Mostafa Moradzadeh Zargar - Department of Accounting, Gorgan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan, Iran
Parviz Saeedi - Department of Accounting and Management, Aliabad Katoul Branch, Islamic Azad University, Aliabad Katoul, Iran
Mansour Garkaz - Department of Accounting, Gorgan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan, Iran
Alireza Matoofi - Department of Accounting, Gorgan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan, Iran

Ethics is vital for the acceptance of any profession in society. Various factors affect certified public accountants’ decisions. Most people feel regret when they realize a different decision could have led to a better outcome. So not only the outcome of the current decision is important to them, but also the outcome they could have achieved if they had made a different decision. Therefore, the present study introduces an ethical model for certified public accountants based on the anticipated regret. Therefore, this study investigates influential dimensions and qualitative items on the ethical decision of certified public accountants based on anticipated regret. The statistical population includes two groups of experts: theorizing experts (i.e. university professors), and experienced experts (i.e. certified public accountants). Descriptive and inferential statistical methods are used to test the research hypotheses. In order to answer the main question of the research, first, the research items are identified using the fuzzy Delphi method and based on previous research on professional ethics, accounting and financial issues. The SEM method is used to measure the relationships between the research items and after the final data fit, the ethical decision-making model of certified public accountants based on anticipated regret is presented.

Ethical decision making, anticipated regret, certified public accountants