Academic Accounting Research Articles

Doubly Disadvantaged or an Exception to the Rules? Minority Women in Accounting Academia

“Evidence suggests that, where women and people of colour are able to gain entrance to the professorate, they are more often than not penalized by reward and prestige systems that favor men over women and Whites over non-Whites … African American female faculty occupy the most disadvantaged position of the four faculty race/gender subgroups studied. To the extent that it is true … Black female faculty experience systematic, significant disadvantages, which can result in serious, persistent obstacles to their recruitment, retention, and success in U.S. higher education.” (Allen et al. 2002, 214-5). This study comprehensively examines 20 years of U.S. accounting doctoral graduates to determine whether such patterns exist in accounting academia. The findings suggest that minority women are doubly disadvantaged with regard to initial placement and placement further in the career, even when controlling for quality of doctoral program.

A possible explanation of the gender gap among accounting academics: evidence from the choice of research field

Despite the significant increase in the number of women in accounting research over past decades, the percentage of female full professors in accounting is still low. One of the problems may relate to the research area(s) they choose to specialize in. Is the relatively slow promotion of women due to their decision to concentrate in ‘nonmainstream’ fields of research? In this study, we collect data on 1,042 male and female accounting academics. Using the research interests declared on each academic web page, we find that accounting researchers show no significant gender differences in their choice of research fields. Hence, we conclude that the underpromotion of women cannot be attributed to their choice of ‘nonmainstream’ fields.

Education par excellence: Developing personal competencies and character through philanthropy-based education

• This is the first description of a philanthropy-based project in accounting education. • Students make real decisions about funding that impacts the local community. • The Philanthropy Project focuses on developing AICPA personal competencies. • Community engagement develops collaboration, critical thinking, and character. • Guidelines and templates are provided to support the implementation of the project. This teaching note presents an innovation in accounting education called the Philanthropy Project . 2 The Philanthropy Project won the 2011 Howard Theall Innovation in Accounting Education award from the Canadian Academic Accounting Association (CAAA). This project also received an honorable mention from the American Accounting Association for the 2009 Bea Sanders/AICPA Innovation in Accounting Education Award . 2 The Philanthropy Project emphasizes experiential learning and is designed to promote the learning of discipline-specific concepts while simultaneously addressing the social needs of the surrounding community. In the Philanthropy Project , students receive money to distribute to not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) based on a competitive proposal process they help to develop and administer. A distinguishing characteristic of this project is that it is not a simulation. Students make real decisions that have immediate consequences to certain groups of people in their own communities. They have to make difficult choices by allocating scarce resources to some agencies and saying “no” to other agencies, all with worthy causes. The philanthropy project was administered in two introductory financial accounting classes, one at University A (a regional public university) and one at University B (a comprehensive private university). At the conclusion of the project, students reported experiencing the benefits of collaboration, communication, conceptual learning, community engagement, and character development. In addition to learning typical for-profit accounting topics, students participating in the philanthropy project also learned about NFP financial statements and related economic measures. Given the specified not-for-profit context, this project could be relevant for governmental and not-for-profit accounting classes. A timeline of activities, grading rubric, and templates are provided to aid in the adoption of this project by other accounting educators.

Research orientation without regrets

Abstract The objective of this essay is to reflect upon the quest for “research orientation” that can be observed in many Continental European academic institutions these days. Building upon my own observations as well as the experiences of other accounting academics, I suggest that the quest for research orientation brings along both opportunities and threats for the academic communities in these countries. On one hand, it allows for an increased recognition of one's research efforts and often goes along with (pertinent segments of) the international community becoming more open and accessible to the individual researcher. On the other hand, however, the quest for research orientation seems to bring with it an increased homogenization in our understanding of what good research means and, thus, poses a threat for the diversity of our community. Based on these observations, I provide some ideas regarding the possibility of achieving a flourishing research culture without regrets, i.e., one that preserves values or activities that are arguably critical for the sustainable development of our discipline.

