Introduction
A major challenge confronting accounting researchers engaging in the methodological field is deciding which research method is most apt for gathering and analysing empirical data on a research topic (Hoque, 2006). The research methodology literature generally advocates both traditional (i.e., well acknowledged) and emergent research methods for studying accounting phenomena and practice in society, institutions and organizations. Both traditional and emergent research methods offer differing insights into organizational phenomena and have their unique foci, scope and limitations. Together they provide the potential to increase our knowledge and understanding about a phenomenon or phenomena.
The aim of this edited collection of chapters is to provide an informative reference work on qualitative research methods in accounting that offers students and researchers a critical overview of current and emerging scholarship in this methodological field. To this end, the book focuses on the following aspects: 1) worldviews and paradigms, 2) methodologies and strategies, 3) data collection and analysis, and 4) reflections on qualitative field research.
In this introductory chapter, we aim to synthesize the issues addressed in this edited collection. The intention of this book is to provide a comprehensive guide to the methodological choice and execution of qualitative research approaches to studying an organizational phenomenon such as accounting. At present there are very few research texts on the state of accounting research methods that offer such a comprehensive guide to research students and academics on the subject of qualitative accounting research methodology, and none that primarily focus on the qualitative tradition. The book will assist a wide range of readers: a) students and researchers in a wide range of accounting, auditing, corporate governance, management control and allied disciplines; b) emerging scholars and students seeking convenient access to qualitative methodologies; and c) established researchers seeking a single repository on the current state of knowledge, current debates and relevant methodological literature.
The remainder of this chapter summarizes the key issues addressed in each chapter under the four broader themes as outlined above. The final section of this chapter provides some concluding comments to embark the reader upon their voyage through the rich collection of readings that follow.
Theme 1: Worldviews and paradigms
The chapters appearing under this theme cover worldviews and paradigms that display fundamental ideas about life and society and important aspects that merit exploration. This collection examines how a host of worldviews and paradigms have been deployed in understanding everyday accounting practice in broader socio-economic and political contexts and in suggesting directions for future accounting research. This theme contains eight topics (Chapters 2–8), each offering unique perspectives in understanding accounting practice.
Chapter 2 initiates the presentation of how alternative worldviews inform our understanding of research topics in accounting when Covaleski, Dirsmith and Samuel review the theoretical principles and assumptions underpinning our social constructionist research programme pertaining to the accounting profession. Reflecting upon much of their prior research they argue that social reality is constituted through social interactions. The authors argue that their research agenda has been informed through the examination of the accounting profession as reflected in the perceptions of individuals and formed by their interactions with each other in the formulation of structural and social change. More specifically, their three-decade social constructionist research programme pertaining to the accounting profession was motivated by a diverse set of organizational and social theories enabling critical insight to three social dynamics within the accounting profession: 1) the role of non-formalized, non-bureaucratic, non-rule oriented approaches employed in public accounting firms to effect control; 2) the roles of MBO and mentoring in the exercise of control in professional organizations; and 3) the dramaturgy of exchange relations among the Big Five public accounting firms, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) with respect to the outsourcing of internal audit services to international external audit firms. Critical to informing these crucial dynamics within the accounting profession were the research methods chosen. Their research was informed primarily by conducting analyses in a largely inductive, descriptive manner. Their reliance on a social construction approach and broad spectrum of qualitative methods guided them through the execution of such research efforts to observe divergent opinions, contested positions, and complex social dynamics at play around the accounting profession.
Lukka and Model address a related topic in Chapter 3 when they seek to track the development of the interpretive paradigm in accounting research by reviewing its evolution over time, and the central debates and likely future directions of research within this paradigm. This chapter maps out central ideas and debates evolving since the emergence of this paradigm in the 1970s to the present day by adopting an essentially chronological approach. Here the authors argue that the emphasis has been placed on issues of ontology and epistemology and their implications for theoretical and methodological choices within this paradigm. The authors also pay some attention to the positioning of this paradigm in relation to other genres of accounting research, both opposing and related ones, especially the functionalist paradigm and research informed by various critical theories.
