A multidimensional measure in accounting ethics research

Abstract

This study contributes to accounting ethics research by providing empirical evidence and some suggestions for the selection of variables to measure ethical judgements and ethical intentions of professional accountants. The senior professional accountants from big accounting firms located in Australia, India and Malaysia were investigated to gather evidence on measures of ethical judgements and intentions on 11 dependent variables. The study specifically suggests that a combination of unidimensional and multidimensional be used to gain an insight into the complex ethical judgements and intentions of accountants. More importantly, this study finds support for the hypothesis that the explanatory powers of the multidimensional ethics measure are greater than the unidimensional variables. This study also extends prior research by finding support for the hypothesis that social desirability response bias exists among accountants from the three countries. Furthermore, the study contributes to comparative international accounting research by showing that these suggested variables also provide useful insights into ethical judgements and intentions of accountants in countries that differ significantly in their cultural characteristics.