Accounting academic elites: The tale of ARIA

“Golden age” accounting theorists Robert Sterling, George Staubus, Yuji Ijiri and Arthur Thomas joined together to create an elite organisation, the Accounting Researchers International Association (ARIA) in 1974, with its chief instigator Robert “Bob” Sterling serving as its first President. Written correspondence between the early members, in conjunction with oral testimony, suggest that ARIA’s formation was motivated by a desire to protect and advance normative-based research. The early members also shared a mutual zeal for intellectual progress and a common passion to rid accounting practices of its defects. They shared a conviction that bringing together a well-recognised, dedicated group of scholars would create an environment in which individual differences would wilt under the pressure of scholarship.This paper reveals that ARIA’s early members failed to protect and advance their specialist knowledge base—normative theorisation—and their elite position within the scholastic social order. In the social space occupied by these leading normative theorists, strategic errors included the absence of effective strategies to protect ARIA’s reputational system through “reproduction of the corps” (Bourdieu, 1988, p. 84) and to defend themselves against empiricists-cum-positivists’ commitment to revolutionise the academy’s research agenda. The history of ARIA also reveals a fatal inability to create a system of shared dispositions and cognitive structures amongst its early members capable of resisting the propensity towards the “circulation of elites” (Pareto, 1935). The irony of the tale is that, in failing to recognise fully the implications of the empirical revolution in US academic accounting, ARIA recruited the very individuals whose choice of degree school and scholarly pursuits labelled them as academics committed to superseding within the academy the type of scholarship and values that the early members espoused.

(En)gendering sustainability

Abstract In this essay, I explore the usefulness of gender, in examining sustainability concerns about the future of the accounting academy. In doing so, I differentiate between gender as a biological variable and gender as a concept. Gender as a variable focuses our attention on demographic issues such as numbers of women. Gender as a concept directs our attention toward the institutional framework within which accounting academics (men and women) currently operate. Rather than assuming that increasing numbers of women can fundamentally change the academy, gender as a concept allows us to explore the over-emphasis upon the masculine in the gendering of the good academic accountant. This imbalance unduly limits the openness of the academy including its intellectual heterogeneity and the sorts of values that are promoted within it.

Building IASB Research Capacity: A Commentary

AbstractThis Commentary summarizes and remarks on several discussions of the link between academic accounting research and financial reporting standard setting. Our Commentary is prompted by references to building the International Accounting Standards Board's (IASB) research capacity, included in three due process documents: Report of the Trustees' Strategy Review, IFRSs as the Global Standard: Setting a Strategy for the Foundation's Second Decade; Agenda Consultation 2011; and Feedback Statement: Agenda Consultation 2011. Pursuant to its mission, the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) has undertaken activities, including hosting two roundtables, related to the link between academic accounting research (and researchers) and the IASB's standard‐setting activities. We discuss the main issues addressed and themes emerging from the IAAER roundtables including whether academic research is relevant to standard setters; types of academic research, and areas of inquiry, that would be most relevant to accounting standard setters; perceptions on why academic research is not more useful to standard setters and challenges to academic researcher's engagement in standard setting. We summarize the IAAER Committee response to the consultation paper, Status of Trustees' Strategy Review. Finally, we identify areas where we believe academia can assist in building a dedicated research capacity at the IASB and note specific areas where future academic research is needed to inform the IASB.

Author Characteristics for Major Accounting Journals: Differences among Similarities 1989–2009

ABSTRACT Many academic accountants have explicit or implicit motivations to publish their research in the best journals in the discipline. However, whether the chances of success are better at some of these journals is unknown. This paper examines the archival record to find differences within the authorship of three such publications (The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics) over a recently completed 20-year period. The journals do not differentiate according to the authors' doctoral training, but are differently sensitive to place of faculty employment. The journals are equally receptive to non-U.S. authors, but different in their receptivity to recently graduated and frequently appearing authors. Although areas of change over time are noted, both among journals and within each journal itself, the record also shows a good deal of consistency in other relationships over the 20-year period.

Standing on the (skeletal) shoulders of a (middle-range) giant: Acknowledging intellectual debt

► The influence of Richard Laughlin and the Sheffield School on the academic accounting landscape. ► Revisits how systems thinking provides a novel but robust framework within which to conceptualise accounting. ► The importance of Laughlin's model of organisational change. ► Richard Laughlin's role in the social accounting project. ► Questions of activism and/or scholarship and the elusiveness of ideal speech situations.

Waqf, Values and the Ulama: Towards Harnessing Philanthropy for Community Uplift in Northern Nigeria

It has been observed that the key feature of the Islamic ideal is the blending of the spiritual and the secular, the economic and the social, by engaging Islamic philanthropy through the waqf institution. However, the utilization of waqf as a charitable institution for the provision of community welfare for Muslims in northern Nigeria, for long facing serious socio-economic, in addition to the current insecurity, problems has basically remained untapped. Employing narratives, and analysis of available literature, this exploratory study is limited in scope by the few accounts considered. Highlighting the role of waqf (Islamic endowment) in enhancing public wellbeing, the paper reveals that harnessing effectively waqf requires the involvement of the ulama as change agents. Nevertheless, the study concludes that for the ulama in northern Nigeria to successfully mobilize philanthropy for community building, it is an imperative for them to undertake a self reassessment.*This paper is part of an ongoing study. It was originally a section in the author’s Inaugural Lecture Paper titled: “The River that changed its course: Traversing Academic Disciplines-from Accounting to Community Development-while remaining in situ,” (2012).

