E-business in Accounting Education: A Review of Undergraduate Accounting Degrees in the UK and Ireland

Transcription

1 Accounting Education: an international journal Vol. 20, No. 1, 63 78, February 2011 E-business in Accounting Education: A Review of Undergraduate Accounting Degrees in the UK and Ireland AMR KOTB and CLARE ROBERTS Middlesex University, UK, University of Aberdeen, UK Received: December 2009 Revised: August 2010; November 2010; December 2010 Accepted: December 2010 Published online: February 2011 ABSTRACT Despite the rapidly growing importance of e-business and its impact on every aspect of the business world, including accounting practice and the accounting profession, little attention has been given to the e-business education provided to accounting students. This paper reports the results of a study into e-business education in undergraduate university accounting degree programmes in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. An analysis of 119 syllabi, representing e- business, information systems and auditing modules, was undertaken to investigate the scope of and content of e-business teaching within accounting degrees. It was found that e-business is, at best, only briefly covered in the typical accounting degree. Results of the study suggest that the UK and Ireland are lagging considerably behind the USA with regard to e-business education. They may also provide accounting educators, professional bodies, and researchers with insights into the teaching of e-business in order to better prepare accounting graduates for the Internetbased marketplace. KEY WORDS: E-business, information technology, accounting curricula, e-business education Introduction Electronic business (hereafter, e-business 1 ) has radically changed not only the ways in which organizations carry out their day-to-day activities, but also the nature of the work done, the nature of business relationships, and the ways in which an enterprise structures itself (Gale and Abraham, 2005). E-business technologies have enabled businesses to evolve from the use of standalone or locally-linked computer-based business models to extended-enterprise models, where different business parties (e.g. customers, suppliers, etc.) can access the entity s databases and systems through the Internet. In turn, this has radically changed the environment in which accounting and Correspondence Address: Amr Kotb, Middlesex University Business School, Accounting and Finance Department, Williams Building, The Burroughs, Hendon, London NW4 4BT, UK. a.kotb@mdx.ac.uk Print/ Online/11/ # 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: /

2 64 A. Kotb and C. Roberts auditing are practiced (APB, 2001; AARF, 2002; Phillips and Kirby, 2002; IIA, 2003). As Arnold and Sutton (2007) argue, these changes mean that accounting students about to enter the job market might expect to have a very different education from that of earlier generations. There have been several calls over the last two decades for the revitalization of accounting education through the integration of technological changes and developments taking place in the business environment into accounting curricula (see, for example, Armitage and Boritz, 1986; Heagy and Gallun, 1994; Ahmed, 2003; Chang and Hwang, 2003; David, MacCracken and Rekers, 2003; Coe, 2006). However, despite the rapidly growing importance of e-business, e-business education has received little attention in the UK and Republic of Ireland (ROI) accounting education literature. In particular, no research has been published on the extent of and content of e-business education within British and Irish undergraduate accounting degrees. 2 The present study addresses this gap by analysing the extent of and content of e-business teaching within undergraduate accounting degrees, whether as a standalone module or as part of another module. This objective was achieved by conducting an exploratory analysis of 119 undergraduate module syllabi, covering e-business; information systems; and auditing modules. 3 The next section presents a literature review addressing the integration of information technology (IT) into accounting curricula and a review of the UK and ROI university systems, in order to provide a background for the study. The third section outlines the methodology and the data collection process. The final section presents a discussion of the study s results and the implications of these results for undergraduate university accounting education. Background and Literature Review Recent years have seen the rapid growth in the importance of e-business as the Internet increasingly offers a cheaper way of doing business (Glover, Liddle and Prawitt, 2001). So that, in the UK and ROI, the corporate web site has become an essential means of communication with stakeholders with, by 2007, 70% of UK businesses having a web site (ONS, 2007). While the proportion of non-financial businesses that sold over the Internet doubled from 7% to 15% between 2002 and 2007, 19.3% of all UK businesses (68.9% of those with at least 1,000 employees) used automated data exchange, 17.8% automatically integrated orders received and their accounting system while 12.8% did the same for orders placed with suppliers. 4 Further, given the tough economic climate that the world is currently facing, it is expected that e-business will continue to grow in importance as consumers continue to tighten their financial budgets and turn to the Internet to find the best deals (E-Commerce Times, 2009). This means that job market entrants will be increasingly expected to have the technological skills needed to understand and operate in this environment. In turn, universities are regarded by employers as the natural source of well-educated potential recruits (Fallows and Steven, 2000; Paisey and Paisey, 2000; Gammie and Kirkham, 2008), being expected to fulfil the demands of both businesses and prospective students to produce graduates with relevant work-related knowledge and skills. They are often also seen as the natural source of knowledge upon which a professional group largely rests its status and claims the right to control a service against other competing professional groups (Montagna, 1974; Abbott, 1988; Hines, 1989). However, despite the apparent need for continuing change and calls for accounting educators to adjust accounting curricula to keep up-to-date with technological changes in the business world,

