Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter provides a review of related literature and studies pertaining to the current

research study which focus on examining the influence of attitude and subjective norms on ac-

counting students’ intention to take the CISA examination at Jose Rizal Memorial State Univer-

sity, Main Campus.

Certified Information Systems Auditor Examination and Certification

According to a study by Samidi and Tew as cited in Aziz et al., 2017, the majority of

upcoming accounting graduates had decided to pursue a career in accounting. According to

studies conducted by Ghani, Said, Mohd Nasir, and Jusoff, both public and private university

students rank the accounting field as one of their top career choices. In a study by Germanou and

colleagues. (2010) discovered that students are more likely to pursue a career in accounting if

they have a favorable opinion of the accounting field. According to the research, Malaysian

students are more likely to choose an accounting career if they have a favorable opinion of the

field.

A globally recognized standard for evaluating an IT auditor's knowledge, proficiency,

and ability to identify vulnerabilities and implement IT controls in an enterprise setting is the

Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) certification. The CISA certification is proof that

you have a sufficient understanding of fundamental audit theory to pass the written certification

test. The CISA credential is the bare minimum required for audit team members conducting audit

functions. Auditors deal with a particular type of demanding clientele. The auditor's report's

detailed findings could determine the future of the client's organization (Canon, 2011).
 The CISA exam is based on ISACA's auditing standards and the utilization of Statements

on Auditing Standards (SAS). Auditing abstract IT concepts necessitates a unique auditing

approach. The central focus of this examination is centered on the application of the structured

principles of financial auditing to the conceptual domain of information technology management

(Canon, 2011).

The CISA certification is awarded to individuals who can satisfy the following five

criteria, in accordance with the ISO minimum standard for certifying individuals: Successfully

complete the CISA Exam, Possess professional experience in information systems auditing,

control, or security, Maintain continuous adherence to ISACA's Code of Professional Ethics,

Follow established IS auditing standards, and Engage in ongoing education to stay current with

audit task proficiency training and updates (Canon, 2011).

Successfully complete the CISA Exam, which is available three times annually in June,

September, and December. The test is conducted in a traditional format with pencil and paper

under the supervision of a live test proctor. It comprises 200 multiple-choice questions and must

be completed within a 4-hour timeframe. To pass the CISA examination, a score of at least 450

points is necessary, placing candidates in the top one-third of ISACA's grading curve (Canon,

2011).

Professional expertise in information systems auditing, control, or security is a

prerequisite for CISA certification. Since CISA does not assess practical task performance, it

necessitates five years of IS auditing experience to demonstrate a fundamental entry-level

understanding suitable for participation in an audit team. ISACA allows for up to two years of

substitution to fulfill the work experience requirement. This may include related experience

substitutions, with a maximum of one year for financial or operational auditing or information
systems experience. Additionally, college credit hours can substitute for one or two years,

corresponding to an associate or bachelor’s degree (60 hours or 120 hours, respectively).

Furthermore, a full-time university instructor can replace two years of on-the-job experience

with one year of experience in IS auditing, control, or information security (Canon, 2011).

Consistent commitment to ISACA's Code of Professional Ethics is essential, emphasizing

the significance of trust and integrity in the auditor's role. A continuous pledge to uphold the

ethical standards outlined in the IS auditor's code is a requirement (Canon, 2011).

Compliance with established IS auditing standards is imperative, as these standards play

a crucial role in maintaining quality and consistency in the auditing process. Auditors who

deviate from these standards not only jeopardize their clients but also put their own professional

standing and the entire profession at risk. ISACA offers comprehensive guidance to assist

auditors in fulfilling their professional duties, and the auditing standards are grounded in widely

recognized professional practices that are applied globally (Canon, 2011).

Engaging in continuous education for audit task proficiency training and updates is a

crucial step that begins immediately after successfully completing the written exam. This

additional education is essential for acquiring the necessary skills to execute individual audit

procedure tasks, operate various analysis software (such as SCAP), and perform detailed test

procedures, among other required tasks. The material covered in preparation for the CISA exam

may not encompass all the skills needed, making it important to delve into practical learning

experiences. Learning through hands-on procedures is often more effective than solely relying on

reading and listening to lectures (Canon, 2011).

The results of the CISA test remain valid for a period of five years starting from the ex -

amination date. Even if you currently lack relevant work experience, you have the option to take
the CISA examination to demonstrate your successful completion of the theoretical foundation

necessary for participation in an audit team. However, certification will only be granted once you

submit verification of the required work experience, which should amount to a minimum of five

years or an equivalent. ISACA specifies that acceptable experience must have occurred within

the 10 years preceding your application date (Canon, 2011).

