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Factors influencing accounting

students' career choice: a
cross-cultural validation study
PAK AUYEUNG & JOHN SANDS
Version of record first published: 05 Oct 2010.

To cite this article: PAK AUYEUNG & JOHN SANDS (1997): Factors influencing
accounting students' career choice: a cross-cultural validation study, Accounting
Education: An International Journal, 6:1, 13-23

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 Accounting Education 6 (1), 13- 23 (1997)

Factors influencing accounting students career

choice: a cross-cultural validation study
P A K A U Y E U N G a n d J O H N SA N D S
Griffith University , Brisbane, A ustralia

R eceived: N ovember 1995

R evised: M ay 1996
Accepted: July 1996
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Abstract

This study investigates the relative influence of career-choice factors on accounting students from
different cultural backgrounds. As a measure of cultural variability, the individualism- collectivism
dimension tends to polarize Australian students relative to Hong Kong and Taiwanese students.
F or this reason, this study employs the individualism- collectivism dichotomy to examine the
importance of factors which influence the comparative career choices of Australian, H ong Kong
and Taiwanese students, in selecting accountancy as a career. Results indicate that the factors:
parental influence, peer influence, teacher influence and association with others in the field, have
greater impact on career choices for H ong Kong and Taiwanese students, whereas Australian
students tended to be more influenced by aptitude for subject matter. M aterials entity factors
(availability of employment, prestige and social status, earning potential, cost of education and
year of study) surprisingly emerged as formative concerns for Hong Kong and Taiwanese students,
more so than for their Australian counterparts.

Keywords: career choice, accounting students, cultural backgrounds

Introduction
Two recent studies (G ul et al., 1989; 1992) have focused on the factors that influence
Australian accounting students in their career-choice decisions. This set of hypothesized
variables takes on different meanings and emphases when applied to different cultures
(F yans et al., 1983). G ul et al. (1992) suggest that the disregard of cultural variations may
constitute a limitation in career-choice studies. Implied in this suggestion is a need to
clarify the importance of career-choice determinants in different cultures, a step this
present study takes by examining the influence of career-choice factors embedded in a
cultural context. In a multicultural society such as Australia, a better understanding of the
impact of career preference determinants on various cultural groups may help to improve
existing recruitment practices within the accounting profession. This need for understand-
ing is driven in part by increases in the number of full-fee overseas students in Australia.
Statistics published by the D epartment of Employment, Education and Training (1994)
document a 20% increase in full-fee paying students in 1993, with students from H ong
K ong dominating the most popular fields, namely business, administration and econom-

Address for correspondence: Pak Auyeung, School of Accounting and F inance, G riffith University, N athan,
Brisbane, Queensland , 4111, Australia.

0963-9284 # 1997 Chapman & Hall

 14 Auyeung and Sands
ics. An improved understanding of the impact of cultural variations on career decision-
making may be useful for Australian universities in selecting appropriate marketing
strategies to better compete for a share of the international student market.
The present study aims to investigate the relative influence of career-choice factors on
accounting students from different cultural backgrounds. Previous cultural studies
(Triandis et al., 1988; 1990; M arkus and K itayama, 1991) suggest that concepts of
individualism- collectivism (a basic dimension of cultural variability) can be employed to
explain the general pattern of difference in social behaviour, as well as to account for
differences in definitions of the self and of its relations to ingroups and outgroups.
Specifically, this paper adopts the individualism- collectivism cultural dimension as a
means to examine the relative importance of factors that influence the career-choice
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decisions of Australian, H ong K ong and Taiwanese students, in selecting accountancy

as a career. These places were selected because H ofstede s (1980, 1983) cultural behaviour
analyses have shown that Australia differs greatly from H ong K ong and Taiwan on the
individualism- collectivism dimension. An active understanding of cultural variability is
clearly of interest to accounting educators, who are likely to encounter an increasing
number of H ong K ong and Taiwanese students enrolled in courses of study in Australian
tertiary institutions.

