Motivational Factors Relating to Accounting Student's Intentions to Enroll in Business Ethics Courses

Instruction of ethics in accounting is an issue that, despite its importance and frequent recommendations of researchers in this field, has no place in Iran's educational system. In addition to discussing the necessity of including ethics course in accounting curriculum, the main objective of this research is to investigate the degree of student's tendency to take the elective ethics course (if offered) using Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as well as Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) while the role of individual identity is involved.
This research is analytical-descriptive study. The statistical population of the research includes the college students of Shiraz University, Islamic Azad University of Shiraz, and a number of other universities in Fars Province, Iran. 309 students were selected as the statistical sample by random sampling. Questionnaires were used for data collection. The collected data were eventually analyzed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and ordinary least squares (OLS).
If the elective ethics course is offered, the students show great interest in taking the course. Furthermore, Theory of Planned Behavior is a better predictor of behavioral intentions than Social Cognitive Theory. The predictive power of Theory of Planned Behavior and Social Cognitive Theory increases when the individual identity is involved.
Due to students’ interest in ethics, academic centers and regulatory bodies should find a solution for this basic need and include ethics course in accounting curriculum