Factors Affecting Future Accountants and Auditors’ Whistleblowing Intentions

Abstract

Public trust towards accountants has changed due to renowned financial scandals by large companies. Before becoming accountants, they were once accounting students. Accounting students are the future accountants, auditors, and finance professionals, and they hope for a responsible group of professionals. Therefore, applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study examines the factors influencing whistleblowing intention among final year accounting undergraduates. This study focuses on moral reasoning, retaliation, and negative emotions (guilt and shame) as factors for whistleblowing intention. The approach for this study is a cross-sectional study that will gather data utilising a questionnaire survey and a purposive sample design. Three hundred sets of questionnaires were distributed to final year accountancy undergraduate students, and 257 questionnaires managed to be collected, achieving a response rate of 85.66 per cent. The main finding suggests that moral reasoning and guilt have a significant positive relationship with whistleblowing intention. Meanwhile, retaliation and shame have a significant negative relationship with whistleblowing intention. Thus, this study helps fill the research gap in the Malaysian accounting profession and increases the awareness of the intention to whistle-blow among accounting students.