Accounting for Sustainable Societies
Summary of All Lectures and Required Papers
Radboud University Nijmegen
Yoël Guijt
, Lecture 1 — Introduction
Origin of Accounting Theory:
> Accounting theory relies often on other disciplines (economics, psychology, organ. behavior)
> Agency theory, institutional theory, behavioral accounting theory, contingency theory, etc
A simplistic theory example:
> What constitutes a psychological theory?
> Describes a behavior, it makes predictions about future behaviors, must have evidence
to support the idea, it must be testable
Theory, Hypothesis and more:
> Theory: A formal set of ideas, intended to explain why something happens or exists
> Hypothesis: Idea/explanation of something that is based on a few known facts but has not yet
been proven to be true or correct
> Proposition: Similar to hypothesis, but the link cannot be veri ed by experiment
> Theorem: Rule or principle, especially in mathematics, that can be proven to be true
> Law: Generalized rule, especially in natural sciences, form of mathematical statement
Basic levels of research:
1. Description: Collection and reporting data (observations) and basic statistics
2. Classi cation: Grouping (clustering) of data based on similarities or di erences
3. Explanation: Make sense of the data by attempting to explain relationships (our causality)
Generally concerned with the ‘Why?’
4. Prediction: Provide models that allow testable predictions for (future) events
Some more distinctions:
> Deductive reasoning: From theory to observation
> Inductive reasoning: From observation to theory
Con rmatory:
> Test a priori hypothesis
> Normally based on existing study
> Stringent research restrictions
> Deals with knowns/unknowns
Exploratory:
> Generates a posteriori hypothesis
> Discovers new knowledge
> Less stringent research restrictions
> Deals with unknowns
Accounting+:
> Also for sustainability, Education/Professional
development, Theories/philosophy of accounting, Accounting in the digital age
> There’s more than numbers!
Lecture 2 — Formulating a Research Question and Developing Hypotheses
(Kinney)
The Kinney Three paragraphs:
> What > Why > How
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,The Predictive validity framework:
> Hypotheses: Based on theories, often from literature or earlier research
> Associations and causations
Kinney Three Paragraphs:
> What
> What is the problem? What are you trying to nd out?
> Why
> Why is it important? To whom? Practical or Theoretical importance? Can I help rms,
persons, future researchers, can someone build on what I nd?
> How
> Methodology —> How will it be solved? How will it be done?
Example:
> What: The way management reacts to social media criticism How do investors react?
> Why: We know much about traditional communication channels, but not on social media.
Important for companies reputation on how to react to criticism
> How: Experiment in which participants receive scenario and answer questions about
their perceptions of the rm and their decisions
What: Research Question:
> Should be ‘Clear, focused and concise’
> Minimize misinterpretation, speci c enough to be covered in the paper, not about personal
opinions and you already know the possible answers (for falsi cation/veri cation)
> Manage the scope of the research questions
>> Often not a whole new, hugely creative, paper is expected; only a twist to what is known
> Building on previous knowledge, not creating completely new ones!
Examples:
> What: Digitalization and its in uence on the decision making of management accountants
> Why: Investors, rms, CEOs, etc can be helped with this insight. Is there a gap in the literature?
> How: By which observations, data, etc? Empirical (archival, survey, experiment) or maybe only
theoretical?
— Operationalization Process —
Data:
> Types of Variables:
> Collected variables: Originating from naturally-occurring or human-managed data
> Generated variables: Only available because researchers want it (they made it)
> Types of Settings:
> Uncontrolled set: Setting has other potentially in uential variables besides the ones
being studied
> Controlled set: Setting restricts itself to the study of the variables of interest and not
others
Types of Research:
Types of Validity:
> Internal: Variables are the right ones/you don’t miss anything
> External: The concepts you want to study are logical
> Construct: Variables should be a good measure of your
concept
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, Types of Relations:
> Association: A <-> B This is a relation/correlation
> Causation: A -> B or B -> A This is an e ect on the other variables
— Hypotheses / Operationalization Process —
What is a theory?
> A conceptual window to look at the overly complex observable world
> Theories help build a plausible answer to the research questions (hypotheses)
> Theories form our collective body of knowledge
> Help us account for observable phenomena, but they aren’t representative of some objective
truth or reality
> Theories can be accepted without believing its concept are real or true; it is enough that they
are useful in explaining observable phenomena
>>> We prefer theories that can account for more observable phenomena!
Hypotheses:
> We test theories for empirical adequacy between variables (is it the relation we expected)
> An explicit statement (causally) relating concepts
H0: ß = 0 & Ha: ß ≠ 0
>>> A good hypothesis is falsi able, meaning that empirical evidence should be able to
contradict it. If your hypothesis can’t be proven wrong, it is not useful!
Moderation:
> MO changes the relationships between A and B
Mediation:
> ME drives/explains the relationships between A and B
Lecture 3 — Methodological and Theoretical Challenges in Qualitative
Research
What is qualitative research?
> A method of inquiry to explore and understand the underlying motivations, attitudes, ad
experiences of individuals or groups. More subjective and aims to provide a deeper
understanding of the social and cultural context
Key characteristics of qualitative research include:
1. Open-ended and exible: Open-ended questions and allows for exibility in data
collection and analysis
2. Contextual and holistic: Seeks to understand phenomena within their natural settings,
taking into accounting the broader context which they occur
3. Subjective and interpretation: Active role in the research process, interpretation of data is
subjective, in uenced by the researchers perspectives
What are the philosophical assumptions?
> How we perceive the world around us; Scholars may adopt themselves with paradigm or adopt
a mixed-methods approach the combines multiple paradigms
> Implicit choices of paradigm in uences the:
> Research Questions // Methodologies // Interpretation of ndings
> Coexistence of paradigms re ect the diverse ways in which researchers seek to understand,
explain and improve accounting practices within the broader socio-economic context
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