IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fan/frfrfr/vhtml10.3280-fr2016-001004.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Accounting Research: Relevance Lost

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Higson
  • Rasha Kassem

Abstract

For research to have an impact, it has to exist in the first place. Moves in the UK to link University funding to research activity have reinforced the importance of research to academia - however, this may also have had adverse consequences. It is now very difficult for qualified accountants to obtain teaching and research positions at UK universities because of the lack of a research background. Institutional pressures on those conducting research may also have resulted in dysfunctional behaviour regarding the nature of the work conducted and the output. In the 1960s there was an attempt to make accounting research more "scientific", however, this seems to resulted in the emphasis on research methodology rather than the importance of making a contribution to knowledge. The lack of emphasis on the reliability (the reproducibility of the results) and validity (whether you are testing what you think you are testing) of statistical findings merely appears to have resulted in the application of pseudoscience to accounting research. All these factors appear to have combined to bring into question the relevance of the accounting research produced.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Higson & Rasha Kassem, 2016. "Accounting Research: Relevance Lost," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(1), pages 59-76.
    • Handle: RePEc:fan:frfrfr:v:html10.3280/fr2016-001004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=57660&Tipo=ArticoloPDF
    Download Restriction: Single articles can be downloaded buying download credits, for info: https://www.francoangeli.it/DownloadCredit
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter A. Lawrence, 2003. "The politics of publication," Nature, Nature, vol. 422(6929), pages 259-261, March.
    2. Carlos Ramirez & Thomas Jeanjean, 2009. "Back to the Origins of Positive Theories: A Contribution to an Analysis of Paradigm Changes in Accounting Research," Post-Print hal-00491671, HAL.
    3. Thomas Jeanjean & Carlos Ramirez, 2009. "Back to the Origins of Positive Theories: A Contribution to an Analysis of Paradigm Changes in Accounting Research," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 107-126, June.
    4. Rik Pieters & Hans Baumgartner, 2002. "Who Talks to Whom? Intra- and Interdisciplinary Communication of Economics Journals," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 483-509, June.
    5. Beattie, Vivien, 2005. "Moving the financial accounting research front forward: the UK contribution," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 85-114.
    6. Reiter, Sara Ann & Williams, Paul F., 2002. "The structure and progressivity of accounting research: the crisis in the academy revisited," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 575-607, August.
    7. Alan Teixeira, 2014. "The International Accounting Standards Board and Evidence-Informed Standard-Setting," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 5-12, June.
    8. Ball, R & Brown, P, 1968. "Empirical Evaluation Of Accounting Income Numbers," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(2), pages 159-178.
    9. Tourish, Dennis & Willmott, Hugh, 2015. "In Defiance of Folly: Journal rankings, mindless measures and the ABS Guide," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 37-46.
    10. C. Richard Baker, 2011. "A genealogical history of positivist and critical accounting research," Post-Print hal-00660657, HAL.
    11. Thomas Jeanjean & Carlos Ramirez, 2009. "Back to the Origins of Positive Theories: A Contribution to an Analysis of Paradigm Changes in Accounting Research," Post-Print hal-00493175, HAL.
    12. Brown, Rhoda & Jones, Michael & Steele, Tony, 2007. "Still flickering at the margins of existence? Publishing patterns and themes in accounting and finance research over the last two decades," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 125-151.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrea Lionzo, 2017. "Italian academia facing an international scenario: Issues and trends," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(2), pages 5-22.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrea Lionzo, 2017. "Italian academia facing an international scenario: Issues and trends," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(2), pages 5-22.
    2. Rajat Deb, 2019. "Accounting Theory Coherence Revisited," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 44(1), pages 36-57, February.
    3. Igor Álvarez & José Calvo & Araceli Mora, 2014. "Involving academics in the accounting standard setting process: an application of the Delphi methodology to the assessment of IASB proposals," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 18(3), pages 765-791, August.
    4. Brian Rutherford, 2010. "The social scientific turn in UK financial accounting research: A philosophical and sociological analysis," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 149-171.
    5. Kym Fraser & Benedict Sheehy, 2020. "Abundant Publications but Minuscule Impact: The Irrelevance of Academic Accounting Research on Practice and the Profession," Publications, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-36, October.
    6. Brooks, Chris & Schopohl, Lisa, 2018. "Topics and trends in finance research: What is published, who publishes it and what gets cited?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 615-637.
    7. Pankaj Kumar Baag & Kavitha P, 2017. "Philosophies and tradition of accounting research," Working papers 260, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    8. Yasmine Chahed, 2021. "Words and Numbers: Financialization and Accounting Standard‐Setting in the United Kingdom," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 302-337, March.
    9. Rolf Uwe Fülbier & Thorsten Sellhorn, 2023. "Understanding and improving the language of business: How accounting and corporate reporting research can better serve business and society," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(6), pages 1089-1124, August.
    10. Ravenscroft, Sue & Williams, Paul F., 2009. "Making imaginary worlds real: The case of expensing employee stock options," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(6-7), pages 770-786, August.
    11. Everett, Jeff, 2008. "Editorial proximity equals publication success: A function of rational self-interest or good-faith economy?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1149-1176.
    12. Hussain, Simon, 2010. "Accounting journals and the ABS quality ratings," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 1-16.
    13. Alberto Quagli & Francesco Avallone & Paola Ramassa, 2016. "The Real Impact Factor and the Gap between Accounting Research and Practice," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(1), pages 29-57.
    14. Brinn, Tony & Jones, Michael John, 2008. "The determinants of a successful accounting manuscript: Views of the informed," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 89-113.
    15. Endenich, Christoph & Trapp, Rouven, 2018. "Signaling effects of scholarly profiles – The editorial teams of North American accounting association journals," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 4-23.
    16. Iulia Jianu & Roxana Ruiu & Ionel Jianu & Mihaita Ruiu, 2013. "The Value and the Evaluation Process in Accounting," Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology, ScientificPapers.org, vol. 3(6), pages 1-15, December.
    17. Christoph Endenich & Rouven Trapp, 2016. "Cooperation for Publication? An Analysis of Co-authorship Patterns in Leading Accounting Journals," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 613-633, September.
    18. Matthias Meyer & Utz Schäffer & Markus Gmür, 2008. "Transfer und Austausch von Wissen in der Accounting-Forschung: Eine Zitations- und Kozitationsanalyse englischsprachiger Accounting-Journals 1990–2004," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 153-181, March.
    19. Wilkinson, Brett R. & Durden, Chris H., 2015. "Inducing structural change in academic accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 23-36.
    20. Williams, Paul F., 2009. "Reshaping accounting research: Living in the world in which we live," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 274-279.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fan:frfrfr:v:html10.3280/fr2016-001004. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Stefania Rosato (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/sommario.aspx?IDRivista=163 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.