Public accounting vs private accounting, career choice of accounting students in China

Abstract

Purpose Built upon three components (attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors that influenced accounting students’ intention to pursue public accounting instead of private accounting as their career choice in China. Design/methodology/approach The TPB is used to predict the rational intention of accounting students in this study. A binary logistic regression analysis was applied to test all hypotheses because of its suitability. Findings The authors find that the variety and marketability of public accounting experiences, high turnover plus, low firm cohesion in the workplace, and perceived difficulties in traveling extensively affected students’ intentions to pursue the public accounting profession significantly. By highlighting these factors that affect students’ intention to pursue public accounting, this paper has important implications for the accounting educators and other stakeholders in China and other emerging economies. Originality/value By understanding the factors influencing the accounting students’ interests in pursuing public accounting, accounting educators and accounting firms could make some changes, redesign accounting curriculum, and enhance internship experience and recruiting process in order to increase more interests in public accounting. Professional organizations and policy makers might learn some lessons to take some actions to encourage young accounting professionals to work for public accounting firms. Moreover, this study has provided a valuable perspective to accounting educators, practitioners, and policy makers in other emerging economies with the same shortage of qualified public accountants.

The Role Of Accounting Knowledge In Defining The Career Of A Public Accountant

“…This was compounded by low financial rewards relative to the workload given. This is in line with Wen et al (2018) stating that with their less excellent knowledge, the public accountants felt unable to deal with such a high workload.…”

“…the number of accounting graduates is huge annually. Unfortunately, the ones who select public accounting profession is quite small (Yuliansyah & Suryani, 2016).Previous studies indicated that intention in being a public accountant is influenced by the common perception of the accounting profession as boring and tedious (Sugahara et al, 2008), high workload (Omar et al, 2015), low financial reward (Wen et al, 2018), low job satisfaction, and high employee turnover (Suryani et al, 2018).This results in concerns with regard to the accounting profession in the future, especially in the digital era. Professional sustainability is a hot topic discussed by accountants (Alimbudiono & Suhartini, 2014).…”

Accreditation: Application of Kurt Lewin’s Theory on Private Health Care Organizationanl Change

“…The principle of transformational leadership, that to be connected with, for positive organizational outcomes. It focuses on the process of building employee trustworthiness to meet the organizational vision, mission, strategies, objectives by the leader [13].…”

Persepsi Lingkungan Belajar dan Keinginan untuk Meningkatkan Pengetahuan Terhadap Niat Memilih Karier Akuntansi

“…Dalam hal memilih karier akuntansi, sikap didefinisikan sebagai evaluasi keseluruhan mahasiswa tentang keinginan memilih profesi akuntan sebagai karier mereka (Wen et al, 2018). Ketika seorang mahasiswa memiliki suatu keyakinan bahwa suatu perilaku dapat menghasilkan hal yang positif, sikap mereka terhadap perilaku tersebut cenderung akan menguntungkan.…”