REVIEW
of
FINANCE -
Apr. 2018
41
2003; Abu, 2010; Panayotis & Charalambos, 2012;
Odia& Ogiedu, 2013; Sharifah & Michael, 2013;
Lillian, 2013; Nguyen et al, 2017).
H2. Job Characteristics
Future earnings play an important role in
choosing accounting as a university or college
major (Lowe & Simon, 1997; Montmarquette &
Mahseredjian, 2002). Cabrera & La Nasa (2000)
also emphasized that the occupational aspirations
of students is an important factor that leads
them to their final university of choice. Further
related researches discovered that the choice
of which business major to study is affected by
substantial factors such as: prestige, income, or
career advancement opportunities (Mauldin et al,
2000; Kim & Markham, 2002; Francisco et al, 2003;
Simon et al, 2003; Panayotis &Charalambos, 2012;
Odia & Ogiedu, 2013; Sharifah & Michael, 2013;
Lillian, 2013; Nguyen et al, 2017).
Significant studies conducted by Duane Brown
& associates (2002) and Moy & Lee (2002) proved
that student’s career decision is ususally affected
by characteristics of the job, such as: Time of
working, job requirements, working conditions,
job satisfaction, job availability and salaries... In
many countries, high school teachers evaluated the
accounting profession to be within the group of six
professional areas, including medicine, teaching,
engineering, financial planning and accounting
(Hardin et al, 2000; Sagahara et al, 2006).
H3. University characteristics
A significant number of researches were
conducted to prove that despite common
knowledge, many factors such as departmental
reputation, advertisement and promotion
opportunity do not affect on students’ major of
choice (Mauldin &Mounce, 2000; Vangermeersch,
2000). According to Kim & Markham (2002), the
impact of universities’ promotional information
on the students’ career choice was greater than
that of their friends and parents. In addition,
there is a relationship between advertisement,
college reputation and the decision of students
whether to major in accounting, finance, business
administration or international business (Sharifah
&Michael, 2013; Quezada & Yeong, 2013; Nguyen
et al, 2017). In contrast, Rababah (2016) indicated
that the reputation of universities or colleges
has no impact on student’s decision to study
accounting.
H4. Family members and Peers
The impacts on students’ career decisions by
social factors, especially the influence from family
and peers, have been examined by many prior
substantial studies. Nevertheless, the empirical
evidence from researches showed diverse results.
According to Chapman D.W (1981), there are
two specific domains which affect a student’s
decision regarding the matter: Each student’s
own characteristics and family. Several studies
also suggested that the human factors, such as
parents, relatives, peers, teachers, or intructors
have a strong impact on student when they choose
to major in accounting (Geiger & Obgilby, 2000;
Mauldin & Mounce, 2000; Pimpa, 2007; Odia &
Ogiedu, 2013).
Conversely, there are also studies indicated that
the influence of professors, parents, counsellors,
friends were not commonly determined to be
important to student in making their decision as
to which major they would study under (Cohen
& Hanno, 1993; Malgwi et al, 2005; Sharifah &
Michael, 2013; Rababah, 2016).
H5. Communication and Labour demand
Many studies indicated that media information
on the internet or television about the universities
and colleges influenced the students’ decision
significantly (Macionis, 2000; Linda, 2006; and
Lillian, 2013). On the opposite site, other studies
determined that media has no impact at all on
students in their choice of major (Sharifah &
Michael, 2013; Rababah, 2016).
Several other substantial studies conducted
by Simon et al (2003) emphasized that the
availability of job and job market representing
the social factors which have a major influence
on the choice of accounting as a career. On the
other hand, other studies also identified the
perceptions of job stability and job availability
as the important factors influencing students’
decision to major in accounting (Sugahara et al,
2008; Ahinful et al, 2012; Lillian, 2013; Quezada
& Yeong, 2013; Porter & Woolley, 2014; Nguyen
et al, 2017).
Research Framework
The research framework were designed as
shown below:
