Does Accounting and Finance Courses Enable Soft Skill Learning? A Mediation Study

Abstract

Accounting and finance courses are critical to any management programs as they are relevant to other vocational courses. Does these courses help in improving soft skills also? This is a question which is not much probed in literature and is the focus of the study. The objective of the research is to analyze the effect of two independent variables (interest of students and their educational/professional background) on the soft skill learning in accounting and finance courses under the mediating effect of readiness for the course and the technical learnings from the course. The research is based on a survey of respondents from three stakeholders (students, faculty and professionals) and uses regressions to analyze single variable and multi variable mediations. The study found a suppression effect of interest of students on soft skill learning in the presence of technical learning. Also, soft skill learning was found to be positively affected by educational/professional background of students, readiness of students to take the course and technical learning, taken together. The findings of the study would enable business schools to prepare a better curriculum for enhanced learning in accounting and finance courses, which ultimately affects the three stakeholders.