Professional attitudes in accounting students.

• Main Authors: Chew, Michelle Si Ying., Kusuma, Felicia Citra., Lim, Elaine Won Yan.
• Other Authors: Stewart Lloyd Arnold
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/33850
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This exploratory study seeks to determine the presence of three main professional attitudes among university accounting students – professional commitment, professional identity and professionalism, and the factors predicting these attitudes. Based on review of existing literature, five potential predictors were examined: 1) students’ perception of the accounting course curriculum, 2) their internship experience, 3) their motivation for entering the accounting profession, 4) their certainty of an accounting profession and 5) their academic performance. Data was collected from 256 second and third year accounting students through a survey questionnaire. Exploratory factor analyses revealed that professional commitment and professional identity were separate but highly correlated constructs. Professionalism did not emerge as a reliable factor. Hypotheses about the correlates of the two professional attitudes with independent variables were tested through correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analyses. Our results were that certainty of accounting career and perception of the accounting course curriculum were significant predictors of both professional commitment and professional identification, but desire for financial stability, internship satisfaction, internship development and academic performance did not prove significant in predicting either of the professional attitudes.