Factors affecting accounting students’ career choice

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Bachelor of Science in Accounting

by

WANG Hanlin

1025847

May, 2020
 Factors Affecting Accounting Students’ Career Choice

Hanlin Wang
Wenzhou-Kean University

ABSTRACT: This study aims to investigate the major factors affecting business students',
especially accounting students' career choices in China. A questionnaire was designed by previous
research to collect data in traditional Chinese universities and Sino-Foreign cooperative
universities. A Pearson correlation analysis and a stepwise regression analysis was conducted
based on the type of universities the respondents from. Firstly, instructors' influence and earning
expectations that play a role in choosing a career have a positive significant association with
traditional Chinese students' academic performance. Earning expectations also significantly
predict their accounting grade. Secondly, earning expectations, job opportunities and social status
for a future career have a significant association with the academical performance of students in
Sino-Foreign cooperative universities. Family influence and social status in choosing a career
significantly predict their academic performance. The findings are important for the accounting
profession area to guide more accounting students to choose work in the accounting field.
Keywords: Accounting; Career Choice; Academic Performance

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 I. INTRODUCTION
Recent studies showed the number of students who chose accounting as a major has met
the relentless decline around the world (e.g., Uyar et al., 2011; Mauldin et al., 2000; Sugahara and
Boland, 2009; Tan and Laswad, 2006). This has led to the continuous expansion of the talent gap
in the accounting profession. According to the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants
(2019), there are 107,430 certified public accountants (CPAs) and 9,055 accounting firms in China
by the end of the first quarter of 2019, which is far from the target of 350,000 CPAs.
Even though the reasons for choosing a career vary from student to student, there are some
common factors influencing students’ career choice. Studies conducted in China found the
influencing factors of career choice were mainly divided into three categories: individual factors,
family factors, and occupational factors. Family economic conditions and family occupation types
were the key factors that affected students' career choices.
Several studies oversea indicated the factors influence students choosing profession mainly
due to nature, prospects of the area as well as the influence of family (Sugahara and Boland,2009).
Paolillo and Estes (1982) claimed that factors like family influence, job opportunities, the security
of employment and social prestige played an important role in the choice of career. Meanwhile,
Students’ self-interest and suitability of abilities had a great impact on their career choices (Uyer
et al., 2011).
The question that what factors mainly influence the career choice of Chinese students has
risen based on previous researches. Many papers have deeply studied the factors affecting students'
vocational pathway world (e.g., Felton et al., 1994; Uyar et al., 2011; Mauldin et al., 2000;
Sugahara and Boland, 2009; Umar, 2014), but little accounting students’ career choice research
has been conducted in China.
The purpose of the research is to investigate the major factors affecting business students’,
especially accounting students’ career choices in China. Furthermore, as there are more and more
Sino-Foreign cooperative universities in China, business students in those universities may think
differently and focus on factors which are different from the students from Chinese traditional
university (Feng, 2016). Therefore, this paper also establishes the comparison between the two
types of universities and find the association of these factors and students’ academic performance.
This current study focuses on factors affecting Chinese students’ career choice. Education
for Chinese students from childhood is quite different from that in Western countries, which may
cause internal differences. China's employment environment which is the external factor is also
far from that of Western countries. Most previous studies conducted overseas just consider
students’ ideas in their own countries (e.g., Uyar et al., 2011; Sugahara and Boland, 2009; Umar,
2014) and the results from these studies cannot represent factors affecting Chinese students'
business career choice. Thus, this research is important to figure out what factors significantly
influence Chinese students' career decisions.
This paper assumed that six variables will influence students' career choices. The
researcher collected sample data using an online questionnaire and divided respondents into two
groups based on their types of universities, which are traditional Chinese university and Sino-
Foreign cooperative university. This study used correlation analysis to analyze which factors
influencing career choice significantly predict students’ academic performance. Stepwise
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regression was also conducted by the researcher to investigate the association between the previous
six factors to choose a career and students' academic performance.
The results founded that instructors influence and earning expectations which influence
students' career choice have a significant relationship with traditional Chinese students' academic
performance, while the influencing factors are a little different from Sino-Foreign cooperative
students which are earning expectations, job opportunities and social status. Earning expectations
is the common factor affecting students' career choice which significantly predicts students'
academic performance in these two types of universities. For the regression analysis, earning
expectation that plays in role in accounting major students' career choice significantly predicts
traditional Chinese students’ accounting grade. However, the result of students in Sino-Foreign
cooperative universities was different. The factors influencing career choice predict Sino-Foreign
cooperative university students' academic performances are the family influence and social status
This investigation helps professional bodies master students' psychology and requirements
and guides the development of more workers with professional competence and professional ethics
working in their own areas. It also contributes to develop more effective strategies to teach the
students in accordance with their aptitudes and perceptions, and entice more professional talents
to the business community.
This paper is divided into six parts. The following part is the review of previous literature
on this subject. The third section provides the research methodology including the survey method
and statistical test. The fourth part will show the result directly. In the discussion part, the findings
of this study will be explained intensively. The conclusion and theoretical contribution to the
accounting area will be mentioned in the last part.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Professional Career Choice
In China, a professional accountant is a member of The Chinese Institute of Accountants.
Professional accountant is the person who masters the knowledge in the field of accountancy
through formal study and practice and hold certificate in accounting such as Association of
Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
(AICPA), The Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CICPA) and others (Samsuri et
al., 2016).
Jiang (2012) surveyed a Chinese university to investigate the attitude of undergraduate
accounting students towards accounting careers. Among all 150 respondents, he found 59 percent
of students have working experience in different types of CPA firms and 51.5 percentage of
students choose to pursue a private accounting career.
The current study wants to explore the factors of accounting students choosing a career.
Theories like Parson Theory were considered to determine the influential factors about this subject.
Parson (1909) was the forerunner to explain the motivation for career choice. He developed the
talent-matching approach which matches the career choice to people's talent, skills and personality,
and the later scholars explained it in detail which formed the trait and factor theory. This trait and

