Is it shameful to be an accountant?

GenMe perception(s) of accountants’ ethics

Ariela Caglio

Università Bocconi – SDA Bocconi School of Management

Via Roentgen 1 – 20136 Milan (Italy)

ariela.caglio@sdabocconi.it

Phone : +39 02 58362575 – Fax : +39 02 58362561

Mara Cameran

Università Bocconi – SDA Bocconi School of Management

Via Roentgen 1 – 20136 Milan (Italy)

mara.cameran@unibocconi.it

Phone : +39 02 58362567 – Fax : +39 02 58362561

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Is it shameful to be an accountant? GenMe perception(s) of accountants’ ethics

Introduction

In recent years, the public interest proclamations of accounting professionals have

been increasingly criticized and questioned (Willmott, 1986), and accountants and accounting

institutions are subject to mounting public scrutiny (Rogers et al., 2005; Gill, 2009). In fact,

while the standards and pronouncements of accounting bodies “are couched in terms of the

public interest, they appear to be inextricably bound up in the profession’s private interest”

(Parker, 1994: 507). Nowadays, accountants compete aggressively for business and are held

accountable for their contribution to the financial performance of the firms in which they

operate (Canning and O’Dwyer, 2001). The emphasis for them seems to be on being

commercial and on performing a service for the customer rather than being public-spirited

(Citron, 2003; Humphrey, 2008; Sikka et al. 1989; Sikka, 2008). Recent accounting scandals

and the financial crisis have highlighted the importance of public confidence in the

accounting profession (Carmona, 2009; Carnegie and Napier, 2009), focusing attention on

ethical issues in the accountancy profession throughout the whole community.

The status and credibility attributed to the accounting profession are linked not only to

accountants’ technical expertise but also to their ability to project a public image of

themselves as ‘ethical experts’ (Martinov-Bennie and Pflugrath, 2009). In other words, the

function that accountants fulfill in the economic system is dependent on the profession’s

ability to maintain the perception of high ethical standards and ensure for themselves a

respectable image within the community at large. Therefore, to fulfill their function, it is

necessary not only that accountants act ethically but also that the public perceives them to do

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so (Felton et al., 2008).

In this paper, we explore the ‘public’ perception of accountants’ ethics. This study was

prompted initially by the fact that recent economic circumstances and events have

demonstrated that questionable behaviour on the part of accountants can impact everyone,

even those who do not have any direct involvement with these professionals. In addition, it is

reasonable to assume that if public confidence in the accountancy profession is low, this may

deter entrants who seek a profession that is well thought of, or, worse, may encourage

individuals with lower ethical standards to choose a career in accountancy, thus leading to a

profession that indeed fulfills public perceptions. The purpose of our paper is therefore to

contribute to our understanding of public perceptions of accountants’ ethics and of the factors

– such as gender, educational background and proximity to the profession – that might

contribute to shaping such perceptions.

Previous studies have warned about undertaking cross-sectional analyses on the

perception of specific professions, as these may be impacted also by generational differences

in values (e.g. Schaie, 1965; Stewart and Healy, 1989: for a review see Parry and Urwin,

2010). Any differences derived from our empirical analysis may be due not only to specific

factors such as proximity to the profession, but also to generation, and it would be impossible

to separate the two (Twenge, 2010).

Generational cohorts comprise people born around the same time and thus sharing

specific social or historical events during critical developmental periods. Each generation is

affected by broad forces (e.g. media, critical economic events, popular culture) that create

common value systems distinguishing the individuals of a certain birth cohort from

individuals born at different times. In this paper we use an extensive database that contains

the opinions of the so-called Generation Me (GenMe), i.e., students and young workers born

in the 1980s and 1990s. GenMe is the youngest generation in today’s workforce (or almost

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ready to join the workforce). Our focus on GenMe is not only motivated by methodological

issues, but also by the fact that one of the biggest challenges for organizations in the years to

come will be the retirement of millions of older workers and their substitution by young

people of the GenMe birth cohort. The characteristics of this new generation of workers will

require accounting organizations to adjust their focus and perspective in order to most

effectively attract and retain employees from this cohort, who have work values and

expectations that are quite different from those of previous generations (Twenge et al., 2010;

Hewlett et al., 2009, Yeaton, 2008; Lindquist, 2008). In focusing on GenMe, we are also

responding to the call for accounting scholars to investigate today’s youth habitat and

perceptions (McRobbie, 2005; Jeacle, 2012).

In order to achieve our research purpose, we combine two streams of literature that

have rarely talked to each other so far. On the one hand, we take inspiration from

contributions published in the main accounting journals that focus on understanding the

public image of accountants. In this literature, ethical issues are only marginally included in

the analysis of the general representation of accountants by various social groups and media,

so that little emphasis is given to the ethical aspect of such representations. On the other hand,

we draw on the existing literature on ethical perceptions, which has devoted its attention

mainly to business people in general. Several studies on accountants exist but their focus is on

the ethical attitudes and moral reasoning of these professionals rather than on their public

standing in terms of ethics. Moreover, in the academic literature there have recently been calls

for studies that supplement existing UK-based findings with evidence from other countries

(e.g., Dimnik and Felton, 2006). Our study constitutes a response to this call in that it uses

data collected in Italy, whereas most of the extant literature on the accounting profession, its

image in the public mind and ethical dilemmas has been developed with reference to the

Anglo-American countries, and little is known outside these geographical borders. Italy

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(being a continental European country1) is a very different research setting in comparison to

the Anglo-American ones: despite accounting’s early accomplishments, Italy does not enjoy a

strong independent profession. Moreover, its self-regulatory power is questionable, because

the Italian system for overseeing professional responsibility is characterized by a low number

of disciplinary measures from the professional bodies. In this kind of setting, there is a risk

that the integrity and ethical stance of the profession may be perceived as only symbolic,

because its compliance with rules and values is not strictly monitored, and sanctions are rarely

imposed (Raar, 2009).

The structure of our paper is as follows: in the section following this introduction, we

present a review of the related relevant literature, drawing on both accounting contributions

and business-ethics perception research. Then, we introduce and develop our research

questions and present the research design and the methodology adopted for collecting and

analyzing our data. After that, we describe the results of our empirical analysis; finally, we

discuss and interpret our evidence and conclude by describing the contribution our study

makes to the debate on ethical issues in the accounting profession, pointing out its limitations,

and making suggestions for future research.

Literature review and research questions

The first stream of research that we employ in this paper comprises several

contributions published in the main accounting journals and is concerned with the public

image of accountants (the “general nature of the accountant,” Felton et al., 2008: 221). Ethical

issues are explored as included within the broader question of the identity of accountants2, so

that little emphasis is given to the ethical implications of such representations.