Annisette and Cooper in their critical studies in accounting (Chapter 4) extend the social construction and interpretive paradigm by examining how power within an organization is exercised. The authors cleverly use their two previously published works (Annisette, 2000; and Cooper, 2015) to illustrate two methods used in critical accounting research that are concerned with capitalism. This chapter shows how their respective studies and related rationalities position theory differently in the research process and employ different research methods. Annisette’s inductive study is concerned with how capitalism’s rationalities are diffused through global accounting bodies, and to this end, they focus on how interviews are used to develop the article’s main arguments. Cooper’s deductive approach illustrates the continued relevance of Marx’s theorizing in explaining the significant failures of accounting in the recent banking crisis. While contrasted in terms of their respective inductive and deductive approaches, the authors come together in this chapter and focus on the core message – that through desk-based research, a wealth of secondary data was obtained to illustrate how the globally diffused rationalities and technologies of accounting alter and shape our worlds in both a material and an ideological way.
Chapter 5 by Carnegie and Napier explore historiography as a paradigm in the writing of history. Historiography, as the authors define it, is generally understood to relate to the analysis of bodies of historical writing, often on common themes. Historiography addresses issues such as the explicit or implicit theories of historians, the methods they use, and their ontological and epistemological assumptions. The question ‘how can we know the past?’ is fundamental not only to historiography but to accounting, which claims to report in a true and fair manner the past transactions of individuals and organizations. In this chapter Carnegie and Napier address the extent to which historical research and research grounded in the social sciences are similar and yet different. In particular, the chapter explores the roles of theory in historical accounting research. Principal theories, in particular those grounded in neo-classical economics (such as agency theory and transaction cost theory), and those based in socio-political thought (such as institutional theory, governmentality and labour process) are examined and exemplified. The epistemological presuppositions of these theories are also discussed and the research methods appropriate to specific epistemologies identified.
Consistent with the notion of the importance of a host of worldviews and paradigms being used in everyday accounting practice within broader socio-economic and political contexts, Goddard provides an illuminating discussion in Chapter 6 on how grounded theory (GT) provides a coherent set of methods to develop theories from data when studying accounting in its social context. The chapter commences with an outline of the various approaches taken to GT by researchers in other disciplines. This is followed by a practical example of the use of GT in an accounting research project to illustrate the methods used. The author also presents a discussion of some issues and debates which are emerging from GT approach using his own personal experiences of GT in the field.
In Chapter 7, Davison and Warren introduce visual methodologies for accounting research. This novel chapter covers interpretive approaches based in the humanities, such as visual rhetoric, visual semiotics and drama theory; mixed approaches based in sociology, such as impression management, actor–network theory, visual elicitation; and experimental content analysis methods from psychology. The chapter also provides a rich bibliography together with text boxes of key resources: visual-related papers from the field of accounting; foundational writers in the area; general visual handbook references; and suggestions for further reading and research.
Hoque provides the closing discussion in Chapter 8 on the theme of the importance of a host of worldviews and paradigms when he introduces a fresh, new idea, Appreciative Inquiry (AI), to accounting research. Hoque argues that an AI approach has the potential to construct useful knowledge in our everyday accounting practice that may not normally be gained through focusing only on ‘negative’ issues surrounding accounting/organizational processes. Inspired by Reed’s (2007) work, Hoque reinforces the essential message of an AI study – ‘it is useful in everyday life to focus on understanding what works well in a particular setting’. Through this chapter, the author invites accounting researchers to engage in this approach as it involves a different mode of engagement from other traditional methods.
In summary, Theme 1: Worldviews and paradigms presents seven topics that offer unique perspectives in understanding accounting practice. The first two topics in this section will make the case for the insights and benefits derived in accounting research from a social constructionist research programme in examining the accounting profession (Covaleski, Dirsmith and Samuel) as well as from an interpretive paradigm and the central debates and directions of research within this paradigm (Lukka and Model). Annisette and Cooper then shift the worldview to more historical and critical accounting research in examining how power is exercised within an organization. Carnegie and Napier extend the theme of the importance of historical research in accounting in the following chapter. We will then be reminded of the importance of grounded theory in the development of theories from data when studying accounting in its social context (Goddard). The final two chapters in this section offer novel worldviews and paradigms to consider in their respective presentations of visual methodology in accounting research (Davison and Warren) and appreciative inquiry as a social construction approach to accounting research (Hoque).