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theory had been widely applied to study how psychological factors affect occupational choice.
(Sugahara and Boland,2009)
Felton et al. (1994) collected the data of Canadian business students to establish the
relationship between students' choice of professional accountants and 18 influential factors.
Through multi-discriminate regression analysis, they found students major in accounting choosing
their career concentrated more on good earnings expectations and job prospects.
The study conducted by Uyer (2011) in a Turkish university also found the inflectional
factors to students’ career choice. Interest in accounting, job opportunities, and good fit had a
positive signification to students' choice in the accounting field. A similar study carried by Jackling
and Calero (2006) showed that the perception of students like recognition of the importance of
general skills, interest in accounting subject and course satisfaction are important factors for
students to take accounting as their career choice.

Academical Performance
Students’ academic performance refers to the efficiency of his learning process and his
ultimate learning outcomes (Garkaz el at., 2011). Many studies investigate the factors affecting
college students’ academic performance (e.g., Uyar el at., 2011; Garkaz el at., 2011). Some of
these studies focused on the internal factors such as self-ability, and others concerned on the
external environment like education, family pressure.
Many researchers reported the gender difference to affect accounting students' academic
performance (e.g., Gracia and Jenkins, 2003; Duff, 2004; Byrne and Flood, 2008; Vickers et al.,
2003). Additionally, some studies emphasized the factors including working experience,
mathematical level, interest in the field and investigated their relationship to the academic
performance of accounting students (e.g., Noxel and Cheek,1988; Koh and Koh,1999; Gracia and
Jenkins, 2003).
Uyar el at. (2011) mainly discussed the factors affecting accounting students' career choice
to their academic performance. They used respondents' accounting grades to represent students'
academic achievement. The result showed good job opportunities, self-interest and students'
abilities which suit this profession influence their accounting score.

Family Influence
The family influence on career decisions can be described into the parental educational
background, family encouragement and parental pressure (Samsuri el at., 2016). Zhou and Wang
(2016) investigated the tendency of Chinese students to choose careers and workplace after
graduation. According to the survey, 71.7 percent of the students think their family has a certain
or great influence on their career choice.
Chak-keung Wong et al. (2010) researched to examine the parental influences on students'
career choice in China, they used a self-design questionnaire and distributed it at ten Chinese
universities. The result indicated “parental supports” and “parental concern for professional status”
“parental barriers” are all significant contributors to influence students’ career plans.
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 The study conducted by Umar (2014) also showed a similar result. He focused on the
factors affect students’ career decisions in Accounting among Nigerian University students. Two
major areas which are "who" and "what" influence the choice of career were investigated. The
study concluded that there is a significant relationship between parental influences and students'
career choices.

