Productivity in “Top‐Ten” Academic Accounting Journals by Researchers at Canadian Universities*

We examine the research productivity of academic accountants at Canadian universities for the 11‐year period 1990‐2000. Our analysis is based on the “top‐ten” ranked refereed journals in accounting, auditing, and taxation, as documented by Brown and Huefner (1994). We first provide an overview of the importance of publishing in highly ranked accounting journals for individual academics, departments, and business faculties. We then provide details of the proportion of articles published in each of these journals by academics from Canadian universities; the type of research published in each journal (auditing, financial accounting, managerial accounting, and taxation); and details of editorial board service. Our results indicate that even at the most productive Canadian university (in terms of “top‐ten” publications), faculty members publish (on average) approximately one article every seven years. Six Canadian universities have faculty members with, on average, more than one article in “top‐ten” journals every 10 years. We also provide results of analyses that rank each Canadian university, after controlling for the relative quality of each journal, using impact factors published by the Social Science Citation Index. In addition, statistics are provided with regard to the 15 most productive researchers, in terms of “top‐ten” publications, in the 11‐year period. Finally, in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Academic Accounting Association, we examine the productivity of academic accountants at Canadian universities over the past 25 years by combining our results with those reported by Richardson and Williams (1990).     

Accounting Research: Where Now?

This paper provides a commentary on the studies of Barth (2015), Dyckman and Zeff (2015), Ohlson (2015), Sunder (2015), and Whittington (2015) as they relate to past, present, and future directions in accounting research.     

Commentary: Accounting Schism or Synthesis? A Challenge for the Conditional‐Normative Approach*

This paper explains the conditional‐normative accounting methodology (CoNAM) and its origin, offering a comparison of the normative, positive, and conditional‐normative approaches. It also discusses the difference between the pragmatic versus a more scientific treatment of CoNAM. However, the main thrust of the paper is directed toward the schism in academic accounting between the positive accounting theory (PAT) and the critical interpretive view (CIV). To better understand CIV, the paper attempts to explain the philosophic roots that reach from Husserl and some Marxist writers to Foucault, Derrida, and Baudrillard. This schism seems to call for a new synthesis that avoids extreme positions but draws upon insights from both camps. In this search, CoNAM might be helpful by exploring means‐end relations and connecting value judgements to accounting theory in a fairly “objective” way.     

The Importance of History for Accounting Research

This note responds to criticisms in this issue by Subotnik of my 1988 Abacus article. It rejects his claims that the findings in that 1988 article are devoid of social usefulness, that my discussion of knowledge accumulation 'was partial', and finally his suggestion of the futility in using citations as data and citation methods as tools of analysis. It is argued that Subotnik supports his criticisms with little more than rhetoric and unsupported assertions.     

会计制度变迁、机构持股与上市公司业绩的实证研究

文章主要在于考察会计制度变迁前后,机构投资者对持股上市公司业绩的影响.我们发现,总体而言,2007年新会计准则实施前后,机构投资者持股与上市公司业绩都是正相关,不存在差异.但是,在分年度样本中,新会计准则实施前后,这种相关性存在明显差异.新会计准则实施前的分年度样本中,机构投资者持股比例只与公司的Tobin＇Q值之间存在显著的正相关,与CoreROA和CFROA等业绩指标之间关系不显著.在新会计准则实施后,机构投资者持股比例与所有的公司业绩指标Tobin＇Q、CoreROA和CFROA等之间都存在显著的正相关关系,并且通过了敏感性测试.说明新会计准则实施后,机构投资者更能够发挥作用,全方位提高上市公司的业绩.     

Giving credit where credit is due: Summary analysis of the most prolific authors in 15 high-impact accounting journals

The most prolific contributing authors to a set of high-impact accounting journals are summarized. These contributors are an unusually productive and successful group, accounting for a disproportionate share of the appearances in this significant set of the academic literature. Additionally, findings are presented demonstrating that the second tier of accounting journals tend to be dominated by the same researchers who dominate the top-tier journals, thus suggesting that getting published in the second tier of accounting academic journals may be as difficult a hurdle as publishing in the top tier.     

Applied Research in Accounting: A Commentary*

The mission of Canadian Accounting Perspectives is to provide a forum for “applied research” in accounting, but this key term is not defined. I identify three forms of applied research: (1) the use of existing knowledge to find solutions to current problems; (2) the use of positivist research methods to conduct critical tests between current alternative accounting methods and to identify empirical regularities that contribute to the development of technologies of practice; and (3) the use of disciplined inquiry and action research to develop mid‐range theory and generate empirical results that advance the interests or increase the capabilities of an identified community. This third form of applied research may provide the best approach to bridging the schism between academe and practice.     

A Review of Big Data Research in Accounting

The impending fourth industrial revolution has enhanced the role of big data analytics in today’s business practice. Consequently, many now consider big data as the most strategic resource in business to the extent that organizations that fail to utilize it may become competitively disadvantaged. Following these developments, questions have been raised about the future of the accounting discipline, especially in terms of how it can continue to add value to organizations. While some scholars have attempted to address this question, it remains an abstract concept requiring further investigation. Therefore, this study conducts a systematic literature review to determine the status of accounting research on big data analytics and provides avenues for further studies. By conducting co-occurrence network analysis on 52 peer-reviewed articles published from 2010 to 2020, three broad themes emerged, entailing big data implications for accounting practice, education, and research design. A further examination of the themes revealed few empirical studies on the phenomenon, as conceptual research dominates the field. Although external audit implications of big data are widely discussed, other accounting domains (e.g., managerial accounting and taxation) are underexplored. Therefore, future studies may focus on the implications of big data on variables such as performance measurement, information governance, tax behavior, curriculum design, and pedagogy.     

