To pursue a career in accounting or not: a study based on the Theory of Planned Behavior

Santos, Edicreia Andrade dos; Almeida, Lauro Brito de

doi:10.1590/1808-057x201804890

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Articles • Rev. contab. finanç. 29 (76) • Apr 2018 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1808-057x201804890 copy

To pursue a career in accounting or not: a study based on the Theory of Planned Behavior^* * Paper presented at the X ANPCONT Congress, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil, June 2016.

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

This study investigates the intention of 691 students graduating from Accounting courses at public universities in the state of Paraná to pursue a career in the area of accounting, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. For the analysis, the sample was divided into ten mesoregions according to the criteria of the Paranaense Institute for Economic and Social Development (Ipardes). The data collected were treated using descriptive statistics and structural equations techniques. The research hypotheses were corroborated in most of the mesoregions and the main findings show that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control variables affect the students' intention to pursue a career in the area of accounting. The samples for six mesoregions (1. Curitiba Metropolitan Area, 2. East Center, 4. North Central, 5. Northwest, 6. West, and 9. South Center), in which the three hypotheses were corroborated, represent the largest and most developed cities in Paraná. The results in the ten mesoregions studied explain an intention variance of between 27.84% and 64.31%. The findings of this research contribute to understanding the profiles of accounting graduates from public institutions in the state of Paraná, providing elements to support the managers of the institutions in analyzing and elaborating differentiated strategies in relation to course curricula and approaches, according to the particular region. In addition, regulatory agencies can use these findings as a basis for in-depth research on the variables that influence the intentions of future professionals and to develop policies that guide institutions in developing courses with more adequate and consistent content for the market.

Keywords:
Accounting career; Theory of Planned Behavior; behavioral intentions; mesoregions

Mesoregion	Institution	City	Population	Sample
Curitiba Metropolitan Area	Federal University of Paraná - UFPR	Curitiba	109	71
	Federal Institute for Education, Sciences, and Technology of Paraná - IFPR	Curitiba	34	34
	State University of Paraná - Unespar	Paranaguá	23	17
East Center	State University of Ponta Grossa - UEPG	Ponta Grossa	64	42
Pioneer North	State University of North Paraná - UENP	Cornélio Procópio	69	45
North Central	State University of Londrina - UEL	Londrina	85	67
	State University of Maringá - UEM	Maringá	166	46
	State University of Paraná - Unespar	Apucarana	56	52
Northwest	State University of Maringá - UEM	Cianorte	50	20
Northwest
State University of Paraná- Unespar	Paranavaí	65	58
West	State University of West Paraná - Unioeste	Cascavel	25	13
	State University of West Paraná - Unioeste	Foz do Iguaçu	23	12
	State University of West Paraná - Unioeste	Marechal Cândido Rondon	31	31
West Center	State University of Paraná - Unespar	Campo Mourão	43	43
Southwest	State University of the Center West - Unicentro	Chopinzinho	31	26
Southwest	Federal Technological University of Paraná - UTFPR	Pato Branco	24	23
South Center	Federal Institute for Education, Science, and Technology of Paraná - IFPR	Palmas	21	13
South Center
State University of the Center West - Unicentro	Guarapuava	44	31
Southeast	State University of Ponta Grossa - UEPG	São Mateus do Sul	24	17
	State University of the Center West - Unicentro	Irati	19	17
	State University of the Center West - Unicentro	Prudentópolis	16	13

