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Asian Review of AccountingJapanese accounting academics
perceptions on the global convergence of accountingeducation in
JapanSatoshi Sugahara
Article information:To cite this document:Satoshi Sugahara ,
(2013),"Japanese accounting academics perceptions on the global
convergence ofaccounting education in Japan", Asian Review of
Accounting, Vol. 21 Iss 3 pp. 180 - 204Permanent link to this
document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ARA-09-2012-0050
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171-188http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/18347641211218470Lisa Baudot,
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Japanese accounting academicsperceptions on the
globalconvergence of accounting
education in JapanSatoshi Sugahara
Hiroshima Shudo University, Faculty of Commercial Sciences,
Hiroshima, Japan
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a
survey on the perception of theglobalisation of accounting
education among academics teaching at tertiary schools in Japan.
With theacceleration of globalism in accounting education, the aim
of this exploratory research is to investigatethe perceptions of
Japanese academics toward this global
convergence.Design/methodology/approach The sample was collected
from accounting educators who wereteaching at the undergraduate and
postgraduate level of the tertiary institutes in Japan. The
subjectschosen for the survey were 300 members of the Japanese
Accounting Association ( JAA) and wererandomly selected from the
2010 JAA Members Directory. A total of 87 responses were
receivedproducing an effective response rate of 29 per
cent.Findings The analysis of this study found that the majority of
Japanese accounting academicsbelieved that the International
Education Standards had no substantial effect on accounting
education.Further it was found that most of the academics did not
know how they could confront these obstaclesto achieve global
convergence, although they were aware of the impediments.Research
limitations This study failed to portray any possible suggestions
or solutions on how toimprove future accounting education. Also the
sample size was not large enough to generalise the
findings.Finally, this study simply used the samples collected from
the one single nation of Japan.Practical implications The findings
will provide a positive direction for standard setters,policy
makers and regulatory authorities on how they should proceed in
both the design oftheir promotion strategies and on how to address
obstacles that have arisen according to
theseperceptions.Originality/value The primary strength of this
study was the fact that it was the first study in theliterature to
shed light on the perceptions of accounting academics in Japan on
the global convergenceof accounting education.
Keywords International Education Standards (IES) for
professional accountants,Accounting education, Japan
Paper type Research paper
1. IntroductionThis research reports on a survey of perception
of the globalisation of accountingeducation among Japanese
academics teaching in the tertiary schools. Several priorstudies
have argued the impact of globalisation on accounting education in
recentyears (e.g. Needles, 2010; Karreman et al., 2007). Such
literature contend that theadoption of International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS) has had a great impacton accounting
education in various countries (Needles, 2010). Coupled with
thisphenomena, many global organisations including the
International Federation ofAccountants (IFAC) and the International
Accounting Education Standards Board(IAESB) are beginning to play
prominent roles in this globalisation of accountingeducation by
providing a global framework through the International
EducationStandards (IES) (International Accounting Education
Standards Board (IAESB), 2010).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available atwww.emeraldinsight.com/1321-7348.htm
Asian Review of AccountingVol. 21 No. 3, 2013pp. 180-204r
Emerald Group Publishing Limited1321-7348DOI
10.1108/ARA-09-2012-0050
180
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However, there is unlikely to have been a strong consensus and
recognition of this issueamong accounting academics at the
classrooms level.
The question therefore remains unexplored on how, as key
stakeholders, academicsperceive the globalisation of accounting
education as there has been no scholarlyresearch or guidance on
this issue to date. Given this historical background, the aim
ofthis exploratory research is to investigate Japanese academics
perceptions towardvarious issues relating to the global convergence
of accounting education. Thisexploratory study will also establish
a framework and formulate more precise questionsthat can be
addressed by future researchers. The study focuses on the
perceptions ofaccounting academics because these people, being key
stakeholders, play a pivotal rolein delivering quality assured
accounting education programmes and so have a greatimpact on
moulding future professionals in the accounting field. This paper
is structuredby initially proceeds by presenting a literature
review. This is followed by a sectionoutlining the research design
and a review on the findings of the analyses. In conclusion,the
study provides the interprets and implications from the analysis
outcomes togetherwith some limitations of the study and
recommendations for the future research areas.
2. Literature review and research questionsThere has not been an
abundance of prior literature on the globalisation of
accountingeducation. However, some previous papers in the
international accounting field haveaddressed educators perceptions
on the global convergence of financial accountingstandards (e.g.
Rezaee et al., 2010; Joshi et al., 2008; Thomas, 2009). Of these,
Rezaee et al.(2010) and Joshi et al. (2008) investigated perceived
objectives, benefits, costs andobstacles of the IFRS convergence
among accounting academics in the USA andBahrain, respectively. By
contrast, no survey study has been administered that examinesactual
educators perceptions on global convergence issues relating
specifically toaccounting education. With these prior literature
reviews in mind, the present researchcommences with the following
overarching research question:
RQ1. How do accounting academics perceive the global convergence
of accountingeducation?
To gather an understanding of this global convergence issue, the
study must consider themany contextual factors that could influence
accounting academics views. For example,the International
Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB, 2009a) is now
veryactive in attempting to lead their prominent initiative of
prescribing global accountingeducation by using the IES. Academics
views of the global convergence issue may beaffected by their
opinions on the IES. Furthermore, just how to deal with IFRS in
theaccounting curriculum is also another issue that has emerged
with the convergence (e.g.Rezaee et al., 2010; Joshi et al., 2008;
Thomas, 2009). Rezaee et al. (2010) conducted asurvey among
educators and practitioners in the USA and found that 95 per cent
of theacademics who responded believed that the integration of IFRS
into the accountingcurriculum was important. Similarly, this may
imply that the mandatory adoption ofIFRS also enhances the call for
the global convergence of education.
Another important issue, cultural difference, may be a
distinctive driver that formsacademics views on convergence issues.
In prior literature, some studies have asserted thatdifferent
perceived skills and competencies have emerged across nationalities
and cultures(e.g. Lin et al., 2005; Hassall et al., 2005). Lin et
al. (2005) examined the perceptions ofaccounting students,
educators and professionals about the knowledge and skills needed
in
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accounting education and empirically found differences in the
perceptions of Chinese andUS respondents toward their skill
perceptions. The authors concluded that the emphasis ofaccounting
education in China was upon knowledge training, with greater weight
given tosome technical accounting knowledge subjects, while the
generic skill components receivedless attention. In general and
according to this prior literature, it was found thatprofessional
accountants from different cultures have different skill sets and
competences.