Accounting and Business Research: the first 50 years, 1970–2019

This article is a historical review and analysis of the first 50 years of Accounting and Business Research.     

管理会计研究范式的转变

我国现行管理会计主要有计量结构、新古典经济学、行为科学及经验实证等研究方法类型,其中以自然科学为特征的是"功能至上"的研究范式.通过科学定位管理会计的研究路径,结合管理会计方法的变迁可以进一步发展为功能至上、解释的路径、结构关联性理论、主体与结构的综合理论及激进的理论等五种范式.     

Legacy of the Golden Age: Recent Developments in the Methodology of Accounting

It is often suggested in the accounting literature that there was a distinct change in the methodology employed by accounting theorists/researchers around 1970. Nelson (1973) has referred to the 1960s as the 'golden age in the history of a priori research in accounting'. Since then, some have claimed a more scientific empirical methodology has been used. However, there are distinct similarities in the methodological presuppositions in both periods and it is argued in this paper that contemporary researchers have a debt to the 'golden age' theorists for introducing the requirement of a rigorous standard of argument for effective and reliable accounting knowledge.     

论财务会计与管理会计的整合

文章主要就财务会计与管理会计整合的必然性及可能性（基础与条件）两方面进行了阐述。认为两者本质的同一性和目标的一致性是走向整合的必然。随着信息技术的不断发展,财务会计与管理会计的界限越来越模糊,整合的条件越来越成熟,整合的趋势日益明显。     

Accounting as a social and institutional practice: perspectives to enrich our understanding of accounting change

In the past two decades, a body of literature has developed which depicts accounting as a social and institutional practice. Researchers adopting this perspective typically demonstrate an appreciation for the pervasive and enabling characteristics of accounting and an awareness of the importance of local, time-specific factors which shape accounting change within particular instances. This work examines this literature and classifies its content using the themes identified by Miller (1994 ). Drawing upon aspects of this literature, the final sections develop a broad, thematic framework to assist researchers in future studies directed at understanding the diverse and complex processes through which changes to the accounting domain can occur.     

The Impact of Financial Accounting Practices on the Measurement of Profit and Equity: Australia Versus the United States

The purpose of this paper is to make a quantitative comparative analysis of differences between Australian financial reporting practices and U.S. GAAP. The empirical data consist of Form 20-F filings for thirteen Australian incorporated companies for the period 1985–93. Based on prior research, there is a test of the hypothesis that U.S. GAAP is more conservative than Australian financial reporting practice. The results of the empirical analysis offer little support for this hypothesis in the context of the reporting of profit. However, the hypothesis is supported for the reporting of shareholders’ equity. The most frequent and material differences in profits relate to asset measurement, equity consolidation and accounting for intangible assets. Generalizations relating to differences in shareholders’ equity are more difficult to make.     

Accounting research: An analysis of theories explored in doctoral dissertations and their applicability to Systems Theory

This study examined theories used in accounting doctoral dissertations and found that dissertations in this discipline test theories drawn from economics, finance, psychology, and sociology, with 53% from economics and finance and 27% from psychology. Further, a primary conclusion of this paper is that doctoral research in accounting explores subsets of organizational activity consistent with the premises of Systems Theory.     

Academic entrepreneurial hybrids: Accounting and accountability in the case of MegaRide

The current paper focuses on how multiple values shape accounting and accountability practices in hybrid organizations. It concentrates on the complex domain of academic spin-offs, more fully described as hybrid knowledge-intensive organizations, aiming to understand how accounting and accountability practices can be constitutive of hybrid academic entrepreneurial logics and identities and how these, in turn, favor the development of accounting and accountability practices. The study employs a theoretically informed in-depth single case study of the academic spin-off MegaRide of the University of Naples Federico II (Italy) for the period January to May 2021. The findings show how, in MegaRide, hybrid academic entrepreneurial identities emerged at both the individual and organizational levels, leading to successful technology transfer, with an undeniable impact on the local context and society.     

Productivity in Top‐10 Academic Accounting Journals by Researchers at Canadian Universities at the Start of the 21st Century

We assess the research publication productivity of Canadian‐based accounting researchers in highly ranked accounting journals for the 2001–13 period. Our research provides important benchmarks for use by individual researchers and universities for matters such as promotion and tenure decisions. For example, each Canadian‐based faculty member had approximately 0.50 of a weighted article for the 13‐year period, and 45 percent of all accounting faculty members published at least once in a top‐10 accounting journal. We also provide an overview of the type of research being published by Canadian‐based researchers in each of the top‐10 journals (financial accounting, managerial, audit, tax or other) and we assess how productivity at top‐10 journals has changed over time. In supplemental analysis, we compare and contrast the productivity of the 15 male and 15 female academics that publish most in top‐10 accounting journals to assess the breadth of outlets being used beyond top‐10 outlets (including FT 45 journals, accounting journals ranked “A”, “B”, and “non‐A/B”; non‐accounting peer‐reviewed journals, non‐peer‐reviewed outlets). The supplemental analysis also helps to shed light on the finding from this paper, and prior research, that women are less likely to be represented on lists of those with most publications in highly ranked accounting journals, by comparing the two groups of researchers across a variety of institutional and other factors.     

Using Academic Research for the Post‐Implementation Review of Accounting Standards: A Note

The IASB and the FASB discuss formal processes for a post‐implementation review (PIR). This note contributes to this discussion in three ways. First, we argue that academics can, and should, play a significant role in a PIR. Second, we suggest a framework for empirical studies that are useful in a PIR, which enhances understandability of accounting research by standard setters. And third, we propose a process by which standard setters can take advantage of and embed academic research in a PIR.