Is accounting an applied discipline? An institutional theory assessment of the value of faculty accounting-related work experience in the academic labor market

Abstract

This paper recasts the debate over whether accounting research is relevant to accounting practice by asking the more fundamental question of whether modern academic accounting is an applied discipline. Using an institutional theory template, we argue that academic accounting only purports to be an applied discipline relative to the professional practice of accounting. We study the human capital of personnel inflows into academic accounting in terms of practice work experience. We conclude that pre-academia practice experience is counterproductive to academic success in terms of research productivity and movement in academic labor markets. Implications pertaining to the broadly based schism between “town and gown” in accounting are drawn.