The second stream of research deals with the public perceptions of ethics and ethical

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orientations but mainly of business people and business practices in general. The business

ethics contributions that concentrate on accountants, as will be clarified in the following, have

explored accountants’ own ethical behaviours and orientation but far less their reputation in

this respect.

The image of accountants

The contributions of the first stream of research, published mainly in accounting

journals, examine representations of accountants in various media (e.g., television shows,

movies, the press, advertisements, but also in literature, in popular music and jokes). The

most relevant studies for the purposes of our paper are those by Friedman and Lyne (2001),

Dimnik and Felton (2006), Jeacle (2008), Baldvinsdottir et al. (2009), Smith and Jacobs

(2011) and Miley and Read (2012).

Friedman and Lyne (2001) investigate the portrayal of accountants in newspapers and

magazines over 25 years. They emphasize the existence of a stereotype, which depicts

accountants as very conservative and obsessed with precision, as well as having an

unappealing and dull personality. The authors point to the potentially damaging consequences

of such a stereotype, commonly summarized as the ‘bean-counter’. However, they note that

such a stereotype is also associated with trustworthiness and accountability. Dimnik and

Felton (2006), drawing on Beard (1994), analyze the portrayal of accountants in 20th-century

cinema. Their results show that both positive and negative characteristics are represented in

movies and television shows. The authors identify five stereotypes: the dreamer, the plodder,

the eccentric, the hero, and the villain. This last stereotype in particular is characterized as

insincere, dishonest and obsessed with the bottom line. Jeacle (2008) examines the

recruitment literature of the Big Four accounting firms and of the international professional

accountancy bodies and discovers that the recruitment discourse is used to construct an image

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of the ‘colourful accountant’, a happy, young trendsetter with a busy and exciting social life.

Jeacle notes that this communication strategy is risky, as it endangers the essence of the

accounting qualification: that is, its professionalism and integrity. Bookkeeping is associated

with positive features such as precision and reliability, and the methodical number-cruncher

image may have reinforced accountants’ reputation for honesty, giving the profession more

credibility with the public. Jeacle’s study also shows that the stereotypical view of

accountants has worsened in recent years, moving from ‘boring’ to ‘unprofessional’. Finally,

Baldvinsdottir et al. (2009) investigate the image of accountants in the discourse used in the

accounting software advertisements that appeared from the mid-1970s to 2007 in CIMA

(Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) journals. The authors document a profound

change in the image of accountants: in the 1970s and the 1980s, the accountant is depicted as

a responsible and rational person, whereas in the 1990s this professional is presented as an

action-oriented businessman. The most recent advertisements also convey an entertaining

image of accountants. Baldvinsdottir et al. (2009) relate the observed image of the accountant

to hyper-modernity, an hedonistic culture where the “individual does not tend to control

himself, but instead lets himself go” (Baldvinsdottir et al., 2009: 878), raising the question of

whether it is possible to trust an accountant who pursues this objective.

More recently, Smith and Jacobs (2011) examine how accounting and accountants are

characterized in popular music, finding that the accountant is often portrayed as dull, boring

and unimaginative, according to the traditional accounting stereotype. This is a two-sided

stereotype: from one side, this could be considered as offensive and damaging to the

profession, on the other side, to be regarded as dull and boring is an asset that might enhance

the trustworthiness of accountants and secure the legitimacy of the profession. In addition, the

authors show that the image of accountants shifts over time, from the classic but benign

stereotype to a negative portrayal of accountants as scandal-makers. As popular music deeply

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influences culture (both reflecting and shaping it), this shift reflects how accountants are

viewed within society and impacts on recruitment and retention in the profession. Miley and

Read (2012) confirm prior research (Jeacle, 2008), showing that accountants are still

stereotyped in popular culture as dull and boring. They argue that this representation refers to

“the sort of dull and boring person everyone wants as an accountant, though possibly not as a

dinner guest” (Miley and Read, 2012: 710), thus implying that this stereotype serves the

accounting profession in perpetuating the figure of the trustworthy professional.

The image of accountants has also been investigated through perception studies, i.e.,

surveys that have examined the representation of accountants by students and professionals

(Taylor and Dixon, 1979; Hunt et al., 2004; Byrne and Willis, 2005; McDowall and Jackling,

2010; McDowall et al., 2012). The most important conclusion that can be derived from these

contributions is that representations of accountants depend on which groups are surveyed for

an opinion, on their familiarity with the profession and the closeness of their contacts with

accountants. For example, Byrne and Willis (2005) and McDowall et al. (2012) suggest that

the course being followed has an impact on the students’ perception and that attitudes towards

accounting differ significantly depending on whether students learned accounting at

secondary school. Yet, perception studies are not very recent and mainly focused on

university/college students’ opinions (e.g., Imada et al., 1980; Chacko, 1991; Cory, 1992;

Holt, 1994; Fisher and Murphy, 1995; Enis, 1998; Marriott and Marriott, 2003; Coleman et

al., 2004, Sugahara and Boland, 2006).

Ethics and accountants

The second stream of research we refer to considers works published in business-

ethics journals. The contributions on accountants, though often yielding mixed results, share a

common interest, as they aim to understand the effect of variables such as gender, age,

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education, on their ethical attitudes and orientations (e.g., Ponemon, 1990, 1992; Cohen et al.,

1996; Giacomino and Akers, 1998; Conroy et al., 2009). In this stream of literature,

accountants are viewed as professionals who face highly ethical dilemmas (Marques and

Azevedo-Pereira, 2009; Lan et al., 2009), especially after the corporate scandals and

accounting irregularities that have occurred in recent years, (Martinov-Bennie and Pflugrath,

2009). Such dilemmas involve pressure to compromise moral principles to acquire or

maintain clients, as well as actions that are motivated by the individual’s interest or by the

firm’s short-term financial interest (Shafer, 2008).

Contributors to the literature on business ethics have rarely investigated public

perceptions of the ethics of accountants in particular. The existing studies on public

perception have instead focused on business practices, business people and decision making

in general. For example, Cole and Smith (1996) explore the perception of ethics in business

considering students and business people. The authors found a significant difference in

perceptions among the members of the two groups based on gender (inside the students’

group) and length of the time a person has worked in a company. The gender issue in

individuals’ perceptions of ethics is also explored in Franke et al. (1997) and Deshpande et al.