Instructor Influence
The influence of the instructor is defined as the college professor's influence on students
(Maudline el at., 2000). The accounting profession has recognized the potential impact of
accounting instructors on students' choice of accounting majors. Ke (2001) who conducted the
study on key factors of the accounting employment market in Taiwan found that the students
themselves, their parents, teachers, peers, elder sisters, and brothers were the key figures in order.
Maudline et al. (2000) mainly focused on the accounting principles instructor's influence
on students' decision to major in accounting. They surveyed 166 students in the United States and
gather sufficient information about their attitudes to the influence of instructors on students' career
choice decisions. The researchers concluded that the accounting principle instructor and the faculty
play an important role to influence students' decisions to work in the accounting field.
Adams et al. (1994) conducted a study to identify the motivation of sophomore students to
choose an accounting major. The results showed good job opportunities, self-interest and high
long-term earnings were significant factors. The influence of the instructor, although not as
important as the three above, ranked higher than other factors like family influence and earning
expectations.

Earnings Expectations
Salary is defined as the amount an employee is paid for services rendered to the company
based on the number of hours worked (Moy and Lee, 2002). Earnings expectations include high
earning expectations, good initial salary, and long-range earnings. In the survey of Zhou and Wang
(2016), they found 76.8% of the Chinese students in the survey believe that salary is one of the
factors that must be considered in career choices.
Typically, several studies oversea also discussed the influence of earning expectations on
students' career choices. Felton et al. (1994) claimed that the initial salary attracted the non-
accounting students to work in the accounting field compared with the attitude of accounting
students. However, Jackling and Calero (2006) opined although the high initial earning are not
significantly affect students' career decisions, this factor may become important as students go
through the course.
A study conducted by Umar (2014) found there is a significant relationship between career
prospects, social status, high earning expectation, and career choice in accounting among Nigerian
University students. While, a similar study conducted by Kim et al. (2002) states the top five
factors related to students' career choice were: interest in the career, good job opportunities,
suitability of ability, the expectation to run a business and high earning expectation.

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Job Opportunity
Students who are graduated from accounting majors have a big chance to receive good
employment opportunities, since the demand for accounting students is increasing nowadays
(Samsuri et al., 2016). Accounting is a comprehensive subject and will develop students’ ability
to complete the work related to business. When the accounting students graduated, they have the
opportunities to become professional accountants, auditors, financial analysts, tax advisors,
government accountant and so on.
Chan et al. (2000) did a survey of 167 accounting students at the Chinese University of
Hong Kong. The result showed work atmosphere, job opportunities, training course, CPA
examination, training course, salary, remuneration, corporate reputation, promotion time,
professional level, job rotation, and job security were the top 10 most important factors for
accounting students.
In the study of Maudline et al. (2000), as the instructor does affect students' choice to work
in the accounting field, other factors include job opportunities, lifestyle and social prestige also
influence students' career decisions. Malgwi et al. (2005) opined job opportunity is one of the chief
factors impacts accounting students' career choices.

Social Status
Many researchers agreed on the importance of prestige has a significant influence on the
students' career choices. Dinç(2008) conducted factor analysis and found seven factors influence
students’ choice to work in the accounting filed. Those factors were good earnings expectations,
career opportunities, working experience, social status, parental influence, education environment
and suitability of ability.
Byrne et al. (2012) investigated the factors influence school leavers' career decisions on
the accounting profession. They allowed the respondents to rank 26 factors which may influence
respondents' choice on career and the result showed that job satisfaction was the most important
factor followed by a good working environment and a good fit for the career. Students would like
to choose the accounting profession as their choice also determined by social prestige and financial
rewards. This finding contributed to the idea that social status is a key factor when selecting a
career.
A similar study conducted by Sugahara and Boland (2009) analyzed the major factors
influence the career choice of Japanese tertiary students. They claimed that intrinsic value was the
most influential factor affecting the vocational choice of accounting students, and career prospects
including social status were ranked as the second important factor.

Interest in the Field

Studies to investigate the factor influencing students’ career choice always concerned about
the personal interest of students. It can be seen that students have the intention to study accounting
normal because of their interest or ambition in that field (Samsuri et al., 2016). Zhou and Wang
(2016) claimed that most Chinese students' professional character is the psychological state formed
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in their long-term life. Under the influence of their interests, students can rationally choose a career
that meets their expectations and their own character.
According to Jackling and Calero (2006), students who like to take the course of accounting
are more likely to choose accounting as their career. Besides, this study states the genuine interest
plays the main role when choosing accounting as a career choice rather than job opportunities and
high earning.
Since the career choice is consists of many factors, many studies indicated that students'
interest in the accounting filed is one of the major factors. Uyar et al. (2011) claimed that interest
in the accounting field has a positive significant association with the success students get in the
accounting course. Furthermore, the survey conducted by Mauldin et al. (2000) which includes
twelve factors that affected the students’ career choice also mentioned the role of the students'
interest in the accounting field.

