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An International Meeting of American Accounting
Association
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The Winnowing Away of Behavioral Accounting Research in the U.S.: The Process for Annointing Academic Elites |
Paul F. Williams
North Carolina State University
J. Gregory Jenkins
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Laura R. Ingraham
San Jose State University
Abstract: This paper reports the results of a study of the most prolific publishers in the four recognized most prestigious journals in accounting for the period 1963 through 1999. The focus is on learning whether the widespread perception that behavioral accounting research (BAR) has diminished in significance as a prominent paradigm in the accounting academy has any validity and to identify whether a new generation of BAR researchers is emerging to join the academic elite. Based on the characteristics of persons who have appeared as authors five or more times during the study period, it seems that BAR is making little if any headway as a prominent paradigm in shaping the academic agenda in accounting. The power of successful individuals to shape the academic agenda as evidenced by service on editorial boards of prominent journals is dominated by those individuals who are graduates of a set of elite schools utilizing an economics based research paradigm. And their power seems to be growing.