Participation in internship, professional competition and overseas exchange and accounting students’ subsequent academic and job market performance

• Published in: The international journal of management education 2023-11, Vol.21 (3), p.100887, Article 100887
• Main Authors: Cheng, Chris K.C., Chow, Eden Y.H., Lam, Kevin C.K., Lee, Joey H.Y.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic performance; Accountancy; Employability; Experiential learning
• ISSN: 1472-8117
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijme.2023.100887

Professional and business sectors have long called for reforms to improve the quality of accounting education and to enhance students' readiness to their professional careers, including a greater use of experiential learning activities (ELA) to enhance students' soft skills. However, empirical evidence on how ELA can benefit students remains scarce. Most of the prior studies in this area focus on surveying teachers, employers and students on the perceived benefits of these activities. Research studies based on actual performance data are still lacking. This paper analyzes how ELA affect students' post-activity academic and job market performances based on a recent archival data set of academic and job market performance of accounting graduates. The activities we study include internship, professional competition and overseas exchange. We find that participating students, when compared to non-participating ones, have a higher chance of landing a job in Big-N (including Big-4) firms, receive a larger number of employment offers, and have a stronger proclivity to stay in the accounting profession. However, after controlling for students' prior academic results, we find that the impact on improving students' performance is relatively weak with the exception of internship on students’ academic performance in core subjects. Our results have implications for educators, researchers and administrators. •Based on archival data, we analyze how experiential learning activities (ELA) affect students' academic and job performances.•Participating students have better academic performance prior to and subsequent to ELA.•They are more likely to land accounting offers, receive more offers, and stay in profession after graduation.•Incorporating internship and professional competitions may benefit accounting students but different helps may be needed to coach weaker students on academic improvement.