The Sino-Foreign Cooperative University

Baes on the study of Miao et al. (2019), there are two main types of Sino-foreign cooperative
education: one is a Sino-foreign cooperative education institution, and the other is a Sino-foreign
cooperative education project. The research object discussed in this paper refers to the Chinese-
foreign cooperative university with independent legal personality and independent setting.
It can be seen from the definition of Sino-foreign cooperative education institutions that the
Chinese and foreign cooperative universities are sponsored by Chinese and foreign universities.
The two sides mainly invest in cooperation through funds, resources, and intellectual property.
The rights and obligations assumed by both parties, such as applying for a school license,
determining the training objectives, and professional settings, are also clarified in the form of
cooperation agreements (Miao et al., 2019).
According to Li and Qin (2019), the development of Sino-Foreign cooperative education in
Chinese universities has been strong. The number of those kinds of colleges has been increasing,
and the disciplines involved have been expanding. According to the education department, more
than one-fifth of the universities in China had Sino-foreign cooperative education projects and
institutions. In early 2018, the number of Sino-cooperative projects rose to 2626, covering many
foreign countries like England, the United States, and Israel.

The Traditional Chinese University

China's higher education has a history of nearly a hundred years. In the past hundred years,
China's higher education system has developed based on the experience and practices of foreign
higher education (Wang and Zhao, 2004). The innovation of Chinese universities is also based on
the traditional national culture and the traditional higher education idea, and our culture has a
positive and profound influence on the development of the modern university (Zhang, 2006).
According to Wang and Zhao (2004), the internationalization of higher education is an
inevitable condition for the integration of the world economy or economic globalization. Only
when Chinese universities place themselves in the education system of universities around the
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world and evaluate our universities with the common standards and practices of international
universities, can we truly join the tide of university internationalization

The Difference between the Sino-Foreign Cooperative University and the Traditional
Chinese University
Chinese-foreign cooperative universities are different from domestic public universities in
that their mode is influenced not only by the current macro-political, economic, and educational
systems but also by the result of independent choice of the school itself (Sun, 2014).
Compared with Traditional Chinese universities, the sponsors of Chinese-foreign cooperative
universities are not government agencies, so they have more independence and autonomy in the
school-running model. Moreover, the main body of Chinese-foreign cooperative universities is
Chinese universities and foreign universities, which makes it more convenient and convenient to
introduce foreign high-quality educational resources (Miao et al. ,2019). The training mode of
Chinese and foreign cooperative universities has trained a large number of international talents
with international vision, who are proficient in the major and proficient in the use of foreign
languages, which also enhanced the international competitiveness of China's education (Gu, 2012).

Theoretical Framework
The Figure 1 presents the theoretical framework of this study, which investigates whether the
family influence, instructor influence, earning expectations, job opportunities, social status,
interest in the field that influence students’ professional career choice have the relationship
between students’ academic performance, and how do these relationships differ between the two
types of universities.

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 FIGURE 1
Theoretical Framework

Family influence

Instructor influence

Earning expectation
Professional Academic
career choice performance
Job opportunities

Social status

Theoretical framework
Interest in the field

III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Data Collection
To find the factors influencing accounting students' career choice, the present study used a
survey method to collect the data of business students (e.g. accounting, finance, commerce,
marketing) among different universities including traditional Chinese universities and Sino-
foreign cooperative universities. A questionnaire designed by Sugahara and Boland (2009) was
used to collect demographic information and students' attitudes to six influential factors. More
details about the questionnaire are in Appendix A. The researcher distributed the questionnaire
through the network platform such as Weibo, WeChat and QQ. The demographic information is
presented in Table 1. Out of 260 respondents, 136 students completed the questionnaire met the
standard of business students. 65.4% of these respondents were from accounting majors. 68 of the
respondents were from traditional Chinese universities and 68 were Sino-foreign cooperative
university students. The range of the academic score is from 0.00 to 4.00. Almost 46% of the 136
respondents plan to work in the accounting field in the future.
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 TABLE 1
Demographic Information
Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Accounting Grade 0.00 4.00 3.37 0.44
What is the type of your University are you currently studying?
Frequency Percent
Traditional Chinese University 68 50
Sino Cooperative University 68 50
Total 136 100.0
Participants
Major Frequency Percent
Commerce 5 3.7
Finance 24 17.6
Economics 11 8
Accounting 89 65.4
Insurance 1 0.7
Marketing 6 4.6
Total 136 100