Career-choice factors
The number of career-choice determinants or factors identified in previous studies are
many and varied. Some researchers (e.g. K idd and N aylor, 1991) refer to basic career-
choice dimensions which are strongly correlated, while others (e.g. G ul et al., 1989) define
determinants in terms of factors which are weakly correlated. G inzberg (1951) identifies
three categories of occupational-choice dimensions and groups these as values: concomi-
tant value, extrinsic value and intrinsic value. Super (1957) reports 15 dimensions in his
model, which are reduced by OConnor and K innane (1961) to the following six factors:
independence-variety, work conditions and associates, social-artistic, security and material
aspects, prestige, and heuristics and creativity. O Connor and K innanes (1961) six factors
are often used in analyses of preference questionnaires. In accounting literature, several
career-choice studies have been conducted to identify factors influencing individuals in
choosing accounting as a career (Ashworth, 1969; Carpenter and Strawser, 1970; Evans,
1974; Thielens, 1974; Paolillo and Estes, 1982; G ul et al., 1989; Bundy and N orris, 1992).
Paolillo and Estes (1982) model includes 12 career-choice factors: earning potential,
association with others in the field, parental influence, cost of education, social status
attainment, job satisfaction, years of formal education required, aptitude for subject
matter, teacher influence, peer influence, previous work experience, and availability of
employment. A synthesis of these 12 factors forms the basis of G ul et al. (1992) in their
analysis of cognitive style. The motivation of many prior studies has been a belief in the
need both to understand and influence the career decision choices of potential accounting
students.
This study relies upon the 12 career-choice factors described by Paolillo and Estes
(1982). These factors have been found to exert some influence on the career-choice
decisions of accounting students. H owever, it is reasonable to expect some variation in
the relative strength of these factors in influencing the career choices of students from
different cultures. To the best of our knowledge this study is the first to attempt a cross-
 Factors influencing accounting students career choice 15
cultural validation of Paolillo and Estes (1982) 12 career-choice factors.

In terms of self theory (Wepman and H eine, 1963; M arx, 1963; Wyss, 1966; M eissner,
1978; Wylie, 1974, 1979), the components of significant others, materials, and beliefs
constitute a useful three-mode division of psychological awareness. Chu (1979, 1985)
argues that the self develops through interactions involving these three broad entities
and ones own environment. The significant others entity refers to the selfs social
environment, in particular with whom one interacts in various kinds of role relations.
The materials entity relates to the selfs physical environment, on which one relies for
survival. The beliefs entity refers to ones inner self and involves notions of self-efficiency
and social competence. Paolillo and Estes (1982) 12 career-choice factors can be
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grouped into these three categories for purposes of this study: the significant others
entity comprises parental influence, teachers influence, peers influence and association
with others in the field; the materials entity comprises availability of employment,
prestige and social status, earning potential, cost of education and years of study
considerations; and the beliefs entity comprises job satisfaction, aptitude for subject
matter and previous work experience. This tripartite grouping enables a framework for
cultural comparison. Chu (1979, 1985) has stressed that of these entities, significant
others are of crucial importance and are themselves the products of the general cultural
milieu. The general nature of self in a cultural group tends to persist in the absence of
forceful disruption by external elements.