3 E-business in Accounting Education 65 university accounting education has been described as outdated, failing to prepare accounting graduates adequately for the vagaries of the changing modern business arena (Humphrey, Lewis and Owen, 1996; Albrecht and Sack, 2000; Humphrey, 2005). A number of studies have explored the integration of a variety of IT topics into accounting curricula, ranging from the simplest, such as word-processing software and electronic spreadsheets, to the complex, such as information systems security and control technologies (e.g. Waller and Gallun, 1985; Armitage and Boritz, 1986; Edmonds, 1988; Heagy and Gallun, 1994; Fink, 1998; Albrecht and Sack, 2000; Ahmed, 2003; Chang and Hwang, 2003; David et al., 2003; Marriott, 2004; Coe, 2006; Helliar, Monk, Stevenson and Allison, 2007). However, little interest has been shown in e-business. The noticeable exceptions are Rezaee, Elam and Cassidy (2005) and Rezaee, Lamber and Harmon (2006) who found that e-business is seen as being important in preparing US business and accounting students for challenges awaiting them and, while it is expected that the demand for, and provision of, e-business education will continue to increase, e-business courses were currently provided in most US business schools. In contrast, it is not at all clear how UK and ROI universities are responding to the challenge of e-business. The UK and ROI university sectors are quite diverse and the accounting profession does not rely exclusively upon university accounting departments for its new entrants. Internationally, most professional accounting bodies require entrants to have a degree and typically entrance is often also further restricted to graduates with a degree in accounting or a cognate discipline, in which case the profession plays a key role in determining university curricula. In contrast, all six chartered professional accounting bodies in the UK and ROI not only accept graduates with degrees in any subject but also accept non-graduates. In 2007, the student bodies of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) included approximately 5% of non-graduates, while the student bodies of the UK-based Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) were approximately evenly split between graduates and non-graduates (POB, 2008). However, even when entrants to the profession in the UK are graduates, then typically they do not have relevant degrees. Thus, the proportion of graduates in the UK with relevant degrees entering professional training with either ACCA or ICAS was in the mid-30% s, while for the London-based Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) the number was only approximately 13% (POB, 2008). Thus, both the professional bodies and the accounting firms themselves are generally geared to accepting entrants with little or no relevant prior education. If potential entrants to the profession have a wide range of academic backgrounds, and entrants with accounting degrees are in the minority, employers are unlikely to be concerned with the specific subject knowledge that entrants have, concentrating instead upon personal skills and aptitudes. This means they may, therefore, also be less concerned about the content of accounting degrees and the extent to which accounting degrees provide their graduates with subject-specific skills and knowledge. In turn, universities may have very different views about the importance of tailoring degrees to meet the demands of employers. University degrees in accounting may be designed to be relevant, fully complying with as many of the six chartered professional accounting bodies examination exemptions as possible. Alternatively, a university may decide to target particular professional body(ies) only, or it may instead ignore accreditation and exemption requirements altogether when designing the structure of its accounting degrees or the content of specific modules. Diversity of practice is likely to be at least partly due to the structure of the university sector. Until 1992, degrees in the UK were awarded by both polytechnics and universities. The polytechnics were controlled until