Theory of Reasoned Action

There is a wide range of literature addressing theories to explore academic and career

choice, including the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) as proposed by Fishbein and Ajzen in

1975, which is a well-developed and widely applied behavioural model focused on personal

interest and social influence. The TRA was developed as an improvement on the Information

Integration theory (Ajzen & Fishbein) by incorporating two major changes. First, TRA adds

another key factor to the persuasion process; behavioural intention. Instead of attempting to

predict attitudes, TRA is principally concerned with behaviour. This theory, however, also

acknowledges that there are certain circumstances (or factors) that restrict the effect of attitude

on behaviour. The second change, TRA uses two factors; attitudes and norms to predict

behavioural intentions. That is, whenever our attitudes direct us toward a certain action, but the

pertinent norms suggest we do something else, both elements influence our behavioural

intention. TRA predicts that there are two elements responsible for causing behavioural intent:

our attitudes and our subjective norms.

According to the TRA, the determinant of a person’s behaviour is his or her intention to

perform or not to perform the particular action (Hostler et al., 2011). The theory assumes that a

person’s intention is a function of the two basic determinants; one of them personal in nature, the

other reflecting social influence. The first determinant is the attitude toward the behaviour, which
explains the individual’s positive or negative evaluation of performing the behaviour. Attitude

means that individuals with a highly positive tendency to do something would be more likely to

respond favourably, whereas individuals with a highly negative disposition would be more likely

to respond negatively (Ajzen et al., 2004). In addition, an individual’s attitude is determined by

individuals’ beliefs about an object or person as reported by Lee et al. (2011). The second

determinant is the subjective norm that represents the individual’s perception of the social

pressure put on him by people who are important to him to perform or not perform a specific

behaviour (Shin, 2009).

Based on the previous literature, it has been argued that the only substantial discriminating

factors that influence students in choosing accounting discipline as their degree major include the

perception of accounting courses, perceptions of the accounting profession, important referents,

and personal skills (Ahinful et al., 2012). Other possible factors, like ‘impression of introductory

accounting courses’ and ‘gender’ are identified as weak predictors, which imply that they are

hardly linked to the choice of the degree major (Jones & Wright, 2010). Also using the TRA,

Felton et al. examined the students’ decision to pursue a career as a Chartered Accountant, and

their findings backed the TRA model’s focus on attitudes and beliefs and recommended the need

for more research using the TRA model.

The TRA assumes that there are two independent determinants of the intention to

perform behaviour namely; the attitude towards the behaviour (personal attitude) and subjective

norms (Law 2010). An attitude towards a behaviour is defined as an individual’s feelings

(positive or negative) to perform that behaviour (Law 2010). Subjective norms are defined as

“the person’s perception that most people who are important to him think he should or should not

perform the behaviour in question”. The personal attitude towards a behaviour is determined by
the individual's behavioural beliefs while the subjective norms toward a behaviour are

determined by normative beliefs. The TRA posits that behavioural intention is a function of an

individual’s attitude towards the behaviour (personal influence) and subjective norms (social

influence) surrounding the performance of the behaviour (Fishbein & Ajzen). According to

Jackling and Keneley (2011), the intention to pursue a certain course of action is determined by

the behavioural beliefs (beliefs that determine attitudes) and normative beliefs (beliefs influenced

by the opinion of others).

The application of the TRA model to the accounting profession was first undertaken by

Cohen and Hanno (1993) followed by Felton et al. (1995). As Cohen and Hanno (1993)

underscore, the TRA model is used to model the relationship between attitudes and variables

affecting career choice. According to the TRA model, students’ intentions about a career will be

10 strongly related to their attitudes toward the career and subjective norms. Jackling and

Keneley (2012 ) used the TRA model to examine the influences on the supply of accounting

graduates in Australia. Furthermore, accounting students’ career choice in public accounting

practices after the Enron scandal were analysed using the TRA model by Law (2010). Also,

other researchers applied the TRA model to examine students’ intentions about the accounting

profession (Jackling et al. 2012).

Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) was developed using the cognitive approach, the

basic idea that : "... humans are reasonable animals who deciding what actions to take,

systematically process and utilized the information available to them" (Ajzen and Fishbein,

1980). The TRA model finds its origins in the field of social psychology. This model developed

by Fishbein and Ajzen (1980) and defined the links between beliefs, attitudes, norms, intentions,

and behaviors of individuals. According to this model, a person’s behavior is determined by its
behavioral intention to perform it. This intention is itself determined by the person’s attitudes

and their subjective norms towards the behavior. Fishbein and Ajzen, define the subjective

norms as “the person’s perception that most people who are important to him think he should or

should not perform the behavior in question” (Fishbein and Ajzen).