Individualism versus collectivism

By singling out culture as a limitation of their study, G ul et al. (1992) imply that the impact
of the 12 career-choice factors will be different across cultural groups. In order to examine
the cross-cultural generalizability of these 12 career-choice factors, it is necessary to clarify
the meaning of culture as a concept by breaking it down into dimensions of cultural
variation. H ofstede (1980, 1983) has identified four dimensions of culture: individualism,
power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity. As suggested by Triandis and his
colleagues (1986) and supported by G udykunst and Ting-Toomey (1988) and Triandis et
al. (1990), individualism-collectivism is especially promising as it is perhaps the most basic
and widely used dimension in cross-cultural research. In accounting research, H arrison
(1992) uses individualism to examine the cross-cultural generalizability of the relations
between participation, budget emphasis and job-related attitudes. This dimension also has
been adopted by U eno and Wu (1993) and F echner and K ilgore (1994) to investigate the
influence of culture on budget control practices and accounting practices respectively. The
present study uses individualism- collectivism as a means to differentiate the self in
collectivistic societies, from the self in individualistic societies.
In collectivistic societies, the self is more attached to the group and prefers to sub-
ordinate personal goals to ingroup goals (Triandis et al., 1988). There is a tendency to be
more concerned with the consequences of one s behaviour for ingroup members. Collecti-
vists have a more interdependent identity and are more closely connected with other
people, especially those whom they consider important. Collectivists emphasize values of
harmony, family security, cooperation and low levels of competition. In individualistic
societies, on the other hand, the self is more autonomous and separate, and prefers to
 16 Auyeung and Sands
subordinate ingroup go als to personal goals (Triandis et al., 1988). There is a tendency to
be more concerned with the consequences of ones behaviour for ones own needs,
interests and goals. Individualists are more willing to confront members of their ingroups,
and are more independent and self-contained. They place more relative importance on
asserting their individuality and are content with personal accomplishments.
H ofstede (1980, 1983) reports that individualistic cultures are mostly found in north-
ern and western Europe and N orth America, and collectivistic cultures are mainly in
Asia, South America and Africa. The current study uses accounting students in Aus-
tralia, H ong K ong and Taiwan because H ofstede (1980, 1983) finds Australia to be
highly individualistic (with a score of 90 on a 100-poin t individualism index) and H ong
K ong and Taiwan to be at the other end of the continuum (with a score of 25 and 17,
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respectively, on the individualism index).

H ypot heses
D ifferences in culturally endorsed attitudes may be reflected in the selfs response to some
occupational preference determinants. In Chinese collectivistic societies, like H ong K ong
and Taiwan, ones identity is intimately linked to the ingroup network. This network is
bound by such values as perseverance, obedience, duty and loyalty (H su, 1985). In such
societies, Confucian ideology to some extent still prevails. A distinctive feature of Con-
fucianism is an ever-broadening awareness of the presence of others in ones self-cultiva-
tion. Thus, Confucian thought has undermined the autonomy of the individual self who is
actually expected to learn from more knowledgeable others, for example, parents, teachers
and peers. The Chinese appear to be relatively more oriented towards the significant others
rather than towards the individual self (Chu, 1979). On the other hand, Western indivi-
dualism has consistently supported rights for personal freedom and enhancement (H su,
1985). The emphasis on individualism has direct and indirect effects on the experience of
self. Johnson (1985) suggests that extending explicit individual rights to minors diminishes
the authority of adults. In the Western individualistic culture, the primary orientation
tends towards the individual self rather than towards the significant others (Chu, 1979).
Based on the above discussion, it is reasonable to develop the first hypothesis that the four
career-choice factors (parental influence, teachers influence, peers influence and associa-
tion with others in the field) grouped under significant others entity may have a perceived
relatively stronger impact on H ong K ong and Taiwanese accounting students than on
Australian accounting students.
The fact that Chinese are strongly rooted in their kinship network, sharing material and
non-material resources, enables them to receive social support from family and kin. As
H su (1985) asserts, Chinese individuals can maintain their psychosocial homeostasis with-
out resorting to other elements. H owever, since Western individualists tend to assert self-
reliance and independence, their future depends upon their personal success, and hence
materials play an important role in self- other relations (Chu, 1979). This assertion leads to
the second hypothesis that the five materials entity factors (availability of employment,
prestige and social status, earning potential, cost of education and years of formal
education required) are more likely to be perceived as having a stronger influence on
Australian accounting students than on their counterparts in H ong K ong and Taiwan.
F urthermore, members of collectivistic cultures are more responsive to the assumed
needs of others and less persevering in pursuing personal satisfaction and goals that might
 Factors influencing accounting students career choice 17
affect ingroup needs. In contrast, members of individualistic cultures are less willing to
subordinate their own interests and goals to those of an ingroup. G iven the above cultural
differences, it seems fair to hypothesize that the three beliefs entity factors (job satisfaction,
aptitude for subject matter and previous work experience) may have greater perceived
impact on accounting students in Australia than those in H ong K ong and Taiwan.

