Abstract

Purpose: Our research studies how the choice of management approach within a company affects its attractiveness for accounting and auditing students. The knowledge gap we found was that previous literature did not account for the quality of human capital in their sample. Our study sought to answer this gap by investigating whether high-quality human capital aligns with a specific management approach. Human capital can increase in two ways: academic pursuits and/or on-the-job training (working experience and taking on responsibilities). This combination of human capital development has been our independent variable, measured against the dependent variable, management preference.

Methodology: This study employed a quantitative research design to collect data through an electronic survey. The targeted sample was Swedish accounting and auditing students in years 3, 4, or 5. These students had to have a maximum of four semesters left before graduation, since we had not explained the underlying dimensional differences between the management theories before allowing the respondents to complete the survey. The dimensional differences were extracted from the literature review. These extracted dimensions were the foundational basis for our survey questions. A multiple linear regression analysis and bivariate tests were conducted to answer the research question. The study also introduced Political views as a control variable due to previous literature posing this as a potentially important aspect of management preference studies.

Findings: The results showed that students with high-quality human capital preferred the stakeholder management approach, supported by previous literature. Our study also included a binary political control variable, which showed strong statistical significance on the dependent variable. LeftAndCenter political views strongly aligned with the stakeholder management approach, while Right-of-center views aligned with the shareholder approach.

Theoretical Contributions: Our research contributes to the existing literature by combining human capital and personal-organizational fit theory to examine how a company's choice of management approach affects its attractiveness to accounting and auditing students. Our results indicate that companies should adhere to the stakeholder ideals to attract high-quality human capital (HC).