Practice Credential Reporting Errors in Hasselback's Accounting Faculty Directory

• In Event: Teaching, Learning and Curriculum 2

Abstract

This paper examines practice credential (e.g., CPA, CMA, CIA) reporting inaccuracies, i.e., faculty whose credential possession is not reported in James R. Hasselback’s 2014-2015 Accounting Faculty Directory. The sample comprises all full-time faculty teaching at U.S. schools who earned their highest academic degree over the period spanning 1994-2013. Results indicate a significant decrease in reporting accuracy between successive five-year graduation timeframes, i.e., the Directory fails to report credential possession of a larger percentage of faculty in each successive graduation timeframe. Further, the error rate is significantly higher among graduates teaching at Top 75 (as defined by Glover et al., 2012) institutions than it is among their non-Top 75 school counterparts, both for the entire 20-year graduation period, and each successive five-year graduation timeframe. However, evidence of practice credential possession is comparably accessible on websites of faculty at Top 75 schools as it is for their non-Top 75 counterparts. Other potential influences on reporting accuracy and website credential data accessibility are also investigated. These include the credential status of the academic accounting unit head at each school, a school’s AACSB accounting accreditation status, and the academic rank of each misreported faculty member.

Authors

• Kenneth Jonathan Smith, Salisbury University

• David J. Emerson, Salisbury University