M ethod

The instrument

The subjects were asked to indicate on a seven-point Likert-type scale, the relative
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importance of 12 factors (adopted from Paolillo and Estes 1982 study) in their choice
of accountancy as a career. To support the assumption that a seven-point equal-interval
scale was used to record respondents perceptions, only the continuum extremes were
captioned, 7 being very important to 1 being not important (Torgerson, 1958). This
method has been widely used in accounting research, e.g. K napp, 1987; G ul et al., 1992;
H uang, 1992. The instrument was translated into Chinese at the request of the Taiwanese
university that participated in the study. The Chinese version was constructed in the same
format as the English version and was back-translated independently into English by a
competent bilingual to ensure equivalence across linguistic boundaries (Brislin, 1980).

S ubjects and procedures

Subjects who volunteered to participate in this study were accounting major students from
four universities in Australia, H ong K ong and Taiwan. Australian subjects attended either
Queensland U niversity of Technology or G riffith U niversity and, respectively, totalled 125
and 178 with an average age of 20 and 25 years. There were 87 female and 38 male
respondents from Queensland U niversity of Technology compared to 94 females and 84
males from G riffith U niversity. Participating students with a Chinese cultural background
and enrolled at the Chinese U niversity of H ong K ong totalled 172 (114 females and 58
males) while there were 157 Taiwanese students (94 females and 63 males) from the
N ational Chengchi U niversity. The average age of students from the Chinese U niversity
of H ong K ong was 20.5 compared to 19 years for the N ational Chengchi U niversity s
students. In view of the multicultural background of the Australian students and the focus
of this study, only students who identified themselves in the questionnaire as having an
Australian cultural background were included as Australian subjects.
Paolillo and Estes (1982) have found that accountants tend to make their career preference
decisions during the first two years at university. G ul et al. (1989) also suggest that entry into
a course of study is the first step in choosing ones career. The subjects in this study were
mostly first-and second-year students (Queensland U niversity of Technology, 98.4% ; G rif-
fith U niversity, 74.2% ; Chinese U niversity of H ong K ong, 36.1% , and N ational Chengchi
U niversity, 98.8% ), who would have made their decisions on career preference.
To establish the homogeneity of students within each participating university, an analysis
was conducted for three demographic variables (age, gender and year at university). N o
significant differences were obtained among the subjects on these demographic variables.
With the exception of the Taiwanese students who were issued with a Chinese version of the
instrument, an English version was administered to all other subjects. All subjects voluntarily
agreed to complete the instrument during their normal class sessions. Subjects were debriefed
 18 A uyeung and S ands
about the purpose of the survey and advised that their responses were anonymous. All data
were collected during the same semester, thus eliminating the time-series problem.

The independent variable

The respondents native culture operationalized the cultural dimension of individualism-
collectivism. Based upon the scores obtained by H ofstede (1980, 1983), Australian subjects
were categorized as individualistic, whereas H ong K ong and Taiwanese subjects were
assigned to the collectivistic category. H owever, there are two reasons why caution should
be observed when using H ofstede s findings for the purposes of the present study. F irst,
H ofstede (1983) found, when conducting a comparison of the H ER M ES data 1 measured
in 1968 and 1972, that some general reduction of the distance between extreme countries
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on the dimension of individualism had occurred and that the increase of individualism was
posterior to a country experiencing an increase in wealth. Since H ofstedes surveys, H ong
K ong and Taiwan have developed into prosperous industrial economies and therefore the
possible consequential increase of individualism may have resulted in a shift of these two
countries on the individualism-collectivism continuum.
Secondly, the participants of his surveys were employees of a business organization and
conclusions were drawn from their responses to questions dealing with importance
attached to the jobs aspects, such as earnings, training, benefits, physical conditions,
employment security and advancement. As the current study concerned accounting
students career-choice decisions in the university environment, H ofstedes instrument
appeared inappropriate to ensure that the subjects correctly reflected their indigenous
individualistic or collectivistic cultural orientation. The present study therefore adopted
the `I am free response technique utilized for this purpose in previous studies (Bochner,
1976; Bond and Cheung, 1983; Cousins, 1989; Trafimow et al., 1991).
M arsella (1985) indicates that the `I am free response technique is based on the theory
that culture and self are reciprocally related phenomena where collectivists self-concepts
differ from the self-concepts of individualists. Cultural differences in the self according to
Triandis (1989, 1990), are categorized into three qualitatively different self-references:
idiocentric self-references, group self-references and allocentric self-references. Idiocentric
self-references refer to personal qualities, beliefs and behaviours that do not relate to
other people. G roup self-references refer to the person s group membership, to the
demographic groups with which people experience a common fate. Allocentric self-
references refer to qualities of interdependence, friendship and responsiveness to others.
Trafimow et al. (1991) provide empirical examples of statements for these three categories.
The idiocentric self-references statements include `I am honest and `I am intelligent,
while the group self-references statements include `I am a R oman Catholic and `I am a
son, and the allocentric self-references statements include `People think I am honest and
`I am a person who wants to help others . The `I am test requires respondents to write ten
statements to describe themselves.
In the analysis, only the first seven statements are used and each statement is assigned to one
of the three categories. The weighting of the statements depends upon their position in the
rank order, with the first statement made by the respondent being given the highest score of 7

