Financial Knowledge, Internal Control Locus, and Personal Money-Related Behavior: A Survey on Undergraduate Accounting Students

This research intends to examine the impact of financial knowledge and internal control locus on student behavior to manage money and the effect of internal control locus on this knowledge. The students becoming the population are from the active undergraduate accounting department in Maranatha Christian University, distributed into six batches: 2015 to 2020; the number is 413. Considering this feature, we use the stratified random sampling method, setting the batches as the strata. After surveying the 200 students as the samples, the number of responded students is 193; hence, the participation level is 96.50%. Based on this situation, we use the structural equation model based on covariance after the validity and reliability tests are met. To sum up, this research unveils that money-related understanding does not affect student behavior. On the other hand, the internal control locus positively affects personal money-related behavior and financial knowledge.


Introduction
Numerous frauds happen in society. Usually, fraudsters offer investments with unbelievable gains. After getting money, they leave their victims without news (Widowati & Winarto, 2017). Another fraud is the unknown message on a cellphone or WhatsApp informing the prize with a fantastic amount and expensive goods on the unofficial website. As a website requirement, the fraudsters require that the victim candidate transfer the money to their banking account. Then, they promise to return the funds plus the prize amount to the candidate's banking account or send the promised goods to the candidate's address (Wardhani, 2020).
As part of society, students in higher education must financially behave. They have to be responsible for their life separated from their family. Consequently, they must allocate the funds from his parents based on three aspects, i.e., budgeting funds, saving cash, and paying bills (Akben-Selcuk, 2015). Additionally, to make the students behave financially well, the lecturers need to know the affecting factors. According to Cude et al. (2006), the related reason is their academic performance. The students without good financial behavior will get stressed and cannot concentrate on learning the subjects in the class.
Associated with financial behavior, many previous scholars have tried to prove its connection to financial knowledge ( Broadly, the numerous preceding studies are also conducted to prove another determinant of financial behavior, i.e., control locus, either internally (Pinjisakikool, 2017 Ida and Dwinta (2010) fail to discover the influence. Besides, the effect of internal control locus on financial knowledge is infrequently proved. Based on our observation, we find only one scholar, Susanti (2016), investigating this relationship.
The research gap between two determinants of financial behavior and the infrequent finding on the impact of internal control locus on financial knowledge inspire this study. This study can become the basis for the undergraduate accounting department at Maranatha Christian University for appearing the subject of personal financial management in the curriculum.

Control Locus
Control locus is one of the psychological topics associated with what people trust. Based on whom they trust, this locus has two types: external and internal. People with high external control locus tend to count on the power outside, such as good fortune, available opportunities, and other influential persons in their life. Contrariwise, people with high internal control locus believe success will depend on their current efforts (Perry & Morris, 2005).

Financial Knowledge
Through financial knowledge, people will know how to plan and understand the benefits of saving, borrowing, owning insurance to anticipate future things, and investing to increase their wealth. Preferably, if they deeply recognize this information, they will responsibly use their money (Akben-Selcuk, 2015).

The relationship between financial knowledge and personal money-related behavior
In their investigation of the Koreans living in the United States, Grable et al. (2009) support these explanations by depicting the more financially informative, the more excellent people manage their money. Also, Ida & Dwinta (2010) locate similar evidence after surveying the Maranatha Christian University students. The same result comes from Rob & Woodyard (2011). Their study displays a positive relationship between financial knowledge and behavior based on the best practice by employing the National Financial Capability Study data belonging to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in the United States. Also, Mien & Thao (2015) confirms this positive association when investigating young adults in Vietnam. Akben-Selcuk (2015) utilizes the logistic regression model to analyze the data by employing the students as the samples. After that, she points out that students with high financial knowledge tend to have a higher probability of budgeting funds, saving money, and paying the bills on time. The person knowing more about finance will financially behave well.

