Research methods and methodology towards knowledge creation in accounting

Abstract

Academic and scientific research embodies the purist way to achieve new knowledge through diversified methods and methodologies. It aims to describe and interpret multiple phenomena and their impact on social and organizational developments. Based on 760 postgraduate completed academic researches, in the scientific fields of accounting, auditing, and management control, a set of variables was identified towards an integrated overview of methods and methodology that historically fit with those scientific fields. This paper aims to evidence whether those methods and methodology depend from the scientific field under research and identify their impact on theory construction and for organizations’ development. Research in financial accounting tends to increase the positivist or mainstream approach while management accounting research is characterized by an integrated descriptive or interpretive approach. Furthermore, case studies are used as way of stregthening the linkage and cooperation between higher education institutions, in particular business schools, and external organizations.