For love or money: investigating the love of money, Machiavellianism and accounting students’ ethical perception

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explain the effect of love of money and Machiavellianism on ethics perceptions of accounting students. The knowledge attained from this study will allow lecturers and academicians to improve the methods used for teaching ethics in accounting by evaluating the impact of two factors. Design/methodology/approach This research uses survey and quantitative analysis. The data were collected by distributing offline and online questionnaires to students in a university in Indonesia. Findings The results show that both the love of money and Machiavellianism negatively affect ethical perception. Gender as one of the control variables is found to have a significant association with the love of money, Machiavellianism and ethical perception of accounting students. Research limitations/implications The practical implication of the research is the need to inform students on the negative impact of the love of money and Machiavellianism on ethics, as well as the required steps to overcome such negative impact by inserting ethics-related materials in several accounting courses. Originality/value Accounting students represent future accountants and highly ethical accountants will protect the profession and society from harmful consequences of unethical accounting and business practices.