There are other perceived variables and obstacles that may
affect the successfulconvergence of accounting education. The
former chairperson of IAESB, ProfessorMark Allison, reported to an
Accounting Education Symposium at the 2009 EuropeanAccounting
Association Congress that the variation in education systems is
influencedby culture, law, economics and technology and is far
wider than the variation inapproaches found in technical accounting
matters (Wilson et al., 2009). This addressemphasised these
variations that would be major obstacles to be overcome before
wewill accomplish a successful implementation of global educational
convergence.
From another context academics also view the variation in
stakeholders roles acrossnations as being sensitive factors
affecting this convergence. For example, the AICPA as amember body
of IFAC is considered an appropriate accounting enforcement agency
in theUSA, but it does not control the education requirements for
the certification examinations(Needles, 2008). Differences in
professional qualification schemes are another one of thekey
contextual factors. In supporting this argument, Peek et al. (2007)
investigated thecertification and licensing requirements of the
accounting profession in Canada, Mexicoand the USA. The findings
suggested that more diligence should be placed on simplifyingand
standardising the certification and licensing procedures in order
to facilitate truecross-boarder assimilation of accounting and
auditing services in NAFTA countries.
Given the above literature review, this study addressed the six
key contextual factorsincluding IES, IFRS, professional skills and
competencies, obstacles, stakeholders andprofessional
qualification. From these factors the following research
questionwas developed:
RQ2. What contextual factors affect accounting academics
perceptions toward theglobal convergence of accounting
education?
Given the above two questions, this research also attempted to
extract more meaningfulfactors that drive accounting academics
overall perception of the globalisation ofaccounting education.
Such factors are that could impede successful implementation ofthe
global convergence of accounting education and necessary to
understand so thatpossible solutions to achieve this goal are put
in place. Policy makers and accountingcurriculum designers in
Japanese universities will then be able to make effective use
ofthis information to assist their future reforms of university
curriculums and educationalschemes in Japan. These factors formed
the basis of the RQ3 which examined theassociation of academics
overall views from RQ1 with the contextual factors from RQ2.This
conjunct research question was formulated as follows:
RQ3. What specific factors affect educators overall perceptions
of the globalconvergence of accounting education?
3. Sampling and research design3.1 Data collectionFor the
purpose of this research, a questionnaire-based survey was
conducted in July2010. The sample was collected from the accounting
educators who were delivering
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units at the undergraduate and postgraduate level of the
tertiary institutes in Japan.Initially the subjects were identified
as 300 members of the Japanese AccountingAssociation ( JAA) who
were randomly selected from the JAA Members Directoryissued in
2010. The JAA is the largest accounting academic association and
includes1,900 members whose positions are basically educators and
researchers teachingaccounting related subjects. Certified public
accountants, tax accountants andcompany auditors were excluded from
the sample according to the research purpose.The questionnaire was
sent to each subject via mail and included a self-addressedreturn
envelope. Of the 300 questionnaires initially distributed in
September 2010, 89responses were received before the deadline. From
these responses two were eliminatedfrom the analysis due to the
incompletion of the questionnaire. As a result, an
effectiveresponse rate of 29 per cent (87 questionnaires) was
achieved. Table I demonstratessubjects age, gender, position,
research interest, academic level and CPA qualification.
3.2 Questionnaire developmentThe questionnaire administered in
this research contained two sections. In the firstsection, subjects
were asked their perceptions on various aspects regarding
globalisationof accounting education. Each survey item was
developed by the authors with referenceto previous literature
dealing with the topics of global convergence of accounting
andbusiness reporting (e.g. Rezaee et al., 2010; Joshi et al.,
2008; Thomas, 2009). For thesecond section, subjects were also
asked demographic information including their age(AGE), gender
(GENDER), academic position (POSITION), research
interests(RESEARCH), academic level (AFFILIATION) and CPA
qualification (CPA).
3.2.1 Measures for RQ1: overall perceptions. To measure overall
perceptions, thisstudy first prepared three questions to seek
academics perceptions about the needs,feasibility and major
challenge of the global convergence issue. This idea was used
inJoshi et al. (2008). These authors applied similar questions to
investigate the perceivedroles of IFRS education among academics.
Moreover, the present paper addressed an
n Missing Classifications
Age Maximum Minimum Average (SD)
87 5 78 29 48.02 (11.410)Gender Male Female
87 1 74 (86.0%) 12 (14%)Position Professor Others
87 0 49 (56.3%) 38 (43.7%)Research Bookkeeping Financial
accountingManagementaccounting
Auditing Othersa
87 0 6 (6.9%) 51 (58.6%) 9 (10.3%) 7 (8.0%) 14
(16.1%)Affiliation Undergraduate Accounting
SchoolsbOtherpostgraduate
87 0 54 (62.1%) 9 (10.3%) 24 (27.5%)CPA Qualified Non-
qualified
87 0 8 (9.2%) 79 (90.8%)
Notes: aOthers category consists of two for financial analysis
research topics; three for taxaccounting; nine for no-description.
bThe Accounting Schools are special postgraduate institutionsthat
educate students who are aspiring to become qualified professional
accountants
Table I.Demographic information
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additional more perception issue on whether global convergence
of accountingeducation helps increase global comparability to form
an efficient market. This isbecause the IAESB set their mission to
serve the public interest by strengthening theglobal accountancy
profession, whose ability must satisfy a users information
needscontributing to an efficient economy (International Accounting
Education StandardsBoard (IAESB), 2009b, pp. 2-3). For these four
questions (see 4.1.1 for details of eachquestion item), a
five-point Likert scale was used to measure subjects responses.
3.2.2 Measurement for RQ2: influential attributesAs for the
second research question, six key contextual factors were extracted
fromprior literature reviews and discussed in this study. These
identified topics were IES,IFRS, professional skills and
competences, obstacles, stakeholders and professionalqualification.
In total, 29 questions divided into six specific themes were
created tofocus on this research question (Table II). For these
items, a five-point Likert scale wasused to measure subjects
responses.
3.2.3 Measures for RQ3: association. As mentioned, the study
extracted morespecific and meaningful components from the original
29 items in order to examine indetail RQ3. The compound factors
formed from this analysis were then explored toinvestigate the
associations with educators overall perception toward the
globalconvergence issue. All variables for RQ3 have been captured
in the process to addressRQ1 and RQ2.
4. Results4.1 RQ1: overall perceptions4.1.1 Four individual
perceptions. Table III demonstrates academics viewstoward the
globalisation of accounting education. It was found that 58.6 per
cent(47.1 per cent for agree; 11.5 per cent for strongly agree) of
the respondents believedin the necessity for the global convergence
of accounting education to assurehigh-quality professional
accountants across nations (OPE1). Further, 55.6 per centof
participants (35.6 per cent for agree; 20.7 per cent for strongly
agree) agreed theglobal convergence helps develop a more efficient
marketplace (OPE2). Theseeducators views were very consistent with
IAESBs mission to strengthen publicinterest and trust through the
development of education (IAESB, 2009a,b pp. 2-3).On the other
hand, the results reported that 47.1 per cent of responses (29.9
per centfor agree; 17.2 per cent for strongly agree) consented to
the idea that globalconvergence was quite idealistic (OPE3).