4 66 A. Kotb and C. Roberts 1988 by local authorities and focused more upon meeting the recruitment and applied research needs of local business. Under the terms of the Education Reform Act of 1988, in 1992 the binary divide was removed and all British polytechnics became universities, although traces of the differences in outlook and mission remain with most post-1992 institutions being relatively more focused upon producing graduates with job-specific skills and knowledge (Cranmer, 2006). 5 Degrees are typically of three years duration in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. 6 In contrast, Scottish honours degrees take four years 7 to complete, so there may be more scope here for non-core subjects such as e-business. This study reviews a large sample of syllabi, representing e-business, information systems and auditing modules. It does so in order to investigate the extent to which e-business education is integrated into British and Irish undergraduate university accounting degrees. The importance of this study originates from an apparent paradox. On the one hand, e-business is reshaping every aspect of the business world, including accounting practice and the accounting profession. On the other hand, the review of relevant literature revealed that e-business teaching in accounting education is relatively under-explored, with a lack of empirical studies addressing not only methods of delivering e-business teaching, but also the extent of and content of e-business education provided to accounting students. A study in the UK and ROI is particularly interesting because the lack of any necessary link between university accounting education and professional educational requirements suggests that universities may respond in quite different ways to the changing business environment. Research Design The present study focuses only upon e-business education within undergraduate accounting degrees, whether taught as a standalone module or as part of a module in information systems or auditing. Therefore, the syllabi of e-business; information systems; and auditing modules were reviewed and analysed in order to explore the extent of and content of e-business teaching. In doing so, an initial request for syllabi was sent to all 106 British and Irish universities with an accounting department. All academic staff listed in British Accounting Review Research Register (BARRR), edited by Helliar and Monk (2006), as having teaching interests in e-business, information systems, or auditing were sent requests. 8 A total of 32 outlines were received (four e-business, 13 information systems, and 15 auditing). A second request was ed approximately a month later. This generated an additional 69 outlines (10 e-business, 17 information systems, and 42 auditing). To enhance further the scope of data, the websites of all universities that had not responded were then searched to check whether or not these courses were offered and, if so, to download uncollected outlines if these were made publicly available. This final phase yielded an additional 18 outlines (three e-business, six information systems, and nine auditing). In summary, the data collection process resulted in a final sample of 119 syllabi from the 106 universities, comprising 17 syllabi of e-business modules from 16 universities; 36 syllabi of information systems modules from 29 universities; and 66 syllabi of auditing modules from 54 universities, as presented in Table 1. Some significant differences emerge from this table. Only 16 universities (18% of respondents) offer a module in E-Business, while 29 (43%) offer an IS module. Perhaps most surprising is the finding that only 54 (69%) offer an auditing course. There are also significant differences between the pre- and post-1992 UK universities, with 28% of pre-1992 institutions offering an E-business module in contrast to only 5% of post-

5 E-business in Accounting Education 67 Table 1. Availability of the three selected modules by university type (UK and ROI) Pre E-Business Information systems Auditing Post Total Pre Post Total Pre Post Total Module offered Module not offered No response a Total a This group refers to universities for which courses catalogues are password restricted, and universities where web-pages do not provide enough descriptive course information to conclude whether or not the university offers any of these three selected modules institutions (Chi-square significant at 0.01%). Similarly, IS is also found more commonly in pre-1992 institutions (49% versus 32% significant at 10%). In contrast, auditing is more commonly found in post-1992 institutions (78% versus 65%) although the difference is not significant. While it is unclear why these differences emerge one likely reason may be the differential impact of professional exemption requirements. Neither e-business nor accounting information systems is required by any of the professional accounting bodies in the UK or ROI, so students taking these modules have no immediate or obvious advantage in the job market place in terms of professional training requirements. In contrast, most of the professional bodies offer students exemption from at least one examination if they have taken an audit course. 9 Therefore, it appears that the module choice of post-1992 institutions may be driven more by the demands of the profession than is generally the case for older universities. Having collected 119 syllabi of e-business, information systems and auditing modules, each of these available syllabi was then analysed on six dimensions: title, status (core versus optional), level (year of teaching), course description, topic coverage, and resource materials. The results are discussed in the next section. Results 1. E-business Education: Location and Status Not only were stand alone courses unusual, apparently far less common than in the USA (Rezaee et al., 2006) but, when provided, they were always offered as options, with seven (41%) in the second year and 10 (59%) in the third or fourth years. There is some indication that ROI might be different from the UK with six of the 17 modules (35%) being found in universities from Northern Ireland and ROI. While the ICAI is no different from other professional accounting bodies in that it does not require relevant students to have taken information systems or e-business courses, it is the only professional accounting body where the majority of entrants have relevant degrees. This may have led to a closer connection between accounting firms and university accounting departments with degrees more focused upon market-related needs. Contrary to expectations, there is no evidence that the extra year in Scotland has freed up curriculum which is then being used for e-business teaching. All 36 IS and 29 of the 66 auditing modules (44%) included some e-business-related material and these courses were therefore further analysed. As reported in Table 2 the status and location of audit and IS courses was quite different from that of e-business

