As outlined in the TRA, in making career choices, students may be influenced by
various reference groups. For example, prior studies have evidenced that parents
influence students’ attitudes towards choice of accounting majors (Inman et al., 1989;
Mouldin et al., 2000). However, overall the empirical evidence shows mixed results in
terms of other reference groups such as the influence of friends, career counsellors and
teachers. For example, Gul et al. (1989) found that teachers did not have a significant
role in students’ choice of majors studied at university. In contrast, Geiger and Ogilby
(2000) and Mouldin et al. (2000) suggest that teachers have an important influence on
students’ decisions to pursue an accounting qualification.