest in accounting increases the chances of the
student majoring in an accounting programme by about 13 per cent (odds ratio Exp (β) 1.13).
Similarly, the referent group factor was also significant and positively related to intentions
to pursue accounting at 5 per cent significant level. This result clearly demonstrates that apart
from an individual’s interest, the normative influence of referent groups can also play a
significant role in influencing the intention of students to major in accounting. While this result
corroborates findings from some empirical studies (Mauldin et al., 2000; Tan and Laswad, 2006;
Tang and Seng, 2016), it is also very much expected within the Ghanaian context. The
Ghanaian culture thrives more on children giving reverence to the elderly who are usually
involved in making decisions for the young ones till they become adult. Within the Ghanaian
context, it is not uncommon to find parents and other older people taking decisions on behalf of
a student that they may be associated with even at the tertiary level particularly when it comes
to their career decisions. Thus, parents, relatives, teachers and other agents of the society are
key in determining the kind of career path a student will chart and hence their influence is very
crucial in shaping students’ decision to pursue a particular course. Thus, similar to the Asian
culture (Auyeung and Sands, 1997), the average Ghanaian student attaches great importance to
the views of important referents, particularly their parents, in their major intentions.
The remaining two dimensions of attitude towards the accounting profession: the prestige
attached to the accounting profession, and perception of the accountant’s work did not have
Coefficient Wald Statistic p-value Odds ratio
Intrinsic interest 0.12 15.44 0.00* 1.13
Referent group 0.07 6.41 0.01* 1.07
Accountants’ work 0.03 1.30 0.26 0.97
Professional prestige 0.04 2.06 0.15 1.04
Students’ GPA 0.01 0.00 0.99 1.01
Programme offered in Senior high school 1.20 12.97 0.00* 3.32
Intention to pursue professional certification 2.59 51.27 0.00* 13.36
Table V. Nationality 1.37 3.51 0.06 3.94
Results of Gender 0.03 0.87 0.87 1.03
logistic regression Note: *Significance at 1 or 5 per cent
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any significant impact on students’ intention to major in accounting. The insignificant Attitudes
relationship between the “prestige variable” and intention to major in accounting (p-value 0.15) towards
suggests that even though most respondents consider the accounting profession to be accounting
prestigious (being the factor with the highest mean score see Table IV), it is not a key driver of
students’ intention to pursue a career in accounting. Lastly, the insignificant relationship
between the variable “work of accountants” and intention to major in accounting generally
point to the fact that majority of the respondents do not associate with the negative 471
perceptions people have about the job of accountants.
Analysis of the control variables also indicate that, in addition to the intrinsic interest
and the referent group factor which have positive association with students’ intention to
major in accounting, the regression result also reveals that the programme the student
studied at the senior high school and whether or not a student has the intention to pursue
professional accounting qualification in future are also significant and positively associated
with one’s intention to major in accounting. Specifically, a person who studied business at
the high school level is more than three times likely to major in accounting at the tertiary
level than a student who did not read business studies at the senior high school level (odds
ratio Exp (β) 3.32). This finding is, however, not surprising given that students with
business background appear to have a positive perception about the accounting discipline
than those with no background in business (see Table II). While this result may be very
obvious judging from the fact that students with business background from senior high
school would have studied some courses in accounting, it is also an indication that prior
exposure to business studies at senior high school is relevant in enhancing students’ interest
in pursuing a major in accounting at the university. This brings to the fore the need to
critically consider the way the introductory accounting course is handled at the foundation
stage of business students in the university as it could play a major role in shaping students
interests in the accounting profession. To this end, the accounting department and course
instructors (especially for the introductory accounting course) have much to do in ensuring
that students with positive attitudes towards accounting do not lose such interest
while helping to change the negative perception that some students may have about the
accounting profession.
