Analyzing the Factors Relevant to Students' Estimations of the Benefits and Costs of Pursuing an Accounting Career

摘要

Business students were surveyed at a large university in the south-eastern USA to assess their perceptions of the benefits and costs of becoming an accounting practitioner. The current paper examines the extent to which these perceptions are related to whether students took accounting in secondary school and, if they had such exposure, the quality of their experience. Then, we examine whether perceptions differ at relatively early and late stages of a student's academic progress. Finally, we examine these benefit and cost perceptions in relation to the quality of students' experiences in the first university accounting course. The results indicate that experience in the first university accounting course is differentially associated with benefits and cost perceptions, and the nature of the association depends upon whether students took accounting in secondary school. Perceptions also differ between students at early and late stages of their respective academic programs, and accounting vs. non-accounting majors.