What contents for introductory accounting courses?A survey on Italian faculties of Economics

PROBLEM STATEMENT - The advent of Zappa’s scientific revolution (dating back to the beginning of the 20th century) inevitably gave rise to a gradual decline of the classic Italian accounting discipline (“Ragioneria” (R), roughly akin to Accounting) university teaching in favor of the young overarching Italian discipline (“Economia Aziendale” (EA), roughly akin to Management and Business Administration). This decline was strongly fought against for a long time by part of the Italian academic community, and this may have created interesting and peculiar consequences on degree curricula and related module contents. Thus, almost a century after the event, we wonder: What is the current setting of EA and R’s syllabus contents actually provided in our classrooms? What is known about the current level of agreement reached by the teachers in the selection of the above-mentioned module topics? What is the current two-way relationship between module contents and title? PURPOSE - The aim of this study is to analyze the kind of coverage that was granted to certain basic topics assumed as typical for the Italian disciplines more akin to Accounting (i.e. those encompassed in the group named “SECS-P/07 Economia Aziendale”). RESEARCH DESIGN - To answer the main research question (“Are some Italian traditional accounting basic topics presented in the introductory accounting courses of the Italian Faculties of Economics and, if so, how?”) twelve detailed operational research questions (five for the research context and seven for the research core) were answered using statistical tools (descriptive statistics and Cramer’s V). METHODOLOGY - A survey of introductory accounting courses included in the degree programs belonging to classes 17/L18 and 28/L33 of Italian Faculties of Economics (academic year 2009/10) was performed. The main steps were three: (I) delimitation of a subpopulation suitable for the introductory accounting sequence (IASs) (i.e. the two first SECS-P/07 modules) analysis; in this regard, both ministerial and university online data were used; (II) IASs extraction; (III) IAS (context) and topic coverage (research core) analysis. RESULTS AND FINDINGS - As for the IAS analysis, the double structure (i.e. two modules) and the placement of the first module in the first year are preferred. Hence it seems that the distribution of the modules in the IASs was inspired by a principle of progression. Regarding the IAS modules, the majority of them are placed in the first year, followed by the second and the third; the most common title is EA (less than 50%), the second is R (20-30%), followed by other titles. Moreover, EA and R are the most common titles of the first and second modules respectively. There is a strong agreement in setting a preliminary educational step before accounting modules and in naming first modules according to the young Italian general doctrine. As far as topic coverage is concerned, (i) all the six selected topics (Financial Statements-FS, Double Entry Method-DM, Bookkeeping-BK, “azienda”-AZ, “impresa”-BU, and income-equity-I/E) are frequently provided for the first time in the IASs; (ii) the topic most commonly provided is FS, followed by DM and BK, showing a strong connection with R; theoretical and general topics (i.e. AZ, BU, I-E) are almost exclusively delivered in the first module and year; technical topics (i.e. DM, BK, FS) are also mainly delivered in this way and they are the most popular and replicated in the second module. This demonstrates the precise educational choice of providing such topics early in the three-year period of the degree. As for the combinations of topics, teachers widely agree on the full combination (all topics are provided) for the first module and the empty combination (no topic is provided) for the second. This implies the need for an effective learning organization of first course modules. When teachers prefer the full-content option, they do not associate it to the module name nor with the IAS structure set by the faculty. This means that, on one side, there is a lack of consistency in naming practices and, on the other side, after many years there still exists a problem of relationship between EA and R fields. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS - Since Italian introductory accounting modules contain both Italian theoretical and classic financial accounting content, they are not as distant from international accounting modules as might be supposed. If this is the case, then EA modules could be explained to Accounting Education foreign researchers as a sort of “Accounting zero” course. The research closes proposing further studies, final remarks on the educational implications of the current debate on the autonomy and usefulness of systematizing disciplines such as EA, and a final organizational proposal about modules designed to improve students’ learning of introductory accounting contents.