Does the sequencing of accounting principles courses affect academic performance?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research has documented the difficulty business and accounting students have in introductory accounting courses, and significant effort has focused on changes internal to the courses to try to improve student outcomes. Internationally and across the United States, most accounting programs separate introductory financial (FA) and managerial (MA) accounting into two independent courses because the course content and purpose of each are distinct. One underexplored way institutions might affect student outcomes is by determining the sequence in which students take principles courses at the same cognitive level. We use student data from a diverse non-selective institution, with 100 nations represented, combined with several econometric approaches to identify the effect, if any, of course ordering on course outcomes and long-term student outcomes for business and accounting students. Our results recommend that the practical and optimal sequencing method for accounting majors is FA before MA. For other students, we find evidence of an ‘accounting burnout effect’: students perform noticeably worse in their second accounting course regardless of sequencing, or do noticeably worse in both if taken simultaneously, another type of burnout. Given the similarities of accounting programs internationally and the diverse nature of our data, our findings can be generalized to international audiences.