Factors Leading to Financial Reporting Fraud Intention in the Accounting Profession

Lim, Cheryl Qian Ying (2021) Factors Leading to Financial Reporting Fraud Intention in the Accounting Profession. Masters thesis, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Financial reporting fraud is an intentional act to mislead the financial reporting user which will cause huge losses to the organisation, ruin the reputation of accounting professionals and affects the confidence of the public on the published financial statements. The increase in financial reporting fraud cases have cause the accounting industry and business world to become worry. This research study aims to examine the factors leading to financial reporting fraud intention in the accounting profession. This research study includes five independent variables, namely self-esteem, integrity, emotional intelligence, loyalty and life satisfaction. Financial reporting fraud intention will be the dependent variable in this research study. Prior studies have not investigated the financial reporting fraud intention based on the personal characteristics of the accounting professionals. The current research study explores the self-esteem, integrity, emotional intelligence, loyalty and life satisfaction of accounting professionals in influencing financial reporting fraud intention. The investigation was done by distributing 96 sets of online questionnaires to the accounting professionals who aged within the range of 22 and above with working experience in the accounting industry. 15 sets of pilot tests will be distributed to accounting and finance students who have gone through their internship in the accounting profession and accounting professionals who are currently working. These samples will not be part of the samples of the main research study to ensure data accuracy. Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression were used for data analysis. Findings indicate that integrity is the only predictor for financial reporting fraud intention in the accounting profession. Hence, the current research study suggested various organisations to give more attention and conduct more in-depth research that could be taken in assessing an accounting professional’s integrity in the workplace. The research study has provided evidence that integrity has a negative relationship with asset misappropriation which is considered as one of the most popular fraud cases happening in organisations and also found that the integrity of the auditor and the commitment of the organisation has a positive effect on the prevention of fraud in which auditors are one of the categories in the accounting profession in this current research study. The findings can be useful to accounting professionals, organisation and capital market players which include investors, creditors and analyst for them to have a better understanding on the factors leading to financial reporting fraud intention in the accounting profession. This research study concludes with limitations and recommendations for future research.