Adequacy of Student Surrogates for Non Students
The adequacy of students as surrogates for non-students is a controversial issue in behavioural research. Some research studies question the external validity of results based on students on the basis that students fail to represent non-students. Others, however, argue that it is the subject’s interpretation of the task and meanings they attribute (i.e., experimental realism) that affect the external validity more than the type of subjects. Despite receiving considerable emphasis from researchers in a wide range of disciplines (e.g., psychology, organisational behaviour, management, accounting, etc.,), the accounting literature suggests that there is a widespread belief that students are inadequate surrogates for ...