The results also indicate that professional
accountants working in the French-speaking province
of Que´bec have a higher independence
commitment than their peers working in Englishspeaking
provinces (H3), thereby contributing to the
body of prior research that made visible linkages
between national culture and professional accounting
ethics. Although the difference could arguably
be due to legalism (the stricter regulatory re´gime),
law is nonetheless often a reflection of the societal
values and norms. Hence, an area of future research
would consist of relying on the cultural dichotomy
between collectivism and individualism to investigate
independence commitment in professional
accounting settings other than in Canada.