Accounting and various aspects of finance
Saman Mohammadi; Hanieh Jaberi
Abstract
The rapid development of the business world has created numerous job opportunities for the workforce. Accounting graduates are among those who can readily enter the job market, and accounting remains a vital profession in the business world. Individuals with an accounting background can pursue various ...
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The rapid development of the business world has created numerous job opportunities for the workforce. Accounting graduates are among those who can readily enter the job market, and accounting remains a vital profession in the business world. Individuals with an accounting background can pursue various roles, including positions in public sector accounting. The data of this research was collected through a questionnaire distributed among 384 accounting students at different academic levels. The results revealed that financial rewards, labor market considerations, personality, social values, and professional training have a positive and significant effect on the choice of a career as a public sector accountant.
Introduction
Globalization of the economy, international integration, and economic growth have driven the professionalization of various disciplines. To address the needs and challenges of economic development, professionals must seek innovative solutions. One field directly tied to these challenges is the accounting profession, which has undergone significant changes in recent decades. Those entering the accounting profession today play a role that extends far beyond its traditional scope. The accounting profession primarily involves providing financial services, and public interest in this field continues to grow year after year. This increasing interest has led to the expansion of accounting education at various levels. Accounting graduates have the flexibility to choose from a wide range of career paths, including roles as government accountants, management accountants, and accounting educators. Upon completing their studies, accounting graduates can work as either government or non-government accountants. A government accountant works for a government agency and provides audit, tax, consulting, and accounting services. To contribute to the growing literature in the field of accounting, this research examines whether financial rewards, labor market considerations, personality traits, social values, and education influence the career choices of accounting students as government accountants.
Literature review
Financial rewards are monetary compensation given to employees for their performance in an organization. Studies have shown that public sector accountants assist the public and organizations by providing information about financial portals and receive financial rewards. Based on this, the first hypothesis is presented:
H1: Financial rewards have a positive and significant effect on choosing a job as a public sector accountant.
The working environment refers to the physical, social, and psychological conditions in which a job is performed. These conditions include objects and people that influence work life. Accordingly, the second hypothesis is proposed:
H2: Market considerations have a positive and significant effect on the choice of a public sector accountant job.
Personality traits are one of the topics discussed in every profession. Personality, as a way of classifying human characteristics, is a determinant of individual behavior in choosing a job and has a significant impact on this choice. Based on this, the third hypothesis is proposed:
H3: Personality has a positive and significant effect on the choice of public sector accountant job.
Values are ideals and principles that guide human behavior. Social value is considered a fundamental concept in sociology and represents something accepted by everyone. It is recognized as a factor that reflects personal capability within society. Based on this, the fourth hypothesis is proposed:
H4: Social values have a positive and significant effect on the choice of public sector accountant job.
Vocational training involves improving skills and striving for success. The importance of accounting education lies in the benefits it provides to the universities that offer it. Accordingly, the fifth hypothesis is proposed:
H5: Vocational training has a positive and significant effect on the choice of a public sector accountant job.
Research Methodology
The statistical population of this research comprises accounting students at all academic levelsof accounting. In order to collect data collection was conducted using a questionnaire (Ningrum & Karsiati, 2022) consisting of two parts. The first part included demographic questions, while the second part contained questions related to the research variables. The questionnaire was distributed online via Google Forms, and a total of 384 completed questionnaires were analyzed.
Results
In this research, the partial least squares technique was used to fit the model and test the hypotheses. The findings showed that Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability for the research variables were greater than 0.7, confirming the reliability of the model. The average variance extracted for the variables exceeded 0.5, indicating convergent validity. Additionally, the values along the main diagonal were larger than those below the diagonal, confirming the model’s divergent validity. The factor loadings of the indicators were greater than 0.3, demonstrating a favorable relationship between the items and the variables. The t-statistic was greater than 1.96 in all cases, indicating that the factor loadings were statistically significant. Finally, the overall fit index was 0.702, signifying a strong model fit.
Conclusion
The results indicate that financial rewards have a positive and significant effect on choosing a job as a government accountant. This means that higher financial rewards lead to an increased likelihood of selecting a career as a public accountant. Expectancy theory supports this finding, suggesting that providing satisfactory rewards is appropriate when employee performance is good.
Additionally, the results showed that market considerations have a positive and significant effect on choosing a job as a government accountant. This implies that the availability of government accounting jobs and ease of access to information about these roles significantly influence job choice, making it a common option for accounting graduates.
The findings also demonstrated that personality has a positive and significant effect on choosing a job as a government accountant. A job aligned with an individual’s personality type enhances job satisfaction and work performance, emphasizing the importance of personality in career choice. Social values were also found to have a positive and significant effect on choosing a job as a government accountant. The greater the social values for the public accounting profession, the more likely individuals are to choose it as a career. The public accounting profession is highly respected in society, contributing to its appeal.
Finally, the results indicated that professional training has a positive and significant effect on choosing a job as a government accountant. Training enhances accountants’ competence and self-confidence, encouraging them to pursue a career in public accounting. Participation in seminars and acquiring specialized skills further improve their knowledge and capabilities, reinforcing their professional growth.