(2000) with consistent results: women are stricter than men in labelling business practices as

unethical. Interestingly, the authors also observe that, as suggested by social role theory

(Eagly, 1987), the gender difference observed declines as the work experience of samples

increases. Contrary to expectations, differences are not influenced by personal relationships or

interaction. Elias (2002) studies the ethical perception of selected earnings management

practices among various groups, i.e., accounting practitioners, faculty and students, showing

that significant differences in perception exist among the groups. A more recent study by

Cagle and Baucus (2006) has highlighted the impact of corporate scandals on finance

students’ perceptions of the importance and prevalence of ethics in business. Surprisingly, the

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authors find a positive relation between studying in-depth cases of the major scandals (e.g.,

Enron, Tyco) and students’ ethical decision making as well as their perceptions of the ethics

of business people. The study closest to ours is Brown et al. (2007), who investigate how

auditors and the public perceive auditors’ professional behaviour. Their results are consistent

with Farwell and Wohlwend-Lloyd (1998) and show that auditors perceive themselves in a

more favourable way. Moreover, different publics (characterized as less or more financially

sophisticated) exhibit different perceptions of auditors’ behaviour, the better being that of the

less financially-knowledgeable public.

In sum, these two streams of literature suggest that the image and perceptions of

accountants are not homogeneous and that they could vary depending on different individual

characteristics (such as gender, age, educational background), on the closeness to the

profession of those surveyed for an opinion and on the sources of information on accountants.

Both streams have failed to provide a specific analysis of public perceptions of accountants’

ethics, as well as the factors that might influence such perceptions, notwithstanding the

importance of this issue for the status and future of the profession (Gaa and Thorne, 2004;

Uysal, 2009). We focus our paper on filling this common gap, by addressing two main

research questions. First, we want to explicitly explore what the GenMe perception of

accountants’ ethics is. Second, we want to comprehend the factors influencing GenMe

perceptions of accountants’ ethics.

The first research question (what is the GenMe perception of accountants’ ethics) is

exploratory in nature, while the second one (the factors influencing GenMe perceptions of

accountants’ ethics) can be further detailed into hypotheses. We formulate theses hypotheses

in the null form as we neither have previous studies conducted in Italy on similar issues nor

existing literature on ethical perception that provides unambiguous results.

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Previous business-ethics literature on the perception of business people’s behaviour

shows that gender matters (e.g. Franke et al., 1997; Deshpande et al., 2000). So, we formulate

our first hypothesis in the following way:

H1: GenMe perceptions of accountants’ ethics are influenced by the respondents’

gender.

Previous studies also support the idea of a relation between the level of education and

ethical perceptions: e.g. Chen et al. (2008) found that students’ perceptions about accounting

change over time during their education. Thus, we formulate our second hypothesis:

H2: GenMe perceptions of accountants’ ethics are influenced by the level of education

(e.g., graduate vs undergraduate students) of the respondents.

Other contributions also show a link between type of educational backgrounds and

professional behaviour perception (e.g., McDowall et al., 2012; Byrne and Willis, 2005). So

we can hypothesise that:

H3: GenMe perceptions of accountants’ ethics are influenced by the type of

educational background (e.g., management and business administration students vs

other students) of the respondents.

Moreover, studies on high school students’ perceptions of accounting (e.g. Byrne and

Willis, 2005; Hartwell, Lightle and Maxwell, 2005; Jeffrey, 2002) overall show that

accounting students hold a positive view of accounting and accountants, while non-

accounting students have a more negative perception. So, on this basis we were able to

formulate our fourth hypothesis:

H4: GenMe perceptions of accountants’ ethics are influenced by an accounting/non-

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accounting background at high school level.

Furthermore, some previous works suggest that the proximity to the profession

influences perceptions of accountants’ ethical behaviour (e.g. Brown et al., 2007; Rogers et

al., 2005). So, we can then formulate our fifth hypothesis:

H5: GenMe perceptions of accountants’ ethics are influenced by proximity to the

profession (e.g., accountants vs non accountants).

Finally, previous literature assumes that parents, friends and teachers may influence

students’ perceptions of the profession (McDowall and Jackling, 2010). Also, the role and the

influence of the media in shaping the image of accountants is well documented by previous

contributors, suggesting that the opinion of accountants is less positive when constructed from

media sources (e.g., Smith and Jacobs, 2011). Thus, we formulate the following last

hypothesis:

H6: GenMe perceptions of accountants’ ethics are influenced by the source of

information about what an accountant is and does.

Research method

Instrument

The research instrument used is a five-page questionnaire organized in different parts.

The first part was designed to capture some background information about the respondents,

such as gender, age and education.

The second part consisted of an open-ended question that required the respondents to

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indicate five characteristics they associate with accountants. The question was open-ended

and framed in the following way: “Take a few minutes to think about an accountant and

indicate at least five characteristics (concerning, for example, the accountant’s physical

aspect, personality traits, competences and cultural background, etc.) you associate with this

professional.” Characteristics were numbered from one to five, so that we could keep track of

the sequence in which they were pointed out by respondents. This question was designed to

capture what are the first characteristics freely associated in the respondent’s mind with the

image of an accountant.

Then respondents were required to disclose their view about accountants’ ethical

behaviour. The following question was presented: “Do you think accountants behave

ethically?” and the respondents were asked to express their opinion using a five-point Likert

scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = totally agree).

The following part comprises a list of items typically associated with accountants and

concerning personal and physical traits (e.g., she/he is shy, she/he dresses with a trendy style,

she/he is conscious of her/his duty) and professional traits (e.g., she/he has long-term earnings

potential, her/his job requires an ability to delegate), as well as some traits included in the

definition of ethical behaviour provided by extant contributions (e.g. she/he is law compliant,

she/he is incorruptible). These items are rooted in the previous literature, as shown in Table 1,

and aimed to tap respondents’ perceptions of the image of the accountant, again using a five-

point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = totally agree). In the questionnaire, the list of

items was introduced by the following question: “How/what do you think an accountant is

and does?” We include in the list all the items that we found in the previous literature about

the image of accountants, avoiding any a-priori exclusion, in order to allow respondents to

find all the possible characteristics (e.g., traits, behaviours, skills) that could reflect his/her

own view of accountants3.

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Finally, in the last part of the questionnaire the participants were asked to select up to

three sources of influence on their way of thinking about accountants. In particular, we

incorporated a question phrased as follows: “What is your most important source of

information about what an accountant is and does”. Alternatives such as friends, movies,

books and newspapers were suggested.

[Insert table 1 around here]

We drew on previous literature to operationalize our variables, but we also relied on

preliminary discussion with colleagues to validate the questionnaire and administered it to a

small sample of different respondents (around 15, ranging from university students not

majoring in business administration to practicing accountants) as a pre-test. We made some

necessary revisions after the pre-test (Hunt et al., 1982): some items were re-worded and

better specified.

A covering letter briefly described the project and assured participants of

confidentiality.

Sample

The questionnaire was distributed to students, prospective CPAs, and young employees at

various auditing firms. The basic idea was to reach young people with different backgrounds

(especially in terms of education) and a diverse familiarity with the profession as well as

various degrees of closeness and frequency of contact with accountants, including accountants

themselves. Although we aimed at a certain variety in terms of the characteristics named

above, as anticipated, we decided to focus on a homogeneous group, i.e. GenMe (Twenge,

2006, 2010).