Moreover, 89.6 per cent of sample (28.7per cent for agree; 60.9 per
cent for strongly agree) agreed that there were majorchallenges and
obstacles that needed addressing in order to accomplish
globalconvergence (OPE4). In summary, academics positively assessed
the necessity andimportance of accounting education and its global
convergence, but they alsorecognised that there were various
impediments.
4.1.2 Aggregated measure of overall perceptions. This study also
attempted toformulate an aggregate measure of academics overall
perception of the globalconvergence issues. The questionnaire asked
four individual questions to assesstheir overall perceptions, of
which two questions (OPE1 and OPE2) addressed thestrong calls for
the global convergence (NECESSITY), while the other two
questions(OPE3 and OPE4) asked contrasting and opposite views on
the same issue(INFEASIBILITY). These two dichotomous views should
have been mixed in withthe four questions to form a single measure
of the overall perception. Accordingly,
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IES itemsIES1 IES should work as the global benchmark to
eliminate the differences in accounting
education between countriesIES2 IES should be the set of minimum
requirements that all the countries must comply
with at least in terms of accounting educationIES3 IES has no
substantial effect on actual accounting education at tertiary
schoolsIFRS itemsIFR1 Mandatory adoption of IFRS enhances the need
for global convergence of accounting
educationIFR2 Global convergence of financial reporting
standards under IFRS increases the need
for IESIFR3 Without global convergence of accounting education,
it is impossible to accomplish
the goal of convergence in financial reporting practice by
IFRSIFR4 Use of principle-based IFRS increases the importance of
judgement and decision-
making skills and relatively reduces the importance of technical
skills (e.g. doubleentry bookkeeping skill)
IFR5 Use of principle-based IFRS increases the importance of
judgement and decision-making skills and relatively reduces the
importance of knowledge memorisation
IFR6 Global convergence of accounting education will guarantee
high-quality judgementsand decision making among professional
accountants around the world whenapplying principle-based IFRS
Professional skills and competences (PRO) itemsPRO1 Professional
skills and competencies should be globally prescribed and converged
so
that professional accountants in any country can provide
high-quality assuranceservices
PRO2 Accounting ethics education in the tertiary curriculum
should be converged globallyto assure the common high-ethical
competency of professional accountants acrossthe world
PRO3 It is appropriate to teach the generic skills needed by
professional accountants in thetertiary accounting curriculum
around the world
Obstacles (OBS) itemsOBS1 Cultural differences between countries
are an obstacle to accomplishing global
convergence of accounting educationOBS2 Differences in
educational systems between countries are an obstacle to
achieving global convergence of accounting educationOBS3
Language differences between countries are an obstacle to
accomplishing global
convergence of accounting educationOBS4 Differences in CPA/CA
exam schemes between countries are an obstacle to achieving
global convergence of accounting educationOBS5 It is not
necessary to seek global convergence of accounting education if we
must
overcome lots of obstaclesOBS6 Lack of knowledge about IES among
accounting academics is an impediment to
achieving global convergence of accounting educationOBS7 Whether
or not accounting education can be globally converged depends on
the level
of awareness of this issue by each individual accounting
academicsStakeholders (PAR) itemsPAR1 The government and related
authorities in each country need to assist the progress
of global convergence of accounting educationPAR2 Accounting
academics have a strong influence on accomplishing global
convergence
of accounting educationPAR3 The professional accounting bodies
of each country have a strong impact on
accomplishing global convergence of accounting educationPAR4
Professional accountants have lots of things they can contribute to
accomplishing
global convergence of accounting education
(continued)
Table II.Question items under the
six themes
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the following formula was created to represent the aggregated
measure of overallperception:
Aggregatedmeasure of overall perceptions AMOP z-score for mean
score of OPE1 OPE2 z-score for mean score of OPE3 OPE4
Under this formula, a positive AMOP score would indicate that
the respondentswould have a relatively positive view of the issue
even though they did recognisesome negative sides. In contrast, a
negative AMOP score would show that therespondents would tend to
have an overall infeasible view of the issue even thoughthey
partially evaluated it positively. The AMOP score of zero was
assigned to anacademic who responded mutually inclusive to the
convergence issue. The resultof preliminary descriptive analyses
allowed us to hypothesise that frequency of AMOPwas normally
distributed. Accordingly, it was interpreted that the
majorityrespondents did not have extreme but mutually inclusive
opinions about the globalconvergence issue.
4.2 RQ2: conceptual factors4.2.1 IES. Among the several key
factors, this research first investigated educatorsperceptions of
the IES. With regard to these IES, some controversial discussionhas
been seen in the literature. The latest IES framework confirms that
IESsare expected to serve as international benchmarks, which will
allow IFAC memberbodies to measure the gaps from the actual
developments in accounting education(IAESB, 2009a, b). Using IES as
the benchmark, stakeholders can identify strengthsand weaknesses in
the professional qualification of accountants and auditors, and
thiswill ensure progress over time toward sustainable institutional
capacity (Needles, 2008;Karreman et al., 2007). On the other hand,
an opposing view criticised this benchmarkapproach, and suggested
that the objective of IES is to provide minimum requirementsto
assure global integrity and consistency rather than diminishing
differences ininternational certification requirement (Stocks,
2009). The present research preparedthree questions to address this
discussion.
Professional qualification (QUA) itemsQUA1 It can be thought
possible to converge the differences in the systems for
recognising
CPA/CA qualifications existing between countiesQUA2 It seems to
be possible to accomplish global convergence of accounting
education
even though CPA/CA exam schemes are different between
countriesQUA3 Requirements for practical experience must be
prescribed globally to assure high-
quality competence of professional accountants all over the
worldQUA4 It can be thought possible to implement a Global Unified
CPA/CA exam across the
world in the near future (Unified CPA/CA exam)QUA5 The contents
of post-qualified education (CPE/CPD) should be prescribed to
internationally assure high-quality competence of
professionalaccountants
QUA6 The successful convergence of global accounting education
largely depends onProfessional Mutual Recognition Agreements
between professional accountingbodies from different countriesTable
II.