6 68 A. Kotb and C. Roberts Table 2. Information systems and auditing modules status and teaching levels Status Teaching level Core Option 1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year 4th Year n. % n % n % n % n % n % Information systems Auditing courses. In particular, a significant number of these courses were compulsory. IS modules were usually compulsory or core modules (67%) while a significant minority of auditing modules (34%) was also compulsory. IS modules were quite commonly found in year one (22%) with 53% located in year two and only 25% in years three or four. In contrast, auditing is normally a third or fourth year course (79%) and was not found in year one of any of the degree schemes. The reasons for these differences are likely to lie in the different focus and content of the courses. Many IS courses were introduced initially as a vehicle to teach students IT and computing skills, hence their location in the earlier parts of the degree schemes (Sangster, in conversation with the author, 2009). 10 In contrast, auditing requires some knowledge of accounting and accounting practice. Auditing, therefore, naturally belongs in the later stages of undergraduate programmes. 2. E-Business Modules: Objectives, Teaching Methods and Topics Looking, firstly, at module titles, these fall into two types. Seven of the modules have titles such as web development for business, or e-business applications, suggesting that the focus is primarily upon the teaching of skills and understanding of how the Internet can be used by businesses. In contrast, the majority (10) are simply called e-business, e-commerce or similar, suggesting that they may include a wider focus also covering areas such as the economics of, or the management of, e-businesses. The main focus of the modules will also be reflected in their objectives or course aims. Each module was therefore allocated to one of the seven categories used by Rezaee et al. (2006) that best described the main emphasis of the module, as shown in Table 3. Similar to Rezaee et al. (2006), the objectives most commonly focused upon providing a general overview of e-business and the Internet including the associated technology. Such a general course, covering technical, managerial and business issues, was more common in the UK and ROI, with 6 or 37.6% (versus 21.5%) of the courses being described in this way. Also more common were courses that focused primarily upon looking at e-business practices and opportunities ( i.e. courses that tend to either ignore or place little emphasize upon technical issues (4 or 25% versus 20%) and courses that similarly emphasize the different types of e-business models and the associated strategies such businesses should develop and apply (3 or 19% versus 14%). ) In contrast, despite the titles used, only two courses appear to focus mainly or exclusively on e-business technology and technological solutions (two or 12.5% versus 19%). Finally, the UK and ROI module descriptions tended not to be written to emphasize the preparation of students for the job market place. Thus, only one module (an Irish university) (6%) emphasized the preparation of students for the marketplace as its main objective, in contrast to 18% of those sampled by Rezaee et. al. (2006) Not only were courses concentrating primarily or exclusively on e-business technology less common in the UK and ROI, but perhaps reflecting the less technical nature of these

7 E-business in Accounting Education 69 Table 3. E-business modules: course objectives Rezaee et al. This study n % n % Provide general understanding of Internet and related technologies including e-business Develop understanding of current practices and opportunities of e-business Provide understanding of e-business technology and ability to define technology strategies Describe emerging business models and articulate associated effective e-business strategies Prepare students to become leaders of Internet-based business strategies, tactics & implementations Describe how e-business can affect managerial functions/decisions Prepare students to excel in e-business marketplace Total a 100 a One syllabus contained insufficient information to be allocated to a category. courses, only one module stated that it expected students to have familiarity with, or skills in, the use of computers or the Internet and only one module listed a prerequisite in computing and one a course of IT in business. This is in marked contrast to the findings of Rezaee et al. (2006) who found that the majority of modules included at least one prerequisite, and this often included computing, internet or IT skills. In addition, four modules required students to have previously taken a module in business or management information systems and one required students to have taken a course in business decisions analysis. Rezaee et al. (2006) show that a wide range of methods of pedagogy are employed, including videos, problem sets, presentations and case studies. Given the way that the collected syllabi are normally written, this depth of analysis is impossible here. However 15 of the 17 available syllabi give some details. All but one (93%) have lectures, in comparison to the 85% of Rezaee et al. (2006), making up, on average, 60% of student contact time, while only 7 (47%) have practical or lab-based workshops (when run, being a mean of 31% of contact time) and the same number have seminars or tutorials (mean 37% of contact time). Reflecting the typical UK and ROI undergraduate course, all but one of the courses (93%) are assessed by an examination making up an average of 67% of total assessment (in comparison to only 48% of assessment, found by Rezaee et al., 2006), while 11 require a project or other form of assessment (33% of total assessment for all modules, or 45% for relevant modules only). While the form of the assessment is generally not included in the syllabi, in at least four cases it includes the design of a website. Thus, while Rezaee et al. (2006) argue that the typical module comprises four elements: active discussion and presentation by students of assigned readings, submission of written analysis and projects, term paper, and guest speakers and videos, with the instructor acting as a facilitator and resource person rather than a lecturer, in the UK and ROI it appears that only the first three of these elements are found. In addition, while the instructor clearly acts as a facilitator providing structure and the environment conducive to discussion in both countries, in the UK and ROI they also play a significant role as a lecturer or as a provider of knowledge and expertise. Reflecting a lack of agreement on the focus of e-business modules and the very wide range of topics that might be covered, coupled with the rapid changes in the e-business

