Extraversion-Introversion Personality Traits Of Local Firm CPAs Who Previously Worked For A National CPA Firm: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Prior research on the personality types of CPAs has focused on which personality types were most attracted to national or local public accounting firms. Previous studies indicate that national-firm CPAs are twice as likely to be extraverts whereas local-firm CPAs are twice as likely to be introverts. No prior studies have evaluated the extraversion-introversion personality types of those who first started with a national firm before working for a local firm. This study postulates that for extraversion-introversion, CPAs who worked for a national firm before working for a local firm are statistically similar to those who have only worked for a local firm and statistically different from those who have only worked for a national firm.  With respect to extraversion-introversion for those who first started work for a national firm before working for a local CPA firm, this study supports the hypothesis that they would be different from those who had only worked for a national firm and does not support their similarity with those who had only worked for a local CPA firm.