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This paper aims to examine the accountants’ stereotype as it is developed within a sample of fiction novels. The descriptions of accountants in these novels are used to determine the attributes associated with the accountants’ image. Further, the purpose is to identify and compare the results of the present study with those images that have been identified in previous studies.

The descriptions in the novels are analyzed using context analysis and the corpus available through the General Inquirer (GI). A comparison is made between the results found in the present study using context analysis with previous studies using social-cultural methods to investigate stereotypes. The current paper attempts to avoid investigator bias based on social learning; lessens subjective interpretations; and rather than using a non-transferable rating scale unique to one article, it uses a widely accepted evaluation measure in the GI.

The image of accountants in the sample of novels was found to be positive rather than the negative image described in previous papers. The conclusion reached is that past studies of the accountants’ image have not eliminated social-cultural biases from their research results. The present study suggests that an image filled with negative characteristics may vary with the medium, and there may not be a universal image of the accountant.

One weakness of content analysis is that positive words are used in phrases that may have negative connotations. For example, the word “cool” as related to a person may have the meaning that a person is really neat or that they are standoffish. Another limitation of context analysis is coding bias as a consequence of the subjectivity among the various individuals performing the coding. The corpus used in the GI attempts to overcome these issues.

Managers’ potential interactions with accountants are affected by their internal perceptions of the accounting profession. If accountants are associated with negative images as outlined in previous research, why is their decision-making input still widely used? An understanding of why a group of such professionals are considered to be important to decision-making needs to be analyzed. If managers truly believe accountants are weak, negative and short-sighted, as has been confirmed in previous research, accountants and their skill set would not be used by managers. Yet, their skills are sought out by managers. The dichotomy is investigated in the paper.

Stereotypes affect members of the public in their support, approach and interactions with a profession. The job functions available to a profession are affected and restricted by its stereotype. Unfortunately, many people develop distortions and biases in their perceptions and react toward a group based on those internally held perceptions. It is worthwhile to understand how a group is viewed in society to be able to understand how they can deal with these stereotypes.

The approach in the paper is the first application of context analysis to the study of the accountant’s image. In this context, data identified in the structure of a text provide a basis to the underlying patterns in the text and by implication its attributes. Unlike the past studies, which rely on social learning to evaluate the accountants’ image, the current research combines content analysis with corpus linguistics to identify themes and the significance of relationships in the data set.

This paper aims to focus on the local government accountants’ perspective towards their current and potential role in the sustainability reporting process and to explore potential factors influencing the further development of their role.

A mail survey approach was adopted across local government organisations with a deeper analysis provided through semi-structured interviews.

Findings indicate that accountants are supportive of involvement in sustainability reporting, but their actual level differs significantly from the level of involvement they believe they should have, pointing to the existence of an execution gap. Potential factors are investigated, highlighting the limited integration of sustainability beyond the organisational level, the lack of understanding of sustainability by accountants and the current need for further up-skilling by accountants.

The study enhances understanding of the accountant’s perception towards sustainability reporting practices within the public sector, with particular focus on local government.

This is an exploratory study examining an area of accounting in local government in which there are few others. It seeks to contribute to the literature by exploring and examining the accountant’s perception towards sustainable development and their current and future prospects in the reporting process in the local government sector in Australia.

Research question is about the perception of stricto sensu undergraduate and graduate accounting students, from the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) of the accountants' responsibilities and competencies required to them in assisting IT/IS strategy definition and implementation.

This is a descriptive research, using a qualitative paper-and-pencil approach. Designed based on United Nations Accounting Model Curriculum, a questionnaire was self-applied to 361 accounting students of eight higher education institutions (HEIs) in Rio de Janeiro, whose responses are quantitatively analysed.

Accounting students strongly agree on the need to acquire strategic skills that enable them to assist organizations in IT/IS issues but are quite divided about the related accountants' responsibilities, underestimating their future role in this respect.

Although quantitatively adequate, the sample is non-probabilistic and, thus, results cannot be generalized. The authors expect that this paper can encourage HEIs to engage the path of multidisciplinary education and rethink their silo-based pedagogical models which have to prepare students for their forthcoming professional challenges, by introducing interdisciplinary courses, soft skills disciplines and work-integrated learning activities.

Findings can be useful for teachers and coordinators of the IT/IS area in accounting courses, stimulating brainstorming on the accountant's role in assisting organizations in IT/IS strategies and practices implementation. The study has relevant implications for educators through the identification and analysis of difficulties faced by students.

This study contributes to the research base of accountants' strategic role since the responsibility awareness identified gap can be elaborated for stimulating the discussion about the centrality of the accountant in IT processes within organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of perceived implications of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on the willingness to adopt IFRS.

The study analysed the causal relationships between perceptions and the willingness of the accountants to adopt IFRS.

The findings revealed that perceived benefits drove the willingness to adopt IFRS whereas the perceived disadvantages and challenges diminished the willingness. Knowledge of IFRS enhanced the willingness towards IFRS adoption. Also, legitimacy desire enhanced the association between the perceived implications and the willingness to adopt IFRS.

The study contributes significantly to theory and practice as Vietnamese policy makers recently announced their strategic planning to full IFRS adoption by 2025.