Mesoregion	Territorial area	Number of inhabitants*	Dominant economy
Curitiba Metropolitan Area	23,147,132 km²	3,794,174	Industry, Commerce, and Agriculture, with production of corn, potato, wheat, and cattle and sheep rearing.
East Center	21,812,024 km²	739,907	Agriculture, with production of soy, corn, beans, and cattle, horse, chicken, sheep, and pig rearing.
Pioneer North	15,718,917 km²	563,980	Agriculture, with production of soy, corn, sugarcane, and cattle, horse, chicken, sheep, and pig rearing.
North Central	24,553,976 km²	2,192,285	Agriculture, with production of soy, corn, sugarcane, and cattle, horse, chicken, sheep, and pig rearing.
Northwest	24,750,384 km²	716,740	Agriculture, with production of sugarcane, cassava, soy, and cattle, horse, chicken, sheep, and pig rearing.
West	22,864,702 km²	1,294,417	Agriculture, with production of soy, corn, wheat, and cattle, horse, chicken, sheep, and pig rearing.
West Center	11,937,564 km²	340,320	Agriculture, with production of soy, corn, sugarcane, and cattle, horse, chicken, sheep, and pig rearing.
Southwest	11,546,792 km²	524,137	Agriculture, with production of soy, corn, beans, and cattle, horse, chicken, sheep, and pig rearing.
South Center	21,093,588 km²	471,339	Agriculture, with production of soy, corn, beans, and cattle, horse, chicken, sheep, and pig rearing.
Southeast	22,356,121 km²	525,719	Agriculture, with production of soy, tobacco, corn, and cattle, horse, chicken, sheep, and pig rearing.

Block	Constructs	Indicators	References
I	Attitude	8	Gul et al., 1989; Ahmed, Alam, and Alam, 1997; Byrne and Willis, 2005; Tan and Laswad, 2006, 2009; Mbawuni and Nimako, 2015
	Subjective Norm	7	Paolillo and Estes, 1982; Tan and Laswad, 2006, 2009; Byrne, Willis, and Burke, 2012; Mbawuni and Nimako, 2015
	Perceived Behav. Control	6	Sugahara and Boland, 2006; Karakaya, Quigley, and Bingham, 2011; Mbawuni and Nimako, 2015
	Intention	4	Ajzen, 1991; Azevedo and Sugahara, 2012; Mbawuni and Nimako, 2015
II	General Profile	15	Own elaboration

Data		MESOREGION
Data		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Gender	Female	71	20	18	98	42	32	26	32	24	33
	Male	51	22	27	67	36	24	17	17	20	14
	Total	122	42	45	165	78	56	43	49	44	47
Age group	From 1961 to 1970	-	2	-	1	1	-	1	-	-	1
	From 1971 to 1980	10	1	2	5	2	-	2	1	5	1
	From 1981 to 1990	50	9	14	51	14	18	18	16	13	21
	From 1991 to 1995	62	30	29	108	61	38	22	32	26	24
	Total	122	42	45	165	78	56	43	49	44	47
Maritial status	Single	85	32	37	135	66	45	29	41	28	33
	Married	33	10	7	29	11	11	13	8	16	13
	Divorced	4	-	1	1	1	-	1	-	-	1
	Total	122	42	45	165	78	56	43	49	44	47
Course satisfaction	Totally unsatisfied	2	1	-	1	1	-	1	1	-	-
	Unsatisfied	8	6	3	8	2	2	3	1	2	3
	Neither unsatisfied nor satisfied	31	16	15	48	19	11	7	15	6	7
	Satisfied	76	23	22	98	48	36	29	29	35	35
	Totally satisfied	5	-	1	10	8	7	3	3	1	2
	Total	122	42	45	165	78	56	43	49	44	47
Family Income	Up to 3 minimum wages	19	8	14	30	19	16	15	16	8	21
	Up to 4 minimum wages	20	8	10	34	21	9	8	6	16	11
	Up to 5 minimum wages	15	8	5	23	8	10	3	7	7	7
	Up to 6 minimum wages	16	8	5	28	15	7	7	1	5	6
	More than 6 minimum wages	52	10	11	50	15	14	10	19	8	2
	Total	122	42	45	165	78	56	43	49	44	47