Accounting and various aspects of finance
Saman Mohammadi; Zahra Oryaie; Ali Naderi
Abstract
Considering the impact of CEO Power on a bank’s performance, CEOs can play a role in social responsibility and earnings management. Given that earnings management in banks can have various effects on other industries and the overall economy, banks tend to practice earnings management more frequently ...
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Considering the impact of CEO Power on a bank’s performance, CEOs can play a role in social responsibility and earnings management. Given that earnings management in banks can have various effects on other industries and the overall economy, banks tend to practice earnings management more frequently than non-financial organizations. Furthermore, due to a lack of transparency and information asymmetry, banks are required to be more accountable to society than other industries. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the impact of CEO Power on the relationship between social responsibility and earnings management in banks. The research sample comprises 16 banks listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange Market and Iran OTC between 2016 and 2021. These banks were selected to test the research hypothesis. The findings of the study suggest that social responsibility has a significant negative impact on earnings management in banks. This implies that an increase in social responsibility may lead to a decrease in information asymmetry and lack of transparency, resulting in a decrease in earnings management. Furthermore, the findings of the study indicate that CEO power does not play a significant role in moderating the relationship between social responsibility and earnings management in banks.IntroductionIndeed, engaging banks in social responsibility practices is expected to be beneficial for their stakeholders. In this context, stakeholders are often attracted to banks with a good reputation for social responsibility. Therefore, executives may engage in social responsibility activities to gain support from stakeholders, defend themselves against stakeholder activism, manage their business reputation, or protect their own careers. However, executives may also engage in social responsibility activities to manipulate earnings management and hide their self-interest motivations, which leads to agency problems. These agency problems arise when executives take opportunistic actions such as earnings management to maximize their profits, increasing the bank's agency costs. Given the influence of powerful CEOs on a bank’s performance, powerful CEOs play a role in social responsibility and earnings manipulation. Therefore, CEO power is one of the most important determinants affecting managers’ decisions.the current research has several important aspects. First, it extends the literature on the effect of commitment to social responsibility activities on firm earnings management, with a specific focus on the banking sector. Second, the research fills a gap in the literature regarding the role of social responsibility in financial reporting. Previous studies have not provided a clear consensus on whether social responsibility commitment has a positive or negative impact on financial reporting quality. Given the diversity of findings reported by previous studies, more research is needed to focus on understanding how social responsibility commitment can affect financial reporting quality, as proxied by earnings management practices.Does social responsibility affect banks' earnings management? Does CEO power have a significant effect on the relationship between social responsibility and earnings management of banks and strengthen this relationship?Literature Review2.1. Corporate social responsibility and earnings managementTo understand the link between corporate social responsibility (SR) and earnings management (EM), previous studies have proposed two perspectives: the ethical perspective and the managerial opportunism perspective. The ethical perspective assumes that EM is negatively associated with SR, while the managerial opportunism perspective argues that EM and SR are positively related. This leads us to our first hypothesis:H1. There is a significant relationship between SR and EM.2.2. Corporate social responsibility, earnings management and CEO powerGiven the influence of powerful CEOs on bank’s performance, powerful CEOs play a significant role in both SR input and earnings manipulation. Therefore, CEO power is considered one of the crucial determinants affecting managerial decisions. Hence, CEO power may have a moderating effect on the relationship between SR and EM. Accordingly, we propose the following hypothesis:H2. Powerful CEOs moderate the SR–EM relationship. MethodologyThe statistical population of this research consists of banks enlisted in the Tehran Stock Exchange Market and Iran OTC. The data from 16 banks for the period between 2016 to 2021 have been analyzed to test the research hypotheses. The statistical method employed in this study is the regression model of mixed data using panel data approach with a random effects estimation.ResultsThe obtained results suggest that social responsibility has a negative and significant effect on bank’s earnings management. In other words, as social responsibility increases, earnings management in banks is expected to decrease. Furthermore, the results show that the significant relationship between social responsibility and earnings management is not maintained when the adjusting variable of the CEO's power is included. In other words, the CEO's power does not have a significant effect on the relationship between social responsibility and earnings management.Discussion and ConclusionWith an increase in activities related to social responsibility, banks experience a decrease in earnings management. This observation aligns with the ethical perspective and the signaling theory, which suggest that social responsibility can serve as a tool to reduce earnings management. Banks with higher levels of social responsibility not only exhibit greater transparency regarding their social responsibility initiatives and stronger engagement with stakeholders, but they also tend to engage in less earnings management. Additionally, the study found that CEO power does not moderate the relationship between social responsibility and bank earnings management. This finding contradicts the theoretical foundations and the research background, which propose that CEOs may use social responsibility to gain stakeholder support, manage their reputation, and defend against stakeholder activism. Therefore, it is evident that relying solely on CEO power and characteristics may not lead to accurate decision-making in this domain. Shareholders and other financial decision-makers should consider factors beyond CEO power when attempting to moderate the relationship between social responsibility and earnings management.
