The Relationship between Academic Accounting Research and Professional Practice

Accounting research is often conceived as applied research in that the focus of study is made up of technologies and technical practices used by accounting practitioners in social and organisational settings. This stands in marked contrast to the physical sciences where the focus of study is mainly physical matter. At the international level, research is generally a requirement for accounting academic career progression, and an important contributor to the development of knowledge and scholarship (Wright and Chalmers, 2010). The impact of research in some disciplines is easy for the lay person to comprehend, such as in medicine, where advances in medical procedures and development of new drugs result in benefits to society. For accounting, this impact is not so easy to discern (Tilt, 2010). For instance, in the field of accounting there have been claims that research has become too far removed from the interests of the profession and practitioners. Researchers in turn point to the shortcomings of current professional practices. Indeed, some in the accounting research community go so far as to consider that many practical issues of concern to professional accountants do not warrant the attention of researchers (Singleton-Green, 2010).