This article examines the underreporting of practice credential possession (e.g., CPA, CMA, and CIA) as presented in James R. Hasselback’s 2014-2015 Accounting Faculty Directory. The sample comprises all full-time faculty teaching at U.S. schools who earned their highest academic degree over four successive five-year periods spanning 1994-2013. Results indicate that the Directory fails to report credential possession of a larger percentage of faculty in each successive five-year graduation time frame. Further, the error rate is significantly higher among graduates teaching at Top 75 research institutions over the entire 20-year graduation period, and across each successive five-year graduation timeframe. However, practice credential information is equally accessible on websites of Top 75 versus non-Top 75 school faculty. Potential influences on reporting accuracy and website credential data accessibility, such as the credentialed status of the academic accounting unit head, AACSB accounting accreditation status, and faculty members’ tenure at their current institution, are also investigated. We further evaluate the prevalence of Type-2 errors where faculty are reported as credentialed when this is not the case.
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