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Asian Accounting Research: Leadership Challenges

Asian Accounting Research: Leadership Challenges. Shyam Sunder, Yale University Accounting Research Conference Indian School of Business, Hyderabad December 17-19, 2007. Leadership Challenges in Research. Innovation Policy Faculty Evaluation International and National Journals.

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Asian Accounting Research: Leadership Challenges

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  1. Asian Accounting Research: Leadership Challenges Shyam Sunder, Yale University Accounting Research Conference Indian School of Business, Hyderabad December 17-19, 2007

  2. Leadership Challenges in Research • Innovation • Policy • Faculty Evaluation • International and National Journals

  3. Innovation • Imagination, creativity, and innovation is the essence of research • How many new ideas did we generate in accounting research journals last year? • For some reason, the number of new ideas in accounting research has fallen to a low level • Of course, method is important, and research has to be properly done to be of any value, but there is no substitute for innovation in accounting research • Academic leadership in research consists of innovation

  4. Policy • For more than three decades, policy research in accounting seems to have fallen out of favor • Returning to the parallel with medicine, abandoning policy research is like abandoning research on finding a treatment for diabetes in favor of only studying who gets diabetes and why • Of course the study of such questions is a prerequisite to finding a cure • But no learned profession can stop at the natural or social science level, without risking its scholarly status

  5. Faculty Evaluation • Teaching-Research-Service formula has considerable following in B-schools • Does this practice yield good teaching, research, and service in a desirable combination • What are the problems associated with current practice • What could be the alternatives? • Where do we go from here?

  6. An Example • Record of teaching success and productive scholarship supported by substantial publication • Evidence of recognition by peers. • Evaluation of teaching effectiveness before scholarship and professional service • Evaluation of record of publications, by outsiders if necessary • Materials prepared to aid classroom teaching • Administrative and other professional services to the University • External service (professional organizations and community, state, and federal agencies): judgment about the educational or scholarly value of the services rendered

  7. What We Want in Research • Creativity, innovation and thought leadership • Driven by curiosity about the world: How things work and why they don’t? • Contribution to society: how they might be made to work better • Explore new frontiers whose value and consequences may not be known for some (long?) time

  8. How Do We Promote Research? • Research scores weighted by journal ratings (objective?) • Citation counts • Download counts • Criticality of external letters of review (local vs. selection bias?) • Immediacy of assessment (power to editors and referees)

  9. What Do We Get in Research? • Maximization of publication counts • Journal ratings replace reading of research • Dominance of method over substance • Citation networks

  10. Holy Cows of Faculty Evaluation • Judgment vs. objective measurement • History of misuse of judgment • Individual merit vs. social justice • Time horizon of evaluation and decision • Shorter time horizon enables quick corrections of errors • Is more error prone

  11. International and National Journals • Publishing in international journals: blessing or curse of scholarship? • Many universities around the world encourage, even require, their faculty to publish their research in international journals • It helps maintain the “high standards” of research • It carries a stamp of unbiased distant authority behind controversial promotion and tenure decisions

  12. Cost of the Policy • Immense costs of “publish international” policy • Talent diverted away for addressing problems of society • Wastage of scarce financial resources • Under-development of organic research cultures • Critical thinking and discussion • Separation of scholarly critique and personal relationships • Local journals • Diversity of thought and methods • Editing and reviewing skills • End up with research for the sake of research, instead of research for the sake of innovation

  13. Summary • Accounting deserves and needs leadership in • Practice (developing social norms to balance reliance on written standards, professional self-discipline) • Education (what we teach, who is attracted to our classes, seed farms of knowledge, and place of accounting in the university) • Research (innovation, policy research, faculty evaluation, and developing local journals and research cultures) • I am privileged to have had this chance to discuss these challenges for accounting leadership that lie before us • How we tackle each of these challenges will determine the future of accounting

  14. Thank you www.som.yale.edu/faculty/sunder Shyam.Sunder@yale.edu

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