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We contacted students at universities, as well as prospective CPAs and audit firm

employees during the courses they attended to prepare for the state exam for professional

qualification4 or during in-house training courses. Respondents completed the questionnaires

without assistance and returned them to the researchers immediately after completion (which

took, on average, 15 minutes).

[Insert table 2 around here]

Approximately 2,100 questionnaires were distributed, yielding 1,794 usable responses,

a response rate of approximately 85 percent. As shown in Table 2, our final sample was

composed of 1,293 university students and 501 CPA/audit firm employees. Among the 1,293

university students, 773 were studying business and economics, while the rest were studying

other disciplines, including law (17.2%), architecture (15%), engineering (11.8%), classics

and literature (8.5%), political science (8.3%) and mathematics and statistics (5.9%). 767

students were attending a graduate course. The mean age of the respondents was 22.65 years

and there was a slight majority of males (around 52%). Concerning accountants, 232 (46.3%)

were attending an in-house course before starting their professional activity, 129 (25.7%) had

been working in the accounting field for less than one year and the remaining 140 (28%) had

been working as accountants for more than one year.

Results

We performed various analyses on the data collected by means of our questionnaire.

These analyses relate to the two main research questions we address in this paper and will be

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presented accordingly in the following.

1) What is the GenMe perception of accountants’ ethics?

First of all, we reviewed the open-question section of the questionnaire (second

section): in only 245 questionnaires out of 1,794 (13.66 percent), being ethical5 was indicated

as one of the five characteristics freely associated with ‘the accountant’. Among the 245 cases

in which ethical was indicated, 13 percent mentioned it as the first characteristic, 24 percent

as the second, 22 percent as the third, 21 percent as the fourth and 20 percent as the fifth. A

percentage of 84.49 of the respondents considered accountants as being ethical - that is, the

reference to ethics was in the majority of cases positive. The ‘free’ association between

accountants and lack of ethics concerned just 2 percent of the total sample.

The mean referred to the specific question included in the third part of our instrument

(“Accountants behave ethically”) is 3.3 on a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 =

totally agree), as shown in Table 3 (panel A). Therefore, overall, respondents have a

perception of accountants’ ethics that is significantly different from 3, the neutral point (we

ran a one sample t-test with a test value 3 and results show p=0.0006) and slightly positive.

In order to better capture accountants’ ethical behaviour, we also used other items in

our questionnaire, in addition to the abovementioned specific question. In effect, since

‘ethics’ is an elusive concept, a rather vague and slippery notion that can be understood in a

variety of ways (Cowton, 2009) – ranging from a sense of personal obligation to rules of

conduct that need to be applied in everyday work – we decided to include multiple items in

our measurement instrument to further elucidate this point. While reviewing the accounting-

related literature on ethics, we noted that most authors refer to the pronouncements of

professional bodies and to the formal ethical codes governing the profession (e.g. Everett et

al., 2005; Uysal, 2009). Although we did not find any unequivocal definition, the most

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commonly quoted ideas about accountants’ ethics are: being accountable and trustworthy

(‘trustworthy’); acting with the highest integrity (‘incorruptible’); pursuing confidentiality

(‘discreet’) and objectivity (‘being easily influenced’); and complying with the law (‘law

compliant’). To avoid influencing our respondents, the items related to these dimensions were

not included in the part of questionnaire related to the ethics question, “Do you think

accountants behave ethically?” Instead, they were mixed with the other items presented in the

questionnaire (see Table 1). The results concerning all these dimensions are summarized in

Table 3, panel A, part A.

[Insert table 3, panel A around here]

The findings shown in Table 3 (panel A) support the idea that, overall, accountants are

perceived as being trustworthy (mean 3.48), law compliant (mean 3.47), discreet (mean 3.38)

and not easily influenced (mean 2.54). Yet they are not incorruptible (mean 2.64): recent

corporate scandals may have played a major role in generating the perceptions about this last

item, possibly indicating that accounting scandals tend to remain vivid in the GenMe

consciousness. In fact, as previously cited, GenMe has experienced the collapse of iconic

companies (e.g. Enron, Arthur Andersen and Parmalat, which took place in Italy and is

referred to as Europe's Enron). The correlation matrix shows significant relationships between

the perception of accountants’ behaviour as ethical and all the previously indicated items. In

particular, the relationship is positive with trustworthy, incorruptible, discreet and law

compliant, and negative with easily influenced (Table 3, Panel A, part B).

As an additional analysis (untabulated), we also calculated the correlation coefficients

between ‘ethical behaviour’ and all the other items included in the questionnaire (listed in

Table 1). Interestingly, the three highest coefficients are those with ‘sincere’ (0.382;

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p=0.000), ‘hard worker’ (0.327; p=0.000) and ‘collaborative’ (0.271; p=0.000). These items

indicate some characteristics that members of GenMe associate with accountants’ ethical

behaviour but that are not straightaway included in the definition of professional bodies.

Finally, we ran a factor analysis in order to reduce the proposed items concerning

image (those reported in Table 1 plus ethical behaviour) to fewer, more meaningful variables.

Among the factors that we obtained through factor analysis, there is one that we labelled

ethical7, which, besides the item ethical behaviour, includes the following items: law

compliant, incorruptible, trustworthy, hard worker and discreet (Table 3, panel B).

[Insert table 3, panel B around here]

2) What are the factors influencing GenMe perceptions of accountants’ ethics?

Table 4 summarizes the results of the analyses that explore whether different personal

and educational background characteristics, as well as proximity to the profession and the

source of information on accountants of the surveyed GenMe individuals could influence their

opinions on accountants’ ethics. We used a multiple regression model to test our hypotheses

on influencing factors, inserting also as a control variable respondents’ age (Table 4, panel

A). The dependent variable is the score obtained in the ethical question “Do you think

accountants behave ethically?” 8

[Insert table 4, panel A around here]

Results show (sig. 0.000) that gender matters in determining ethical perceptions and

are in line with those of previous business-ethics literature on the perception of the behaviour

of business people (Franke et al., 1997; Deshpande et al., 2000). So our data support H1: there

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is a positive association between being female and the perception of accountants’ ethics.

Our findings also support the idea of a relationship between the level of education and

ethical perceptions (and thus H2): being a graduate student is positively associated with the

opinion on accountants’ ethics. Our results are consistent with Chen et al. (2008) who found

that students’ perceptions about accounting change over the period of their education (sig.

0.017). On the other hand, we did not find any relation between the type of educational

background, i.e., being a management and business administration student and the perception

of accountants’ ethics (sig. 0.118), although previous contributions show a link between type

of educational backgrounds and perception of professional behaviour (e.g., McDowall et al.,

2012; Byrne and Willis, 2005). So H3 is not supported by our results.