8 70 A. Kotb and C. Roberts environment and e-business-related technology, it is not surprising to find, like Rezaee et al. (2006), that a large number of texts were named in the syllabi. In total thirteen textbooks and two other reading materials (a conference paper and a professional education book) were listed as basic module texts with only five of these being named in more than one syllabus, as listed in Table 4. Only one textbook seems to garner any significant level of support, but even the most frequently cited textbook (E-Business and E-Commerce Management, by Cheffey, 2004) is only recommended by 35% of modules. This is an interesting choice as this text covers e-business from a managerial perspective concentrating upon e-business strategy and the management of e-business security and marketing to the exclusion of the more practical aspects of web page design and creation or programming skills. While it is not possible to be definite about the use of other materials in the modules, it appears from the syllabi collected that there was generally little or no use made of other materials and, in particular, often an absence of e-business case studies or other real life materials. The contents of all the syllabi were also examined and analysed using the same descriptors as used by Rezaee et al. (2006), as reported in Table 5. The first conclusion that can be drawn is that the typical module contains considerably fewer topics. While some of this may be due to the style of the syllabi, this does not appear to be the only reason and the topic lists do suggest that the typical module may cover less material than found in the USA. This means that eight of the topics described in Rezaee et al. (2006) were not found in any of the syllabi. This included three topics found in more than 25% of US syllabi (marketplace complexities; legal and regulatory policy issues; and the history and development of e-business). In contrast, three topics were found in a number of UK and ROI syllabi, but in none of the US syllabi: mobile commerce, economics of e-business and e-learning, or e-publishing. The list of topics has been broken down into four types: the intranet; technical skills including web design and programming; e-business management; and, e-business and internet security issues. Judging the relative importance of each topic by the relative ranking of the frequency of that topic, some interesting differences emerge in Table 5. A comparison of module objectives and methods of instruction suggested that the typical UK and ROI course will focus more upon e-business managerial, business and economic issues and will place less emphasis on e-business technology and practical skills immediately useful in the market place than is found in the USA. To a significant extent, this is also found in the topic coverage. Looking at specific topics, programming, in the form of HTML, Java, XML and XBRL were all far less commonly found in UK and ROI syllabi, although web-based and database design were both found more often. This means that, overall, the relative importance of web design and programming is not very different, although how exactly this is reflected in specific topics is quite different. Looking at e-business management issues, there is considerable agreement over the importance of e-business strategy, e-business model, marketing, and communication Table 4. E-business textbooks Textbooks n % Chaffey, D. E-Business and E-Commerce Management 6 35 Turban, E. and King, D. Introduction to E-Commerce 3 18 Laudon, K. and Traver, C. E-commerce: Business, Technology, and Society 2 12 Rayport, J. and Jaworski, B. E-Commerce 2 12 Turban, E., Lee, J., King, D. and McKay, J. Electronic Commerce: 2 12 A Managerial Perspective

9 E-business in Accounting Education 71 Table 5. Topical coverage in standalone E-business modules Rezaee et al. This study Topic % Rank % Rank Introduction to Internet and www Intranet and extranet ¼ Web programming and creating web pages Basic HTML Web page design and navigation Cryptographic techniques Database design and management Java script and programming language Electronic data exchange XBRL n/a E-business strategies and implementation Communication infrastructures and architecture of e-commerce Marketing E-business models Types of e-business environments Regulatory environment Complexities of the marketplace for e-commerce 46 8 n/a Legal and regulatory policy issues 46 8 n/a Supply chain management History and development of e-business n/a Impact of e-business strategies on stakeholders n/a Virtual communication / virtual corporation Virtual value chain n/a Mobile commerce n/a 35 5 Economics of e-business n/a E-learning or e-publishing n/a Protection of intellectual property Security issues of e-business Privacy issues of e-business Internet security standards Electronic payment systems Data authentication, integrity and digital signature Cryptography and authentications Firewalls Intelligent agents n/a Agents and personalization n/a infrastructures. Perhaps reflecting the rapidly changing nature of the subject and the growth of mobile telecommunication devices, mobile commerce is relatively common in UK and ROI course, ranked fifth, but is excluded from Rezaee et al. s (2006) list. However, UK and ROI courses are much less likely to include discussion of the environment facing e-businesses, including the regulatory environment. However, the biggest difference is found with respect to the group of topics concerned with Internet and e- business protection and security. The average rank of the eight topics found in both studies is 12.4 in the Rezaee et al. (2006) study, but only 16 in the UK and ROI. The main reason for such difference being, in particular, the omission of intellectual property rights and Internet security standards from virtually all UK and ROI modules.