1
The H ER M ES Corporation, a large multinational marketing-plus-service organization, produced a data bank
with answer s to a large number of survey questionna ires from numerous countries.
 Factors influencing accounting students career choice 19
Table 1. Idiocentric, group and allocentric mean scores in each of the cells

Self-references Queensland G riffith Chinese National

U niversity of U niversity U niversity of Chengchi
Technology Hong K ong U niversity
Idiocentric 21.87 22.84 16.22 14.85
G roup 4.80 3.68 9.49 10.24
Allocentric 1.33 1.48 2.28 2.86

R atio of 4.56:1 6.21:1 1.71:1 1.45:1

Idiocentric to
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G roup

The higher the score, the greater the salience

through to a score of 1 which is assigned to the seventh-ranked statement. Each participants

total score is determined for each of the three self-references categories. H igh individualism is
indicated by a high idiocentric score, while a high group score indicates a tendency towards
collectivism. The theory is silent on predictions regarding the allocentric score.
To incorporate the `I am free response technique into this career-choice instrument, the
questionnaire included ten incomplete sentences beginning with `I am. The respondents
were asked to complete each sentence with a short statement describing themselves. With
the exception of responses from the Taiwanese subjects, these statements were indepen-
dently classified and scored by each of the two authors of this study. Classifying and
scoring of the Taiwanese responses were completed by the author who was knowledgeable
about the Chinese language and an independent bilinguist. The authors were in agreement
on how to classify most of the statements. M inor differences on a few statements were
systematically reviewed, discussed and resolved. The three scores (idiocentric score, group
score, and allocentric score) were computed for each participant in each of the four
universities. The mean scores are illustrated in Table 1.
A significant effect was produced by the one-way AN OVA conducted for each of the
three self-references variables [idiocentric, F (3, 628) = 41.34, p < 0.0001; group, F (3,
628) = 33.89, p < 0.0001; and allocentric, F (3, 628) = 6.03, p < 0.0005, factors]. To
compare the individual university-based means, D uncans grouping multiple comparison
tests were conducted. Two groups emerged from the results for each of the three self-
references variables: Queensland U niversity of Technology and G riffith U niversity form-
ing one group, and Chinese U niversity of H ong K ong and N ational Chengchi U niversity
forming the other. Significant differences existed between the Australian and Chinese
groups on all three self-references. The ratios of idiocentric self-references to group self-
references indicate that the self-concepts of the Australian subjects (Queensland U niversity
of Technology, ratio = 4.56:1; G riffith U niversity, ratio = 6.21:1) were significantly more
individualist-anchored and less collectivist than those of the H ong K ong subjects (ratio =
1.71:1) and Taiwanese subjects (ratio = 1.45:1). These findings seem to be consistent with
the results of H ofstedes (1980, 1983) studies.
 20 Auyeung and Sands
Table 2 Comparison of Australian, H ong K ong and Taiwan groups in terms of the 12 career-choice
factors using student t-test

The Australian The H ong K ong

U niversities and Taiwan
U niversities t p
(n= 303) (n= 329)
F actors M SD M SD
S ignificant others

Parental influence 2.83 1.73 4.54 1.64 12.69 0.0001

Teachers influence 3.27 1.72 4.29 1.58 7.69 0.0001
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Peers influence 2.64 1.63 4.49 1.63 14.22 0.0001

