Accounting as a Choice of Academic Programme: A Comparative Study between Malaysian and Indonesian First-year Under-graduate Accounting Students

Abstract

Although rapid and tremendous economy development worldwide has sparked a massive demand for accountants, developing nations like Malaysia and Indonesia are dearth of this profession. Triggered by this mismatch and emulating variables postulated by Theory of Reasoned Action, the objectives of this study are to decipher intention to choose accounting as academic programme with regards to attitude towards accounting profession and social group influence in Malaysian and Indonesian contexts. A total of 350 Malaysian and 150 Indonesian undergraduate accounting students participated in the study. Data were analysed using Sequential Equation Modelling (SEM) of Smart Partial Least Square (PLS) version three. Results for both nations indicated that the attitude towards accounting programme and social group influence were more likely to affect student's intention to choose accounting as academic programme. The former perceived that the paramount prospect offered by the profession is good long-term income, while the later believed that it is broad job opportunities. Likewise, students for both nations were more likely motivated to comply with the expectations of family, followed by teachers, friends, counsellors and peers. These discoveries provide useful insights for policy makers, accounting professional bodies and higher education to formulate policies exposing students and social groups on the importance of incentives and prospects of the accounting profession. It is hoped that the initiatives will produce many accountants and thus expedites the countries' aspiration of becoming full-developed nations in due time.

The Implementation of Online Labor Market Information System to Fulfill Job Opportunities in Developing Countries

“…These discoveries provide useful insights for policy makers, accounting professional bodies and higher education to formulate policies exposing students and social groups on the importance of incentives and prospects of the accounting profession. It is hoped that the initiatives will produce many accountants and thus expedites the countries' aspiration of becoming full-developed nations in due time [6].…”

Beliefs Influencing Career Choices of Indonesian Business Student’s and Reasons for Not Choosing Accounting Profession

“…Meanwhile, normative views impact one's decision to pursue a certain job route based on the experiences and perspectives of others [39], which is "a belief about whether every referral agree or dissagre about the behaviour" [52]. It can be concluded that when students are deciding whether to pursue a career in accounting, behavioural and normative belief are important since they determine the intention to conduct activities [79].…”

“…For the specific in Indonesia, whereby the number of certified public accountant over the total population ratio is merely 0.0004%. The country has only 487 public accounting firms with 1,008 Certified Public Accountant (CPA) as registered partners over population of 230 million [81]. As expressed by the president of the Indonesian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (IAPI), Tarkosunaryo.…”

Why Choose Accounting as an Undergraduate Major? - A Malaysian Perspective

“…Behavioural belief is a behaviour that is considered to be intuitive and will lead to certain results; in an outcome evaluation, one treats the possibility of evaluating the accounting industry to achieve a good prospect. Behavioural beliefs and outcome evaluation are two functions that affect behavioural attitudes (Zakaria et al, 2019).…”

“…A combination of normative beliefs and motivation to comply with subjective norms. Normative beliefs refer to a person's beliefs, group pressure given by social groups and others, and have an impact on the decision to choose to account as an academic major; in compliance motivation, refers to how a person is motivated to comply with the expectations of social groups condition (Zakaria et al, 2019).…”