10 72 A. Kotb and C. Roberts From the topics covered, it appears that a typical UK and ROI module would include both e-business strategies and a consideration of their implementation, and e-business models, while a significant number of modules would include: an introduction to the Internet and web; web page design; e-business marketing and mobile communications. In marked contrast, accounting, economic, legal and ethical aspects of e-business were covered by very few modules. 3. E-business Education: Part of another Module The content of information systems and auditing syllabi were also examined and Table 6 lists all the most common topics including all e-business-related topics taught in any of the information systems modules. Overall, the level of agreement over what a module should include is far higher now than was found for e-business. Thus, five topics appear in 50% or more of the modules: (i) definitions and environment; (ii) IS life cycle; (iii) IS development methodologies and techniques; (iv) the role of IS in business; and (v) the role of information systems in business. In contrast, topics reflecting managerial, accounting, social and economic or legal and ethical implications of IS were generally minimal, with only four main topics appearing in between 33% and 50% of modules: (i) impact of IS and IT in the wider social environment; (ii) project implementation, management and planning tools; (iii) strategic impact of IS on organizations; and (iv) functional and cross functional systems. While these modules include a number of e-business-related topics, there is again little agreement over the appropriate focus and they cover general, technical, and managerial aspects of e-business. However, no one topic was particularly common, with only onethird of modules including even an introduction to e-business. These syllabi clearly show the limited coverage in terms of both the breadth and diversity of e-business within information systems modules. Table 7 presents similar information relating to the auditing modules. Turning to the auditing modules, it is apparent that IT in general and e-business in particular are relatively unimportant. Of 66 auditing modules, 37 (56%) did not contain any IT audit or e-business-related topics. When modules did contain some relevant topics, there Table 6. Topic coverage in information systems modules Topic n % Information systems definitions and environment Developing information systems life cycle Information systems development methodologies and techniques Information systems security and controls Role of information systems in business Impacts of IS and IT in a wider social environment Accounting and management information systems concepts Accounting and management information requirements in e-business Information systems implementation process Networks, telecommunications and the Internet E-business and e-commerce: introduction Project implementation, management and planning tools Strategic impacts of IS on organizations Functional and cross functional systems, e.g. ERP, CRM and SCM 9 25 E-business/e-commerce models 8 22

11 E-business in Accounting Education 73 Topic was also little consensus on what was important with emphasis on IT auditing in general, rather than e-business related topics. Overall, 14 IT-related audit topics were delivered, with 10 of these being included in only three or less syllabi. These results, coupled with those reported in Table 6, indicate a lack of IT audit education, both in general and with respect to e-business in particular. For example, even the most common topic, the audit of computerized systems, was included in only 29% of all modules, while the second most common topic, computer audit techniques and tools, was found in only 12% of modules. From this, it appears that the typical undergraduate accounting degree places very little emphasis on keeping up-to-date with technological changes and developments in the business environment as exemplified by the increased prevalence of e-business and its impact on audit practice and the auditing profession. Discussion and Implications Table 7. Topic coverage in auditing modules No. Per cent of 29 modules Per cent of 66 modules Audit of computerised systems Computer audit techniques and tools Information technology and auditing Computer controls Types of accounting systems Systems development and documentation control Hardware and systems software control System security controls Auditing e-commerce Systems audit software technology Systems auditor duties Audit automation Continuous auditing Networking audit The findings are somewhat surprising given the rapidly growing importance of e-business. While e-business education has been included in at least some accounting curricula, very few UK and ROI universities offer an e-business module at undergraduate level and, when the subject is thought to warrant a standalone module, it is optional. Nor is there any evidence suggesting that the subject generally features in other modules. E-business is, therefore, covered very much less in the UK and ROI than in the USA. In addition, when e-business is included in accounting degrees, the evidence suggests that the subject content is also distinctly different. Therefore, prior knowledge requirements or prerequisites of computing or IT, while common in the USA, are almost entirely absent in the UK and ROI. UK and ROI courses also tend to exclude programming, the regulatory environment, intellectual property rights and internet security standards. Thus, it appears that not only is e-business coverage far less common in the UK and ROI, but when taught, less emphasis is placed upon the preparation of students for the job marketplace. There may be a number of reasons for these differences. What is taught may be influenced by the availability of textbooks and it is clear that there is, as yet, no consensus on suitable textbooks. However, a more important reason may be differences in the accounting job

