The Impact of Professionalism Theory Constructs on the Applicability of Forensic Accounting Services: Evidence from Jordan

Reviewer 1’ comments

Authors’ responses

This study uses Pavalko's (1988) 8-constructs model to examine the profession of forensic accounting, investigating which of those 8 constructs have an effect to the accounting profession.

Other than some proofreading on language structure that needs to be done on the paper, I have several major concerns with the design and data:

Thanks for your comments, all the comments have been addressed. The paper has been corrected in term of the proofreading on language.

-The forensic accounting field is very specialized and quite different from what a traditional accountant does in the latter's job scopes. But the study samples were CPAs spread across different job titles. So my concern, other than a small sample size, is if and how many of the sample surveyed were actual forensic accountants, or have done this line of work before. From what were written, 95% responded as auditors. Auditors' work is really quite different from forensic accountants' work. So I don't know if the sample were valid. Authors need to be clearer if and how the samples were correctly chosen.

We appreciate the reviewer's comment regarding the validity of our sample. We would like to clarify that the use of CPAs and professional practitioners in forensic accounting studies is not uncommon, especially in contexts where there is a lack of established forensic accounting professionalism structure, as is the case in Jordan. Furthermore, we would like to note that many CPAs and JCPAs in Jordan do perform forensic accounting services, and therefore, they are appropriate participants for this study.

-I have concerns whether using Pavalko's design is appropriate, and more importantly, the motivation of the paper. Findings show that autonomy and sense of community are not found to be significant factors, while intellectual technique, motivation, commitment and code of ethics are important. These findings have very low contribution value, since in what ways will these information be important for the profession, or if there's anything we don't already know from the findings. Authors will need to re-motivate and justify the contribution of the findings

We agree that the contribution of our findings to the profession needs to be clearly justified, and we have made the necessary revisions to address this concern.

Reviewer 2’s comments

Authors’ responses

Dear author,

Thank you very much for sending your paper to the journal. I reviewed your paper and the paper is near to rejection but you have another chance to improve the whole paper as follows:

Thanks for your comments, all the comments have been addressed.

1- The paper should be restructured and in the introduction, you need to bring up the research gap and research question.

The research gap and question have been highlighted within the introduction section.

2- The theoretical issues and literature section should be improved as much as possible and some are listed below:

2-1-Validating the Medical Education e-Professionalism Framework Using the Content Validity Index

2-2-The Effect of Corporate Governance Structure on Fraud and Money Laundering

2-3-The effect of corporate lobbying on fraud and money laundering

2-4-The effect of social and intellectual capital on fraud and money laundering in Iraq

2-5-Perception versus reality: Iranian banks and international anti-money laundering expectations

All the required citation has been added to the text.

Comment

Response

Appreciate the authors addressing my prior comments.

Thank you so much.

In the abstract, introduction, and the discussion/conclusion, I would like the authors to further discuss in varying degrees in the respective sections, based on the constructs determined to be significant and non-significant, how the findings can be used to help educate or train the new generation of forensic accountants in Jordan (and potentially how this may differ from the best practices adopted currently in Jordan, as well as by the rest of the world in molding their accountants that have forensic inclinations--refer to some references in this regard).

All the required information has been added to the abstract, introduction, and the discussion.

This will likely round up the paper to improve its contribution in this area.

Thank you so much.

Comment

Response

Dear author,

Thank you very much for sending your revised paper. My comments are incorporated in the current version.

Thank you so much.