Building Ethical Capital among Future Accounting Professionals in AI-Mediated Education: Evidence from Indonesia

Abstract

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into higher education has transformed accounting education while creating new ethical challenges related to academic honesty and professional integrity. Developing ethical capital among future accounting professionals requires an understanding of the psychological and social mechanisms that promote responsible behavior in AI-mediated learning environments. This study aims to examine the factors influencing ethical capital formation among Indonesian accounting students by investigating how attitudes toward honest behavior, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, behavioral intentions, and actual honest academic behavior interact within the framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). This study employed a quantitative cross-sectional design involving 423 undergraduate accounting students from public and private universities across Indonesia. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS. The findings reveal that attitudes toward honest behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control significantly and positively influence students’ intentions to behave honestly. Furthermore, behavioral intention and perceived behavioral control significantly predict actual honest academic behavior. These findings imply that the development of ethical capital should be strengthened through ethics-oriented accounting education, supportive academic environments, and responsible AI governance. This study contributes to the literature on business ethics and accounting education by demonstrating that academic honesty constitutes an early foundation for professional integrity and sustainable ethical behavior in technology-driven learning environments.