12 74 A. Kotb and C. Roberts market. Not only do the Big 4 in the UK and ROI recruit more graduates from non-relevant degrees than from accounting degrees, but accounting graduates may enter any one of six chartered professional accounting bodies or, indeed, none of them. This is likely to mean that the profession is typically less concerned with the precise subjects included in students degrees, and individual university departments may be less concerned about keeping degrees relevant to the marketplace. However, despite this, the relative lack of coverage of e-business should be a cause for concern. Universities play important social and legitimising roles in society and professional life (Freidson, 1986; Abbott, 1988; Gammie and Kirkham, 2008). Abbott (1988, p.195) argues that...professions rest on knowledge and universities are the seat of knowledge in modern societies. In this sense, the university is often seen as: (i) the natural source of knowledge upon which a professional group largely rests its claims to the right to control a service against other competing professional groups (Montagna, 1974; Hines, 1989; Paisey and Paisey, 2006); and (ii) the natural source of well-educated potential recruits (Fallows and Steven, 2000; Paisey and Paisey, 2000; Gammie and Kirkham, 2008). There is a consensus in the literature that the profession-university link is an essential component of the professionalization process that allows professional associations to justify any monopoly privileges they receive from the state (Abbott, 1988; Annisette and Kirkham, 2007). In the case of the British and Irish accounting profession, while part, or all, of accounting professional education and training is based outside of the university, it is hard to argue that the profession-university link is weak or not present at all. The university-profession alliance is not only founded upon the education, training and certification function, but crucially, there can be no doubt that formal knowledge, defined as the subjects of research expected to feed through the education in modern universities (Freidson, 1986), is widely regarded as a central feature in the definition of a profession (Hines, 1989). Such knowledge can serve to expand, develop and even defend the profession s knowledge base and hence the field of practice for practitioners (Annisette and Kirkham, 2007; Robson, Humphrey, Khalifa and Jones, 2007). Thus, it can be argued that up-to-date academic knowledge (produced through research and delivered by education) plays an important role in sustaining and expanding a profession s jurisdictional claims. In particular, it is asserted that the significance of existing, and/or new, accounting practices lies in the connections it makes to legitimate, academic abstract bodies of knowledge (scientific basis) that are claimed to underpin these practices (Robson et al., 2007). The evidence follows Abbott s (1988) claim that the development of many technical audit practices (e.g. Business Risk Audit) have been legitimized by their association with academic abstract knowledge (e.g. theory of business strategy) (Robson et al., 2007) and other processes offering normative sources of legitimacy, including the production of texts, and the use of case studies in teaching. At another level, studies of employer needs (see, for example, Fallows and Steven, 2000) repeatedly stress the priority that is given to university graduates due to the knowledge and skills they are assumed to acquire as a result of studying at university. For example, although large accounting firms and professional accounting bodies in UK and ROI keep open an employment route for school leavers, university graduates are a far more important source of potential recruits. In the current knowledge economy, it can be argued that graduates are assumed not only to develop interpersonal, communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills through their university education, but also importantly to establish an understanding of issues affecting the environment in which they live and work. For example, IFAC (1994) argues that university accounting curricula should include subjects designed to provide students with a firm understanding of global issues affecting society and the business environment.