Statistical Analysis
A Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the influence of the previous six factors
on students' academic performance. The researcher divided the respondents into two groups which
were the respondents from traditional Chinese universities and Sino-Foreign cooperative
universities, to investigate the association respectively.
A stepwise regression analysis which is a way to add or removal nonsignificant variables was
conducted between students in the traditional Chinese university and Sino-Foreign cooperative
university who chose to pursue accounting professions. This study focused on the students who
took accounting as a career and analyzed the factors combined to significantly influence this choice.
The SPSS Statistical program was selected to analyze the data.

IV. RESULT
Correlation analysis
A correlation test was used to identify whether there is a significant relationship between
the influence of instructor, family influence, interest, job opportunities, social status and earning
expectations, and students’ academic performance. The Pearson correlation was conducted to
investigate the result. The confidence level of less than 0.05 indicates the relationship is significant.

10
 The researcher divided the data into two parts. The first study explored the relationship
between the previous six factors and the academical score of traditional university students and
the second part was about the relationship between six factors and the academical score of Sino-
foreign cooperative university students.
The findings in Table 3 indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between
instructor influence and earning expectation for choosing a career, and traditional Chinese
university students' academic performance. The P-value of instructor influence is 0.019 and the P-
value of long-term earning expectation is 0.014, both of which are less than the confidence level
of 0.05.

TABLE 3
The Pearson Correlation Analysis for Traditional Chinese University Students

GPA Family Instructor Earning Job Status Interest

GPA Pearson 1 .222 * *
.111 .051 .173
.285 .296
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .069 .019 .014 .370 .678 .157
Family Pearson ** **
.222 1 .161 .392 .166 .208 .446
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .069 .190 .001 .175 .089 .000
Instructor Pearson *
.285 .161 1 .226 .113 .192 .141
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .019 .190 .064 .357 .117 .251
Earning Pearson
.296* .392** .226 1 .212 .370** .489**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .014 .001 .064 .083 .002 .000
Job Pearson
.111 .166 .113 .212 1 .200 .138
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .370 .175 .357 .083 .102 .261
Status Pearson ** **
.051 .208 .192 .370 .200 1 .336
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .678 .089 .117 .002 .102 .005
Interest Pearson
.173 .446** .141 .489** .138 .336** 1
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .157 .000 .251 .000 .261 .005

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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 Moreover, the study also investigated the association between students’ academical
performance and the previous six factors in the Sino-Foreign Cooperative university to choosing
a career. The result in Table 4 shows the P-values of earning expectation and job opportunities are
less than 0.01 while the P-value of social status is 0.46 which is less than 0.05. Therefore, there is
a significant relationship between earning expectation, job opportunities and social status for
students to choose a future career, and Sino-Foreign cooperative students' academic performance.

TABLE 4
The Pearson Correlation Analysis for Sino-Foreign Cooperative University Students

GPA Family Instructor Earning Job Status Interest

GPA Pearson ** ** *
1 .162 .175 .428 .437 .243 .145
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .186 .155 .000 .000 .046 .239
Family Pearson * **
.162 1 .125 .286 .436 .229 .052
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .186 .309 .018 .000 .060 .673
Instructor Pearson * ** ** **
.175 .125 1 .307 .334 .326 .318
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .155 .309 .011 .005 .007 .008
Earning Pearson
.428** .286* .307* 1 .805** .398** .473**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .018 .011 .000 .001 .000
Job Pearson
.437** .436** .334** .805** 1 .332** .442**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .005 .000 .006 .000
Status Pearson
.243* .229 .326** .398** .332** 1 .299*
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .046 .060 .007 .001 .006 .013
Interest Pearson ** ** ** *
.145 .052 .318 .473 .442 .299 1
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .239 .673 .008 .000 .000 .013
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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Regression Analysis
Stepwise regression analysis was used to identify the influential factor in students'
accounting career choice. The researcher selected the respondents who were accounting majors
and chose CPA (accounting) as their future career choice. Two regression models were established
based on their types of universities. 31 respondents from traditional Chinese universities and 26
respondents from Sino-Foreign cooperative universities who chose to work in the accounting field
in the future were the input of this study.
First model: Chinese traditional university students
The first model investigated the relationship between students’ academic score and the factors
influence their career choice in choosing accounting. The dependent variable is the students'
academic score. The independent variables include Parent influence(X1), instructor influence (X2),
earning expectation (X3), job opportunities(X4), social status(X5) and interests in the field(X6).
The variable entered table in Table 5 shows the variable best build the model to explain the
dependent variable. The best-fitting linear regression equation is as follow which established from
the coefficients table in Table 5:
Y= 0.307 X3 + 2.104
According to Table 5, the regression equation removed five factors from the model, and the
only influential factor remained is earning expectation. The result showed that this predictor
explained 18.6% variance (R^2=0.186, F=6.639). This optimal model indicated the earning
expectation to a job significantly affected the academic performance of traditional Chinese
students whose career choice is CPA.
As a result, the relationship between earning expectations (β =0.423, p<0.05), and the
academic score of traditional Chinese students who chose to work in the accounting field is
obvious, and other five factors like parent influence, instructor influence, job opportunities, social
status, and self-interest were excluded from the model.

