Explaining the relationship between the components of professional ethical courage and accounting quality with regard to the mediating role of Machiavellian behavior using the structural equation modeling method

Since the quality of accounting information directly affects the decision-making process of the users of financial statements of an economic enterprise, therefore, if the collected information does not have the expected quality and adequacy, it is considered a serious threat to the quality of accounting. to be The purpose of the current research is to investigate the relationship between the components of professional ethics courage on ethical behavior and also on accounting quality with regard to the mediating role of Machiavellian behavior using the structural equation modeling method. The sample size is 871 senior accountants of companies admitted to the Tehran Stock Exchange, who were randomly selected based on gender, age, education level and work experience, and 191 of them answered both questionnaires of courage and professional ethics. (Skerka, 5119) and the behavior of Machiavellianism (Christo Jes 4971) answered. Cronbach's alpha method and composite reliability coefficient (CR) were used to check the reliability of the research tool that the coefficient for all variables is higher than 187 and acceptable.
To measure the validity of the questionnaire, the average variance extracted (AVE) was also used, which was more than 181 and relatively acceptable. Also, to check the fit of the structural model, the criteria of significant coefficients, R_square Z, have been used, and the obtained results show the appropriate fit of the model. The obtained results support all the hypotheses of the research and show that the courage of professional ethics can have a significant and negative effect on Machiavellian behavior, and on the other hand, according to the outputs of the model, the courage of professional ethics has a direct and significant effect. on the ethical behavior of accountants. Also, Machiavelli's behavior has a significant and negative effect on accounting quality.