The relationship between internal control locus and personal money-related behavior
Related to money behavior, Perry & Morris (2005) confirm that the customers with high external control locus tend to behave less financially. Additionally, Britt et al. (2013) support their study result by inferring that students owning this high control locus will possess the most horrible financial behavior. In line with them, Mien & Thao (2015) successfully prove this tendency by utilizing the young adult Vietnamese aged 19 to 30 as the samples. Correspondingly, Pathirannahalage & Abeyrathna (2020) find a negative relationship between external control locus and financial behavior after investigating the civil servants in Sri Lanka.
On the contrary, when investigating two-locus households in the Netherlands, Pinjisakikool (2017) reveals that the internal locus positively affects financial behavior, but the external locus does not. Similarly, by researching the employees with fixed income as their samples in Indonesia, Arifin et al. (2019) summarize that the persons with high internal control locus tend to manage their money well. Studying the respondents' young adults aged 18 until 35 in India, Bapat (2020) infers that individuals with a high internal control locus are inclined to organize their funds reasonably. Based on these facts, the first hypothesis is expressed like this: H2: The person with a high internal control locus will financially behave well.

The relationship between internal control locus and financial knowledge
In the study at Surabaya State University, Susanti (2016) utilizes the undergraduate students from two departments, i.e., accounting and educational accounting, totaling 228. After investigating their perspective, this study proves a positive effect of the internal control locus on financial knowledge. Based on these facts, the third hypothesis is expressed like this: H3: The person with a high internal control locus will be financially knowledgeable.
Based on these framed hypotheses, the first picture containing the research model can be shaped as follows.

Variable Definition
By viewing the first picture, the internal control locus (ICL) is employed as an exogenous variable. On the other hand, financial knowledge (FL) and moneyrelated behavior (MRB) are treated as endogenous variables. a.
The items to measure the internal control locus denote Bapat (2020)

Population and Samples
This study population is active undergraduate accounting students at  Table 1. . Moreover, we use confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the instrument to validate the responses. The Cronbach Alpha analysis is utilized to ensure the valid answers are reliable. The CFA compares the loading factor with a specific cut-off value of 0.5 (Ghozali, 2014). a.
The items with loading factors exceeding 0.5 must be kept because they are accurate. b.
Conversely, the items with a loading factor below or the same as 0.5 have to be removed because they are inaccurate.
The consistency test compares the composite reliability coefficient from the valid response with a specific cut-off of 0.7. If this coefficient is above 0.7, the accurate answer is reliable, and vice versa (Sholihin & Ratmono, 2013).
Before testing the hypotheses statistically, the model fits have to be detected. In this study, these fits are identified by some measurement, i.e., the chi-square statistical probability, the Chi-square/DF, comparative fit index, the goodness of fit index, Tucker Lewis index, root mean square error of approximation, parsimony ratio, parsimony normed fit index, and parsimony comparative fit index, as Latan (2013) and Ghozali (2014) exhibit.

The result of the respondent features
The survey is held for two weeks, i.e., March 16-31, 2021. It gets 193 of 200 targeted students as the samples; therefore, the participation level is 96.50%. Furthermore, their number based on gender, age range, and batches are accessible in Table 2.  Table 3 exhibits the validity testing result to reflect the internal control locus with the loading factor exceeding 0.5: 0.633 for ICL1, 0.668 for ICL2, and 0.679 for ICL3. Because these values are more significant than 0.5, the valid answer of the respondents occurs.   Regarding the validity test of money-related behavior, we find the invalid response on MRB2 and MRB4 in the starting stage. This situation happens because the loading factor is 0.485 and 0.438, respectively. Thus, we eliminate them from the analysis; the final result can be seen in Table 5. In this table, all responses to MRB1, MRB3, and MRB5 are valid, reflected by their loading factor of 0.756, 0.787, and 0.637, which are above 0.5.  Table 6 demonstrates the composite reliability coefficient for the accurate items. The internal control locus, financial knowledge, and money-associated behavior coefficients are 0.833, 0.867, and 0.867, respectively. Because they are above 0.7, the valid answer of all the items is consistent.

