Barriers to Knowledge Creation in Management Accounting Research

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this article I address the questions posed to the 25th Anniversary of JMAR Panel on the management accounting topics we have established knowledge on, are currently working on, and where we might go in the future. In order to understand what we know, what we are currently learning about, and what we might learn in the future, I argue that we need to understand how knowledge in management accounting becomes legitimate. In the course of examining the two principal means of obtaining academic legitimacy I enumerate a number of barriers to the production of management accounting knowledge. These barriers include the relatively limited growth of management accounting research in the “top general interest” accounting journals, the lack of a globally acknowledged top niche journal in management accounting, and the perceptions of management accounting researchers about their craft as barriers to the production of such knowledge. Along the way I identify research topics that have waxed and waned over the 25 years since JMAR was first published. I conclude by suggesting a way forward that would require resolute leadership.