Search results

By drawing on Belief Perseverance Theory (BPT), this study investigates the pre- and post-perceptions of the First Accounting Course (FAC) differentiating between accounting and non-accounting students in a virtual learning setting at a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) university, and explains why students' perceptions have formed.

Adopting a case study approach, this study employs quantitative (anonymous questionnaires) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews) methods.

Responses from 142 financial accounting students indicate that non-accounting majors generally changed the students' perceptions significantly at the end of the semester, whereas students' accounting counterparts had relatively stable perceptions. This study also finds that a large number of non-accounting students perceived the benefits of taking the FAC and generally have less negative perceptions of the accounting profession, which supports the notion that non-accounting students evaluated discrediting information to reassess non-accounting students pre-established perceptions.

This study has several implications as follows: for the accounting education literature on how FAC assists students in changing students' perceptions through the lens of BPT, for professional accounting bodies to find ways to promote accounting careers for students and for educators to increase students’ desire for accounting study and profession.

The findings from this study are expected to contribute to GCC society by providing clarifications towards increasing students’ desire for accounting studies and professions.

Given the implementation of a new Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensure exam and the CPA Evolution Model Curriculum, accounting educators must integrate more advanced skills in their coursework. We illustrate how a commonly-used project in accounting classes, which teaches technical accounting content, can address skills and competencies identified by the Pathways Commission and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and, as a result, enhance skills all business school graduates need in the workplace.

We incorporate a financial statement analysis research project under a group work format in three levels of financial accounting classes. Using both quantitative and qualitative analysis, we evaluate changes in student perceptions of skills and competencies important for business graduates.

We find students perceive improvement in critical thinking, problem-solving, the ability to work with other people, their understanding of the course material, and data analysis abilities after completion of the project. We also find statistically significant increases pre-to post-project in student perceptions of their knowledge, confidence, competence, and enthusiasm with respect to accounting material.

We provide an example of how educators can align a commonly-used project with the CPA Evolution Model Curriculum, yet still meet the needs of non-accounting majors and prepare all students for future business careers. Group work has been studied and similar financial statement analysis projects have been implemented in the classroom for years. We contribute by not only extending and updating this research, but also by re-evaluating a project to determine whether it meets the shifting needs of a rapidly changing profession. By doing so, we answer recent researchers’ call for research in higher education that addresses employability and workplace skills.

This classroom activity helps students tie together the concepts of absorption costing for inventory, selling and administrative (SA) cost calculations, and sales price decisions. It shows students how all costs fit together and are used to make business and pricing decisions, synthesizing discrete sections of most managerial or cost accounting books into a complete process. The activity is designed to be run in one 75-minute class session using an Excel template that allows students to focus on business decisions and less on the mechanics of completing calculations. The seven segments of the activity have students calculate target cost, allocate items of overhead into production and service departments, calculate absorption product cost, allocate SA to the production departments, determine the full cost, evaluate product viability, and calculate target price. At the end of the activity, students better understand how all these cost items fit together in a manufacturing setting.

This study aims to explore the perceptions of accountancy students on the use of technology, blended learning and flipped classroom in two emerging UK higher education institutions (HEIs).

The primary data for the study were collected using a questionnaire survey and descriptively analysed.

The findings revealed that there is some use of technology in terms of the Blackboard and PowerPoint presentations but blogs and wikis have very limited use. An aspect that does not seem to be integrated fully yet is the use of blended technology and a flipped classroom.

The study findings offer a picture of how technology, blended learning and the flipped classroom technique were utilised with accountancy students prior to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This information is valuable for accounting educators and by extension to other aspects of business studies disciplines in providing a comparison between the pre-COVID-19 scenario and the current one and thus enabling an evaluation of advancement in the application of these teaching strategies as a result of the pressure imposed by social distancing. Such intelligence will facilitate the identification of areas where enhancing learning outcomes has been possible and point to opportunities for improved student experience.

Where COVID-19 brought about significant structural change in teaching and learning in the HE environment, this study represents a pre-COVID-19 consideration of student perceptions on blended learning and flipped classroom. This study thus has the potential to anchor future relevant studies that consider the post-COVID-19 environment.

The aim of this study was to examine the determinants of accounting students' decision to pursue a career path.

Quantitative approach was used to analyze the impact of independent variables (career exposure, self-competence, financial award, work environment, social values and market factors) on dependent variable (career path). Data were collected from 264 students of University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Oman. Structural equation modeling technique was mainly utilized to determine the causal relationship between the variables.

The most influencing factor is financial award followed by market factors and work environment. However, other variables such as career exposure and self-competence though significantly determine career path of the students but are the least contributors to the model. In addition, social value was found insignificant and negative contributor to the model.

The findings of the current study confirm the propositions of the theory of planned behavior that student's decision to pursue career as ACCA-certified accountants is shaped by attitudinal factors as well as subjective norms factors and perceived behavior control. This study's theoretical findings can be used to supplement empirical evidence on impact of career exposure, self-competence, financial awards, work environment, social values and market factors to take the ACCA exam (career path). The implications of this research for academic institutions include providing convenience for students, such as ACCA exam scholarship offers if they have graduated with cum laude and obtained work experience because ACCA involves time and money to participate in.

There has been virtually little research in Oman on this subject though. Investigating Omani accounting students' aspirations to work in public accounting adds additional insight into the field.

This study aims to investigate the impact of ethical accounting practices on financial reporting quality by using the extended theory of planned behaviour (ETPB) and integrating religiosity as a moderating variable.

Using a survey method, data was obtained from 371 chartered accountants who were in good standing as of April 2023. The collected data were then analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The results revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between ethical accounting practices (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and ethical judgement) and financial reporting quality of accounting practitioners. Furthermore, a moderation test was conducted, which demonstrated that religiosity enhances the positive correlation between ethical accounting constructs (attitude, subjective norm and ethical judgement) and financial reporting.