The Test Result of the Goodness-of-fit Model
The goodness-of-fit test functions to ensure the fitness between the model and the empirical data (see Table 7). Because all the measurement values attain the necessary point in Table 7, the model fits with the data.  Table 8 presents the covariance-based structural equation model estimation result: critical ratio probability for testing a causal relationship in the first and second hypotheses. a. The probability of the relationship between financial knowledge and behavior is 0.272. Therefore, the null hypothesis is acceptable regarding this value going above the 5% significant level: financial knowledge does not affect students to act financially. b. The probability of the relationship between internal control locus and financial behavior is ***: 0.000. Thus, the null hypothesis is declined regarding this value going below the 5% significant level: the person with a high internal control locus will financially behave well is acceptable. c. The probability of the relationship between internal control locus and financial knowledge is ***: 0.000. Hence, the null hypothesis is declined regarding this value going below the 5% significant level: the person with a high internal control locus will financially be knowledgeable is acceptable.

Discussion
The first statistical hypothesis testing shows that financial knowledge does not affect students to act financially. It happens because the personal financial management subject is not yet in the curriculum. In other words, no guarantee declaring when students already learn the financial management principles, they can perform this personal behavior properly. It is due to the different contents between these subjects. Financial management informs the students how a firm obtains inexpensive funds to start a business and invests them in productive assets to gain profits (Gitman & Zutter, 2012). On the other side, personal financial planning only focuses on managing the risks, covering them with insurance, investing for the future, and preparing for an individual tax report, retirement, and wealth distribution (Financial Planning Standards Board Indonesia, 2013).
The second statistical hypothesis testing expresses that the person with a high internal control locus will financially behave well. It means the students realize that their inner power is the capital to succeed. They can solve problems logically, change their lives to be better, and work hard to make their dreams come true. These features enable them to govern money well, such as controlling cash outflow, planning money effectively, and saving the remaining money in their bank account. By this indication, this study supports Pinjisakikool (2017), Arifin et al. (2019), and Bapat (2020). The third statistical hypothesis testing illustrates that the individual with a high internal control locus will be financially well-educated. This locus gives more awareness to the students to believe in themselves based on their ability. Educated persons use their brains to think and understand all matters easily, including the contents related to financial knowledge. As evidenced by this positive effect, this study confirms the study of Susanti (2016).

Conclusion and Suggestion
The research aims to prove and analyze the effect of financial knowledge and internal control locus on money-related behavior by surveying undergraduate accounting students' perceptions at Maranatha Christian University. Unfortunately, this research cannot verify the financial knowledge impact on behavioral money by denoting the statistical data examination. This situation happens because of the personal financial planning subject's absence in the existing curriculum. Thus, this subject has to be initiated. Unlike the first result, this research's second and third evidence demonstrates that internal control locus positively affects managing money and learning financial knowledge. This situation means that the higher this locus, the greater their ability to manage their money and understand financial knowledge.
This study cannot prove the money-related knowledge effect on this behavior, and it is due to the absence of a personal financial management subject in the curriculum. Based on this proof, we recommend that the accounting department provide this subject to equip the students with financial knowledge. After that, they can be directed to follow the registered financial planner examination. After passing this test, the students will have the certification as one of the essential files recorded in the diploma supplement. This suggestion to provide this subject is also emphasized by 87.56% of the 169 supporting responses from the 193 participating students.
Theoretically, this study has some confines, such as the narrow population scope and few determinants of money-related behavior. This situation allows the succeeding scholars to improve their research by following these suggestions.

1.
They can broaden the population scope by combining undergraduate management and accounting students to be the samples from some universities in one city, for example, in Bandung, or one province, for instance, West Java, or all provinces in Indonesia.

2.
They can add some determinants of money-related behavior like the demographics: tribe, gender, age, parental income; the academic performance: grade point average; the others: financial attitude, selfperception, self-control, peer influence, parent socialization, and financial risk tolerance.