Students’ Perceptions of Management Accounting and the Accounting Profession

Abstract

Purpose: Strategic Management accounting includes activity-based costing, target costing, the balanced scorecard, Kaizen costing, throughput costing, and other new management accounting approaches. Management accounting reviews changes in performance measurement of information requirements and the use of novel communication, including management information system reports, forms, channels, and the implications of varying organizational structures to aid the management accounting professionals in a new environment. Hence this paper aims to know Students’ perceptions of management accounting (course and field) and the accounting profession. Design/Methodology/Approach: The data for this study were collected using a quantitative approach. The researchers created a questionnaire with questions delivered over Google form to the students who study management accounting from various universities in Oman. Then the researchers analyzed the data using Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) software. Findings: The result revealed that students’ perceptions of management accounting courses have a significant influence on the accounting profession where it was p<0.001, t=12.758, and student’s perception of the management accounting field also has a significant impact on the accounting profession where it was p<0.05, t=2.126. This result indicates that the Students' Perception of management accounting courses and students' perception of the management accounting field significantly impact the accounting profession. Recommendations: Improving management accounting curricula, providing faculty development programs, promoting industry collaboration and internships, providing career counselling, encouraging industry-relevant research, and cooperating with professional accounting bodies are especially important in higher education institutions' activities. With these methods, higher education institutions may guarantee that their students are given practical training, match their academic programs to market demands, and increase their employability in accounting.