The relationship between academic accounting research and professional practice

The researcher role

In summary, the role of the accounting academic remains as one of critiquing, challenging, and engaging in debate. That is as important as producing practically useful research. As Evans (2010) argues, what counts as knowledge will remain as contested and needs to be debated and negotiated between the profession, policymakers, practitioners and accounting academics, while preserving the researcher’s role and right of independence and critical thought. This is occasionally evident, for example, through collaboration between professional accounting bodies and academics to produce sponsored research, sponsored specialised conferences and public policy contributions. There is in some quarters an emerging recognition that collaboration between academic research and practice is an important, but not sole determinant for research. As argued above, a crucial key role of academics remains: namely to critique, debate and challenge the status quo. This is an essential path to improving the lot of stakeholders, be they investors, minority groups, employees, communities, the accounting profession, government policy or societal conditions.

We still contend that accounting research needs to be socially, politically and institutionally contextualised, theoretically informed, and embracing interdisciplinarity. Without a persistent focus on social, political and organizational settings, our research will become lost in a myopic obsession with accounting technologies and practices so that our potentially wider societal contribution will fail to emerge