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Fülbier, Rolf Uwe ; Sellhorn, Thorsten:
Methodological approaches to accounting research : evidence from EAA annual congresses.
2006
Veranstaltung: European Accounting Association (EAA): 29th Annual Congress
, 22.-24. März 2006
, Dublin, Ireland.
(Veranstaltungsbeitrag: Kongress/Konferenz/Symposium/Tagung
,
Paper
)
Abstract
This paper describes an ongoing empirical-archival eta-analysis of accounting research over the last 30 years. We investigate different aspects of research approaches documented in the abstracts of papers presented at EAA Annual Congresses. The project is organized in two distinct
phases: In the first phase, we present evidence on basic variables like topics pursued, methods applied
and other characteristics of accounting research (including co-authorships and international as well as
cross-institutional cooperation), both in terms of their development over time and their differences
across countries. We believe that the results of this exploratory analysis are likely to be relevant for
other researchers, journal editors, practitioners (including standard setters and firms) and others interested
in current research trends as well as the debates surrounding “mainstream” accounting research,
the “multi-paradigmatic” nature of accounting research and the notion of “globalization” of accounting
research. Motivated by recurring debates about the status of accounting as an (applied or pure) science
and the raison d'être of prescriptive-normative (as opposed to descriptive-positive) research, the second
phase uses content analyses of abstracts to infer authors’ methodological approaches to accounting research
(including research objectives and research “world-views”, or paradigms). Here also, we look at
both the inter-temporal as well as cross-country dimensions. The second phase is expected to lend empirical
substance to ever-recurring disputes about the scientific status of accounting and the underlying motivations of accounting researchers. Our data covers practically all EAA Annual Congresses throughout the EAA’s history (1978-present), yielding about 10,000 abstracts of research papers in 20 topic areas, presented by delegates from more than 60 countries. This early version of our paper reflects
the subset of this data that has already been analyzed. We present basic descriptive evidence from EAA Annual ongresses between 1998 und 2008 and put up for discussion initial results on our empirical measure of research objective pursued.