Bases and Grounds of Accountant’s Ethical Evaluation of Fraud: Religion, Philosophy and Environment Viewpoints

Companies have various organizational structures and individuals without very strong ethical orientation may succumb to the unethical practices which causes fraud in such workplaces. The aim of this study is to investigate the environmental, philosophical, and religious factors of accountant’s ethical evaluation of fraudin accounting profession.

In this study, religiosity in three dimensions of personal, social life, and morality has been investigated. Additionally, environmental conditions in two aspects of intrinsic and extrinsic factors and philosophical views of machiavellianism and utilitarianism have been chosenand their effects on ethical evaluation of fraud in four dimensions have been examined.The research data to test hypotheses is collected from 300 questionnaires filled by accountants in spring of 2020and analyzed by structural equation modeling using LISREL software.

The findings show inverse effect of religiosity in morality on fraudin companies, while religiosity in social andpersonal life have no significant effect. Besides that, machiavellianism and utilitarianism views have positive and significant effects on ethical evaluation of fraud in accounting, moreover, intrinsicand extrinsic grounds of accountants ’ethical evaluation have no significant effect.

The evidence confirms that religiosity in morality and philosophical bases have positive effects on ethical evaluation of fraud while intrinsicand extrinsic grounds have no significant effect, so it can be concluded that to reduce and prevent fraud, factors affecting the individuality of accountants such asreligiosity in morality and philosophy are very important and should be considered.