Making management accounting research more useful

Getting out into the field more to do research addresses only one part of this important failure of management accounting research to be useful for practitioners; researchers are forced into choices that lead to less useful research.

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the general failure of management accounting research to be useful for practitioners. Design/methodology/approach The paper discusses the causes and consequences of the problem, and possible remedies. Findings The causes of the problem, and hence also the remedies, are related to choice of topics, research design, and writing and dissemination of findings; researchers are forced into choices that lead to less useful research by the research evaluation standards used by the major accounting journals and university professor evaluation practices. Originality/value While this general problem of lack of research usefulness has been discussed at some length in other areas of management, the issue has not received much attention in the management accounting community, other than with a few calls for more field research. However, getting out into the field more to do research addresses only one part of this important failure.