Stagnation in accounting education research

Abstract

A number of prominent scholars have argued that research published in the top accounting journals has stagnated. As evidence of research stagnation, these authors note that much of the research published in the top accounting journals relates to a limited group of topics, uses similar research methods, and is based largely on the same underlying theories. We argue in this paper that the same concerns noted for accounting research in general are evident in accounting education research. A historical analysis of the literature shows that most published accounting education articles are not empirical, still relate to a few general topics, and ignore several issues that we believe are important to accounting education practice. Empirical articles generally rely on the survey research method, with relatively few studies using experimental (or even quasi-experimental) methods. In addition to providing evidence from the literature to show that accounting education research has stagnated, we offer some suggestions for overcoming this problem and for advancing the literature.