There is a statistically significant difference between Australian and international
students for the variable “intrinsic interest”, and the negative coefficient confirms that
Australian students are more likely to have an intrinsic interest in accounting than
international students (x 2 ¼ 9.862, p , 0.01), thus providing support for (H1). This
finding is consistent with the previous work of Jackling and Keneley (2009) and
Auyeung and Sands (1997) who found that Australian students tend to have positive
attitudes towards accounting (an attribute of intrinsic motivation), more so than
international students who are studying accounting in Australia.