Raising the awareness of professional ethics of accounting students in the era of industrial revolution 4.0: A case study at UEH

Abstract

Professional ethics play a guiding role for the behavior of each accountant, helping to promote the sustainable development of the accounting industry, ensuring the transparency, accuracy and reliability of financial information. The study “Raising awareness of professional ethics among accounting students at UEH” aims to identify the key factors influencing the ethical awareness of accounting students, focusing on their perceptions and behaviors in professional settings. Thereby proposing solutions to strengthen the ethical standards of Accounting students. The study was conducted through quantitative methods with 185 Accounting students. The analysis findings indicate that the scales are reliable, the research model aligns with the collected data, and the factors in the model are statistically significant. Research shows that six main factors affect students' perception of professional ethics, including learning environment, professional competence, personal ethics, understanding of social culture, corporate ethics and State laws and regulations on professions. In particular, the learning environment has the strongest impact on the perception of professional ethics with a coefficient of β = 0.382. Professional competence and personal ethics also had a significant impact, with coefficients β = 0.295 and β = 0.243, respectively. Understanding of social culture, corporate ethics and State laws and regulations on professions all have a positive impact but a lower level of influence. Finally, the study proposes management implications for education managers at universities, lecturers, and training institutions to foster awareness of professional ethics among students. Furthermore, the research identifies certain limitations within its scope and proposes future studies to explore and deepen the understanding of factors affecting the perception of professional ethics in diverse educational and professional environments.