Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/31320
Title: Factors Influencing the Choice for Majoring in Accounting by Saudi Students
Contributor(s): Alshenaifi, Zeyad Hamad S (author); Donleavy, Gabriel  (supervisor)orcid ; Sun, Lan  (supervisor)
Conferred Date: 2021-03-22
Copyright Date: 2020
Thesis Restriction Date until: 22/3/2041
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/31320
Abstract: 

There is a clear shortage in Saudi Accountants working in Saudi Arabia. This study examines the factors that contribute to Saudi students’ intention to major in accountancy. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was extended, tested, discussed, and used to identify specific factors that influence Saudi students’ intentions. According to the TPB, the key predictors of the intention is the perceived behaviour control, subjective norms, and attitude.

Due to the nature of Saudi as a religious male dominant country, Culture and religion is added to the main TPB model, gender is proposed as a moderator, and proposed antecedents of the attitude (i.e. job salary, job availability, job security, workload, aptitude, and difficulty of the curriculum and programme).

Structural equation modelling with PLS was used to test the research hypotheses. The population for the study was Saudi business students studying inside of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The instruments were distributed using Twitter. A total of 329 valid useful responses were returned from Saudi Students studying the first year in business school in Saudi Arabia.

The results are first attitude and perceived behavioural control are key predictors for Saudi students’ intention to major in accounting, while subjective norms and culture& religions are found to be in-significant factors. Second, the significant antecedents of the attitudes are job security and social image. Third, job availability, job salary, workload, difficulty of the programme and curriculum and aptitude are not significant antecedents of the attitudes towards majoring in accounting. Fourth, Gender has not been found as a key moderator in this study.

The main academic implication is that Saudi Arabia has different set of predictors of the attitude and intention to major in accounting than for the literature. Practical implications here are many. First, in this tribal context, academic institutions do not need to oversimplify the topics studied or curriculum because difficulty of the programme and curriculum and workload are not affecting the attitude; rather, these institutions shall work on the social image because it matters for them. Second, the role of academic advisors shall be activated to encourage students to major in accounting.

Publication Type: Thesis Doctoral
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 130103 Higher Education
130203 Economics, Business and Management Curriculum and Pedagogy
150199 Accounting, Auditing and Accountability not elsewhere classified
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 390103 Economics, business and management curriculum and pedagogy
390303 Higher education
380104
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 900199 Financial Services not elsewhere classified
930103 Learner Development
939908 Workforce Transition and Employment
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 160102
160205
160206 Workforce transition and employment
HERDC Category Description: T2 Thesis - Doctorate by Research
Appears in Collections:Thesis Doctoral
UNE Business School

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