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Strongdisag
ree
Disag
ree
Neutral
Agree
Strongag
ree
OPEitem
s(n87)
12
34
5Mean(SD)
w2(significance)
OPE1
11(12.6%
)9(10.3%
)16
(18.4%
)41
(47.1%
)10
(11.5%
)3.34
(1.199)
41.67(0.000)***
OPE2
8(9.2%)
8(9.2%)
22(25.3%
)31
(35.6%
)18
(20.7%
)3.49
(1.190)
22.02(0.000)***
OPE3
7(8.0%)
14(16.1%
)25
(28.7%
)26
(29.9%
)15
(17.2%
)3.32
(1.176)
14.78(0.005)***
OPE4
1(1.1%)
0(0.0%)
8(9.2%)
25(28.7%
)53
(60.9%
)4.48
(0.760)
73.87(0.000)***
Note:***Significantat
theo0.01
level
Table III.Overall perceptions ofglobal convergence ofaccounting
education
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The result is displayed in Table IV. It was found for the survey
item IES1,48.2 per cent of total samples (35.6 per cent for agree;
12.6 per cent for strong agree)contended IES usage as the global
benchmark to eliminate differences in accountingeducation between
nations. The mean score for this item was 3.40. Similarly, for
IES2,most academics had a positive perception that this standard
should be considered theminimum requirement that all nations must
at least comply with. Total respondentswho agreed with this
statement stood at 55.2 per cent (39.1 per cent for agree; 16.1per
cent for strong agree; 3.48 for means score). However, both of
these IES approaches(global benchmark and minimum requirement)
should be mutually exclusive as theyare dichotomous options to be
facilitated by IAESB (e.g. Needles, 2008; IAESB, 2009a;Stocks,
2009; Karreman et al., 2007). This inconclusive result was also
displayed in thefindings where the majority of responses were of
the neutral view, and were 37.9 and29.9 per cent of total subjects
for IES1 and IES2, respectively. Further, educatorsneutral attitude
to IES is deemed to be affected by their belief that IES had
nosubstantial effect on actual accounting education, because the
result of IES3 indicatedthat 63.2 per cent of total responses (36.8
per cent for agree; 26.4 per cent for stronglyagree) agreed with
the ineffectiveness of IES on accounting education.
4.2.2 IFRS. This factor was initially addressed by asking
academics perceptions as towhether or not they believed the latest
movement in IFRS adoption had significantrelationships with IES
initiatives employed by the IAESB. Smith and Bergen (2009),
forexample pointed out that training and education for a
principled-based systemaccommodated by IFRS should include the
education on how to apply strategicjudgements to identify the
substance of economic events without the guidance of
clearaccounting standards. These types of skills, including
judgement skills, are categorised asgeneric skills and prescribed
by the IES in an attempt to achieve high-qualitycompetencies for
accounting professionals at the pre- and post-qualification
stage(IAESB, 2010). Therefore, by adopting IFRS, it is more likely
to generate a situationwhereaccounting educators will seek exposure
to the IES, which in turn will enhance a globalconvergence of
accounting education. Similar reasoning is supported by other
studies (e.g.IAESB, 2010; Albrecht and Sack, 2000), where generic
skills acquisition is more importantin the training and educational
programmes compared to the memorisation and technicalskills
training. According to IES2: Content of Professional Accounting
EducationalProgrammes, it has been argued that the knowledge
component of professional educationprogrammes are used to develop
important skills for the profession but currentknowledge will
become obsolete later in ones career. Therefore, the IES2
recognised that asurface approach to learning knowledge across a
broad range of subjects is not in thelong-term interest of future
professional accountants (IAESB, 2010).
Along with these discussions, the research prepared six
questions. The results areshown in Table V. Being consistent with
prior studies (Thomas, 2009), the majority ofrespondents believed
that the IFRS adoption would increase the need for
globalconvergence of accounting education (50.6 per cent for agree;
19.5 per cent for strongagree in IFR1). In particular, they agreed
the IFRS adoptionwould enhance the need forIESs (37.9 per cent for
agree; 13.8 per cent for strongly agree in IFR2). In
contrast,educators, however, did not consider globalisation as the
single solution to accomplishsuccessful adoption of IFRS, because
participants who disagreed with IFR3 totaled47.1 per cent (24.1 per
cent for disagree; 23.0 per cent for strongly disagree) plus
32.2per cent indicating their neutrality on this issue. It was
found that most academics inthis study recognised that there were
more important factors other than globalisationof accounting
education to implement successful IFRS adoption.
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Strongdisag
ree
Disag
ree
Neutral
Agree
Strongag
ree
IESitem
s(n87)
12
34
5Mean(SD)
w2(significance)
IES1
6(6.9%)
6(6.9%)
33(37.9%
)31
(35.6%
)11
(12.6%
)3.40
(1.028)
41.90(0.000)***
IES2
7(8.0%)
6(6.9%)
26(29.9%
)34
(39.1%
)14
(16.1%
)3.48
(1.098)
34.43(0.000)***
IES3
3(3.4%)
7(8.0%)
22(25.3%
)32
(36.8%
)23
(26.4%
)3.75
(1.048)
33.40(0.000)***
Note:***Significantat
theo0.01
level
Table IV.Perceptions of IES
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Strongdisag
ree
Disag
ree
Neutral
Agree
Strongag
ree
IFRSitem
s(n87)
12
34
5Mean(SD)
w2(significance)
IFR1
6(6.9%)
8(9.2%)
12(13.8%
)44
(50.6%
)17
(19.5%
)3.67
(1.107)
54.89(0.000)***
IFR2
7(8.0%)
5(5.7%)
30(34.5%
)33
(37.9%
)12
(13.8%
)3.44
(1.064)
39.83(0.000)***
IFR3
20(23.0%
)21
(24.1%
)28
(32.2%
)13
(14.9%
)5(5.7%)
2.56
(1.168)
17.54(0.002)***
IFR4
28(32.2%
)23
(26.4%
)19
(21.8%
)10
(11.5%
)7(8.0%)
2.37
(1.268)
17.77(0.001)***
IFR5
15(17.2%
)24
(27.6%
)27
(31.0%
)17
(19.5%
)4(4.6%)
2.67
(1.117)
18.46(0.001)***
IFR6
9(10.3%
)14
(16.1%
)32
(36.8%
)27
(31.0%
)5(5.7%)
3.06
(1.060)
31.10(0.000)***
Note:***Significantat
theo0.01
level
Table V.Perceptions towardsaccounting educationfor IFRS
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More concretely, the results revealed academics perceptions on
to whether the strongeremphasis of judgement and decision-making
skills may affect the importance oftechnical skills and
memorisation in the education process. Anecdotal evidences in
theliterature have articulated that principle-based IFRS relatively
enhances generic skillsmore than technical skills (Smith and
Bergen, 2009; IAESB, 2010). In Table V, the meanscores of IFR4 and
IFR5 were 2.37 and 2.67, respectively, of which both were
o3.00indicating a neutral level. What this result means is that our
participants did notundervalue the importance of technical and
memorisation skills, relative to judgementand decision-making
skills.