Leading by example, top-level management should actively promote a culture of religiosity that prioritises integrity and adherence to financial reporting requirements.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the very few ethics studies in accounting that demonstrates that the application of the ETPB improves financial reporting quality in a context fraught with allegations of moral breaches by accountants.

This study aims to review the literature on non-financial information (NFI) assurance including external assurance of sustainability reports (SRA) and integrated reports (IRA). The objectives are as follows: provide an overview of academic research; understand the nature of NFI assurance engagements by organising the literature around the five key elements of an assurance engagement; develop a framework for understanding NFI assurance; and provide directions for future research.

The study undertakes a structured literature review of 179 articles published from 1999 to 2023.

The review identified 324 researchers located in 35 different countries who published 179 articles on SRA and IRA. The researchers, their locations, journals, methods, theories and themes are examined. The literature is structured around the definition of an assurance engagement including a tripartite arrangement, subject matter, a suitable criterion, sufficient appropriate evidence and a written assurance report. A framework for understanding NFI assurance is offered. Avenues for future research, structured around the five elements of an assurance engagement, are presented.

Researchers will benefit from an overview of the literature and guidance on areas for future research. Lecturers can use the findings to develop content for their auditing courses. Reporting managers will benefit from a better understanding of this new form of assurance. Regulators can use this study’s insights to better inform the development of laws and corporate governance codes mandating NFI assurance. Standard setters can use these findings to guide the emergence of the new assurance standards. Assurance practitioners may use this research to inform practice.

The findings may prove useful in addressing capture, which deters NFI assurance from enhancing disclosure credibility and fulfilling its transparency and accountability role. This is to the detriment of the wider society.

The consolidation of the literature around the five key elements of an assurance engagement is unique. The framework devised offers useful insights into the dynamics of assurance generally and NFI assurance more specifically. The study is timely given the new European Union regulations on NFI reporting and assurance and the work of the International Audit and Assurance Standards Board in developing a specialist NFI assurance standard.

The scope of this study is to explore informed citizens' engagement in the development of real municipalities' popular reports. For this purpose, an exploratory experiment is performed where potential users of popular reports with certain accounting skills (i.e. groups of undergraduate accounting students) act as preparers of these reports.

The study uses insights from the sense of belonging theory in an ambivalent way: to explain citizens' interest in popular reports and to consider popular reports as an impetus triggering citizens' sense of belonging. By content-analyzing the reports developed and taking stock of the students' perceptions on aspects of popular reports, a template for a popular report for local governments is synthesized. Further, by comparing the study findings with theoretical recommendations and popular reporting practices, the authors offer insights on the content and layout of popular reports which is expected to enhance the sense of belonging of citizens within their city.

The undergraduate students while relying on earlier examples and existing models have created their own reports in which they have used financial and non-financial information indicating the significance of both types of information for citizens. The evidenced heterogeneity in the developed reports is expected to be the effect of the sense of belonging. Moreover, the study reveals citizens' positive stance toward the adoption of co-development and co-creation approaches in the design of popular reports by citizen groups and municipal authorities which is consistent with a sense of belonging mobilization.

This study adds to the literature on the content and characteristics of popular reports by giving voice to the citizens themselves through an exploratory experiment that permits the sense of belonging to take effect.

For over a decade now, various stakeholders in accounting education have called for the integration of technology competencies in the accounting curriculum (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), 2013, 2018; Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC), 1990; American Institute of Certified Public Accountant (AICPA), 1996; Behn et al., 2012; Lawson et al., 2014; PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), 2013). In addition to stakeholder expectations, the inclusion of data analytics as a key area in both the business and accounting accreditation standards of the AACSB signals the urgent need for accounting programs to incorporate data analytics into their accounting curricula. This paper examines the extent of the integration of data analytics in the curricula of accounting programs with separate accounting AACSB accreditation. The paper also identifies possible barriers to integrating data analytics into the accounting curriculum. The results of this study indicate that of the 177 AACSB-accredited accounting programs, 79 (44.6%) offer data analytics courses at either the undergraduate or graduate level or as a special track. The results also indicate that 41 (23.16%) offer data analytics courses in their undergraduate curriculum, 61 (35.88%) at the graduate level, and 12 (6.80%) offer specialized tracks for accounting data analytics. Taken together, the findings indicate an encouraging trend, albeit slow, toward the integration of data analytics into the accounting curriculum.

This paper aims to review the relevant forensic accounting research (FAR) around the world and suggests avenues for future research in forensic accounting.

The study used the thematic and systematic literature review methodology to analyse the existing literature in FAR.

The major thematic areas in the literature are fraud motivation, fraud consequences, fraud detection using forensic accounting techniques, forensic accounting theory, forensic accounting skills, forensic accounting education and forensic accounting jobs. The quantity of FAR is relatively small compared to the quantity of research in other accounting specializations. FAR is well developed in the USA and Canada and is less developed in Europe, Oceania and Asia. There is high interest in FAR in African countries. There is a relatively low global interest in internet information about “forensic accounting research” compared to global interest in other forensic accounting topics. Areas for future research include the role of the environment, digitalization, religiosity and sustainable development in forensic accounting.

FAR around the world is lopsided, as some regions have more advanced FAR compared to other regions. There is a need for even development of FAR across all regions and a need to publicize the outputs of FAR to a larger audience to increase people’s interest in forensic accounting.

The study extends the literature by presenting a rigorous thematic and systematic review of the existing literature. It highlights the depth of FAR, the major thematic areas, the benefits of FAR to society and the geographical reach of existing FAR.