TABLE 5
Regression Analysis for Traditional Chinese University Students
Variables Entered/Removed:
Model Variables Entered Variables Removed Method
1 Stepwise (Criteria: Probability-of-F-to-
Earning enter <= .050, Probability-of-F-to-
remove >= .100).
a. Dependent Variable: GPA

(continued on next page)

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 TABLE 5 (continued)
Model Summary:
Std. Error Change Statistics
Adjusted R of the R Square Sig. F
Model R R Square Square Estimate Change F Change df1 df2 Change
1 a
.186 .158 .35347 .186 6.639 1 29 .015
.432
a. Predictors: (Constant), Earning

Coefficients:

Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) 2.104 .520 4.049 .000
Earning .307 .119 .432 2.577 .015
a. Dependent Variable: GPA

Excluded variables:

Collinearity
Partial Statistics
Model Beta In t Sig. Correlation Tolerance
1 Family -.016b -.096 .924 -.018 .997
Instructor .280b 1.574 .127 .285 .844
Job .171b .945 .353 .176 .857
Status b
.035 .162 .872 .031 .608
Interest b
-.244 -1.468 .153 -.267 .973
a. Dependent Variable: GPA
b. Predictors in the Model: (Constant), Earning

Second model: Sino-Foreign cooperative university students

The second model involves the association between students' academic scores and the factors
that play in role in their accounting career choice. The dependent variable Y is Sino-Foreign
cooperative students' academic score. The independent variables are family influence (X1),
instructor influence(X2), earning expectations(X3), job opportunities(X4), social status(X5) and
interest in the field(X6). The best-fitting model established by stepwise regression is as follow:
Y= 0.29 X1+0.198 X5+ 1.454
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 In this model, family influence(X1) and social status(X2) are ranked in the order of
significance. In essence, it can be seen from Table 6 that family influence (β=0.429, p<0.05) and
social status (β=0.371, p<0.05)impacting on future career significantly predict the academic
performance of students in Sino-Foreign cooperative university. The result in the model summary
table in Table 6 indicates that these two predictors explained 43.5% variance (R^2=0.435,
F=15.927).
The stepwise regression excluded the non-significant variables at 5% significant level.
Therefore, the instructor influence, earning expectation, job opportunities and interests in the field
were removed from the model.

TABLE 6
Regression Analysis of Sino-Foreign Cooperative University Students
Variables Entered/Removed:

Model Variables Entered Variables Removed Method

1
Stepwise (Criteria: Probability-of-F-to-
Family enter <= .050, Probability-of-F-to-
remove >= .100).
2
Stepwise (Criteria: Probability-of-F-to-
Status enter <= .050, Probability-of-F-to-
remove >= .100).
a. Dependent Variable: GPA
Model Summary:
Std. Error Change Statistics
Adjusted R of the R Square F Sig. F
Model R R Square Square Estimate Change Change df1 df2 Change
1 a
.561 .315 .286 .37213 .315 11.037 1 24 .003
2 b
.660 .435 .386 .34521 .120 4.890 1 23 .037
a. Predictors: (Constant), Family
b. Predictors: (Constant), Family, Status

(continued on next page)

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 TABLE 6 (continued)
Coefficients:
Unstandardized Coefficients Standardize
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) 1.878 .489 3.843 .001
Family .379 .114 .561 3.322 .003
2 (Constant) 1.454 .492 2.955 .007
Family .290 .113 .429 2.562 .017
Status .198 .090 .371 2.211 .037
a. Dependent Variable: GPA