Finally, our evidence also illustrates (sig. 0.018) that a better perception is reported by

respondents who attended an accounting course at the high school level. This is in line with

studies on high school students’ perceptions of accounting (e.g. Byrne and Willis, 2005;

Hartwell et al., 2005; Jeffrey, 2002) which overall show that accounting students hold a

positive view of accounting and accountants, while non-accounting students have a more

negative perception and supports our fourth hypothesis. We followed up this point and found

that the most positive perception of accountants’ ethics is reported among respondents who

attended an accounting course at the high-school level (mean 3.5, untabulated results),

whereas the respondents who attended an accounting course at university show a less positive

perception (3.33) which is very close to the one exhibited by the whole sample (3.30).

The results illustrated in Table 4, panel A also suggest that proximity to the profession

influences perceptions of accountants’ ethical behaviour and support our last hypothesis (H5).

Being an accounting practitioner has a significant (sig. 0.026) and positive relation with

perceptions of accountants’ ethics, which can be explained by the vested interest they have in

maintaining their own positive identity (Brewer, 1999). These results are also in line with

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Brown et al.’s (2007) findings on auditors’ self-perception. In order to explore this point

further, we ran an ANOVA test (p=0.000) summarized in Table 4 panel B.

[Insert table 4, panel B around here]

Practising accountants have the most positive perception, whereas the most negative is

exhibited by undergraduate students studying subjects other than management and business

administration (e.g. architecture, mathematics and statistics, etc.). On the other hand, among

practising accountants, those who are new entrants (i.e., have just entered the profession and

have basically no work experience in the accounting field)9 report the most positive

perception. These results are in line with the studies that found that students’ own perceptions

influence their career decision (e.g. Holland, 1966, 1973). Our evidence also shows that more

experienced professionals have less positive perceptions of the ethical attitudes of their

colleagues – and themselves – in comparison with new entrants. This could be explained by

their direct experience in the field.

In the questionnaire we also incorporated a question phrased as follows: “What is your

most important source of information about what an accountant is and does?” in order to

explore whether there is a difference between those who claim direct knowledge of an

accountant and those who rely on mass media/school portraits. We grouped the replies into

three categories: those who indicate the school system as the most important source of

information (i.e. books and teachers/instructors); those who rely on mass media (i.e. movies,

TV and newspapers) and finally those who claim direct knowledge (i.e. personal experience,

family and friends). Our results do not show a significant impact of the source of information

about what an accountant is and does on the perceptions of accountants’ ethical behaviour10.

So H6 is not supported by our results.

20

Discussion

First of all, to respond to our first research question, we explored whether accountants

are viewed as ethical or unethical by GenMe individuals. By the analysis of the open-question

section of the questionnaire (second section) we find that just 2 percent of the whole sample

made a free association between accountants and lack of ethics. The fact that accountants are

not generally perceived as unethical is also confirmed by the mean of the item ‘ethical’ for the

whole sample, which is around 3.3 (and significantly - p=0.000 - different from 3). Yet we

cannot conclude that there is not a reputation problem concerning the trustworthiness of

members of the profession, as the mean is nearer to 3 (neutrality) than to 4. The impression of

the accountant as a corrupt professional is not dominant in GenMe, but our results certainly

suggest that there is room for improving public perceptions of accountants’ ethics. Are these

results good news? Care should be taken in interpreting them, given the characteristics of our

respondents. Individuals belonging to GenMe are depicted in the psychological literature as

cheats (Twenge, 2006) with reference to university examinations and as being more

permissive (than the previous generation) in, for example, software piracy (Freestone and

Mitchell, 2004). This casts some doubts on the level of ‘ethicality’ of GenMe individuals

themselves, which is also confirmed by the fact that they tend to see no manipulative

implications in unethical or unconventional methods because ‘”everybody” engages in these

tactics to secure a job (Boyd, 2010).

In order to explore this point further and understand which characteristics are relevant

to GenMe for differentiating between ethical accountants and unethical ones, we also explore

whether the ethics dimension is associated with the other dimensions included in the

definition of ethical behaviour provided by the literature. We found that the perception of

accountants’ ethical behaviour is associated in the GenMe mind with the idea that these

21

professionals should make decisions based on external codes to avoid breaking the law (‘law

compliant’), with the importance of professional independence (‘being easily influenced’) and

with moral content and values in the individual locus (‘incorruptible’ and ‘discreet’) (Cullen

et al., 2003; Martin and Cullen, 2006). The link with the ‘trustworthy’ element - which is at

the root of accountants’ set of practices - indicates a demand for transparency and

accountability as part of the accounting profession’s inherent ethical responsibilities and of

their fundamental role in serving the public interest. These findings may be interpreted in two

ways. On the one hand, they may be understood as a robustness test of our previous question

on the perceived ethical behaviour of accountants, thus moderating some concerns about the

interpretation of ‘ethicality’ imposed by members of GenMe. These results are confirmed also

by factor analysis where the item ‘ethical’ is associated with the same items mentioned above.

On the other hand, they seem to suggest a general convergence between the claims of

accounting bodies, and the GenMe view. This finding could also be evaluated in the light of

the characteristics of the Italian setting (absence of a strong independent profession and low

number of disciplinary measures from professional bodies, as explained in the introduction):

the risk that the integrity and ethical standing of the profession may be perceived as merely

symbolic is more than serious. It is also interesting to note that, in our sample, among the

aforementioned items the highest correlations are between ‘ethical behaviour’ and,

respectively, ‘law compliant’ and ‘incorruptible’. However, the mean of this latter item is

below 3, thus suggesting that, in the GenMe perception, the accountant is ‘vacillating’. This

can be interpreted in the light of the characteristics of Italian accounting regulation, described,

on the one hand, as firmly political and legislative (Di Pietra et al., 2001) but, on the other

hand, as leaving room for a certain flexibility of interpretation (Zan, 1994). This flexibility, in

a country where the perceived level of corruption is relatively high11 and where the

Parmalat12 scandal, defined as ‘Europe’s Enron’, took place - and has certainly impacted the

22

GenMe experience (Twenge et al., 2010) - may explain the strict association between

accountants’ ethical behaviour and incorruptibility, as well as the low mean of this latter item.

Our analyses, moreover, highlight that there are three further items – ‘sincere’, ‘hard worker’

and ‘collaborative’ – strongly (and positively) associated with the item ‘ethical behaviour’.

These items are not generally included in the definition of the dimensions of ethics provided

by the literature and by professional bodies. They thus seem to suggest the existence of a

more multifaceted perception of accountants’ ethics. GenMe appears to exhibit a more

articulated idea about which dimensions are important for judging an accountant as an ethical

professional. In fact, they include some characteristics (such as being collaborative) that are

not straightaway linked to ethics and that are not totally similar to the definition that

professional bodies convey through their public pronouncements on standards of ethics.