Further, the outcome of IFR6, which represented a 3.06 mean
score (36.7 per cent foragree; 36.8 per cent for neutral; 26.4 per
cent for disagree), consistently indicated that therewas no
consensus among participants regarding the effectiveness of global
convergence toguarantee high-quality judgement and decision-making
skills. This finding revealed thatrecent strong emphasis of
judgement and decision-making skills as found in previousresearch
papers (IAESB, 2010; Albrecht and Sack, 2000) has not been
sufficientlydisseminated to the majority of our participants and
they did not agree on a call for theglobalisation of accounting
education to address the skill and competence issue.
4.2.3 Professional skills and competencies. The current paper
then attempted toexplore how accounting academics would perceive
the global prescriptions forprofessional knowledge and skills. As
seen in the previous section, accountingeducation for professional
skills and competencies have been highly emphasised in theIES and
IFRS (e.g. IAESB, 2010). Apart from these external influences, it
is not clearwhether academics perceive to prescribe globally some
educational components suchas professional skills, competencies and
even generic skills. It is widely contended thattodays global
dynamic business environment requires the accounting profession
toarm itself with new skills so as add value in the accounting
world (e.g. De Lange et al.,2006; Albrecht and Sack, 2000).
Further, professional attitudes including ethics are alsoaddressed
in this subsection. More specifically, teaching ethics in the
global villagepresents special challenges because literature
continuously argues that the definition ofethics depends on culture
(Needles, 2005). As students are already influenced by
theirindividual backgrounds before they begin to study,
professional accountingprogrammes, may have limited success in
influencing their behaviour and cognitiveabilities. In contrast,
International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB,2006)
contended a different view on this issue.
To address these arguments relating to professional skills and
competences, thepresent study prepared three questions with results
shown in Table VI. It was foundthat the majority or 44.8 per cent
of participants (33.3 per cent for agree; 11.5 per centfor strongly
agree) believed that professional skills and competences should
beglobally prescribed and converged, although 28.7 per cent of the
subjects retained aneutral position (PRO1). It should be noted that
this high neutral opinion contradictedto the demands for such
skills and competencies provided by previous studies (e.g.De Lange
et al., 2006; Albrecht and Sack, 2000). Our participants also did
not have anintegral opinion on the importance of accounting ethics
education in the tertiarycurriculum because the mean score of PRO2
was 3.01, that sparsely consisted of 40.2per cent for agree; 26.4
per cent for neutral and 33.3 per cent for disagreement.
Thisinterpretation was also supported by the results of w2
goodness-of-fit test for this itemwhich was not significant (w2
9.26, p 0.055).
In contrast the mean score of PRO3 was 3.70, which indicated
that our participantsinversely contended a strong agreement on the
importance of teaching the generic
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ree
Disag
ree
Neutral
Agree
Strongag
ree
PROitem
s(n87)
12
34
5Mean(SD)
w2(significance)
PRO1
11(12.6%
)12
(13.8%
)25
(28.7%
)29
(33.3%
)10
(11.5%
)3.17
(1.193)
18.23(0.001)***
PRO2
15(17.2%
)14
(16.1%
)23
(26.4%
)25
(28.7%
)10
(11.5%
)3.01
(1.271)
9.26
(0.055)
PRO3
4(4.6%)
10(11.5%
)13
(14.9%
)41
(47.1%
)19
(21.8%
)3.70
(1.080)
46.73(0.000)***
Note:***Significantat
theo0.01
level
Table VI.Professional skillsand competences
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skills commonly needed for professional accountants in the
tertiary accountingcurriculum across nations. Although the majority
of respondents were thought to besceptical to the effective
prescription of global accounting education, they did retaincertain
consensus on the importance of generic skills learning for
professionalaccountants.
4.2.4 Obstacles. Previous studies also argued about various
obstacles for asuccessful global convergence (e.g. Rezaee et al.,
2010; Eastman et al., 2009; Larson andStreet, 2004). Eastman et al.
(2009) for instance examined how an accounting educationsystem is
affected by the difference in the structure of the countries
capital marketsand financial reporting standards setting processes
between the USA and Mexico.With the historical review of litigation
processes and an interview-based survey, theauthors found that the
differences in the distinct concept of the corporate entitystrongly
influenced the delivery of accounting education at the tertiary
institutions ineach country. Further, Larson and Street (2004)
investigated perceived impediments toIFRS convergence in 17
European countries directly affected by the EUs decision of anIFRS
adoption. The results indicated that an important issue affecting
convergencewith IFRS was whether or not high-quality accounting
materials were available in acountrys national language(s). The
present research prepared six questions to addressthis
background.
Table VII shows the results of the survey. The mean scores of
3.55 for OBS1 (33.3per cent for agree; 29.9 per cent for strongly
agree), 3.44 for OBS2 (41.4 per cent foragree; 19.5 per cent for
strongly agree), 3.40 for OBS3 (29.9 per cent for agree; 24.1per
cent for strongly agree) and 3.44 for OBS4 (37.9 per cent for
agree; 19.5 per centfor strongly agree) means that the majority of
respondents recognised prominentobstacles existing that would
inhibit convergence. These included cultural differences(OBS1),
various educational systems (OBS2), language differences (OBS3) and
CPA/CAexamination schemes (OBS4) across nations. Although educators
were aware ofobstacles existing, it was not determined clearly on
how they would confront theseimpediments in order to achieve a
successful convergence. A total response rate of 42.5per cent
articulated their neutral opinion for OBS5 on whether it was
necessary or notto seek global convergence if one had to overcome a
number of obstacles. Further, onlya minority of educators (19.5 per
cent for agree and 8.0 per cent for strongly agree onOBS6)
consented that by promoting IES among them was the solution to
accomplishthis global convergence. For OBS6, 40.2 per cent of
participants (20.7 per cent fordisagree; 19.5 per cent for strongly
disagree) indicated that a lack of knowledge on IESwas not the
primary obstacle for the successful convergence. However, the
result ofOBS7 inversely discovered that 56.3 per cent of
respondents (34.5 per cent for agree;21.8 per cent for strongly
agree) agreed the stronger awareness of the issue was thecrucial
aspect for the successful achievement of convergence, regardless of
the specificknowledge of IES.
4.2.5 Stakeholders. In 2009, IFAC and IAESB released the IES
Framework toenhance understanding of the work of the IAESB over
various stakeholders includingacademics/educators who play a part
in the design, delivery or assessment ofeducation programmes for
accountants; regulators and authorities with responsibilityfor
legal and regulatory requirement of accounting education and/or
oversight of thework of the accountancy profession; and accountants
who undertake their ownlearning and development (IAESB, 2009a).
