The Expectation-Performance Gap in Accounting Education

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JOURNAL ARTICLE EVALUATION

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The Expectation-Performance Gap in Accounting Education:

An Exploratory Study

By: BINH BUI and BRENDA PORTER

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In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Course

MSA 215

Accounting/Auditing Research

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Submitted to:

Marites A. Khanser, DBA    

Professor

Submitted by:

WILFREDO P. MONDIDO JR.

MSA Student

May 06, 2017

A.  STRUCTURE

• What is the intention of the study?

Based on a review of the literature, this paper proposed a comprehensive framework of accounting education’s expectation-performance gap (comprising an expectation gap, a constraints gap and a performance gap).

• How does the author outline the intention early on?

In his introduction, the author provided discussion on the existence of this expectation - performance gap of accounting education by citing events, related literatures and research works that support this problem. The author then inferred that although prior studies have investigated individual factors contributing to the failure of accounting education to provide graduates with the competencies expected of them by the profession, none has examined the gap holistically. With this, he then stated his intention to propose a comprehensive framework of examining the gap.

• How is this carried through the paper?

This intention was thoroughly and profoundly carried through the paper. The author started with a review of related literature citing articles that discusses concepts and theories relevant to the objective of the study. Articles about the changes in accounting profession and how accounting education was slow respond to the changes, studies conducted in identifying the right competencies expected for accounting graduates and reasons why accounting education failed to provide these competencies were discussed on the paper. This lead to the authors’ proposal of developing a hypothesized framework that analyse this expectation-performance gap of accounting education.

From, review of related literature, the author then conduct an exploratory study to test the proposed framework by doing a document study of the accounting programme of a New Zealand university followed by interviews with students, academics, graduate trainees and employers associated with the programme. He then presented the results, made his conclusions which resulted in identifying ways in which the gap may be narrowed.

• What theory was used?

The author used data and theories from other articles and prior research studies. Theories about the accounting profession, accounting education, and accounting graduate’s competencies have been examined in the paper.

B.  AWARENESS OF CURRENT DEBATE

• What existing debate in the field is the study addressing?

The study addressed the issues on the effectiveness of the current accounting education in producing competent graduates that would meet the industry needs and cope with the changing business environment.

C.  METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS

• Assess the appropriateness of the methodology used?

The author use an exploratory research design. Exploratory research, as the name states, intends merely to explore the research questions. Conducted in order to determine the nature of the problem, this type of research is not intended to provide conclusive evidence, but helps us to have a better understanding of the problem.

An exploratory study was conducted to examine the validity of the hypothesised structure. Using the accounting programme of a NZ university as a case study, small samples of key stakeholders were interviewed (i.e. eight final year students, five recent graduates, six educators, and 11 employers of the programme’s graduates—from large, medium and small accounting firms) to ascertain their opinions about the competencies which accounting graduates should possess and the accounting programme’s success in developing these competencies. The research findings provide broad support for the hypothesised structure.

I personally think the author is just right in using this methodology to meet the objective of the study which is testing the proposed framework that would thoroughly demonstrate the problem stated. This can be considered an initial research that is effective in laying the groundwork that will lead to future studies.

• How do the results correlate with the theory used?

The results of the study supported the hypothesized framework. This expectation-performance gap framework (comprising expectation gap, constraints gap and performance gap) can be used to further understand and analyze the deficiency of accounting education in providing graduates with the competencies needed by the industry. This would lead to future research studies that will eventually solve the problem.