GenMe seems also to direct its attention more to individual characteristics: this indicates that

accountants’ ethical behaviour is also considered to be the product of their personal traits and

that the GenMe public demands more than conventional adherence to the law and to the

professional standards of ethics. Notice that our respondents belong to a generation in which

the importance of the individual supersedes all other concerns (Twenge, 2006). This attention

to individual characteristics is not surprising, therefore.

With reference to our second research question, we explored the variables potentially

affecting GenMe perceptions of accountants’ ethics.

Our evidence shows that the opinion on accountants’ ethics is more favourable among

females than among males. This finding could be interpreted in accordance with recent

research conducted by Hunt et al. (2009), which shows that women are less influenced than

men by negative stereotypical representations of the profession. This is also consistent with

previous literature that maintains that women are less likely to believe in occupational

stereotypes (Lips, 1992). From a practical point of view, this fact could positively affect the

23

future image of accountants, since, in Italy, as in most developed countries, top executives

and CFOs are mainly men but the number of women is increasing (albeit in many countries

slowly: e.g., Helfat et al., 2006).

We also found a positive relation between perception of accountants’ ethics and both

being a graduate student and the fact that respondents attended an accounting course at the

high-school level. In particular, the latter might be explained by drawing on Hunt et al.

(2004), who observe that high-school teachers are focused on the book keeping aspect of

accounting. A curriculum with such a focus could create the idea of accountancy as a regular

technical activity (Albrecht and Sack, 2000), associated with precision and reliability (Jeacle,

2008), without much room for subjectivity and flexible interpretation of rules, which could be

understood as potentially unethical behaviour. Our results are in this sense also in line with

the insights provided by McDowall and Jackling (2010) on undergraduate students’ attitudes

towards the accounting profession.

Our analysis also shows that proximity to the profession is important for explaining

perceptions of accountants’ ethics. Accountants had the most positive perception, whereas the

most negative was exhibited by undergraduate students engaged in studies other than

management and business administration. Yet more experienced professionals had less

positive perceptions of accountants’ ethics than their younger colleagues (new entrants: see

Table 4, panel B). This could be interpreted in various ways. First of all, it could be

considered good news that the most negative opinion was exhibited by the respondents who

were not close to the profession, as this perception is likely not indicative of the actual

ethicality of the profession. However, it is bad news from the point of view of the generally

low level of trust in accountants exhibited by GenMe. So our findings call for the need for

appropriate action to reinforce the reputation of the profession, especially with reference to

the general public. Moreover, considering the results about those respondents who had had

24

work experience in accounting, one could assume that their opinions related only to other

professionals and this was not how they viewed themselves. In this case, as more-experienced

accountants know better than younger ones how the business world works, it could be

assumed that they are simply painting a more precise picture of reality. Considering that this

group of respondents represents the best-informed view, it raises some concerns about the

ethicality of accountants. It is easy to imagine a young professional at the beginning of his

career willing to work ethically and being confronted with a deceitful accountancy world,

where ‘compromises’ are an everyday occurrence (Marques and Azevedo-Pereira, 2009).

Alternatively, assuming that the opinion of the more experienced professionals reflects also

the perception they have of themselves, our findings are consistent with the idea that

accounting professionals soften their ethical orientation as they become older (Sankaran and

Bui, 2003). In any case, both interpretations question the effectiveness of professional ethical

codes of conduct and the effectiveness and contents of continuing-education programs in

terms of ethics issues. After the most recent accounting scandals, professional bodies reacted

strongly, emphasizing in public statements (e.g., press releases, officers’ speeches,

testimonials and published articles) the importance of the integrity of accountants (Rogers et

al., 2005; CNDC, 2007). Our evidence suggests that these public statements, together with the

new regulations (e.g., Sarbanes Oxley in the US and similar reforms all over the world,

including Italy) and the establishment of standards (Quick et al., 2007) as means for

promoting “awareness and confidence in the integrity, objectivity, competence and

professionalism of CPAs” (AICPA’s Mission Statement, 2012) may not have been effective,

especially for those who work within the profession.

25

Concluding remarks

In this paper, we have built on the idea that the accounting profession depends heavily

upon its public image to sustain itself (Rogers et al., 2005): as in the words of the CEO of the

AICPA, an accountant’s reputation is his or her “most priceless asset”. Following this line of

reasoning, we maintained that it is essential to understand not only whether accountants

behave ethically but also whether they are reputed to do so, especially after the recent

financial crisis and the publicity surrounding various accounting scandals (Felton et al., 2008;

Gill, 2009). The perceptions of the general public could negatively affect the image of the

entire profession, threatening not only its role in the economic system but also its future.

However, the public view of accountants’ ethics has been under-investigated. We focused on

this area, taking the perspective of GenMe, i.e. those of a homogenous age group whose

opinion is particularly important for the future of the accounting profession.

What we can generally conclude from our evidence is that there is room for

improvement. There are various means of sensitizing GenMe to ethical issues concerning

accountants.

First, universities are not making use of the opportunity to promote ethical

consciousness through accounting courses for young students. In fact, from an analysis of the

accounting curricula of the main Italian universities, a serious shortage of courses in ethics

emerged, signalling a lack of attention among academics to the importance of incorporating

ethical issues in university-classroom activities (Gunz and McCutcheon, 1998). It is essential

that students are made aware of the possible dilemmas that they might face during their

careers (Marques and Azevedo-Pereira, 2009). According to previous psychological studies,

GenMe individuals become stressed when they receive ambiguous signals from the

environment: they are perfectionists, apprehensive and show low self-reliance (Twenge,

26

2006). All these traits make them ill-equipped to deal with the dilemmas typically

encountered during a career in accountancy. Explicitly introducing ethical and deontological

issues in accounting courses could enhance both the attitude of students about accountants

and their understanding that accounting decisions may be complex, due to a “mesh of

conflicting obligations that constitutes our lives” (Young and Annisette, 2009: 95). A good

starting point to improve this situation could be to take inspiration from the approach

proposed by the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB), which

emphasizes not only the ability of individuals to perform to the standards expected of

professional accountants but also an appropriate level of values, ethics and attitudes to

achieve that competence.

Second, accounting firms and other professional bodies should question whether the

importance of professional integrity and of serving the public interest is sufficiently stressed

in their continuing education and training programs as well as in their communications. In

recent years, specific attempts have been made by accounting firms to promote a more active,

sociable and high-status professional. This is because professional bodies and accounting

firms are concerned about the lack of talented graduates willing to choose a career in

accounting due to the low appeal of the profession (e.g., McDowall and Jackling, 2010;

American Assembly, 2003). However, this representation seems to clash with the idea of

professional reliability, accountability and ethical behaviour (Jeacle, 2008). Perhaps, in their

public communications, accounting firms and other professional bodies could better balance

the ‘exciting’ side of the profession with more emphasis on values related to professional

integrity and ethics. Moreover, our results question the effectiveness of professional codes of

conduct and the effectiveness and contents of continuing-education programs in terms of

ethical issues.

