Whistleblowing by accountants: an integration of the fraud pentagon and the extended theory of planned behavior

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the whistleblowing intentions (WBI) by Iranian accountants by integrating the fraud pentagon and the extended theory of planned behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

The population was made up of accountants from all of the 400 companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange and the authors used a quantitative survey-based method. Out of a total of 300 questionnaires administered, 171 valid responses were used for analysis. This research used the partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis using SmartPLS 3.3.3 to examine the proposed hypotheses and to analyze the research model.

Findings

The results indicated that the extended theory of planned behavior components (perceived behavioral control, perceived subjective norms (PSN), perceived moral obligation and attitudes toward whistleblowing) have positive effects on accountants’ internal WBI. The results of investigating the moderating effect of perceived moral intensity (PMI) on the relationship between components of the extended theory of planned behavior and WBI show that PMI moderates the effect of PSN on WBI.

Originality/value

This study develops the whistleblowing literature by bringing together the components of the fraud pentagon and the extended theory of planned behavior and providing an integrated model. This model, which incorporates many variables from previous research, seeks to provide a comprehensive model for whistleblowing with the expansion of the Brown et al. (2016) model.

Citation

Sarikhani, M. and Ebrahimi, F. (2022), "Whistleblowing by accountants: an integration of the fraud pentagon and the extended theory of planned behavior", Meditari Accountancy Research, Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 1740-1763. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEDAR-10-2020-1047