Mesoregion	Attitude	Subjective Norm	Perceived Behavioral Control	Intention
Curitiba Metropolitan Area	1, 2, 3, 8	4, 5, 6	1, 2, 4	1, 2 , 3, 4
East Center	1, 2, 6, 8	2, 3, 4, 6, 7	1, 2, 4, 5	1, 2, 3, 4
Pioneer North	1, 2, 3	1, 2, 4, 6	1, 3, 4, 6	1, 2, 4
North Central	1, 2, 3, 8	3, 4, 5, 6	1, 2, 4, 5	1, 2, 3, 4
Northwest	2, 3, 8	4, 5, 6	1, 4, 5	1, 2, 3, 4
West	2, 3, 8	3, 4, 5, 6	1, 2, 4	1, 2, 3, 4
West Center	2, 3, 4	1, 3, 7	1, 2, 4, 5	1, 2, 3, 4
Southwest	1, 2, 3, 8	2, 4, 6	1, 2, 4, 5	1, 2, 3, 4
South Center	1, 2, 3, 8	2, 5, 6	1, 2, 4	1, 2, 4
Southeast	1, 2, 8	1, 3, 4, 5, 6	1, 2, 4, 6	1, 2, 3, 4

1. Curitiba Metropolitan Area					2. East Center
	ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN		ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN
AVE	0.6423	0.7681	0.8192	0.6358	AVE	0.5990	0.6833	0.8532	0.5143
CR	0.8774	0.9085	0.9476	0.8375	CR	0.8557	0.8955	0.9587	0.8386
CA	0.8167	0.8497	0.9255	0.7186	CA	0.7766	0.854	0.9423	0.7742
3. Pioneer North					4. North Central
	ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN		ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN
AVE	0.6068	0.6763	0.8055	0.5887	AVE	0.6663	0.7312	0.8465	0.5291
CR	0.8127	0.8928	0.9254	0.8500	CR	0.8887	0.9157	0.9566	0.8155
CA	0.7834	0.8389	0.8796	0.7662	CA	0.8345	0.8773	0.9393	0.7166
5. Northwest					6. West
	ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN		ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN
AVE	0.6581	0.7397	0.8944	0.6573	AVE	0.7775	0.7323	0.7952	0.7377
CR	0.8521	0.8948	0.9713	0.8516	CR	0.9128	0.8912	0.9391	0.9183
CA	0.7714	0.8289	0.9607	0.7422	CA	0.8556	0.8216	0.9133	0.8827
7. West Center					8. Southwest
	ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN		ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN
AVE	0.6860	0.7320	0.8194	0.4911	AVE	0.6304	0.6322	0.8427	0.6194
CR	0.8647	0.9161	0.9475	0.7007	CR	0.8716	0.8724	0.9553	0.829
CA	0.7903	0.8799	0.9248	0.7398	CA	0.8098	0.8101	0.9371	0.7112
9. South Center					10. Southeast
	ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN		ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN
AVE	0.6168	0.6631	0.8702	0.506	AVE	0.7540	0.6792	0.7074	0.596
CR	0.8642	0.855	0.9526	0.7235	CR	0.9019	0.8941	0.9052	0.8785
CA	0.7998	0.7493	0.926	0.7048	CA	0.837	0.8436	0.8599	0.8548