Association with others in the field 4.29 1.68 4.77 1.40 3.87 0.0001

M aterials

Availability of employment 5.37 1.62 5.63 1.11 2.34 0.0198

Prestige and social status 3.86 1.75 5.09 1.24 10.10 0.0001
Earning potential 5.36 1.45 5.63 1.06 2.62 0.009
Cost of education 3.44 2.05 3.53 1.54 0.62 NS
Years of formal education required 3.91 1.81 4.26 1.42 2.67 0.0079

Beliefs

Job satisfaction 5.74 1.33 5.57 1.26 1.62 NS

Aptitude for subject matter 5.29 1.35 4.89 1.19 3.90 0.0001
Previous work experience 4.31 1.95 4.34 1.65 0.23 NS
Scale 7 = Very importan t
1 = N ot important

Results
Table 2 reports the results of 12 t-tests for the 12 career-choice factors for the two groups:
Queensland U niversity of Technology and G riffith U niversity as one group representing
individualistic cultures, and the Chinese U niversity of H ong K ong and N ational Chengchi
U niversity as the other group representing collectivistic cultures. Significant differences in
mean scores between the two groups were found in nine of the 12 variables.
The results indicate significant differences between the two groups for all the four
factors categorized under the significant others entity and the differences in mean scores
show that the strength of impact was consistently stronger among the Chinese subjects.
This confirms the first hypothesis that these four career-choice factors may have a
perceived relatively stronger impact on H ong K ong and Taiwanese accounting students
than on Australian accounting students.
Apart from the cost of education, significant differences between the two groups
were also found for all the va riables grouped under materials entity. H owever,
differences in mean scores suggest that the impact of this entity wa s stronger on the
Chinese students. The second hypothesis that the five materials entity fa ctors are more
 Factors influencing accounting students career choice 21
likely to be perceived as having a stronger influence on Australian accounting students
than on their counterparts in H ong K ong and Taiwan is therefore rejected. In the beliefs
entity, the only significant difference between the two groups wa s found in the aptitude
for subject matter. The Australian students, more than the Chinese students, tended to
be influenced by this factor. The third hypothesis that the beliefs entity fa ctors may have
greater perceived impact on accounting students in Australia than those in H ong K ong
and Taiwan is partially confirmed.

Conclusions
The results reveal that the impact of most of the accounting career-choice factors
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investigated varied in their degrees of influence in different cultures. Parental influence,

teachers influence, peers influence and association with others in the field had greater
impact on H ong K ong and Taiwanese students than on Australian students, whereas
Australian students tended to be more influenced by aptitude for subject matter. The
above variations in the results may be largely attributed to the differences in the culturally
endorsed ideas and attitudes in collectivistic and individualistic societies. The findings are
consistent with the characterization of individualistic and collectivistic cultures asserted
by previous researchers (e.g. Chu, 1979; H ofstede, 1980, 1983; H su, 1985; Triandis et al.,
1986, 1988). These results may provide a useful addition to the cross-cultural research
literature. F urthermore, the findings may be useful to universities in developing an
effective recruitment strategy directed towards convincing individuals or members of
significant reference groups who are likely to play an influential role in the students
decision-making process.
One surprising negative result is that the stronger impact of materials entity factors was
found on H ong K ong and Taiwanese students, rather than on Australian students. This
may be explained by H ofstede s (1980, 1983) argument that an increase in wealth will
contribute to the increase of individualism. Since H ofstede s surveys were conducted,
H ong K ong and Taiwan have experienced rapid economic growth which must have
changed the physical environment one relies on for survival. Although they still remain
basically collectivistic, the change in the physical environment is likely to change the
materials entity of the self conceptual configuration, resulting in a possible shift of these
two societies on the individualism-collectivism continuum. Also, Chu (1979) suggests that
forceful disruption by external elements will affect the cultural thread of continuity.
Career motivation in H ong K ong and Taiwan may show a strong extrinsic aspect when
a desire to improve economic status is given an important priority during the time of
economic growth. The present study seems to provide evidence of one of the consequences
of such forceful disruption in the materials entity.
The results reported here were based on the data collected from two Australian and two
Asian universities. F urther extensive research to cover other individualistic and collectivistic
countries needs to be carried out in order to capture all aspects of this cultural dimension.

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