The advantage of using TRA (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) compared with other behavioral

theory is that this theory can analyze the behavior of the components in the operational items. In

this case, the individual behavior is defined as the act or real activities conducted by an

individual and is very closely related to the interests of individual behavior (behavioral

intention).

Attitude

According to Fishben and Ajzen inSucianti (2017), attitude is the number of feelings

(affects) that a person feels to accept or reject an object or behaviour. An attitude refers to an

individual’s feelings (positive or negative) toward performing a behavior (Law, 2010). An

attitude toward the act is defined as “a person's favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the

behavior” and is formed by the beliefs about the likely outcomes of the behavior (salient beliefs)

and the evaluations of these outcomes (Meijer, S. S., Catacutan, D., Sileshi G. W and

Nieuwenhuis, M. 2015). Therefore, people automatically acquire an attitude toward the behavior

(Liñán, F., Nabi, G & Krueger, N. 2013).

A finding of empirical support for the TRA model in regards to the accounting career

choice has important implications for policy makers (Philip, 2010). It is well known that

students’ attitudes towards accounting are heavily influenced by their perceptions of accounting

(Adams, Pryor, & Adams, 1994; Mauldin, Crain, & Mounce, 2000; Tan & Laswad, 2006).

However, other studies have found that even though accountants may be viewed as having a dull
image, anticipated job satisfaction is a consideration of accounting students when they choose to

study accounting (Tan & Laswad, 2006). Furthermore, Jackling, Lange, Phillips, & Sewell

(2012) found that students have a positive attitude towards accounting as a profession.

Attitude towards the behavior is defined as the individual’s positive or negative feelings

about performing a behavior. It is determined through an assessment of one’s beliefs regarding

the consequences arising from a behavior and an evaluation of the desirability of these

consequences. In terms to look attitude toward accountant profusion and the CPAs Law, this

study uses some indicators such as: intrinsic motivation; financial rewards; perceptions of the

work of accountants; perceptions toward the CPAs Law; the prestige of the profession.

Fishbein and Azjen (1975) mentioned that when a person establishes his belief about the

consequences of performing a behavior (behavior), automatically and simultaneously the person

will gain an attitude toward behavior. In TRA, attitude toward behavior predicts behavior

intention. Intention reflects the choices one has made between performing or not conducting

behavior, and this has been shaped through a process of considerable mental, conflict, and

commitment considerations. Intention indicates a more stable mental state than the attitude of a

person regarding performing a behavior. From this point of view, the intention is a better

behavioral predictor of attitude when the intention has been established.

Subjective Norms

Subjective norm is one of the components in the TRA model. According to this model, a

person’s behavior is determined by its behavioral intention to perform it Subjective norm is

defined as an individual’s perception of whether people important to the individual think the

behavior should be performed. Hence, overall subjective norm can be expressed as the sum of

the individual perception x motivation assessments for all relevant referents. Beliefs are defined
by the person’s subjective probability that performing a particular behavior will produce specific

results.

SN is defined as agreement gained by influential person or considered having significant

role in students’ decision (Jackling et al., 2012). Subjective norm is the function of normative

belief, which means one’s subjective norm is determined by his belief to do or not to do

particular behavior (Thoradeniya et al., 2015). Subjective norm consisted of family, friend,

teacher and advisor consistently is found to be the weakest factor in any behavior (Kim & James,

2016). Sudaryanti and Kusuma (2016) stated that groupthink (a group of parents, friends and

teachers) has positive and significant influence over the job decision of accounting students.

Moreover, there are several studies which have discovered that subjective norm group especially

family and friends have significant influence towards the major choice and students’ career. In

addition to it, other studies have found out a significant influence of subjective norm family,

friends, teacher, and fellow students over intention to choose accounting major (Bekoe et al.,

2018). Subjective norms can be assessed directly or by considering the judgemental beliefs

(referent beliefs) which underlie an individual’s judgment of subjective norms (Ajzen & Driver,

2018).

Subjective norms demonstrate the social factors that influence individual. (Fini R.,

Grimaldi R., Marzocchi G.L and Sobrero M. 2010, Tiurenkov, V. 2011). Subjective norms

incorporate a person's beliefs about the extent to which significant others think the person should

engage in the behavior or not (Yakasai, A. B. M and Wan Jusoh, W. J. 2015).

