In this study, we examine professionalism from the socialization perspective and
investigate the antecedents and outcomes of professionalism for a sample of accountants
in Hong Kong. Based on Miner’s framework of professional role requirements, we
develop a new measure of professionalism. Our empirical findings showed that current
employment characteristics such as job level and professional tenure had a significant
impact on respondents’ professionalism. On the other hand, early stage socialization
played only a limited role. Specifically, whether an accountant had a professional degree
or was a member of a professional organization did not affect his or her degree of
professionalism. Our results indicated that professional socialization is a cumulative and