The Role of Trust in Top Accounting Journals

Abstract

From management literature trust comes forward as an important element in the functioning and performance of organizations. Its role in generating legitimacy for an organization is beyond doubt. Trust is considered a variable that is observable and measurable, and furthermore trust is seen as an element of management. An important actor in the generation of trust and legitimacy is accounting for stakeholders. One of the sources in establishing the importance and role of accounting in the restoration of trust will be academic research. It would be interesting to see whether the results of academic research contribute to the debate. One would expect academic research to reflect the public and professional interest in these topics. In particular one would expect academic research to go into questions like whether trust can be measured and how, whether trust really did diminish and whether the formation and sharpening of accounting rules and standards can indeed restore trust. Combining the results from a scan of the most important accounting and management journals an alarming picture emerges. Although the importance and relevance of trust with respect to the performance and legitimacy of private organizations is beyond doubt and although we know that accounting will be an important actor in the generation of trust, there is virtually no academic research on the relationship between the formation of accounting standards and the building and restoration of trust.