Accounting research examines how accounting is used by individuals, organizations and government as well as the consequences that these practices have. Starting from the assumption that accounting both measures and makes visible certain economic events, accounting research has studied the roles of accounting in organizations and society and the consequences that these practices have for individuals, organizations, governments and capital markets.[1][2] It encompasses a broad range of topics includingfinancial accounting research,management accounting research,auditing research, capital market research, accountability research, social responsibility research andtaxation research.[3]
Academic accounting research "addresses all aspects of the accounting profession" using thescientific method, while research bypracticing accountants focuses on solving problems for a client or group of clients.[4] Academic accounting research can make significant contribution to accounting practice,[4][1] although changes in accountingeducation and the accountingacademia in recent decades have led to a divide between academia and practice in accounting.[5]
"Accounting has been a craft that has had no essence. It has changed significantly across time, adopting new forms, methods, and roles. Likewise for accounting research. [...] Indeed the very role of accounting research is in part to make both accounting and our knowledge of it different, to move forward our understandings of accounting and, at times, the practice of accounting itself. "[1]
Accounting research is carried out both byacademicresearchers and by practicingaccountants. Academic accounting research addresses all areas of the accounting profession, and examines issues using thescientific method; it uses evidence from a wide variety of sources, including financial information,experiments,computer simulations, interviews, surveys, historical records, and ethnography.[4][6][7]
Research by practicing accountants "focuses on solving immediate problems for a single client or small group of clients" and involve, for example, decision-making on the implementation of newaccounting or auditing standards, the presentation of unusual transactions in thefinancial statements, and the impact of newtax laws on clients.[4]
Accounting research has undergone some significant changes in the past decades.[3][9] In the 1950s, an accounting academia was established that adopted the requirements ofsocial science academia, such asPhD qualifications andresearch papers.[5] The mid-1970s saw a shift from the dominance ofnormative research to:
The contribution of academic accounting research to accounting practice includes the assessment of current accounting practices, the development of new practices, and the development ofuniversitycurricula:
"Academic research has an important role to play, both in assessing the extent to which existing practices are 'fit for purpose' and in developing new practices to address changing business, economic and societal needs. Research also informs the teaching curricula in universities, thus affecting the range of issues of which future generations will become aware and consider important."[1]
For example, academic accounting research[13] "can improve the understanding of howstakeholders actually use the information accountants provide", and prior academic studies have contributed tofraudrisk assessment, the future direction of the profession, and the impact of changingaccounting standards.[4]
Several publications, including the recent accounting literature, have suggested a divide or gap between the academic and professional communities in accounting.[5][14] Aspects of the divide have been suggested to include criticisms of academics for speaking with their own jargon and aiming to publish research rather than improve practice, and criticisms of practicing accountants for being resistant to changes to the status quo and reluctant to disclose data.[5]
The divide between accounting academia and practice was originally centered on whether a broadereducation or just technical training was the best way to educate accountants. From the 1950s, accounting academia and practice grew further divided due to the accounting academic community adopting requirements fromsocial science academia, while practicing accountants "maintained an emphasis onprofessional qualifications and technical skills".[5]
Aside from accounting academia and practice valuing different skills and requirements, a variety of factors have been proposed for the divide. One view is that a lack of training in reading academic research may lead practicing accountants "to dismiss what could be very helpful information as either too complicated or too disconnected to be useful";[4] while another view points to fundamental failures in academic research inbusiness andeconomics in general—for example that researchers have failed to effectively question prevailingeconomic and business models.[1]
Academic accounting research addresses a range of broadtopical areas within accounting, using a wide variety ofmethodologies andtheories. The following classifications highlight several important types of accounting research. They are by no means exhaustive, and many academic accounting studies resist simple classification.[15]
Focuses onmanagement accounting and the relationship between management accounting information and its internal users,[3] for example examining theallocation of resources and decision-making within an enterprise.[16]
Auditing research
Studies related to theaudit function,[3] including auditor decision-making and the effects of auditing on financial reporting.[16]
Taxation research
Examinestaxation-related issues such as market reactions to tax disclosures and taxpayer decision-making,[16] and the relationship between accounting information and tax authorities.[3][16]
Research that emphasizes the role of language,interpretation and understanding in accounting practice, "highlighting the symbolic structures and taken-for-granted themes which pattern the world in distinct ways."[19]
Research that focuses socially-generated rules that structure accounting practices in organizations and society.[15]
Structuration theory
Research that draws on thestructuration theory ofAnthony Giddens, and that seeks to explain accounting practices as an interaction between an individual's capability to make choices and the social rules and structures that constrain individual choices, and which are reproduced through individual behavior.[15]
Foucauldian theory
Research influenced byMichel Foucault that sees accounting practices as dependent on historical circumstances, and as tools for disciplining individual behavior.[15]
Latourian theory
Research influenced byBruno Latour that is "concerned with understanding accounting technologies in the context of networks of human and non-human 'actants'."[15]
Linguistic theory
Research that sees accounting as a discursive practice, and which draws on linguistic theory and hermeneutics.[21]
^Burchell, S.; Clubb, C.; Hopwood, A.; Hughes, J.; Nahapiet, J. (1980). "The roles of accounting in organizations and society".Accounting, Organizations and Society.5 (1):5–27.doi:10.1016/0361-3682(80)90017-3.
