PERCEPTIONS ABOUT ACCOUNTING EDUCATION RELATED TO OCCUPATIONAL FRAUD: REVIEW AND ANALYSIS.

• Author: Sahloul, Mohamad Majdi

INTRODUCTION

There is limited research in the existing literature about accountants' lived experiences regarding how they detected and managed fraud and internal control material weaknesses (ICMWs). Little is known about how accountants, who work in major metropolitan areas, use their undergraduate education to respond to fraud and ICMWs appropriately (Byrne, Flood, & Griffin, 2014; Appiah, 2015). There is a lack of understanding of how accountants perceive their undergraduate courses prepared them to detect fraud and respond to ICMWs (Lawson et al., 2014; Appiah-Sokye, 2016; Nwanyanwu, 2018).

In contrast, many studies focused on internal control; however, few studies explored the perceptions of accountants regarding academic education related to fraud and internal control (Dickins & Fay, 2017; Chilingerian, 2015; Appiah, 2015; Appiah-Sokye, 2016) regarding academic education related to fraud and internal control (Dickins & Fay, 2017; Chilingerian, 2015; Appiah, 2015; Appiah-Sokye, 2016).

There is a necessity to probe certain perceptions of scholars, educators, accountants, and employers to understand how academic education can be enhanced to better prepare accountants to respond to red flags encountered in work environments (Apostolou et al., 2015). Exploring the perceptions about anti-fraud education will bridge the gap between accounting practice and demand. This is because there is a strong relationship between undergraduate courses in accounting fraud and accountants' abilities to detect fraud and to respond to ICMWs appropriately (Dickins & Fay, 2017; Chilingerian, 2015; Appiah, 2015; Appiah-Sokye, 2016).

This study elaborates and analyzes various perceptions about forensic accounting education, ethics education, internal control education, and fraud education Then, the study continues elaboration and analysis of various perspectives of employers' perspectives regarding fraud education, students' perspectives regarding fraud education, educators' perspectives regarding fraud education, educators' perspectives regarding fraud education, and accountants' perspectives regarding fraud education

VARIOUS PERCEPTIONS

This section covers the various perceptions about forensic accounting education, ethics education, internal control education, and fraud education

Perceptions about Forensic Accounting Education

There is a gap in the literature about forensic accounting education (Sahloul, 2019). Most academic schools have not yet incorporated forensic topics into accounting education (Kranacher et al., 2008). Very few schools have started offering a full program or a certificate in forensic accounting. Although forensic accounting is still at its preliminary stage, it is challenged with inherited critical obstacles. For example, forensic scientists need to be familiar with not only financial accounting, but also with computer science, tax, business law, criminology, psychology, social science, and accounting (Mitric, Stankovic, & Lakicevic, 2012; Kranacher et al., 2008).

Furthermore, the effective education of forensic accounting necessities hands-on labs (Lang et al., 2014); online academic institutions might obviate this discipline. Nevertheless, existing perceptions suggest that the offering of forensic accounting programs is increasing (McCabe, 2017). The gap in perceptions can be narrowed to a few contradicting views in the literature regarding how to create an effective program or certificate in forensic accounting.

Perceptions about Ethics Education

In contrast to the perceptions gap about forensic accounting, ethics education attracted most literature related to fraud education. This is because one of the educational effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was a demand for improved teaching of business ethics to students enrolled in undergraduate business programs (Flynn & Buchan, 2016). Some researchers indicated that ethical education related to fraud needs to be probed more. For example, there is not enough encouragement of ethical decision-making frameworks to prepare students to recognize and think through ethical issues, such as ethical judgment (Martinov-Bennie & Mladenovic, 2015).

The literature suggested that ethics education at business schools has a positive impact on the moral development of business students (Flynn & Buchan, 2016). Few perceptions purported the progress of moral development was not significant between the pretest and the posttest (Arfaoui et al, 2016). Most perceptions found differences among accounting students regarding ethics depending on their gender and age (Tormo-Carbo, Segui-Mas, & Oltra, 2016). Most scholars concurred that (a) gender does have an impact, regarding academic education related to fraud and internal control (Dickins & Fay, 2017; Chilingerian, 2015; Appiah, 2015; AppiahSokye, 2016).

