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IS SECTION / AMERICAN ACCOUNTING ASSOCIATION.

President’s Letter

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Spring/Summer 2012

            

            

Dear IS section members,

 

             I hope your summer is going well.  The 2011-12

year is flying by.  We had a great midyear meeting in

Scottsdale in January.  Attendance was at the high end

of what we have seen at midyear meetings over the last

few years.  It was particularly great to be in Scottsdale,

which is where the first few AIS research  symposia

were held by Steve Sutton and Ken Harmon, as many

of us “old timers” remember.

             At the beginning of my term as section President, I articulated a number of concerns regarding the present and future of the field of AIS.  As I noted, the production of AIS research has remained fairly static over the last several years.  It is no secret that editors of the various AIS related journals are not being flooded with more high quality AIS research articles than they can publish.  A related concern is regarding the production of new AIS PhDs.  There are not very many doctoral programs producing AIS trained faculty.  A recent trend is that of mainstream IS faculty moving into AIS, at least in the teaching aspect.  Only time will tell whether this trend continues and whether it is good for the field of AIS. 

             I also noted the pressure at most research-intensive universities to publish in the “Top 6” accounting journals. This pressure has caused many of the top researchers in our section to pursue projects and partnerships that are aimed at these top journals rather than at journals such as Journal of Information Systems, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, and Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting.   We have seen a number of AIS papers appear in the Top 6 journals in recent years, and that is a good thing.  As Jim Hunton and others have voiced, however, in addition to the requisite high standards for research rigor at these journals, the “A” in AIS must be prominent and salient.  Our research must speak to our colleagues in at least one of our sister sub-disciplines in accounting: auditing, managerial accounting, financial accounting, forensic accounting, governmental accounting, and possibly even tax.  AIS research has a more natural fit into one of the following three areas: auditing, managerial accounting, and financial accounting.  For AIS to become more accepted and embraced by our colleagues, I submit to you that we must keep the “A” front and center in our choice of projects.  While I do not discount the potential contribution of a project that is more IS inclined, with no “A” aspect in the project, I see little value of such a project in furthering the field of AIS.

             Where this discussion leads naturally is to the thorny issue of the definition of accounting information systems.  What exactly is AIS?  To recount the old joke, if you ask five AIS researchers to define AIS you will get seven definitions.  At the “state of AIS” panel discussion at the Scottsdale meeting, I had proposed the following “working definition” of AIS:

The field of AIS deals with understanding and improving all aspects of the processing and use of accounting information as enabled by information technology.

             Some of the feedback I received after the panel session was that this definition did not explicitly include what arguably is our core strength, i.e., a focus on internal controls and transaction processing systems.  My view is that expanding the definition to specify any topic risks alienating some subset of the population of AIS researchers.  For the AIS research that you have published and/or are currently working on, ask yourself: “Does the research fit within the boundaries of the above definition of AIS?”  I suspect that the definition is broad enough to encompass most of the “usual suspects” in AIS research (decision aids, IT auditing, presentation formats, XBRL, etc.).  Yet, the definition is narrow by specifically including the words “accounting” and “information technology” in explicating what constitutes AIS.  In my view, it is the coupling of accounting with information systems/technology that distinguishes AIS from any other field.  In addition to the “A” connection, our competitive advantage is that we are uniquely placed to address the “IS” aspect of AIS research questions. 

             My main message here is that we need to collectively “raise our game” by producing more high quality AIS research and by producing more research that is easily recognized by our colleagues as accounting information systems research.  So, while the concerns I outlined at the beginning of the year persist, it is my hope that many of you will heed my call and engage in more research activity that helps our cause, i.e., to gain respectability for the field of AIS.  In somewhat Kennedyesque fashion, I suppose what I’m saying is “…ask what you can do for your section.”  

             I welcome your comments and feedback.  Our IS Section hive in AAA Commons is ready and waiting for such feedback (you will find this note there as well).  Best wishes for a productive summer and I hope to see you at in Washington, DC at the AAA annual meeting.

 

Regards,

Uday