What is accounting research?

• From Research Interests Page. Should we merge these or something?
• Need to provide examples of each. Preferrably linking to papers that can be download and read. Could also link to overview papers like the JAE papers so interested students can know where to go to read more.

Introduction

Professors typically will choose a subject area and a methodology in which to focus their efforts. Subject areas include the topical areas considered under the umbrella term "accounting." These include information systems, auditing and assurance, corporate governance, financial, forensic, managerial, and tax.

Accounting Research Methodologies

A researcher will select a methodology to determine how the research is to be conducted. There are three main methodologies for research in accounting: archival, analytical, and experimental.

One thing to avoid when discussing methodologies is to refer to one of the methods as "empirical" to differentiate from other methods. This is most often done by archival researchers who refer to their research as empirical and not to include experimental research under the "empirical umbrella." Empirical research is research that is verifiable based on observation or experimentation; thus, archival and experimental research are both empirical in nature.

Analytical

Researchers who utilize analytical methods base analysis and conclusions on formally modeling theories or substantiated ideas in mathematical terms. These analytical studies use math to predict, explain, or give substance to theory.

Archival

Researchers who utilize archival methods base analysis and conclusions on objective data collected from repositories of third parties. Also included are studies in which the researchers collected the data and in which the data has objective amounts such as net income, sales, fees, etc.  

Experimental

Researchers who utilize experimental methods base analysis and conclusions on data the researcher gathered by administering treatments to subjects. Usually these studies employed random assignment; however, if the researcher selected different populations in an attempt to “manipulate” a variable, we also included these as experimental in nature (e.g., participants of different experience levels were selected for participation). Experimental research can include analyzing both economic and behavioral factors.

Other Research Methodologies

For a thorough description of each methodology as it applies to each subject area, the following matrix has been created:

	AIS	Auditing	Financial	Managerial	Tax	Other Topics
Analytical	Analytical AIS	Analytical Auditing	Analytical Financial	Analytical Managerial	Analytical Tax	Analytical Other Topics
Archival	Archival AIS	Archival Auditing	Archival Financial	Archival Managerial	Archival Tax	Archival Other Topics
Experimental	Experimental AIS	Experimental Auditing	Experimental Financial	Experimental Managerial	Experimental Tax	Experimental Other Topics
Other	Other AIS	Other Auditing	Other Financial	Other Managerial	Other Tax	Other Other Topics

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Here are the different research areas in accounting.

Great entry-level article on understanding accounting research.