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One of the biggest challenges facing audit researchers is obtaining data – be it experimental participants or archival proprietary data. The purpose of this article is to suggest practices that researchers should follow when seeking assistance from public accounting firms and others in obtaining data. We emphasize that there is no “magic bullet” that will ensure success; so, the cultivation of multiple contacts and multiple sources is absolutely necessary. Also, when preparing this article, we found that asking people to explain how they obtain access to participants or data is even more sensitive than asking about their salary! Some researchers believe that their approaches are “trade secrets” to be passed on to their doctoral students and collaborators. Another perspective comes from some researchers who believe that proprietary archival data that cannot be put in the public realm should be avoided for at least two reasons: 1) such proprietary data creates an un-level playing field; and 2) reliance on such data makes scientific progress difficult if other researchers cannot have access to the data for purposes of replications and extensions. With these caveats in mind, we proceed to advance some ideas about obtaining access to data and participants.
- Work on substantive topics that practitioners are interested in. This is NOT limiting, as there are many such topics! Topic selection involves knowing their business, so do some homework. Often, theories can be tested in a variety of decision contexts. You are more likely to get support if you choose a decision context that the firms are interested in (assuming it fits your theory, of course).
- If you do not have auditing experience, do not believe what the audit textbook or audit manual states, talk to “real” practitioners before finalizing your research design. Over the years we have found that, if approached at the right time of the year, most practitioners (including partners) are willing to grant you an interview. Subsequent access will depend on how well you do in making a first impression. You need to treat the practitioner like you would treat a paying client—do not waste their time, have a clear idea of what you want to talk about, and have questions prepared, but be flexible enough to follow wherever the interview takes you. You will often only get one chance to make a first impression, so you better make it a good one.
- Most experimental researchers have developed ways of approaching public accounting firms for assistance. For example, one researcher relies on contacts made in his professional development teaching to obtain access to the participants he needs for his experiments. Other experimental researchers have cultivated ties at national, regional or local levels with people occupying positions such as national, regional, or local managing partners; or close associates of those at the national office level that are specifically charged with the task of granting access to firm training sessions. As a general rule, we have found that people are much more willing to help people they know. So, ask your contacts to present in your classes, offer to help with their training, or consult with them on matters that you have a competitive advantage. Do not downplay the importance of what is, on some campuses, viewed as “obligatorily” recruiting lunches with each firm, but rather think of these as chances to make contacts that you keep in touch with on a regular basis.
- One thing that has worked well for some researchers whose institutions consistently place students in public accounting firms is keeping in touch with your former students. By keeping track of the alumni that you have taught, you are able to contact them directly and ask for their help. Sometimes they participate in the study themselves, but more often they help the researcher get in touch with others who can provide participation.
- Even when access is granted, often one is asked to distribute the materials via mail or e-mail. While there is some loss of experimental control, for many firms this is the only access they are willing to grant given the high opportunity cost of giving up an hour of training time at centralized training schools. Also, this is often the only feasible approach to gathering samples of archival data based on audit files. An approach that has helped some researchers convince auditors to participate in their studies that are distributed this way is using the name of a referring partner. By explicitly using the name of the partner (with their permission of course), researcher report response rates from 50-70 percent for requests that may take up to an hour of respondents' time.
- Once you have gained access, you have a debt to pay and an obligation to future researchers. Present the firm with an executive summary of your results as soon as you can. If they were interested enough to sponsor your project, they want to find out what happened. Offer to speak personally to them if they have any questions about what you have found. If at all practicable, ensure feedback gets back to those who participated in your project. One researcher tells the story of going into a firm's office and trying to recruit participants. While he had no problem obtaining every audit partners' involvement he was only able to obtain five seniors out of forty. He asked a couple of those who participated why their colleagues did not, and they told him that the last researcher who had been given access promised feedback to the participants but did not deliver. If archival access has been granted, firms will often want feedback about areas that you have investigated but that might not end up as crucial to your academic project. Be prepared to help investigate further what interests the firm as well as what interests you and other researchers. This may require some effort on your part to create feedback material that responds to the firm's questions, but your efforts are very small compared to the time the firm has invested in your project. Crucially, if you promised to keep the firm's identity confidential, DO THAT! If you don't, you may eliminate the possibility that you and others may be able to get data later. Also, recognize the firm may first agree to be identified, but then change its mind, or vice versa. Always accommodate these requests if at all possible.
- It is imperative that the researcher truly understand and appreciate the “gift” that he/she has been given by the accounting firms that grant access to participants and/or proprietary data. It is not unusual for the accounting firms to want to place certain restrictions on what the researcher can do, and in many cases this results in a research project that is not exactly what the researcher would have designed. However, gaining access to this data (both now and in the future) may very well depend on the researcher's willingness and ability to be flexible and to accept certain limitations on what can be examined. While the integrity of the research must be maintained, researchers who try to force their hand too strongly once the access has been granted will certainly reduce their chances of gaining similar access in the future, not to mention potentially reducing other researchers' access as well.
- Today, many firms contact their Office of General Counsel when deciding whether to grant research access; invariably, the attorneys will propose restrictions that result in limitations on the researcher's right to publish their findings without it being vetted first by the firm. Some proposed agreements reserve the firm's right to cancel the project if, at the firm's sole discretion, they do not agree with the researcher's conclusions, even if the researcher's conclusions are consistent with the data. While this may seem an insurmountable challenge to academic freedom, we have found that upper-level firm management may well overrule the attorneys if the researcher explains clearly that, while he/she welcomes corrections if the facts are wrong, the interpretations must be the sole province of the researcher. At the end of the day, sometimes you just have to walk away from good projects if the restrictions proposed are too severe. For example, you should think carefully about continuing with a project if the firm wants you to sign a contract that allows them to check your research paper for more than factual accuracy. Indeed, many public and some private universities explicitly prohibit researchers from entering into such contracts.
- Some researchers are experimenting with using the WWW (the web) where appropriate and feasible. Some accounting firms even have software in place to facilitate this, and there are several public sites that offer survey forms that are customizable to some extent. By placing the study materials on the WWW, auditors (even during busy season) may find a moment or two to complete the study when their schedule allows. Furthermore, some industry associations' sites that potential participants may monitor on a regular basis may be willing to provide a prominent link to your WWW-based experiment. Bryant, Hunton, and Stone published an excellent article on this issue in the latest edition of Behavioral Research in Accounting (S. Bryant, J. Hunton, and D. Stone. 2004. Internet Based Experiments: Prospects and Possibilities for Behavioral Accounting Research. Volume 16 107-130).
- Keeping up with practitioner contacts is vital. One researcher tells the story of getting a breakthrough idea for an experimental case by taking an audit manager to lunch. At dessert, after much tossing back and forth of ideas from his practice experience, the manager finally came up with a problem he had experienced. This case, which was perfect for testing the theories the authors were interested in, has been influential not only in their research, but also in the research of many scholars who have adapted the case for use in studying other research questions. For archival researchers, knowing that a firm is carrying out a study on an issue for their own purposes might mean they would be willing to share the data with a researcher and even collect some additional data that they would not normally collect. This again means cultivating contacts at the national offices of the firm so as to be “in the know” at the earliest stage possible.
Overall, the challenges of obtaining access to auditing participants and data are large, but they pale in comparison to our accounting colleagues who are trying to get access to management accountants, corporate directors, information systems professionals, and financial analysts to participate in their projects. When you think about the hurdles they face, you may well realize that we in auditing do not have things so bad after all!
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