Personal influence refers to one’s attitude toward his/her behavior, wherein social

influence is formed due to the pressure from the surrounding people toward the behavior

(Hammour, 2018; Owusu et al., 2018). It means that the students’ decisions may be affected by
social influences, such as parents, classmates, friends, and teachers (Porter and Wolley, 2014).

Students tend to rely on the referents’ opinions, which is vital to the students. Wen et al. (2015)

emphasized that the students tend to satisfy demands made by their family instead of meeting

their own satisfaction on their career pathway. Ahmad et al. (2015) added that students from the

Asian region preferred adhering to their deepen their knowledge about accounting and increase

their skills (Nguyen et al., 2021). The students also need to acquire the knowledge of an

accountant’s realistic work to intensify their intention to pursue CPAQ and become chartered

accountants (Zyl and Villiers, 2011). Owusu et al. (2018) reported a substantial and significant

impact on the link between subjective norm and intention to pursue CPAQ.

This model therefore suggests that external stimuli influence attitudes by modifying the

structure of the person’s beliefs (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). However, the overall empirical

evidence shows mixed results in terms of other reference groups such as the influence of friends,

career counselors and teachers. For example, Gul, Andrew, Leong, & Ismail, (1989) found that

teachers did not have a significant role in students’ choice of majors studied at university. In

contrast, Mauldin, Crain, & Mounce (2000) suggested that teachers had an important influence

on students’ decisions to pursue an accounting qualification. The contribution of the opinion of

any given referent is weighted by the motivation that an individual has to comply with the wishes

of that referent. Encouragement from the outside such as parental influence, spouse’s support,

and teacher’s encourage will influence the intention to pursue a CPA career.

Intention

Intention from the word base ‘intent’ means a thought which leads someone’s attention on

object or particular way to do something. The stronger the intention is the higher the probability

of someone doing the action (Foong & Khoo, 2015). Students with SE related to accounting who
have faced several barriers but keep believing in their ability; have a stronger attitude and

interest in accounting major (Djatec et al., 2015). Sulistiani (2012) stated that an intention is

closely related to motivation, the urge of an individual to consciously or unconsciously take

action with a particular purpose; a good intention will encourage motivation to do something

good. By implication, an individual’s intention defines his/her course of action. The TRA

assumes that individuals have complete control over their behaviour, hence, the stronger the

intentions to engage in a particular action or behaviour, the more likely it is that it will be

performed. From the perspective of the TRA, intentions are determined by two important factors:

attitude and subjective norms.

Schiffman and Kanuk (1987) suggested that the TRA incorporates cognitive, affective, and

conative components. The model they introduced in their study indicated that the best predictor

of behavior is the intention to act. The TRA proposes that behavior results from the formation of

specific intentions to behave (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). According to

the TRA model, two major factors determine behavioral intentions namely: the person’s attitude

toward the behavior, and subjective norms. Both attitude towards behavior (Ab) and subjective

norms (SN) impact the intention to perform the behavior. Behavior is the transition of intention

into overt action. Several studies apply the TRA to consumer behavior as it pertains to breast

feeding, intention to seek cancer information, and faculty attitudes towards teaching online

courses, use of technology and text messaging, to name a few examples (Ceccucci, Peslak, &

Sendall, 2010; Chen & Chen, 2006; Garman, Arnett, & Mauk, 2008; Ross, Kohler, Grimely, &

Anderson-Lewis, 2007).

Others argue that attitude refers to people’s evaluation of some concepts (Bagozzi, 1988).

The TRA assumes that individuals act rationally and they do consider the implications of their
actions before planning to act (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). It also assumes that an individual’s

subjective norm is determined by normative beliefs, which is a function of perceived

expectations of specific referent individuals or groups, and his or her motivation to comply with

their expectations (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).

The term “intention” signifies something that one plans or intends to do. An intention is

pursued when a person wishes to obtain or attain a professional qualification. Due to its role as a

dependent variable, the intention is vital in assessing an actor’s performance. In simpler terms,

the greater the motivation (intention) for someone to do something, the more likely the person

will perform. Ajzen (1991) claimed that intention and behavioral regulation are two significant

elements required to display specific behavior.

According to (Laksmi et al., 2018), intention denotes the willingness to engage in an

action. Arisudana (2009) further clarifies that intention is an aspect of an individual representing

the readiness to perform a behavior, with the behavior being the tangible expression of that

readiness. Sulistiani (2012) adds that intention is closely linked to motivation, representing an

individual's conscious or unconscious drive to take action with a specific purpose. A positive

intention serves to motivate actions toward positive outcomes.