{"title":"Does culture influence mentoring perspectives? A comparative study of India and the U.S","authors":"Tom Downen, Gaurav Gupta","doi":"10.1016/j.intaccaudtax.2025.100682","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Culture has been shown to influence a variety of perspectives and behaviors. And culture often varies, on average, between countries. As accounting firms and many other service-providing firms shift more outsourcing work to other countries, and especially to India, it is crucial to understand how culture might influence their work practices. One such practice is mentoring, which is critically important in the accounting profession. In this study, we examine two related associations. First, we compare the mentoring perceptions of survey respondents (who proxy for business professionals) in two culturally different countries: India and the US. After identifying significant differences between the two groups, we expand our analysis to consider the association between espoused national culture and mentoring perspectives. This study uses a large sample of survey respondents – graduate business students from the US (<em>n</em> = 422) and from India (<em>n</em> = 442) – to evaluate these relationships. Utilizing regression analyses, we find that career development and role modeling seem less important in India than in the US, whereas social support seems more important in India. These effects seem to be driven primarily by the espoused national culture dimensions of power distance for career development, collectivism for social support, and uncertainty avoidance for role modeling. Our findings have practical implications for multinational companies, including large US-based public accounting firms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":53221,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Accounting Auditing and Taxation","volume":"58 ","pages":"Article 100682"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of International Accounting Auditing and Taxation","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1061951825000059","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Culture has been shown to influence a variety of perspectives and behaviors. And culture often varies, on average, between countries. As accounting firms and many other service-providing firms shift more outsourcing work to other countries, and especially to India, it is crucial to understand how culture might influence their work practices. One such practice is mentoring, which is critically important in the accounting profession. In this study, we examine two related associations. First, we compare the mentoring perceptions of survey respondents (who proxy for business professionals) in two culturally different countries: India and the US. After identifying significant differences between the two groups, we expand our analysis to consider the association between espoused national culture and mentoring perspectives. This study uses a large sample of survey respondents – graduate business students from the US (n = 422) and from India (n = 442) – to evaluate these relationships. Utilizing regression analyses, we find that career development and role modeling seem less important in India than in the US, whereas social support seems more important in India. These effects seem to be driven primarily by the espoused national culture dimensions of power distance for career development, collectivism for social support, and uncertainty avoidance for role modeling. Our findings have practical implications for multinational companies, including large US-based public accounting firms.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation publishes articles which deal with most areas of international accounting including auditing, taxation and management accounting. The journal''s goal is to bridge the gap between academic researchers and practitioners by publishing papers that are relevant to the development of the field of accounting. Submissions are expected to make a contribution to the accounting literature, including as appropriate the international accounting literature typically found in JIAAT and other primary US-based international accounting journals as well as in leading European accounting journals. Applied research findings, critiques of current accounting practices and the measurement of their effects on business decisions, general purpose solutions to problems through models, and essays on world affairs which affect accounting practice are all within the scope of the journal.