1. Curitiba Metropolitan Area					2. East Center
	ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN		ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN
ATT	0.8014				ATT	0.774
PBC	0.4548	0.8764			PBC	0.7352	0.8266
INTEN	0.6272	0.5831	0.9051		INTEN	0.7192	0.7205	0.9237
SN	0.3543	0.2566	0.442	0.7974	SN	0.5723	0.5087	0.4662	0.7171
3. Pioneer North					4. North Central
	ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN		ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN
ATT	0.779				ATT	0.8163
PBC	0.0617	0.8224			PBC	0.4583	0.8551
INTEN	0.0337	0.5734	0.8975		INTEN	0.4282	0.6883	0.9201
SN	0.3456	0.1331	0.1156	0.7673	SN	0.1702	0.2798	0.4223	0.7274
5.Northwest					6. West
	ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN		ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN
ATT	0.8112				ATT	0.8818
PBC	0.5534	0.8601			PBC	0.6102	0.8557
INTEN	0.6383	0.7	0.9457		INTEN	0.717	0.6863	0.8917
SN	0.3496	0.3706	0.5092	0.8107	SN	0.3581	0.3475	0.4685	0.8589
7. West Center					8. Southwest
	ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN		ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN
ATT	0.8283				ATT	0.794
PBC	0.1303	0.8556			PBC	0.5284	0.7951
INTEN	0.3665	0.3169	0.9052		INTEN	0.6671	0.6313	0.9180
SN	0.0028	-0.0599	-0.2803	0.6333	SN	0.5108	0.4298	0.4221	0.7870
9. South Center					10. Southeast
	ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN		ATT	PBC	INTEN	SN
ATT	0.7854				ATT	0.8683
PBC	0.4863	0.8143			PBC	0.4713	0.8241
INTEN	0.4032	0.6959	0.9328		INTEN	0.6055	0.6729	0.8411
SN	0.1521	0.4417	0.4238	0.7043	SN	0.2688	0.3472	0.2217	0.7720

Mesoregion	1. Curitiba Metropolitan Area	2. East Center	3. Pioneer North	4. North Central	5. Northwest
R²	54.44%	59.77%	33.07%	54.43%	62.76%
Mesoregion	6. West	7. West Center	8. Southwest	9. South Center	10. Southeast
R²	64.31%	27.84%	55.33%	50.83%	56.28%

1. Curitiba Metropolitan Area				2. West Center
	β	t-value	p-value		β	t-value	p-value
H₁	0.393	16.64	0.000	H₁	0.384	14.144	0.000
H₂	0.213	13.201	0.000	H₂	0.072	5.379	0.000
H₃	0.35	16.646	0.000	H₃	0.408	18.045	0.000
3. Pioneer North				4. North Central
	β	t-value	p-value		β	t-value	p-value
H₁	-0.017	0.662	0.508	H₁	0.13	7.206	0.000
H₂	0.046	1.7271	0.085	H₂	0.243	16.722	0.000
H₃	0.568	29.498	0.000	H₃	0.561	33.835	0.000
5. Northwest				6. West
	β	t-value	p-value		β	t-value	p-value
H₁	0.312	16.741	0.000	H₁	0.431	24.741	0.000
H₂	0.439	19.882	0.000	H₂	0.19	14.415	0.000
H₃	0.237	13.878	0.000	H₃	0.357	20.553	0.000
7. West Center				8. Southwest
	β	t-value	p-value		β	t-value	p-value
H₁	0.334	20.005	0.000	H₁	0.452	28.637	0.000
H₂	-0.266	10.184	0.000	H₂	0.028	1.598	0.110
H₃	0.258	14.095	0.000	H₃	0.381	23.412	0.000
9. South Cener				10. Southeast
	β	t-value	p-value		β	t-value	p-value
H₁	0.097	5.552	0.000	H₁	0.379	23.371	0.000
H₂	0.152	7.506	0.000	H₂	-0.059	3.499	0.000
H₃	0.581	36.210	0.000	H₃	0.515	36.05	0.000

Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade, Departamento de Contabilidade e Atuária Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, 908 - prédio 3 - sala 118, 05508 - 010 São Paulo - SP - Brasil, Tel.: (55 11) 2648-6320, Tel.: (55 11) 2648-6321, Fax: (55 11) 3813-0120 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: recont@usp.br

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[1] **Correspondence address:Edicreia Andrade dos Santos Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Contabilidade Campus Universitário Reitor João David Ferreira Lima - CEP: 88040-900 Trindade - Florianópolis - SC - Brazil

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To pursue a career in accounting or not: a study based on the Theory of Planned Behavior* * Paper presented at the X ANPCONT Congress, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil, June 2016.

Abstract

To pursue a career in accounting or not: a study based on the Theory of Planned Behavior^* * Paper presented at the X ANPCONT Congress, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil, June 2016.