Along this line, the present researchexamined academics opinions
about the role of various stakeholders such asgovernment and
related authorities (PAR1), accounting educators (PAR2),
professional
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Strongdisag
ree
Disag
ree
Neutral
Agree
Strongag
ree
OBSitem
s(n87)
12
34
5Mean(SD)
w2(significance)
OBS1
12(13.8%
)9(10.3%
)11
(12.6%
)29
(33.3%
)26
(29.9%
)3.55
(1.379)
20.06(0.000)***
OBS2
11(12.6%
)10
(11.5%
)13
(14.9%
)36
(41.4%
)17
(19.5%
)3.44
(1.282)
26.50(0.000)***
OBS3
9(10.3%
)15
(17.2%
)16
(18.4%
)26
(29.9%
)21
(24.1%
)3.40
(1.307)
9.49
(0.050)**
OBS4
8(9.2%)
13(14.9%
)16
(18.4%
)33
(37.9%
)17
(19.5%
)3.44
(1.227)
20.29(0.000)***
OBS5
14(16.1%
)16
(18.4%
)37
(42.5%
)9(10.3%
)11
(12.6%
)2.85
(1.196)
29.26(0.000)***
OBS6
17(19.5%
)18
(20.7%
)28
(32.2%
)17
(19.5%
)7(8.0%)
2.76
(1.210)
12.71(0.013)**
OBS7
10(11.5%
)7(8.0%)
21(24.1%
)30
(34.5%
)19
(21.8%
)3.47
(1.247)
19.37(0.001)***
Notes:***,**Significantat
theo0.01
level,o0.05
level,respectively
Table VII.Obstacles of globalconvergence of
accountingeducation
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bodies (PAR3) and individual professional accountants (PAR4) in
an attempt to achievethe globalisation of accounting education.
According to Table VIII, it was found thatacademics believe the
role of professional accounting bodies of each country as themost
important stakeholder for this globalisation (3.77 of mean score),
followed by theindividual professional accountant as the second
most important (3.45 of mean score).Table VIII also showed that
accounting educators themselves consider they had alower influence
(3.25 of mean score) than above two key stakeholders. The
governmentand related authorities were found to be neutral among
survey participants since themean score of these items were
reported as 3.15. Accordingly, our participants tendedto perceive
that individual accountants and professional bodies were critical
for asuccessful implement of the global convergence of accounting
education.
4.2.6 Professional qualification. Previous studies have
discussed the necessity ofreforming the qualification scheme (Peek
et al., 2007), CPA/CA examination (Peek et al.,2007), professional
mutual recognition agreement (Peek et al., 2007), CPD (Paisey et
al.,2007; Zajkowski et al., 2007) and practical experiences (IAESB,
2009a). Accordingly,these items were examined as part of the
questionnaire in this study.
Table IX provides the results. First, QUA1 sought answers on the
overall possibilityof converging globally the differences that
exist between CPA and CA qualifications.The result was reported
negatively, as the majority of participants (58.6 per
cent)responded that such a convergence was considered impossible.
Further statisticsreported relatively smaller mean scores for the
CPA/CA examination schemes (2.71 forQUA2) and practical experience
(2.83 for QUA3), of which negative perceptions wereconsistently
associated with the lower score of QUA1. Of note, a difference in
the CPA/CA examination scheme within each country was the crucial
factor for successfulglobal convergence in the accounting
education, because the score of QUA4 alsorevealed that the majority
of participants (62.1 per cent) agreed that it would beimpossible
to implement a Global Unified CPA/CA examination across the world
(2.25of mean score for QUA4). Additionally many respondents also
perceived CPE/CPD atthe post-qualification stage (QUA5) and
professional mutual recognition agreement(QUA6) as a strong
influential aspects. However, the majority responded to these
twoitems as having neutral opinions (39.1 per cent for QUA5 and
37.9 per cent for QUA6).Previous literature attempted to stimulate
the importance of the various CPA/CAqualification schemes (Peek et
al., 2007; Paisey et al., 2007; Zajkowski et al., 2007;IAESB,
2009a, b), but these efforts have not reached individual accounting
educatorsand so no enhancement in interest on these issues has
taken place.
4.3 RQ3: conjunct association4.3.1 Principal component analysis.
To address RQ3, the principal component analysiswas applied to
extract more meaningful factors from all contextual factors that
wereoriginally sought by the questionnaire. Among a total of 29
items, the IES3, OBS1,OBS2, OBS3, OBS4 and OBS5 were coded
reversely from the original instrument andconverted to adjust for
the respondents new perceived position before employing thefactor
analysis (the higher the score, the more strongly the respondent
agreed withglobal convergence of accounting education). This
analysis was undertaken using thevarimax rotation technique with
Kaiser normalisation to assist with the interpretationof potential
influential factors. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin adequacy value was then
usedto determine if a correlation matrix existed between these
compounded factors. Thisadequacy value was calculated at 0.751 (at
the 0.01 significant level), which indicateda correlation matrix
was appropriate for this factor analysis.
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Disag
ree
Neutral
Agree
Strongag
ree
PARitem
s(n87)
12
34
5Mean(SD)
w2(significance)
PAR1
11(12.6%
)13
(14.9%
)29
(33.3%
)20
(23.0%
)14
(16.1%
)3.15
(1.234)
12.25(0.016)**
PAR2
10(11.5%
)15
(17.2%
)20
(23.0%
)27
(31.0%
)15
(17.2%
)3.25
(1.260)
9.49
(0.050)**
PAR3
5(5.7%)
9(10.3%
)13
(14.9%
)34
(39.1%
)26
(29.9%
)3.77
(1.158)
34.09(0.000)***
PAR4
5(5.7%)
11(12.6%
)23
(26.4%
)36
(41.4%
)12
(13.8%
)3.45
(1.065)
34.55(0.000)***
Notes:***,**Significantat
theo0.01
level,o0.05
level,respectively
Table VIII.Stakeholders
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Strongdisag
ree
Disag
ree
Neutral
Agree
Strongag
ree
QUA
item
s(n87)
12
34
5Mean(SD)
w2(significance)
QUA1
26(29.9%
)25
(28.7%
)20
(23.0%
)10
(11.5%
)6(6.9%)
2.37
(1.221)
18.57(0.001)***
QUA2
14(16.1%
)29
(33.3%
)17
(19.5%
)22
(25.3%
)5(5.7%)
2.71
(1.180)
18.46(0.001)***
QUA3
12(13.8%
)18
(20.7%
)32
(36.8%
)23
(26.4%
)2(2.3%)
2.83
(1.048)
29.37(0.000)***
QUA4
34(39.1%
)20
(23.0%
)16
(18.4%
)11
(12.6%
)6(6.9%)
2.25
(1.287)
26.16(0.000)***
QUA5
9(10.3%
)11
(12.6%
)34
(39.1%
)24
(27.6%
)9(10.3%
)3.15
(1.105)
28.80(0.000)***
QUA6
6(6.9%)
10(11.5%
)33
(37.9%
)27
(31.0%
)11
(12.6%
)3.31
(1.060)
32.25(0.000)***
Note:***Significantat
theo0.01
level
Table IX.Professional qualification
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The results of the principal component analyses are shown in
Table X. Applyingthe eigenvalues greater-than-one rule, seven
factors were screened from the 29 items asreplacements for the
original variables. In the process of this analysis, items
withscores40.60 were regarded as a loading for each compounded
factor. The seven factorscores for academics perceptions produced
66.326 per cent of cumulative percentagesof variance. Each seven
loading factor was labeled by the authors.
