Understanding Students' Major Choice in Accounting: An Application of the Theory of Reasoned Action

INTRODUCTIONThe decline of accounting majors at the turn of the century roused interest in accounting career choice research. With the image of the accounting profession impa i r ed by corporate accounting scandals and the implementation of the 150-hour education requirement to become a licensed CPA, recruiting qualified accounting majors has become a prominent challenge for most academic accounting programs. Understanding the factors that influe nc e students' choice to major in accounting i s more essential than ever before for accounting programs to better focus their recruiting effort to the target group of potential accounting majors.This academic inquiry continues the line of the Cohen and Hanno (1993), Allen (2004), and Tan and Laswad's (2006; 2009) studies in investigating the factors that influence students' intention to major in accounting utilizing a general theoretical model for predicting behavioral intention based on attitudinal and normative beliefs. Prior research relied on various statistical methods to predict students' choice of major that are limited to dealing o nly with measured variables. This study utilizes structural equation modeling (SEM), a multivariate procedur e that allows both directly observed (measured) variables as well as latent variables which cannot be directly observed but must be inferred from measured variables.Built upon two well-developed and widely-applied career choice theories, this study inves ti gate s the factors that influence students' intention to major in accounting. Specifically, the self-efficacy concept from Social Cogniti ve Career Theory (SCCT) is integrated with the two factors, personal interest and soci al influence, of Fishbein-Ajzen's (1975) Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to explain behavioral intentions. With the development of an integrated accounting-specific career choice model, this study aims to explore the relationships between behavior al measures , such as self-efficacy, personal interest, social influence, and students' behavioral intentions in pursuing accounting as a major.BACKGROUNDDuring the past two decades, a series of studies investigating students' interest in accounting as a major and career were in part motivated by declining accounting enrollments (Doran and Brown, 2001; McCrary, 2001; Francisco et al., 2003). Accounting majors, due to the 150- hour requirement, have to either delay graduation or take 18 hour s ov erload per semester to complete their education (Bernardi and Kelting, 1997). The study by Albrecht and Sack (2000), co-sponsored by the AICPA, the American Ac c o unti ng Association, the Institute of Management Accountants, and the big five (at the time) accounti ng fi r ms , identified the 150-hour requirement as the most important reason why fewer qualified students choose to major in accounting.Smith (2005) reviewed a range of public a tions aiming to examine the reasons for the decreasing tre nd i n students majoring in accounting. Among them are: (1) the 150-hour education requirement of becoming a licensed CPA, (2) the relatively low starting salaries for accounting graduates, and (3) the negative image of the accounting profession arising from the scandals in the early 2000s.After a severe reduction in accounti ng graduates early in the century, the declining trend reversed in 2006-2007 and has since had a gradual upward movement (The AICPA, 20 13). The graph below illustrates both the cyclical nature and the trends of accounting degrees awarded in the U.S. over the past 40 years (Schiavone, 2013). While the economic recovery and job growth remains sluggish from the 2008 financial crisis, accounting graduates, especially at the undergraduate level, enjoy a high level of demand for their skills from public accounting firms. The AICPA (2013) reports tha t 40 ,350 accounting graduates were hired in 2012 by public accounting firms and the majority of those firms forecasted the same or increased hiring of graduates for the year following. …