Theme 2: Methodologies and strategies
The second major theme of this text covers nine specific methodologies and strategies (Chapters 9–17). For each, their definition, orientation and scope are examined, as is their manner of implementation in the research process. This array of chapters on research methodologies and strategies should provide stimulating and informative insights to the research of everyday accounting practice.
Chapter 9 provides Dey the platform to focus on three widely used methodologies in social science research: anthropology, ethnography and ethnomethodology. The author stresses the importance of recognizing a variety of other related qualitative field study approaches, such as grounded theory, auto-ethnography, and action research, in the context of interpretive accounting research. Consistent with the author’s call for recognizing the importance of these alternative methodologies, these approaches are examined in detail elsewhere in this book. The focus of Dey’s chapter is to highlight the intellectual roots and essential defining characteristics of anthropology, ethnography and ethnomethodology. Here he reviews the key features of a number of seminal early field studies and explains the various difficulties that confound any attempt to systematically delineate or review the application of these approaches within the accounting literature. Then he examines the subsequent emergence of a number of supporting theoretical perspectives within qualitative field research studies in accounting, with a particular emphasis on the presence (or absence) of criticality within these studies, and the potential for what is termed ‘critical ethnography’. This is developed in the context of social and environmental accounting practice, where its potential to help democratize organizational accountability has been mooted. His final section concludes with a reflection on the past contribution and on the future health of ethnographic studies in accounting.
In Chapter 10, Humphrey and Lee use the 1996 conference, Beneath the Numbers; Reflections on the Use of Qualitative Methods in Accounting Research and their subsequent edited book (Humphrey and Lee, 2004), The Real Life Guide to Accounting Research: A Behind-the-Scenes View of Using Qualitative Research Methods to provide ‘behind the scenes’ views or ‘insider accounts’ of what it is like to actually conduct qualitative accounting research. This behind-the-scenes perspective offer the types of lessons that people providing the accounts gained from that experience, rather than offering prescriptive, ‘textbook’ accounts of how to do qualitative research. This chapter allows the authors to provide a reflective, joint account about the development and use of case studies up to 1996, through the intervening years and their potential in the future.
Related to this theme of the richness of perspective gained from experience, Czarniawska (Chapter 11) critically discusses the application of a narrative approach to accounting in a number of possibilities. First, there are narratives about accounting, where the images of accounts and accounting in popular culture are especially worth attention. Second, there are attempts to apply narratological tools in accounting research. Third, there are attempts to exploit the knowledge about narratives in academic reports. Fourth, there are efforts to launch a narrative approach in the practice of accounting. Czarniawska makes a compelling case that it is likely that these various attempts to apply a narrative approach to accounting research will multiply in the future.
Using her past twenty-five years of experiences, Hammond in Chapter 12 discusses the contribution of oral history in accounting research. Here Hammond argues that in the 1990s, as the use of qualitative research methods in accounting gained momentum, several researchers made the case for incorporating oral history research into the accounting literature (e.g. Collins and Bloom, 1991; Hammond and Sikka, 1996). Her chapter draws on literature in oral history and accounting as well as her experiences conducting some projects with her co-authors. This chapter includes discussions of the history and purpose of oral history, methodological issues, a literature review of oral history research in accounting, and a brief conclusion. Consistent with other chapters in this Companion, Hammond stresses the critical need to recognize that accounting is not an objective, quantifiable area of study and that – to truly advance our understanding – one must look at its social implications.
In Chapter 13 Haynes introduces the notion of autoethnography (which is prominent in qualitative social science research) to accounting research. Autoethnography enables researchers themselves to form a subject of lived inquiry within the social context of accounting and its environs. This chapter outlines what autoethnography is, as both a research process and a product of research. As such the chapter explores the ontological, epistemological and methodological issues arising from such an approach. Furthermore, Haynes offers a rich discussion of the various forms that autoethnography takes, outlines ways of writing autoethnography, and illustrates how it has been used in contemporary accounting research. Importantly, the chapter closes with a discussion of some of the dilemmas and tensions involved, and evaluates its future possibilities in accounting research.
Chapter 14 by Fogarty offers...
