Interest and Attitudes of Students in Administration Regarding the Accounting Area

Abstract

This study aims to examine the interest level and attitudes of business administration students in relation to the accounting disciplines present in the course. Initially, a theoretical discussion was carried out, with the presentation of general accounting elements,concepts, objectives and main areas of study; also discussed were the accounting disciplines present in the business administration courses and their importance for decision making; and finally, the main topics of the study were presented. After the stage of literature review, a field study was conducted with data collected from 157 students from three highereducation institutions in the city of Fortaleza. The data was analyzed using descriptive analysis techniques, regression analysis and cluster analysis. The main results were that: (1) students have only a moderate interest in the accounting area, and, regarding their attitudes,they attached a high importance to the area; (2) it was evidenced that the students interest in the area is influenced by their self-confidence and the perceived importance, but there is no significant influence produced by mastery of abilities or perceived difficulty; (3) three groups could be delineated, one with very excited students about the area (22.3 %),another with a moderate interest and attitude (44.6%), and the last group very averse to the accounting area (33.1% of total).