Research Patterns in the Spanish Accounting Academia

Research productivity, measured generally as the number and quality of papers published in academic journals, is one of the key indicators that determine success in academia. And a relevant question is to what extent the achievement of a tenured position influences academics’ productivity. Building upon the life cycle theory and considering the period 1995-2009 with a sample of 300 accounting academics active in research and affiliated to Spanish academic universities we first test if untenured accounting academics are more active in research than tenured ones, controlling for the usual determinants of research productivity. Additionally we investigate why some professors continue to be active even with low financial rewards and difficulty to achieve them. The principles of the life-cycle theory may not be now wide enough and then, we add the expectancy theory to test if there are additional determinants that may play a role in the research behaviour of accounting academics. Our results are of interests for higher education institutions and administrators looking for incentive systems that maximize research productivity.