Excluded Variables:
Collinearity
Partial Statistics
Model Beta In t Sig. Correlation Tolerance
1 Instructor b
.189 1.111 .278 .226 .977
Earning .223b 1.071 .295 .218 .654
Job b
.335 1.696 .103 .333 .679
Status b
.371 2.211 .037 .419 .874
Interest .126b .736 .469 .152 .998
2 Instructor c
.066 .379 .708 .081 .838
Earning c
.077 .363 .720 .077 .567
Job c
.177 .818 .422 .172 .531
Interest c
-.011 -.066 .948 -.014 .846
a. Dependent Variable: GPA
b. Predictors in the Model: (Constant), Family
c. Predictors in the Model: (Constant), Family, Status

V. DISCUSSION
Main Results
The correlation analysis indicates that “instructors influence” and “earning expectation”
that play a role in choosing a career have a positive significant association with traditional Chinese
students’ academic performance. Firstly, if the students are exposed to the industry, the words and
deeds of their instructors are the first they come into contact with. A student who listens to the
instructors carefully is easy to get a higher grade and is more willing to choose an accounting
career. Another possible reason is that the students regard the accounting profession as a very
professional job, the instructors in this area are often knowledgeable and reliable for students when
16
making a career decision. This influence of instructors is also confirmed by Maudline, et al. (2000)
who claimed accounting principle instructors significantly influence students choosing an
accounting career. Secondly, the students may concern about their future earnings when choosing
a career. A higher long-term earning expectation will attract business students to actively engaged
in this job, and students with higher earnings expectations will study hard to gain higher academic
performance for the future job. This finding is also parallel to the finding of Zhou and Wang (2016),
which emphases the importance of earning to the career choice of Chinese students.
Meanwhile, a significant positive relationship was found between “earning expectation”,
“job opportunities” and “social status” when choosing a future career, and academical performance
of students in Sino-Foreign cooperative university. As mentioned in the previous paragraph,
students with higher earnings expectations are expected to study hard for future income. Besides,
good job opportunities would also attract university students to work in that field. Uyar el at. (2011)
explained job opportunities as an important factor affect students’ career selection. Furthermore,
a job's social status had a significant influence on Sino-Foreign cooperative students' academic
performance may be because students attach importance to it. The more they want to achieve a
high social status, the more they focus on getting good grades.
The results of correlation analysis conducted in these two types of the university also show
that “earning expectation” for choosing a career is a common factor to predict students’ academic
performance. Both students in traditional Chinese universities and Sino-Foreign cooperative
universities may pursue high future earnings when choosing a field. As this factor has a great
connection with economic impact, it brings students real interest. The higher their expectations for
future income, the higher their requirements for current professional performance.
As for regression analysis, the first regression model indicates that the “earning expectation”
of traditional Chinese university students when choosing an accounting field significantly predicts
their accounting grade. It is possible because traditional Chinese university students concentrate
more on their future income and this factor plays a great part in their effort in the study.
The second model proved that “Family influence” and “social status” in choosing a career
in accounting significantly predict the academic performance of students in Sino-Foreign
cooperative universities. Students in Sino-Foreign cooperative universities may be more
influenced by their families when it comes to career choices.
Unexpected Result
However, as shown in the last paragraph, the “social status” in choosing a career also
significantly predicts the academic performance of students in Sino-Foreign cooperative university,
but this factor in the previous study which written by Uyar el at. (2011) has a significant negative
relationship with academic performance. One possible reason is the Sino-Foreign cooperative
university students expect to have a good social status. Getting a high academic score helps them
gain the chance to be admitted to a position of high social status. This idea promotes students to
pursue a high academic score in accounting courses. It was confirmed by Sugahara and Boland
(2009) that social status is an important factor when choosing a career in accounting, as it indicates
a great career prospect.

