Perceived Ethical Crisis in Indian Accounting Disclosure Practices and Governance? Multivariate Analysis Based on Primary Data

The paper attempts to analyze the fairly large primary data (N=232) gathered from responses to 57 statements on ethical issues in accounting disclosure practices and governance administered on accountants including professionals, and accounting educators as well. Seven different factors emerging from respondent's acceptability of statements are identified by using Principal Component Method and further verified and tested by Confirmatory Factor Analysis and the Eigen Values. The test for Internal Consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and Inter-rater Reliability (ICC2 test) of our instrument mirrors the appropriateness and reasonability of this exploratory research. The tests for sampling adequacy and for sphericity also find good evidence for the discriminant validity of the scales and relationship strength between variables. The perceived concerns over accounting profession and their sensitivity on ethics in accounting are measured across both groups using the non parametric Levene's test for differences. Lastly the respondent demographics as potential predictors of ethical perceptions are investigated through an empirical estimation of Ordered Probit Model. To our best knowledge, we add a systematic empirical input for the first time in Indian context on ethical aspects of accounting disclosure and governance