The largest cluster was named by the authors as DETAIL, which
included the sevenoriginal items such as PRO2, PRO1, QUA5, IES2,
QUA3, OBS5 and IFR6. These itemsrepresented detailed prescriptions
of the IES. The second largest cluster wasinterpreted as obstacles
(OBSTACLE) that included OBS1, OBS2 and OBS3. These
Factor1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Items DETAIL OBSTACLE COMPONENT PROFESSION ACADEMIC QUALIFY
IFRS
PRO2 0.824PRO1 0.814QUA5 0.758IES2 0.677QUA3 0.662OBS5a
0.641IFR6 0.633OBS1a 0.880OBS2a 0.859OBS3a 0.764IFR2 0.749QUA2
0.604IES1 0.652PRO3 0.763QUA6 0.754PAR3 0.677OBS7 0.709PAR2
0.658IES3a 0.608QUA1 0.764QUA4 0.737IFR4 0.842IFR5 0.787Cronbachs
ae 0.879 0.840 0.674 0.692 0.635 0.804 0.683Eigenvalues 8.513 3.007
2.002 1.704 1.541 1.346 1.122Variance (%) 29.35 10.36 6.90 5.87
5.31 4.64 3.86
Notes: aThese survey items were reverse coded in the original
instrument and converted to normalposition (the higher score the
subject responded, the more likely they agree with global
harmonizationof accounting education) before employing the factor
analysis. bExtraction method: principalcomponent analysis, rotation
method: varimax technique with Kaiser normalization. cFactor
Loading40.60 reported. dKaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling
adequacy was 0.751 at the o0.01significant level. eThe internal
reliability of each score was assessed by the Cronbach as.
TheCronbach as were calculated in the range from 0.879 to 0.635. In
general, a score 40.70 is deemedacceptable. Although these four
scores were slightly lower than the acceptable level (0.674
forEXPECT; 0.692 for PROFESSION; 0.635 for ACADEMIC and 0.683 for
IFRS), some previous studiesaccepted similar scores. For the
remaining four factors, their Cronbach a scores were above
thegenerally acceptable score of 0.70
Table X.Principal componentanalysis result
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original items stood for some impediments such as cultural
difference, educationalsystem and language difference faced with
successful convergence of education. Thethird loading cluster was
interpreted and labeled as COMPONENT, which includedIFR2, QUA2 and
IES1. These variables described inevitable components relating
withthe globalisation of accounting education. The fourth cluster
was loaded by threeoriginal variables such as PRO3, QUA6 and PAR3,
and labeled as professionalaccountants and bodies (PROFESSION).
These three items were related to professionalaccountants and
professional bodies. Further, the fifth cluster consisted of OBS7,
PAR2and IES3 and expressed as accounting academics (ACADEMIC) since
these items wereaddressing the role of accounting educators. The
sixth factor was interpreted as CPA/CAqualification (QUALIFY), and
contained QUA1 and QUA4. The items in this cluster dealtwith the
qualification schemes for CPA/CA. Finally, the seventh cluster was
labeledas principle-based IFRS (IFRS), of which the components were
formed by IFR4 and IFR5,because these items were based on
principle-based IFRS. Consequently, the resultsindicated that these
seven factors were compelling reasons in support of
globalconvergence of accounting education among Japanese accounting
faculties.
4.3.2 Multiple regression analysis. The study also undertook a
multiple regressionanalysis to examine a possible association
between academics specific views ofglobalisation of accounting
education and their overall perceptions on this issue. Forthis
regression, the seven compounded factors (DETAIL, OBSTACLE,
COMPONENT,PROFESSION, ACADEMIC, QUALIFY and IFRS) from the
principal componentanalysis were used as the independent variables,
and the aggregated measure ofoverall perception (AMOP) in the
section 4.1.2 was used as the dependent variable.Accordingly, the
following multiple regression model was developed for the
analysis:
AMOP a0 b1DETAIL b2OBSTACLE b3COMPONENT b4PROFESSION b5ACADEMIC
b6QUALIFY b7IFRS e
where e* is error term.Table XI provided the results of
regression analysis with AMOP. Findings included an
F-value of 15.214 (po0.01) and an adjusted R2 of 0.536. These
statistical findings showedthat a sufficient relationship existed
within this analysis model. The DETAIL, OBSTACLEand COMPONENT had
significant and positive associations with AMOP (t 4.592,po0.01 for
CONDITION; t 3.121, po0.01 for OBSTACLE; t 2.104, po0.05 for
EXPECT).
The result was interpreted that educators were aware of details
of the IESsprescriptions (DETAIL) and the inevitable components
necessary to achieveglobalisation of accounting education
(COMPONENT). It also tended to inspireacademics strong call for
achieving global convergence in accounting education. Ifacademics
knew more about IESs actual contents, they tended to agree with the
idea ofglobal convergence of accounting education. Also if they
were familiar with globalismtrends of IES, CPA/CA examination
scheme and IFRS, then again tended to have a morepositive opinion
on this idea. In contrast, the result of OBSTACLE indicated
thateducators concerns about the impediments facing the goal of
convergence significantlyamplified the negative ideas regarding the
infeasibility of global convergence.
5. DiscussionThe finding from the regression analysis
statistically discovered that educatorssensitivity of IESs detailed
contents (DETAIL) and inevitable components
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(COMPONENT) to the globalisation of accounting education had a
significant andpositive impact on their strong aspiration in
support of this issue (AMOP). It wasproven that these two factors
were the seminal drivers that stimulate Japaneseaccounting
academics to go a further step toward global convergence of
accountingeducation. This finding was quite informative, especially
for the IAESB as thestandard setter, policy makers and regulatory
authorities who intend to globaliseaccounting education in
Japan.
