Over an extended period of time, numerous researchers have identified the problematic nature of the research stagnation
that increasingly characterizes accounting academe, particularly in the leading journals within the field. Many excellent
suggestions for change have been made. To date, however, limited efforts have been made to address this problem, resulting
in growing concerns that the accounting literature makes little or no real contribution to the accounting profession (e.g.,
Williams et al., 2006; Hopwood, 2007). Current developments like the Pathways Commission (2012) report offer the hope of
change but run a significant risk of becoming symbolic gestures only, like so many efforts before them.
In this paper, we apply the Barley and Tolbert (1997) model to understand the current phenomenon and identify
possibilities for change. Drawing upon the structural change literature, we identify a critical role for change arising external
to the current system. Giddens (1984) addresses the power implications of increased time-space distanciation noting that
the ability of agents to effect change from within decreases as structures become self-perpetuating over time. For this reason,
we argue that it will take an explicit external resource shock to facilitate the essential schema modification and
reinterpretation to bring about structural change.
The mainstream is not going to change by itself. Major ethical failures in the business world and the Global Financial Crisis
have proven insufficient to motivate accounting researchers to embrace changes in our thinking. As those who do acknowledge
the social responsibility of our profession and recognize that our research is failing to address the vital issues of the day, it is
incumbent on us to seek now to influence those public policy-makers and private foundations with the power to deliver an
external resource shock. The stagnation problem will only be perceived as something more than ivory-tower infighting,
however, when it is demonstrated that there are real economic and non-economic costs to society (both direct and indirect) and
that these costs outweigh the benefits. The sociology literature teaches us that wishing for schema revision on an incremental
basis is not likely to be fruitful and that even well-intentioned actors are likely to be constrained. This is consistent with the lack
of change in accounting research over the past few decades despite a voluminous literature identifying the problem. The point
of our paper is that only an external resource shock will provide the necessary environment for schema revision and
reinterpretation. We document this by examining the notion of the duality of structure and applying the Barley and Tolbert
(1997) model. Although many valid and wide-ranging suggestions for change have been offered over many years, we are
unaware of any other research that clearly documents the need for an external shock, as is implied by the sociology theory we
examine. We do not suggest that identifying and facilitating such a shock is likely to be easy. On the contrary, the dominant
accounting research paradigm is unlikely to release its grip without a significant struggle. However, the real contribution of our
paper is the lesson we can learn from the structural change literature in sociology: incremental change offers extremely limited
prospects for reforming accounting research and we must therefore focus our attention and efforts elsewhere.
Over an extended period of time, numerous researchers have identified the problematic nature of the research stagnationthat increasingly characterizes accounting academe, particularly in the leading journals within the field. Many excellentsuggestions for change have been made. To date, however, limited efforts have been made to address this problem, resultingin growing concerns that the accounting literature makes little or no real contribution to the accounting profession (e.g.,Williams et al., 2006; Hopwood, 2007). Current developments like the Pathways Commission (2012) report offer the hope ofchange but run a significant risk of becoming symbolic gestures only, like so many efforts before them.In this paper, we apply the Barley and Tolbert (1997) model to understand the current phenomenon and identifypossibilities for change. Drawing upon the structural change literature, we identify a critical role for change arising externalto the current system. Giddens (1984) addresses the power implications of increased time-space distanciation noting thatthe ability of agents to effect change from within decreases as structures become self-perpetuating over time. For this reason,we argue that it will take an explicit external resource shock to facilitate the essential schema modification andreinterpretation to bring about structural change.The mainstream is not going to change by itself. Major ethical failures in the business world and the Global Financial Crisishave proven insufficient to motivate accounting researchers to embrace changes in our thinking. As those who do acknowledgethe social responsibility of our profession and recognize that our research is failing to address the vital issues of the day, it isincumbent on us to seek now to influence those public policy-makers and private foundations with the power to deliver anexternal resource shock. The stagnation problem will only be perceived as something more than ivory-tower infighting,however, when it is demonstrated that there are real economic and non-economic costs to society (both direct and indirect) andthat these costs outweigh the benefits. The sociology literature teaches us that wishing for schema revision on an incrementalbasis is not likely to be fruitful and that even well-intentioned actors are likely to be constrained. This is consistent with the lackof change in accounting research over the past few decades despite a voluminous literature identifying the problem. The pointof our paper is that only an external resource shock will provide the necessary environment for schema revision andreinterpretation. We document this by examining the notion of the duality of structure and applying the Barley and Tolbert(1997) model. Although many valid and wide-ranging suggestions for change have been offered over many years, we areunaware of any other research that clearly documents the need for an external shock, as is implied by the sociology theory weexamine. We do not suggest that identifying and facilitating such a shock is likely to be easy. On the contrary, the dominant
accounting research paradigm is unlikely to release its grip without a significant struggle. However, the real contribution of our
paper is the lesson we can learn from the structural change literature in sociology: incremental change offers extremely limited
prospects for reforming accounting research and we must therefore focus our attention and efforts elsewhere.
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