17
Limitations
This paper also includes several limitations. Firstly, the participants from traditional
Chinese universities and Sino-Foreign cooperative universities were not enough due to the limit
timeline, especially the number of samples for regression analysis. Secondly, the factors influence
students’ career choice are not limited to the six factors. For instance, whether students’ ability is
suitable for this profession is also a factor that affects their career choices. Thirdly, this study gave
respondents less opportunities to add some factors specific to China, which
Reliability and Validity
This paper followed previous researches which investigated the relationship between factors
affecting accounting students’ career choice. As the survey applied to business students in
traditional Chinese universities and Sino-Cooperative universities, the researcher used wjx.com to
collect the sample from all over China. To minimized participant error and participant bias, the
researcher sent the questionnaire to each participant using similar online platforms and the same
layout. To minimized researcher error and researcher bias, the researcher deleted 124 substandard
and poorly answered questionnaires carefully and analyze data objectively to ensure the
authenticity and accuracy of the answers. The demographic information showed 51.47% of
respondents were from Zhejiang province and the rest were from other provinces in China because
most of the Sino-Foreign cooperative universities are in Zhejiang Province. The result of
correlation analysis had similar results with previous studies while the most influential factor was
different based on the characters and attitudes of students in China. The results of regression
analysis were reliable since the researcher used similar analytical techniques to evaluate the data
and the findings were basically in line with expectations.
Theoretical Contribution
The current study can add value to past research as it carefully discussed the major factors
influence students' choice of the accounting profession. This study expands the previous research’s
region from oversea to China and helps to explain the important reasons for Chinese students to
work in the accounting filed. It discovers the attitudes of students study in different types of
universities. This finding would guide the academic group to find a more suitable way to educate
students in different types of universities and get students interested in accounting to provide
talents for the accounting profession.

VI. CONCLUSION
The study aims to explore the factors affecting students' career choice in accounting in China,
at the same time, establish a comparison between traditional Chinese university students and Sino-
cooperative university students. The researcher used Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise
regression to investigate whether there is a significant association between six major factors for
choosing a career and students’ academic performance. The results show that instructors influence
and earning expectation which influence tractional Chinese students’ career choice have a positive
significant association with their academic performance and earning expectation also significantly
predicts traditional Chinese students’ accounting grade. Secondly, earning expectations, job
opportunities and social status which play an important role in Sino-Foreign cooperative students'
career choice have a significant relationship with their academical performance. Furthermore,
18
family influence and social status in choosing a career significantly predict Sino-Foreign
cooperative students’ academic performance. Importantly, the earning expectation for choosing a
career which is the only common factor has a positive significant influence on academic
performance from both of these universities.
As being discussed in the discussion part, there are several limitations to this study. This study
only collected 124 respondents, which may result in incomplete results. Because as the sample
increases, the information will be richer and better reflect the views of most Chinese students. This
study also investigates six factors which determined from overseas research but ignores many other
factors which also affect students' career decision.
Further research is needed to increase the number of respondents to collect more sample data
for more detailed research. They are supposed to expand the extent of factors and try to add some
factors with Chinese characteristics. It would be better if further research were able to interview
traditional Chinese university students and Sino-foreign cooperative university students separately
and get their opinions on the factors affecting career choice. It is also important for further research
to include an investigation into why accounting students do not choose to work in the accounting
field. The result of these studies will contribute to building a more complete guideline for students'
career development.

19
 APPENDIX A
QUESTIONNAIRE
Demographic Information
Please answer or tick one of the following boxes for each question.
1. What is the type of University you currently studying?
o Traditional Chinese University
o Sino-cooperative university
2. In what main subject areas are you currently majoring? (Please tick):
o Commerce
o Business Administration
o Finance
o Economics
o Accounting
o Insurance
o Marketing
o Information Technology
o English
o Others
Your career choice:
In this section, we are seeking your general perceptions and attitudes toward your career
choice. Please answer or tick one of the following boxes for each question.

1. How much are (or were) you influenced by the following people in your career
choice? (Please circle one response only to each question):
No influence(1)An unlikely influence(2) Indifferent(3) Influenced(4) Strongly influenced(5)

a Parents 1 2 3 4 5
b Your instructor 1 2 3 4 5
2. How important are each of the following factors to you when considering your career
options? (please circle only one response for each question):
No importance(1) Little importance(2) Indifferent(3) Important(4) Very important(5)

a. Good long-term earning potential 1 2 3 4 5

b. Job opportunities 1 2 3 4 5
c. Social status 1 2 3 4 5
d. interest in the field 1 2 3 4 5
20
3. As for your career choice in the near future, what area or industry have you decided or
intend to work in? Please select one response from the following boxes. (Please tick):
o CPA (or CA)
o Economics
o Other Accounting careers
o Marketing
o Banking
o Personnel management
o Brokerage/investments
o General management
o Other financial
o Computer/IT career
o Law
o Other—please indicate

21
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