Research Methods in Accounting

256 Pages·2003·1.27 MB·English

by  Malcolm Smith

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R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S
I N A C C O U N T I N G
M A L C O L M S M I T H
SAGE Publications
London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi
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© Malcolm Smith 2003
First published 2003
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or
private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication
may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by
any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the
publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in
accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside
those terms should be sent to the publishers.
SAGE Publications Ltd
6 Bonhill Street
London EC2A 4PU
SAGE Publications Inc
2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, California 91320
SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd
B-42, Panchsheel Enclave
Post Box 4109
New Delhi 110 017
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 0 7619 7146 7
ISBN 0 7619 7147 5 (pbk)
Library of Congress Control Number available
Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd., Chennai, India
Printed in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press Ltd, Trowbridge, Wiltshire
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This book is dedicated to Beth, Cedric and Alice
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Contents
List of Figures xi
List of Tables xii
Acknowledgements xiii
Preface xiv
1 Introduction and Overview 1
Theory as testable explanation 6
A critical approach to accounting research 8
2 Developing the Research Idea 16
The research sequence 16
Emergence of the research topic 20
Conceptual frameworks 24
The structure of DNA: the development of new theory 30
The Bradman problem: the development of new strategies 31
The longitude problem: implementing solutions 34
Strategic management accounting 36
3 Theory, Literature and Hypotheses 39
Sources of theory 39
Searching the literature 47
Modelling the relationship 47
Developing the hypotheses 52
Validity concerns 53
4 Data Collection and Analysis 55
Sample selection 56
Measurement issues 56
Data management 59
Descriptive statistics 60
Differences in sample means 64
Measures of association 69
Analysis of variance 73
Multivariate model building 75
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vi Contents
5 Research Ethics in Accounting 91
The ethics quiz 92
Informed consent 95
Ethical guidelines 97
6 Experimental Research 100
The problem statement 101
Theory and context 101
Experimental design 104
The validity trade-off 108
Quasi-experimental research 113
7 Survey Research 117
Mail surveys 117
Design and planning issues 120
Pilot testing 122
Data collection 123
Measurement error 126
Interview methods 128
8 Fieldwork 131
Case study methods 134
The qualitative analysis protocol 136
Grounded theory 139
Verbal protocol analysis 140
9 Archival Research 142
Cross-section data 143
Time-series data 144
The validity trade-off in archival research 146
Content analysis 147
Critical analysis 150
10 Supervision and Examination Processes 152
The role of the supervisor 153
Examiner profiles 159
The examination process 160
11 Turning Research into Publications 165
Why publish? 165
Where to publish? 166
What to publish? 172
How to publish? 176
Concluding remarks 179
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Contents vii
Appendix 1: Ranking of Accounting Journals 180
Appendix 2: Sample Paper (1) 182
Appendix 3: Sample Paper (2) 202
References 209
Index 230
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List of Figures
Figure 2.1 The research sequence 17
Figure 2.2 The positivist approach 19
Figure 2.3 Alternative research methods 20
Figure 2.4 Kolb’s Learning Cycle 25
Figure 2.5 The deductive process 26
Figure 2.6 The conceptual schema 26
Figure 2.7 Measurement issues 28
Figure 2.8 The Harvey-Jones approach to problem-solving 37
Figure 2.9 Generalised process–improvement sequence 37
Figure 3.1 Searching for construct validity 41
Figure 3.2 Voluntary disclosure and reciprocal causality 48
Figure 3.3 Intervening variables and causality 49
Figure 3.4 Non-financial focus as an intervening variable 49
Figure 3.5 Moderated causal relationship 49
Figure 3.6 Size, industry and culture moderating performance 50
Figure 3.7 Influence of extraneous variables 50
Figure 3.8 Economic conditions as extraneous variables 51
Figure 3.9 Multiple independent variables 51
Figure 3.10 Modelling the recruitment process 52
Figure 4.1 Significance of test of proportion 62
Figure 4.2 χ2-test for difference in frequencies 63
Figure 4.3 Test of significance of correlation coefficient 65
Figure 4.4 t-test for difference in means 66
Figure 4.5 t-test for paired-case difference in means 67
Figure 4.6 Mann–Whitney U-test for difference in means 68
Figure 4.7 Product–moment correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r) 70
Figure 4.8 Coefficient of rank correlation (Spearman’s rho) 71
Figure 4.9 Measure of association within contingency tables 72
Figure 4.10 One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) 74
Figure 4.11 The Kruskal–Wallis multiple sample test 76
Figure 4.12 Summary of regression results for charity
shops case study 82