ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE AND SHARING BEHAVIOR OF ACCOUNTING STUDENTS: FROM THE VIEW OF A MODIFIED THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR

Abstract

The awareness towards environmental conservation has gained its significance globally. In order to embed such awareness into the minds of future business leaders, environmental management accounting subjects have been embedded in the accounting curriculum in higher learning institutions. However, such awareness would be wasted if it is not being spread, and one way to increase the environmental awareness is through sharing of knowledge. This study aims to (1) examine the level of environmental knowledge possessed by undergraduate accounting students, (2) examine the students’ perception on environmental knowledge sharing behaviour, and (3) investigate if the components of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), namely the attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, plus environmental knowledge will have impact on the intention and behavior towards environmental knowledge sharing. Survey method research has been utilized by distributing questionnaires to the respective samples. The data is then analysed using descriptive statistics and Partial Least Square (PLS) path model. The results from the study show that not all respondents perceive that they have environmental knowledge, and they perceive that their level of knowledge can only be considered low to moderate. Additionally, respondents have positive attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, level of knowledge, intention and behaviour towards environmental knowledge sharing. Further test reveal that significant relationship exist between the three components of TPB plus environmental knowledge possessed and intention to share environmental knowledge. Findings also disclose that perceived behavioral control and intention to share environmental knowledge signify positive influence on the environmental knowledge sharing behavior. This study contributes to the literature of environmental knowledge sharing behavior from students’ perspective.