Ethics of Relationships between Accounting Academics and External Sponsors

ABSTRACT: A variety of relationships can develop between accounting academics, academic units, and external sponsors that raise issues of ethical propriety. External donors may seek to influence academic decisions by applying pressure on recipients to gain favored treatment. We believe these types of situations are on the rise because of increased commercialization of universities. In this study, we examine relationships between accounting academics and external sponsors that challenge academic independence because of conflicts of interest when donors seek to impose conditions on financial support. We solicit the opinions of academic accountants about how likely they are to go along with the conditions. We link these activities to the following ethical issues: fair-mindedness, objectivity, and integrity. We conclude that the more experienced accounting academics (i.e., full professors, current chairs, holders of endowed chairs, and designated faculty fellows) are less likely to engage in ethically questionable relationships with external sponsors than academics who are less experienced. The results are driven primarily by two cases: allowing a Big 4 CPA firm to interview students before other firms as a condition of continued recruiting, and allowing a firm to decide on the recipient of a named faculty fellowship.

Accounting Faculty Internships

Accounting professionals, business college accrediting bodies, and even accounting academics themselves acknowledge that there is a disconnect between academe and the rigors and requirements of the accounting profession. Among the suggestions proposed in the literature to reduce this gap is the faculty internship, where accounting faculty members work within the field as accountants. Heretofore, individual case studies report benefits of such internships that accrue to a variety of stakeholder groups beyond just the faculty intern and include the academic institution, students, and accounting profession through faculty internships. This research seeks wider support for these benefits. This descriptive study involved surveying a sample of accounting faculty members to get their opinions about the benefits and drawbacks of faculty internships, and to determine the level of use of faculty internships in accounting. In all, 128 usable responses were obtained, representing a 14.6% response rate. The results of this study reveal that although most faculty members acknowledge the benefits cited in the literature, too few take advantage of faculty internships.

Grade Retention

Academic accountability is of great concern, therefore grade retention is being considered for both students with and without disabilities who are not meeting end-of-the-year achievement benchmarks. The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher attitudes toward grade retention and whether practices differ when recommending retention of students with or without disabilities. This mixed-methods study utilized a paper-and-pencil questionnaire using a Likert-type scale, as well as two open-ended questions and a checklist. Teacher interviews were also conducted. The findings of this study indicate that teachers are considering a multitude of factors when considering grade retention for their struggling students. Academic performance was the factor that teachers (77%) indicated the most frequently. Although teachers felt pressure and accountability from high stakes testing, they felt test results should be one of many factors considered in the retention decision.

A Model of Individual Accounting Faculty Salaries

ABSTRACT:While much has been written about how to successfully manage an academic accounting career, to date, research has not considered how accounting academics can manage their career to impact their salary. The current study utilizes publicly available individual salary information for over 1,200 tenure-track faculty at over 100 of the largest accounting programs in U.S. public universities. Using this salary data, we create a model of accounting faculty salary using individual and institutional variables for top-ranked doctoral, other doctoral, and non-doctoral programs.Our results offer additional insights into accredited public university accounting faculty salaries beyond the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) publications, which aggregate by public/private schools and accredited/non-accredited programs.We find that Brigham Young University (BYU) 20 faculty research ranking, a financial teaching/research emphasis, being a department chair, and having a named business school can be positively associated with salary, although the specific influence varies by type of program. There is generally a U-shaped relationship between salary and academic rank, but a negative relationship with length of employment at an institution and cost of living. A systems teaching/research emphasis is negatively associated with salary at other doctoral programs. We do not find that salary is associated with gender.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Management control as a package—The need for international research