13 E-business in Accounting Education 75 Furthermore, Jackling and Calero (2006) emphasize the importance and the role of university curricula content that reflects the knowledge and skills sets required for an increasingly sophisticated and changing business environment. Grayson (2004) argues that job outcomes are connected, to some extent, to what graduates might learn in universities. Accordingly, it can be argued that university curricula could be seen as a tool through which universities can retain their superiority, as the natural source of well-educated recruits, by delivering up-to-date education reflecting rapid changes taking place in society. In an e-business environment, business strategies, organization structures, management processes and control procedures have changed, and accounting practice in turn is more likely to change. For example, the use of real-time integrated information systems (e.g. Enterprise Resource Planning Systems ERPs) has changed the traditional view of accounting practice and accountants role (Caglio, 2003). Such information systems have eliminated several tasks that once were part of accountants daily routines and companies are now looking for accountants who can use their expertise in areas such as strategic decision-making, business management and IT. To take another example, although the basic principles and essential procedures underlying the audit of e-business will be no different to those applying to other businesses, e-business will significantly impact a number of auditing practices such as risk identification and evaluation, audit evidence, internal controls, audit approach, and audit timing (APB, 2001). Thus teaching university accounting students e-business concepts is becoming increasingly important irrespective of the subject being taught. In particular, teaching e-business concepts to accounting students offers them more than extra experience of current real business issues and a different way of thinking about the possible role of, and implications of, IT in the business environment. It can be argued that this is likely to be particularly important in the case of the UK and ROI. Where the professional bodies can and do select the best graduates largely irrespective of the subject of their degree, accounting graduates are faced with competition in the job market from graduates of all disciplines. If accounting degrees fail to provide an education that provides these graduates with the type of subject specific knowledge that is seen as being valuable in the market place, then accounting graduates offer employers no advantages over other graduates. If so, students entering university will increasingly have little or no reason to take accounting degrees in preference to other less professionally-oriented degrees. In other words, university education curricula can be viewed as vehicles through which updated knowledge is delivered in order to retain the universities and, more specifically, accounting departments survival (Naidoo, 2003; Grayson, 2004). Based on the above, the increased implementation of the Internet and web applications in daily life and in business has created a need for a holistic approach to accounting education in order to provide students with a better understanding of the tremendous impact that IT in general, and e-business in particular, will continue to have on accounting practices and the accounting profession (Phillips and Kirby, 2002; Johnson et al., 2003). In other words, e-business concepts should be seen as a critical component of an accounting graduate s knowledge and skills base. However, the evidence suggests that changes in university accounting education are taking place more slowly and less comprehensively than the changes taking place in the business environment and the profession, confirming the findings of Johnson et al. (2003). However, university accounting educators are not completely free to design the content of the degrees and modules which they teach. There are several factors affecting curricula change, including not only professional accreditation, local employer and industry needs, and student demands but also: academic fashion, financial pressures, staff shortages, staff research interests, lack of teaching resources, and time constraints. Thus, while there are many reasons why accounting degrees should include e-

14 76 A. Kotb and C. Roberts business, there are also many factors that are likely to act against change. Indeed, it can be argued that one consequence of the increasing pressures in the UK bought about by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) or Research Excellence Framework (REF) is that as research output has increased in importance across the entire university sector and, as accounting departments have, therefore, tended to move away from employing professionally-qualified staff in favour of staff with PhDs (Gray, Guthrie and Parker, 2002; Beattie and Goodacre, 2004), the ability and willingness of staff to teach course such as e-business will likely decrease. However, despite the lack of adequately experienced or qualified staff, time or teaching resources, accounting students should learn about the business environment in which accounting is practiced. They need to understand how e-business differs from the traditional physical business environment in which accounting developed, and what impact e-business is having upon accounting practice and the role of the professional accountant. In particular, more efforts are needed from accounting academics to integrate e-business materials into their undergraduate accounting modules. It is strongly recommended that e-business concepts be integrated into relevant accounting modules, such as information systems, auditing, management accounting, and financial accounting, rather than offer standalone e-business modules. Accounting students need to be taught the implications of e-business for different accounting practices rather than learn just about technical issues. For example, accounting students need to understand how e-business has changed business strategies, organization structures, management processes, business risks and control procedures, and then understand implications of these changes for accounting practice. Obviously, if this is to occur, accounting departments need also to ensure the technical capability of staff that would be responsible for teaching e-business materials as well as the availability of teaching resources (textbooks, research papers, software, etc.). Acknowledgements The authors should like to thank Alan Sangster and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and all respondents to the request for course syllabi. Notes 1 While the terms e-commerce and e-business are often used interchangeably, this paper takes e-commerce to refer to buying and selling goods and services using the Internet, while e-business is taken to encompass the implementation of all business activities, both commercial and non-commercial, over the Internet. In the present study, the term e-commerce is used only when explicitly excluding non-commercial activities or when reporting upon the terminology used elsewhere. 2 This study also includes the Republic of Ireland (ROI) because its education system is very similar to that of England and the professional body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI), and the academic body, the British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA), cover both Northern Ireland (which is part of the UK) and ROI. 3 The most common texts in the UK on financial and management accounting were reviewed (Deegan and Unerman, 2006; Alexander, Britton and Jorissen, 2007; Bhimani, Horngren, Datar and Foster, 2008; Drury, 2008; Seal, Garrison and Noreen, 2008; Elliott and Elliott, 2009; Wickramasinghe and Alawattage, 2009). Given that most of these did not discuss e-business at all, and none devoted more than two pages, these subjects were excluded from the survey. 4 All these figures refer to companies with at least 10 employees. 5 Universities in the UK are often referred to as either pre-1992 or post-1992 depending upon whether they were granted university status via Royal Charter before 1992 or were originally polytechnics or colleges of higher education awarded university status by statute in 1992 (or, in some cases, later). 6 Some English universities (e.g. Loughborough) offer a four year degree, which includes one year on a work placement. However, the academic courses are still spread over three years.