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SYNOPSIS: Finding qualified accounting staffhas consistently been a top issue facing CPA firms. However, little is known about the factors that influence accountants' decisions to seek careers with different types of firms. In our paper, we use Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior to examine the reasons why some accountants seek careers at Big 4 firms, while other accountants seek careers at non-Big 4 firms. We survey accounting students and find that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control each influence firm-choice decisions. To provide additional insight into our results, we survey accounting professionals from Big 4 and non-Big 4 accounting firms. We find that, overall, students' perceptions, while more limited, are similar to those of accounting professionals. Further, we find that accounting professionals provide a number of insightful comments that offer several important implications for accounting firms. Finally, we assess whether accounting professionals perceive that certain types of accounting students are more likely to succeed at Big 4 versus non-Big 4 firms, and whether recruiting efforts are consistent with these perceptions.
Keywords: theory of planned behavior; firm selection; career decision; Big 4 firms.
Data Availability: Data are available upon request.
(ProQuest: ... denotes formula omitted.)
INTRODUCTION
Since its inception in 1998, the CPA Firm Top Issues Survey, administered by the Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), has frequently reported that finding qualified staffis either the number one or number two issue facing CPA firms. Further, the most recent CPA Firm Top Issues Survey indicates that finding qualified staffremains a top-five issue (AICPA 2009).1 Recruiting qualified accounting staffis a challenging process for most firms (Gladen and Beed 2007). In particular, recruiting the best and brightest accounting students who are qualified to pursue careers at either Big 4 or non-Big 4 accounting firms is an intensely competitive endeavor (Kimmell et al. 2008; Violette and Chene 2008). Yet, despite the importance of recruiting to accounting professionals, little academic research has examined this issue from the students' perspective. In our paper, we examine the reasons why some accounting students seek careers at Big 4 firms, while other accounting students seek careers at non-Big 4 firms, defined as large national and smaller regional/local firms.
We employ two experiments to address...