In conclusion, although our study provides some new insights into perceptions of the

27

accounting profession, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of our research that are

in turn linked to the elements of novelty of our study, i.e., the fact that we focus on GenMe

perceptions and that we collected our data in Italy. Specifically, our results should be

interpreted with some caveats, i.e., keeping in mind that GenMe is considered to be

manipulative, permissive and willing to engage in unethical behavior, and that Italy does not

have a strong independent profession. For this reason, we think that an interesting avenue for

future research could be a comparison of the image of ethical behaviour among accountants

across various generations and/or countries and to relate the potential differences to diverse

socio-cultural and institutional settings to better understand which results are generalizable

across generations and/or countries. Another possible avenue for future research could take

into consideration the calibre of skills of the respondents. As professional image is an

important consideration for people making career choices (Smith and Briggs, 1999) and the

main drivers of quality for accounting work are the calibre of skills and personal qualities of

the human resources, it should be interesting to focus on management and business

administration students and distinguish the opinions of those who want to become an

accountant or are entering the profession from the respondents who do not want to become

accountants, also taking into consideration personal skills. Basically, this means

distinguishing the opinions of the ‘high-potential’ students from those of other students, in

order to explore whether those students who are interested in an accounting career and see

accountants as more ethical are also the brightest and the best.

1 Despite a certain convergence during the past few years, the Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-American context has always been contrasted with the continental one, relying on a relatively weak accounting profession, heavy governmental influence on accounting regulation, and exhibiting a higher importance of debt financing over equity capital (Di Pietra et al., 2001). 2 Though the approach adopted in this paper is different, we would like to acknowledge a rich stream of research on professions originated by the notable contributions by Foucault (e.g. Goldstein, 1994; Abbott, 2005; Power, 2000). 3 We performed factor analysis among all the items included in the questionnaire and conducted Harman’s one-factor test to check for the presence of common method effect. The result suggests that common method bias is

28

not of concern and thus is unlikely to confound the interpretations of our results. In fact, the first (largest) factor does not account for a majority of the variance (but only for 20.257%). 4 To be an Italian CPA, one is required to have earned a university degree in management and business administration or the equivalent, and to have completed a training period followed by a state examination. The purpose of the exam is to ascertain the theoretical knowledge of the candidates and their ability to put this theory into practice (Cameran, 2007). 5 We coded as ethical all the characteristics that include the words ethical/ethics together with the following words: honest (honesty), sincere, truthful (true), fair, law compliant, correct, moral rigidity, respectful, incorruptible, trustworthy, reliable, responsible, dutiful, conscious of her/his duties, rigorous, conscientious. As unethical we coded the opposite of the words/expressions reported before together with: able to cheat, cheater, swindler, tax dodger, involved in bribery and corruption. 6 The same test was run every time in the paper we referred to a significant difference between a mean and a certain value (generally 3, the neutral point). 7 The Cronbach’s Alpha for the ‘ethics’ factor is 0.755. with the lower limit of 0.6 considered acceptable for newly developed scales and 0.7 for established scales (Nunnally and Berstein, 1994). 8 Results do not change with the exception of the attendance of an accounting course at the high-school level in the case we use as dependent variable the ethical factor score (see Table 3, panel B) instead of the score obtained in the ethical question. 9 As previously explained, some of the respondents were contacted during in-training courses attended by just-employed graduates. 10 Results do not change using different way to group respondents’ replies. 11 International rankings based on CPI (Corruption Perception Index, created in 1995, ranging from 10 to 1) show that in 2008 Italy ranked 55th, between South Africa and Seychelles, with a score of 4.8; Denmark, New Zealand, and Sweden ranked highest, with 9.3. Somalia ranked lowest, with a score of 1. To give the reader a better idea of the implications of these data, it could be worthwhile knowing that other European countries with characteristics similar from an institutional point of view to Italy (like France and Spain) are ranked 23rd and 28th, with a score of 6.9 and 6.5 respectively. The UK and the USA are ranked 16th and 18th (score 7.7 and 7.3) (<http://www.transparency.org/research/cpi/cpi_2008>, last access 9 June 2014). 12 In December 2003, Parmalat’s - the world’s largest dairy firm, with 36,000 employees, ranked as the eighth largest company in Italy - financial problems became known publicly. Parmalat’s primary auditor was one of the Big Four audit firms, but the Milan branch of Grant Thornton dealt with some of the company’s subsidiaries. Two partners of the Italian affiliate of Grant Thornton were the first individuals to be prosecuted in the scandal. On 28 July 2004, following the events linked to the Parmalat scandal, Consob (the Italian regulatory body for the stock exchange, the equivalent of the SEC in the US), for the first time since its establishment, removed the renamed Italaudit S.p.A. (previously Grant Thornton S.p.A.) from the list of audit firms allowed to audit the financial statements of Italian listed companies.

29

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Table 1: Questionnaire items (*)

Questionnaire items References

He is bald e.g. Cory (1992); Dimnik and Felton (2006) He is male e.g. Bierstaker et al (2005) Her/his job implies variety of tasks e.g. Pollock et al (2002); Granlund and Taipaleenmäki (2005);

Hartwell et al. (2005) Her/his job presents opportunities for advancement e.g. Hartwell et al. (2005); Jeacle, (2008) Her/his job requires ability to make decisions e.g. Granlund and Lukka, (1997); Scott et al. (1998) Her/his job requires ability to delegate e.g. Scott et al. (1998) Her/his job requires ability to work with others e.g. Scott et al. (1998); Caglio (2003) Her/his job requires computer skills e.g. Caglio (2003); Hunt et al. (2009) Her/his job requires leadership e.g. Scott et al. (1998); Burns and Baldvinsdottir (2005) Her/his job requires problem-solving ability e.g. Smith and Briggs (1999) Her/his job requires written and oral communication skills e.g. Scott et al. (1998) She/he can speak foreign languages e.g. Scott et al. (1998) She/he complies with the law e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006); Jeacle (2008) She/he is concerned with job security e.g. Hartwell et al. (2005) She/he dresses formally e.g. Jeacle (2008) She/he dresses with a trendy style e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he feels comfortable with public speaking e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he gets high marks at school e.g. Scott et al. (1998), Schlee et al. (2007) She/he gets on well with the opposite sex e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he has a calm disposition e.g. Coate et al. (2003); Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he has flexible working hours e.g. Hartwell et al. (2005) She/he has free time e.g. Grayson (1999); Pollock et al. (2002) She/he has little faith in her/himself e.g. Coate et al (2003) She/he has long-term earnings potential e.g. Pollock et al. (2002); Hartwell et al. (2005); Jeacle (2008) She/he has no friends e.g. Anderson-Gough et al. (1998); Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he has the opportunity to do the whole job from beginning to the end

e.g. Nouri et al. (2005)