This special issue of JoMaC is devoted to various conceptualizations of management control systems. Management control systems have been one of the core topics of academic accounting research for decades. Given this relatively long tradition, national differences in managerial practices and somewhat isolated research communities until recent years, it is not surprising that there exist a number of different conceptualizations and interpretations of what control is, what are management control systems, what is a management system and how this is different from management control system, what is the role of a controller, and so on. On the other hand, it is also somewhat surprising that in today’s global world these divergent views have not converged to a system of concepts we could all accept and use similarly as a basis of our academic and practical work. Perhaps this latter point just reminds us that there is not a large number of scholars around the globe working on these topics actively at any point in time and our field of research is not mature yet. Given the various philosophical approaches to research evident today, I doubt we never end up with a common and universal agreement. Nevertheless, I am hoping that words and concepts in our field would slowly start to reach a state where we do understand each other’s when we use them. A good example of this difficulty of concepts is the term “control package”. It seems that attempts to clarify certain issues bring in new conceptual problems easily. To my understanding Otley used the concept “control package” initially to convey an idea that not all control systems are necessarily designed at the same time to work as a coherent whole, or systems existing in any firm at any point in time may not be all well coordinated. If they were, we could talk about system, either management control system or management system, depending on the scope, and its

Alternative Perspectives on Accounting in the Public Interest

Similar to other professional groups, the accounting profession has asserted that it serves the ‘public interest’. However, the definition of exactly what constitutes the ‘public interest’ has been subject to considerable debate and there is no general agreement on its meaning. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate that there have been and continue to be differing perspectives regarding accounting in the public interest. For example, during the last 30 years, the interpretive and critical strands of the academic accounting literature have contributed various reflections regarding the co-opting of accounting rhetoric, philosophical perspectives, and discourse in an age of neoliberalism. A lack of similar research in the ‘mainstream’ accounting literature may indicate that there is a lack of interest regarding accounting in the public interest on the part of mainstream researchers. However, one reason for this difference may involve the definition of the ‘public interest’. This chapter seeks to examine these alternative perspectives on accounting in the public interest.

Anatomy of a Journal: A Reflection on the Evolution of Academic Accounting in Canada 1984-2010

Journal-related studies have a long history in accounting. The focus of these studies spans a diverse set of topics ranging from journal quality, to publication by various groups, to study of types of research published, and to author affiliations. The purpose of our study is to examine one academic accounting journal to see how contributing author composition and editorial policies changed over time. Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR), the premier journal of the Canadian Academic Accounting Association (CAAA), is often ranked in the top 5 to 10 academic accounting journals. With a limited history beginning in 1984, CAR provides an opportunity to examine aspects of its published main articles (i.e., not discussions, book reviews, comments or editorials) and authors. Using the first 27 volumes, we examine author gender, home university at time of publication, number of authors per article, and diversity using surname origin of article authors. Using numbers, percentages and significance tests, we find female contributors, multiple co-authored articles, authors’ home universities outside North America and the appearance of diversity of contributors (measured by surname origin) all increase over the 27 volumes of CAR. Academics interested in the history of journals will find the results revealing since they speak to how authorship and participation by certain academic groups have changed over time.

Educating accounting professionals: Development of a theoretical framework as a language of description of accounting knowledge production and its implications for accounting academics at South African universities

Many accounting academics in South Africa encounter tension between the core academic requirements of research and teaching. A range of factors identified by this study contributes to the existence of this tension. These include the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants’ (SAICA) firm role in controlling the curriculum of the professionally-orientated programmes, the requirement by universities that all academics should produce research, the need by the profession for quality students with good technical skills, and the emphasis on transformation of higher education in the developing economy of South Africa.The theoretical framework developed in this study, which is based on Bernstein’s (1996) pedagogic device, identifies the different constructions of knowledge in the Accounting discipline. Additionally, it provides a language of description for the conversion of new and existing knowledge into pedagogic discourse. Boyer’s (1990) four domains of scholarship link closely with Bernstein’s pedagogic device, and illuminate the permeable boundaries between the different fields, confronting the weary ‘teaching versus research’ debate, and defining what it means to be a scholar.The study identifies the different dimensions of scholarship in which Accounting academics are involved, which is considered both valid and highly valued by members of the Accounting profession. It is recommended that universities, who wish to retain their status of producing students who meet the quality demands of a profession, need to develop scholarship and teaching expertise and to reward excellence in academic teaching on professional programmes

The agreement process for implementing the International Education Standards for Accounting among Japanese accounting academics: a grounded theory approach

The major purpose of this paper was to research the process and extent to which Japanese accounting academics agree to incorporate the International Educational Standards for Professional Accountants (IESs) into their curriculum. This study applied grounded theory in order to generate a theory that could explain which driver/s Japanese accounting academics perceive as important in influencing their agreement for the IESs implementation. The findings of this study indicate that accounting academics in Japan have not yet reached a consensus on the successful integration of the IESs into their domestic accounting education system, especially at the undergraduate level. As a subsequent outcome, suggestions and recommendations on how to successfully incorporate the IESs into their undergraduate programmes were composed, followed by referring several limitations and further possibilities of the extended research.