Browsing by Author "Nori Yani Abu Talib, Ph.D"

Academic misconduct among university students is a global concern with profound implications for the accounting profession, as unethical behaviours learned in academia can foreshadow professional ethical failures. Guided by the extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and general strain theory (GST), the study pursued four research objectives (ROs): (1) to identify the prevalent types of academic misconduct, (2) to examine the underlying motivations for engaging in academic misconduct, (3) to investigate factors influencing the intention to engage in misconduct using an extended TPB model, and (4) to identify effective mitigating strategies of academic misconduct among graduating accounting students in public universities in Malaysia. A quantitative research design was employed, and data were collected through an online survey administered to final-year graduating accounting students across 15 Malaysian public universities offering the Bachelor of Accounting program. A total of 309 usable responses were obtained from 1,403 distributed questionnaires, yielding a 22% response rate. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics of mean, mean score ranking and standard deviation were used to address RO1, RO2, and RO4, while multiple regression analysis was conducted to address RO3. The findings on the types of academic misconduct most frequently committed by students showed that the highly engaged behaviours were obtaining test information from peers who had already taken the exam, using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools without proper acknowledgement, and paraphrasing or copying material from online sources without citation. In terms of the motivations behind such misconduct, the results revealed that students were primarily driven by the easy accessibility of AI tools, the desire to achieve better grades, and the belief that AI-generated work is superior to their own. The analysis of factors influencing the intention to engage in misconduct demonstrated that perceived behavioural control, subjective norms, and moral obligation were significant predictors of students’ intention to cheat, while attitude did not emerge as statistically significant. Finally, in relation to strategies to curb academic misconduct, the findings indicated that students strongly agree with a multi-faceted approach of identifying the influence of parental disappointment, regular monitoring during examinations, and strict enforcement of academic integrity policies as the most effective measures. This study offers valuable information for universities, policymakers, and professional bodies in developing targeted strategies to curb academic misconduct. By identifying the key behaviours, motivations, and predictors of students’ intentions, the findings highlight specific intervention points for strengthening academic integrity policies, improving monitoring, and shaping ethical decision-making. These insights are vital for fostering a stronger culture of integrity in higher education and reinforcing the ethical foundation of future accounting professionals.

Usefulness of financial reporting comprises of relevance and faithful representation. The former is measured by value relevance and earnings persistence, whereas the latter is measured by earnings management (EM). Thus, this study’s objectives are to examine the value relevance and earnings persistence of FV model in comparison to HC model. Another objective of this research is to compare earnings management in companies that applied the FV and HC models. Finally, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic period on the value relevance and earnings persistence in these companies is addressed. This study investigates the usefulness of financial reporting specifically the fair value (FV) model for investment property (IP) in Malaysia. The usefulness of FV is evaluated in comparison to the Historical Cost (HC) model. This research employed Positive Accounting Theory and semi-strong form of Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) to frame the hypotheses. In addition, the test of value relevance uses the Ohlson model. Secondary data were collected from 128 listed companies on Bursa Malaysia that held substantial amounts of IPs as their assets in the financial statement. The sample period of the study was 2018, 2019 and 2020. According to the regression results, overall findings indicate that financial reporting particularly the FV model for IP is useful. FV is more value relevant compared to the HC model. However, earnings are less value relevant in the FV model compared to the HC model. In the earnings persistence test, earnings were more persistent in the HC model in comparison to the FV model. Thus, both FV and HC models are useful under different measures of relevance. Moreover, this study has not found strong evidence to support that FV model is used for EM purposes, at least not in the case of IP listed companies in Malaysia. The FV and HC models' value relevance and earnings persistence are not significantly impacted by COVID-19. However, the value relevance of FV seem to decline and EM, measured by positive discretionary accruals, was higher in the year 2020 compared to the HC model. The findings of this study suggest that it is consistent with the EMH, at least the semi-strong form. Finally, the findings of this study could be of interest to companies with IPs, stakeholders, regulators and accounting researchers as the findings reveal that both models have their own advantages in terms of usefulness. Hence, it is suggested to regulators to consider dual measurements for financial statements to be truly useful.