This paper aims to evaluate the undergraduate and graduate accounting students’ perceptions of sustainable (or green) information technology (IT) and information system (IS) practices and their contribution to its implementation.

A five-point Likert scale questionnaire was applied to 361 undergraduate and graduate accounting students in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in eight higher education institutions (HEIs). Data are analyzed with SPSS.

There is a high perception of importance regarding IT/IS sustainability practices among the accounting students tested, although respondents are not comfortable with predominantly technical IT/IS topics. However, students are divided on the significance of the accountant’s contribution to these practices, confirming that reflection on their future role is still a challenge for them and their HEIs. The female sub-sample attaches significantly greater importance than the male sample to the accountant role in the implementation of green IT practices.

The authors have proposed a novel integrative framework of IT/IS theories related to sustainability and accounting, and how accounting professionals could participate in the “neutral arena” of the education for sustainable development (SD).

Findings could be useful for educators and coordinators of sustainability of IT/IS in accounting courses, stimulating brainstorming on the accountant’s role in assisting organizations in green IT/IS strategies, best practice and implementation.

This study makes an original contribution to the research base of SD in HEIs. The lack of awareness identified in the study could be elaborated to stimulate discussion about the central role of the accountant in SD processes within organizations.

This paper aims to explore the accountants’ perspective towards their role and function as business advisors in assisting with the adoption of sustainable business practices (SBPs) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

A questionnaire-based study was conducted on members from one of Australia’s leading professional accounting organizations.

Key findings from this research highlighted deficiencies in the effectiveness of the accounting profession in assisting SMEs in implementing SBPs despite a desire from clients for accountants to provide this advice and a belief that accountants are best placed to do so. Further, an expectations gap is evident between the level of involvement accountants believe they should be having in assisting SMEs and the level of involvement that is currently occurring.

This finding has implications for the accounting profession, with accountants needing to examine their current business approaches in an effort to close this gap. If this does not occur, SMEs will most likely seek this much-needed advice and support from outside the profession.

Little attention has been given to the accountant’s role in respect of sustainability from an accountant’s perspective. The findings contribute to understanding the accountant’s importance in advancing their involvement in assisting SMEs in the uptake of SBPs.

This study investigates perceptions of the work of accountants held by first‐year accounting students as part of a national survey of accounting students. First‐year commerce students from five tertiary institutions were surveyed about their perceptions of the accounting profession as well as their intention to complete a major study of accounting at tertiary level. Influences on the formation of their perceptions formed an important part of the study. The results reported in this paper serve to illustrate that the majority of students surveyed had negative perceptions of accounting. The source of influences on perceptions indicated that perceptions were mainly derived from tertiary education experiences. As perceptions influence choice of major and career choice, the findings have important implications for accounting educators and professional accounting bodies.

This study aims to ascertain the mediating effect of organisational commitment (OC) on the linkage between task performance (TP) and job satisfaction (JS) of accountants.

Primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire administered to accountants from India. The partial least squares structural equation modelling method was used to analyse the data.

The results reveal that OC mediates the linkages between TP and JS. It was also empirically confirmed that neither age nor gender of the accountant had any significant effect on the relationship between the TP and JS.

This study makes three distinct contributions. Firstly, it was empirically observed that OC mediates the linkage between TP and JS. This means that even when the accounting tasks being performed by the accountants are interesting and challenging, organisations should still invest in getting the accountants deeply committed to organisational values and goals for them to experience JS. Secondly, this focus on commitment is independent of gender and age differences. Accountants at all levels and of both genders would experience higher levels of JS once they are more committed to the organisation. Finally, this study has ramifications for global accounting professional practices, as accounting firms from the USA and the European Union have been outsourcing their services to firms in countries such as India.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This study does not only examine students’ attitude towards the accounting discipline but also investigates how such attitudes influence intentions to major in accounting.

The purpose of this study is to propose a contemporary-specific model entitled “sustainable development model of accounting professional ethics (SDM-APE)” and empirically investigate and quantitatively prioritize its components.

The study adopts the mixed content analysis research method and integrates both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The necessary data for the initial model are extracted after examining 569 published articles related to professional ethics of accounting in Iran during 2005-2015. Then, the ethical codes are reviewed, summarized and extracted via “content analysis.” Based on the findings of this study, a sustainable accounting model is developed, which consists of four constructs, including personal, social, economic-organizational and environmental factors, with 69 components. Afterward, the model is tested through collecting questionnaires and simple random sampling by 217 academic and professional experts. Accordingly, the second-order confirmatory factor analysis in LISREL software is used.

The paper clearly demonstrates that ethics in the professional accounting are underpinned by four major constructs: personal, social, economic-organizational and environmental factors; all four mentioned constructs of the model are interconnected and affect professional ethics in accounting and maintain a proper goodness of fit. Meanwhile, social, personal, economic-organizational and environmental features reveal the greatest fit accordingly. The variable of “avoiding the misuse of organizational property and information” is the most important variable of the model. It is followed by deontology, responsibility and accountability for environment, preventing environment degradation and emission of environmental pollutants, promoting the culture of environmental conservation, standing in the second to fifth priority levels, respectively.

This paper has developed a contemporary practical model in professional accounting ethics, which is extensive and applicable to various organizations.