She/he has other interests apart from accounting e.g Hartwell et al. 2005; Holt (1994); Smith and Briggs (1999) She/he has prestige e.g. Friedman and Lyne (2001) She/he is a person of habit e.g. Coate et al. (2003) She/he is always sitting at her/his desk e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he is ambitious e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006); Schlee et al. (2007) She/he is an idealist e.g. Coate et al. (2003) She/he is boring e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he is brave e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he is capable in her/his job e.g. Friedman and Lyne (2001) She/he is collaborative e.g. Coate et al. (2003) She/he is committed to life-long learning e.g. Nouri et al. (2005); Scott et al. (1998) She/he is conscious of her/his duty e.g. Coate et al. (2003) She/he is demanding e.g. Coate et al. (2003) She/he is discreet e.g. Bougen (1994) She/he is easily influenced e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he is energetic e.g. Coate et al. (2003) She/he is generous e.g. Coate et al. (2003) She/he is good at maths e.g. Scott et al. (1998); Schlee et al. (2007) She/he is a hard worker e.g Jeacle (2008) She/he is incorruptible e.g Yeager (1991); Bougen (1994); Friedman and Lyne (2001) She/he is kind e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he is meticulous e.g. Friedman and Lyne (2001) She/he is modest e.g. Coate et al. (2003) She/he is old e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he is organized e.g. DeCoster (1971) She/he is pale e.g. Bierstaker et al. (2005) She/he is physically attractive e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he is poor at coping with stress e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he is sad e.g. Parker (2000); Jeacle (2008)

40

Table 1: Questionnaire items: cont’d (*)

Questionnaire items References

She/he is shy e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he is sincere e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he is small e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006); Jeacle (2008) She/he is thin e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he is trustworthy e.g. Di Pietra et al., 2001 She/he is lucky e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he practises sports e.g. Jeacle (2008); Anderson-Gough et al. (1998); Scott et al.

(1998) She/he prefers to be alone e.g. Hunt et al. (2009) She/he remains shut in a room e.g. Nouri et al. (2005) She/he speaks abnormally e.g. Coate et al. (2003) She/he suffers from nervous ticks e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he travels a lot e.g Jeacle (2008) She/he trusts other people e.g. Coate et al. (2003) She/he wears glasses e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he works on her/his own e.g. Dimnik and Felton (2006) She/he works with numbers all day long e.g. Grayson (1999)

(*) Five-point Likert scale [1 = Strongly disagree; 5 =Totally agree]. Items were randomized in the handed out questionnaires.

41

Table 2: Demographic sample characteristics

Sample composed by Accountants Students Total

Gender Male 283 642 925

Female N/A

209 9

651 0

860 9

Medium age (min 18, max 31) 25.1 21.71 22.65

Total 501 1,293 1,794

42

Table 3: Accountant’s ethical behaviour perception

PANEL A PART A: Descriptive Statistics

N N/A Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

ethical behaviour 1784 10 1.00 5.00 3.2993 1.17941

trustworthy 1787 7 1.00 5.00 3.4807 1.04278

incorruptible 1783 11 1.00 5.00 2.6444 1.20478

discreet 1786 8 1.00 5.00 3.3813 1.05781

easily influenced 1783 11 1.00 5.00 2.5429 1.06006

law compliant 1784 10 1.00 5.00 3.4664 1.13477 Five-point Likert scale [1 = Strongly disagree; 5 =Totally agree]

PART B: Correlations (sig. at ** 0.01 and *0.05 level 2-tailed)

ethical

behaviour trustworthy incorruptible discreet easly influenced law compliant

ethical behaviour Pearson Correlation 1 .393** .405** .170** -.178** .592**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

N 1784 1780 1777 1780 1776 1777 trustworthy Pearson Correlation .393** 1 .374** .173** -.254** .473**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

N 1780 1787 1779 1782 1779 1780 incorruptible Pearson Correlation .405** .374** 1 .251** -.224** .462**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

N 1777 1779 1783 1779 1775 1776 discreet Pearson Correlation .170** .173** .251** 1 -.048* .201**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .042 .000

N 1780 1782 1779 1786 1779 1779 easly influenced Pearson Correlation -.178** -.254** -.224** -.048* 1 -.216**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .042 .000

N 1776 1779 1775 1779 1783 1776 law compliant Pearson Correlation .592** .473** .462** .201** -.216** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

N 1777 1780 1776 1779 1776 1784

PANEL B

Ethical Factor (Cronbach's Alpha 0.755)

Questionnaire items She/he complies with the law 0.750 Her/his behaviour is ethical 0.709 She/he is incorruptible 0.691 She/he is trustworthy 0.523 She/he is a hard worker 0.484 She/he is discreet 0.366

The extraction method used was Principal Component Analysis and the rotation method was Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

43

Table 4: Accountant’s ethical behaviour perception: determinants

PANEL A

Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R

Square

Std. Error of the

Estimate

1 ,225 ,051 ,046 1,15470

ANOVAa

Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

1

Regression 123,988 9 13,776 10,332 ,000b

Residual 2329,342 1747 1,333

Total 2453,330 1756

Variables Standardized

Coefficients

t Sig.

Beta

(Constant) 29,749 ,000

Gender (1=Male) -,107 -4,515 ,000

MSc students -,078 -2,392 ,017

Mng&BA students ,043 1,565 ,118

High school accounting course attendance ,056 2,368 ,018

Accountant ,098 2,221 ,026

School system ,009 ,331 ,741

Mass media -,008 -,259 ,795

Direct Knowledge -,020 -,614 ,539

Age ,055 1,521 ,129

Dependent Variable: accountants’ ethical behaviour

44

Table 4: Accountant’s ethical behaviour perception: determinants (cont'd)

PANEL B Accountants’ ethical behaviour: additional analysis

Sig. 0.000 Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Minimum Maximum

Undergraduate non-Mng&BA 3.1529 1.13816 .07127 1,00 5,00

Undergraduate Mng&BA 3.3480 1.24301 .07861 1,00 5,00

MSc in accounting 3.2732 1.17071 .08405 1,00 5,00

Accountants 3.6384 1.09311 .04913 1,00 5,00

Only accountants (subsample): Accountants' ethical behaviour & working experience

Sig. 0.025 Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Minimum Maximum

no experience 3.7817 1.01972 .06739 1.00 5.00

up to 1 year 3.5039 1.21416 .10774 1.00 5.00

more than 1 year 3.5252 1.07225 .09095 1.00 5.00

Total 3.6384 1.09311 .04913 1.00 5.00

45