In terms of the positive relationship between students with the desire to pursue
professional accounting qualification in future and the intention to major in accounting at
the university level, the finding suggests that a student with such interest is more than
thirteen times likely to major in the accounting than the one who has no intention of doing so
(odds ratio Exp (β) 13.36). Gender, nationality and students’ GPA on the other hand had an
insignificant relationship with students’ intention to pursue a career in accounting similar to
the works of Tang and Seng (2016). The insignificant relationship between students’
nationality and intention to pursue a career in accounting however, contrasts the work of
Jackling et al. (2012) who conclude that international students have greater motivation to
major in accounting than local Australian students.
Conclusions
This paper examined the attitude of students towards the accounting profession and the
intention of students to pursue a career in accounting. Results of this study reveal that
students with prior exposure to accounting in the senior high school and those with the desire
to pursue professional accounting qualification in future usually have a positive perception
about accounting than their peers. The results further suggest that the personal interest of
students and the influence of other referent group are key predictors of students’ intention to
pursue a career in accounting. Thus, unlike what pertains in other jurisdictions (Ng et al.,
2017), within the Ghanaian context, third parties play a crucial role in influencing students’
intention to pursue a career in accounting. Also, students with prior exposure to accounting
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JAEE course have greater motivation to pursue a degree in accounting than their peers with no such
8,4 background. Further, students with the desire of pursuing professional accounting
qualification in future are more likely to major in accounting at the university level than
their counterparts with no intention of earning a professional accounting qualification.
The findings of this study have some important implications for accounting education in
Ghana and the world at large. Given that the demand for qualified accountants in Ghana have
472 always exceeded the supply (ROSC, 2014) and the fact that the demand for accountants
globally is expected to increase in future (Coe, 2016), an investigation into the factors that
influence students’ intention to pursue accounting as a course major is relevant to addressing
the challenge of shortages of accountants in the country. As shown by the results, personal
interest of an individual, and prior exposure to accounting studies at the senior high level have
a positive influence on intentions to pursue a career in accounting. Serious attention should
therefore be given to business education at the senior high level particularly with the teaching
of accounting to promote interest in the accounting discipline among senior high students. The
Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana and other stakeholders in the accounting profession
should direct their educational campaigns at increasing business students’ enrolment at the
senior high level to help increase the number of undergraduate accounting students. Further,
the first year accounting courses should be designed in a way to stimulate students’ interest in
the subject as this may influence them to consider accounting as their course major.
The findings of this study are limited in some respects. The study was conducted within
one university employing the cross-sectional data. Using respondents from only one
business school limits the extent of generalisation of the study findings. A comparative
study of students across institutions will be an important extension to this study.
Again, since the attitudes and perceptions of people about a phenomenon may change over
time, a longitudinal study will be useful in unearthing the drivers of change and how it
affects students’ behaviour with time.
Moreover, the study only considered the intention of students to major in accounting and
did not in any way ascertain whether such intentions translate into action. A follow-up
study on the sampled students investigating the link between intention and actual
behaviour will be an important addition to the findings of this study. Notwithstanding these
limitations, this study makes important contributions to the accounting education literature
from a developing country.
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Appendix Attitudes
towards
accounting
Item code Description
A1 The accounting profession is well-respected
A2 Accounting is just a lot of rule memorising 475
A3 Accounting is a profession, on par with medicine and law
A4 Accountants are boring people
A5 Being an accountant has a lot of prestige
A6 Accounting is a lot of fixed rules; it does not involve conceptual skills or judgement
A7 Accountants are number-crunchers; they seldom work with people
A8 My peers would think I made a good career decision if I became an accountant
A9 My family would like me to become an accountant
A10 My course advisor/lecturer thinks I should major in accounting
A11 Accountants work alone more than work with people
A12 I like accounting
A13 Accounting is interesting
A14 I would enjoy being an accountant
A15 Accountants interact with lots of people
A16 Accounting requires skills and background in mathematics Table AI.
A17 The workload required makes accounting difficult Descriptions of
A18 The availability of job opportunities will make me choose accounting item codes
Corresponding author
Godfred Matthew Yaw Owusu can be contacted at: gmowusu@gmail.com
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