There is also a necessity to probe certain perceptions of scholars, educators, accountants, and employers to understand how academic education can be enhanced to better prepare accountants to respond to red flags encountered in work environments (Apostolou et al, 2015). Exploring the perceptions about anti-fraud education will bridge the gap between accounting practice and demand. This is because there is a strong relationship between undergraduate courses in accounting fraud and accountants' abilities to detect fraud and to respond to ICMWs appropriately (Dickins & Fay, 2017; Chilingerian, 2015; Appiah, 2015; Appiah-Sokye, 2016).

Perceptions about Ethics Education

Some perceptions determined the first obstacle to business ethics education is related to curriculum, pedagogy, faculty, and accreditation (Holland & Albrecht, 2013). There are some contradicting views in the literature regarding the enablers and barriers related to ethics education (Dellaportas et al., 2014). Perceptions contradicted regarding in which course ethics should be taught (Apostolou, Dull, & Schleifer, 2013). There is no agreement on whether ethics should be taught as a stand-alone course or should be incorporated into other accounting courses. Some views asserted that ethics education is adequate and mature, other perceptions offered a pessimistic outlook on the extent to which top master's programs are offering stand-alone courses related to ethics and CSR (Jorge, Pena, & de los Reye, 2015). The most controversial perception about ethics education is that a student's ethical framework is fixed and cannot be modified by ethics education offered when personal values are firmly established (Dellaportas et al., 2014).

Few scholars added that females who received ethical instruction are less likely to respond ethically in work environments (Wang & Calvano, 2015). Others suggested that ethical attitudes towards legal/moral issues improved, but attitudes towards moral-only issues did not (Cameron & O'Leary, 2015). Furthermore, few views suggested focusing on exploring the interaction of instructional methodologies and learning styles in ethical courses at accounting department (O'Leary & Stewart, 2013). Nevertheless, some perceptions suggested focusing not only on the learner but on the educator. For example, the willingness of an educator to apply active learning in an accounting ethics course could be affected, partly at a minimum, by that educator's expectations of the benefits and barriers of using active learning (Loeb, 2015).

Perceptions about Internal Control Education

Daniels, Ellis, and Gupta (2013) asserted that accounting educators and practitioners perceived internal control as the most significant topic for fraud education. Internal control education takes on even more importance with the enactment of the SOX (Lehmann, 2010). The reason is that teaching topics related to governance, achieving the long-term management goals, and minimizing the possibility of frauds is related directly to the effectiveness of the internal control education (Daniels, Ellis & Gupta, 2013; Lehmann, 2010).

Lehmann (2010) noticed that the critical role of an effective internal control system is at the core of specific courses such as Auditing and Accounting Information Systems. Most accountants agreed that their academic education did not provide them with robust knowledge about internal control weaknesses (Sahloul, 2019). Few researchers tried to enhance internal control education, such as Lehmann (2010) who presented six short, open-ended internal control cases. There are few perceptions in the literature about internal control education. There is a need to connect theory and practice to prepare accounting students to combat fraud and ICMWs.

Perceptions about Fraud Education

Chilingerian (2015) argued that fraud could be prevented through education. However, there are contradicting views regarding which competencies accounting students should acquire from their fraud education. Some researchers indicated that employers consider leadership, written communication, negotiation, and ethics as more important for auditing (Zureigat, 2015). Andre and Smith (2014) found that, based on student perceptions collected at the beginning and end of the semester, the class was successful in augmenting competencies relating to aspects of research and communication. Differing views on the importance of communication skills were found between educators and accountants (Siriwardane & Durden, 2014).

The literature suggests different perceptions about fraud education across borders. Chen (2015) studied whether China and Russia need accounting education reforms because they had not developed accounting systems as major English-speaking countries had. Tran (2015) pointed out that graduate employability had become a controversial issue in Vietnam because many university graduates do not meet employers' expectations. In contrast, Poon and Ainuddin (2011) presented a unique perception related to U.S. fraud education when they studied the fraud of fraud educators. Burke and Sanney (2018) found a need to focus on the fraud...