Abstract
Professional ethics is a foundational element in the accounting and auditing professions, receiving sustained attention in academic research and practical implementation. In light of recurrent financial scandals linked to unethical conduct, stakeholders, including higher education institutions, policymakers, and enterprises, have intensified efforts to reinforce ethical standards for current and future professionals. This paper identifies factors affecting accounting and auditing students’ perception of professional ethics. The study uses the Extended Theory of Planned Behavior (ETPB) to investigate students’ intentions to engage in unethical behavior across two experimental scenarios: confidentiality and charging personal costs to an employer’s accounts. The study analyzes survey responses from 214 accounting and auditing students at several universities in the Hanoi area by employing a quantitative approach. The findings show that four explanatory variables (attitude toward unethical behavior, norms, perceived behavioral control, and moral obligation) significantly affect intentions to violate the students’ professional ethics. Among these, moral obligation emerges as the most influential predictor. The results support ETPB as a reasonable basis for understanding future accounting and auditing professionals’ perceptions of ethical behavior. The findings also highlight the impact of ETPB factors in the context of Vietnamese culture on unethical behavioral intention. Notably, the study underscores the strategic role of ethics education in supporting sustainable development goals by cultivating a responsible, transparent, and ethically grounded accounting profession.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed in this study are not publicly available due to the confidentiality commitments made to survey participants. These data were collected under strict privacy agreements, as explicitly stated in the informed consent process, where we guaranteed the protection of respondents’ personal information. The anonymized data can be made available to qualified researchers upon reasonable request to the corresponding author, subject to ethical review and compliance with our privacy commitments.
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Vu Thi Thanh Binh: Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, validation, visualization, writing — original draft, writing — review & editing. Ta Trang My: Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, resources, validation, writing — original draft, writing — review & editing. Robert C. Rickards: Conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing — original draft, Writing — review & editing. Nhung Hong Nguyen: Conceptualization, formal analysis, writing — original draft, writing — review & editing.
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The research received formal approval from the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Accounting and Auditing, VNU-UEB, in Decision on student thesis topic with approval number QH2021E- 21050693 in May 1st, 2024.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants involved in the study prior to data collection. Participants were informed about the purpose of the research, the voluntary nature of participation, the confidentiality and anonymity of their responses, and their right to withdraw at any time without consequence. The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments. Informed consent was obtained electronically before participants accessed the survey questionnaire. Data collection took place from May 20, 2024 to June 3, 2024, during which comprehensive anonymization measures were implemented to ensure participant protection.
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Binh, V.T.T., My, T.T., Rickards, R.C. et al. Predicting unethical intentions among accounting students in Vietnam: an exploratory study applying the extended theory of planned behavior. Humanit Soc Sci Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-06944-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-06944-3