^abcdefghOler, Derek K., Mitchell J. Oler, and Christopher J. Skousen. 2010. "Characterizing Accounting Research."Accounting Horizons 24 (4): 635–670.
^abcdefGordon, Teresa P., and Jason C. Porter. 2009. "Reading and Understanding Academic Research in Accounting: A Guide for Students."Global Perspectives on Accounting Education 6: 25-45.
^abcdeGuthrie, J., Roger Burritt and Elaine Evans. 2011. "The Relationship between Academic Accounting Research and Professional Practice," in Bridging the Gap between Academic Accounting Research and Professional Practice, eds. Elaine Evans, Roger Burritt and James Guthrie. (New South Wales: The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia).
^Covaleski, M. A.; Dirsmith, M. W. (1990). "Dialectic tension, double reflexivity and the everyday accounting researcher: On using qualitative methods".Accounting, Organizations and Society.15 (6):543–573.doi:10.1016/0361-3682(90)90034-R.
^Jönsson, S.; Macintosh, N. B. (1997). "CATS, RATS, and EARS: Making the case for ethnographic accounting research".Accounting, Organizations and Society.22 (3–4):367–386.doi:10.1016/S0361-3682(96)00040-2.hdl:10092/105425.
^Anthony G. Hopwood and Hein Schreuder (1984), European Contributions to Accounting Research, VU Uitgeverij/Free University Press.ISBN90-6256-133-0
^Birnberg, J. G.; Shields, J. F. (1989). "Three decades of behavioral accounting research: A search for order".Behavioral Research in Accounting.1:23–74.
^Roslender, R.; Dillard, J. F. (2003). "Reflections on the interdisciplinary perspectives on accounting project".Critical Perspectives on Accounting.14 (3):325–351.doi:10.1006/cpac.2002.0526.
^Laughlin, Richard. 2011. "Accounting Research, Policy and Practice: Worlds Together or Worlds Apart?," in Bridging the Gap between Academic Accounting Research and Professional Practice, eds. Elaine Evans, Roger Burritt and James Guthrie. (New South Wales: The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia).
^abcdeBaxter, Jane; Chua, Wai Fong (2003). "Alternative management accounting research - whence and whither".Accounting, Organizations and Society.28 (2–3):97–126.doi:10.1016/S0361-3682(02)00022-3.
^abcdefghijCoyne, Joshua G., Scott L. Summers, Brady Williams, and David a. Wood. 2010. "Accounting Program Research Rankings by Topical Area and Methodology."Issues in Accounting Education 25 (4) (November): 631–654.
^"Accounting Project Topics and Materials".School Project Topics. Retrieved9 June 2020.Analytical researchers model economic and accounting institutions with the goal of generating empirically testable propositions. Primary research questions of interest are the relation between accounting disclosures and security prices, undertaken within market equilibrium models, and the role of accounting information in mitigating incentive problems within firms, generally formulated within principal-agent models. Other economic models are employed as well. Analytical research demands high-level training in economic theory, statistics, and mathematics.
^Jensen, Michael C. (1983). "Organization theory and methodology".Accounting Review.58 (2):319–339.
^Arrington, C. Edward; Francis, Jere R. (1993). "Giving economic accounts: Accounting as a cultural practice".Accounting, Organizations and Society.18 (2/3):107–124.doi:10.1016/0361-3682(93)90029-6.