With regard to the detailed provisions of IES obtained from the
principle componentanalysis, the topics of professional skills and
competencies (PRO2), ethical attitude(PRO1), post-qualified
education scheme (QUA5) and practical experience (QUA3) are
alldealt with in IES2 Content of Professional Accounting Education,
IES4 ProfessionalValues, Ethics and Attitudes, IES7 Continuing
Professional Development and IES5Practical Experience Requirement,
respectively (IAESB, 2010). Thus, one effective wayto spread this
global convergence idea is to promote the IES more substantially
amongthe Japanese accounting academics. However, a contradictory
result was also foundfrom the result, revealing that Japanese
academics tended to view IES as having nosubstantial effect on
actual accounting education (see 4.2.1).
This educators negative perception about the IES were supposedly
due to thetraditional accounting educational structure at the
tertiary schools in Japan, wherethe curriculum development and its
contents have been fully independent fromthe influence of the
professional accounting bodies and have been responsible foreach
educators autonomy. By contrast, Australian universities, for
example, haveapplied an accreditation system, which allowed
professional bodies to engage in the
Model Sum of squares df Mean square F Significance
Regression 135.614 7 19.373 15.214 0.000a
Residual 100.596 79 1.273Total 236.210 86
Unstandardized coefficient Standardized coefficientsB SE b t
Significance VIF
(Constant) 6.532 0.810 8.067 0.000DETAIL 0.844 0.184 0.442 4.592
0.000*** 1.719OBSTACLE 0.338 0.108 0.235 3.121 0.003***
1.049COMPONENT 0.379 0.180 0.195 2.104 0.039** 1.585PROFESSION
0.230 0.166 0.116 1.385 0.170 1.300ACADEMIC 0.184 0.156 0.101 1.181
0.241 1.345QUALIFY 0.154 0.127 0.107 1.214 0.228 1.435IFRS 0.039
0.123 0.025 0.320 0.749 1.110R 0.758, R2 0.574, Adjusted R2 0.536,
Durbin-Watson test (DW test) 2.540Notes: Variance inflation factors
(VIF) for independent variables were ranged from 1.719 to
1.049,which ware sufficiently small to reject this concern. The
score of DW test was 2.540, which indicatedno statistical issue
regarding outliers in the analysis. This research also examined
normality of theresiduals. The result reported that the skewness
and kurtosis were 0.089 and 0.050, which werenear 0. Thus these
results ensured the normality of the residuals. ***, **Significant
at theo0.01 level,o0.05 level, respectively
Table XI.Multiple regression results
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development process of accounting curriculum (Institute of
Chartered Accountants inAustralia (ICAA) and CPA Australia, 2009).
In the Australian case, the IAEBS wouldhave easy access to
academics in order to promote the IES throughout the due processof
course accreditation. Accordingly, it is interpreted that the
traditional trait of theaccounting education scheme in Japan caused
the majority of participants to respondwith a neutral opinion when
it comes to IES issues.
Further, educators expectation on the global convergence of
accounting educationwas also found to be in conflict with their
traditional educational expectations in Japan.This was obvious from
the fact that the majority of participants did not undervalue
theimportance of technical and memorisation skills regardless of
the strong emphasis onjudgement and decision-making skills in the
latest literature (Smith and Bergen, 2009).Instead, these new
generic skills were relatively underrated in the results.
Kawahito(2004) recently supported this unique view for Japanese
academics and contendedthat rote learning processes such as
calculations or memorisations has prevailed inthe accounting
education. Although this skewed situation was attempted to bemended
particularly in the discussions around revising the CPA examination
schemein 2003, many accounting academics were still obsessed with
the traditionalimportance of rote skills.
This research also revealed that participants did not have a
strong consensusabout the importance of accounting ethics education
in the tertiary curriculum.Discussions on teaching common contents
for ethics education across cultures havenot come forward in the
literature to date (e.g. IAESB, 2006; Needles, 2010). In thissense,
the present research also confirmed such controversial arguments
existedamong Japanese accounting academics. Furthermore, this issue
of ethics educationcould be reflected from other evidence that
cultural differences were considered as thecritical obstacles for
the globalisation of accounting education. The regression
resultalso statistically indicated that such concerns about the
impediments of ethnicity,language and social systems (OBSTACLE)
were the vital drivers for educatorsto discourage their perception
of the feasibility of global convergence (AMOP).The findings
indicated that educators were well aware of the many obstacles,
andalso suggested that the successful implementation of global
convergence ofaccounting education relies on how to eliminate these
perceived obstacles, becausethe statistics showed that this was the
vital way to enhance academics to aspire to thecall for
convergence. But the problem remains that the results do not
provide clearexplanations on how academics could confront these
obstacles so as to accomplish asuccessful convergence.
7. ConclusionThis study aimed to examine perceptions on various
issues regarding the globalconvergence of accounting education
among Japanese accounting academics. Thethree research questions
were formulated to address overall perceptions of the
globalconvergence issue, more specific contextual factors of the
issue and the conjunctassociations between the above two questions.
The primary strength of this study wasthe fact that this was the
first study in the literature to shed light on academicsperceptions
on the global convergence issue. The findings were also very
informativeand useful to capture how actual accounting academics
perceive the call for this urgentglobal convergence issue. For
example, it was found that the majority of Japaneseaccounting
academics believed that the IES had no substantial effect on
accountingeducation. Further it was found that most of the
academics did not know how
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they could confront these obstacles to achieve global
convergence, althoughthey were aware of the impediments. These
traits must be considered in contextas the unique educational
scheme in Japan which has no accreditation system, unlikeAustralia,
poses difficulties for Japanese academics to incorporate IESs into
theiractual programmes.
These findings above provides encouragement for the IAESB to
increase IESpromotion and exposure among accounting academics. To
achieve this goal, theIAESB needs to strategically organise events
such as symposiums and conferences todeliver their messages on the
importance of the IES. Without an accreditation system,the IAESB
also needs to improve dialogue with domestic accounting
professionalbodies by helping them disseminate the IES among
academics. This method to assistthe global convergence of
accounting education could also prove useful to othercountries who,
like Japan, do not have accreditation systems in place.
In contrast, this study does have several limitations. First it
provided importantevidence on the perceptions of academics but
failed to portray any possiblesuggestions or solutions on how to
improve future accounting education. Thismay have been caused by
the data collection method that used a structured andtraditional
questionnaire method, and so was not designed to obtain future
directionsfrom subjects. This weakness can be addressed by using
inductive and qualitativemethods such as interviews or focus
groups. Second, there were some issues inthe data collection
process. For example, the sample was not large enough to
generalisethe findings. In total, 71 per cent of non-response rate
may have generatednon-response bias. Further methods should be
executed to improve the effectiveresponse rate for any future study
anticipated. Finally, this study simply used thesamples collected
from the one single nation of Japan. Using multicultural
subjectsfrom a range of different nations using this research model
will hopefully bringnew findings and these would contribute to the
development of our futureaccounting education.
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Corresponding authorSatoshi Sugahara can be contacted at:
[email protected]
To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail:
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This article has been cited by:
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