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The Manufacture of the Academic Accountant

The Manufacture of the Academic Accountant. Kenneth A. Fox & Alycia Evans Edwards School of Business University of Saskatchewan Discussant: Cameron Graham Schulich School of Business. Overview of the Paper. Introduction The accounting academy Social studies of science Method

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The Manufacture of the Academic Accountant

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  1. The Manufactureof theAcademic Accountant Kenneth A. Fox & Alycia Evans Edwards School of BusinessUniversity of Saskatchewan Discussant:Cameron Graham Schulich School of Business

  2. Overview of the Paper • Introduction • The accounting academy • Social studies of science • Method • Findings • Discussion • Conclusion

  3. Introduction • Panozzo (1997) • US academy has rigorous research paradigm • European academy has fragmented paradigms • This paper studies a “streamed” doctoral program • Questions • Doesmultivocal environment promote innovation? • What are the mechanisms at work in training? • Contribution • Rich environment of mediators • Role of texts

  4. The Accounting Academy • Dominance of US paradigm • Contribution to science? • Relevance to practice? • Reproduction of quantitative researchers • Education and training • Publication and choice of journals • Recruitment, tenure and promotion

  5. Social Studies of Science • Constructivist perspectives • Bloor: sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) • Latour & Callon: ANT and ethnomethodology • Popper: philosophers of science • Knorr-Cetina (1981) • Science as “community”: Too introspective • Science as “economic system”: Too limited • Trans-scientific field • Includes non-academic actors • Struggle over resource relationships • Scientists • Resources • Mechanisms of knowledge production

  6. Method • Observation of a doctoral accounting program • Financial Economics stream • Judgement & Decision Making stream • Interdisciplinary stream • Auto-ethnography or document analysis? • Semi-structured “analytical” interviews • Joint production of knowledge with interviewees • 7 (or 8?) on-campus doctoral students • 30-60 minutes each • 6 hours in total

  7. Findings 1 • Characteristics of students’ backgrounds • 3.75 years in program • Accounting or business degrees • Most had attended doctoral colloquia

  8. Findings 2 • Experiences • Varying perceptions of stream structure • Theoretical or methodological boundaries? • Related to wider field of research

  9. Findings 3 • Doctoral colloquia • Socialization • Networking • Reputation building

  10. Findings 4 • Relationship with academic supervisor • Resource relationship • Funding • Conferences • Reputation of supervisor • Acceptance of research • Legitimacy of student • Feeling of belonging

  11. Findings 5 • Production of research papers • Emphasis on writing during training • Potential for publication is internalized • Circulation of papers for comment

  12. Discussion • Reproduction of the research field • Structure of doctoral program is insufficient • Depends on ties to greater field through colloquia • Force of supervisor varies in relation to the field • Production of academic papers • linked to the mediator and the greater field • Process for exercising resource relationships • Embodies epistemological processes of the field

  13. Conclusion • Epistemic processes reproduce resource relations • Position of supervisor • Clarity of field’s paradigm, theory & methods • European accounting • Lacks identifiable paradigm • Limits innovation & discovery

  14. Discussant Assessment • Clearly written • Well positioned in SSK tradition • Unique data set • Paper has excellent potential

  15. Discussant Comments 1 • Clarity about data and methods • Auto-ethnography? Where does this show up? • Document analysis? Which ones? • Where did five “findings” categories come from?

  16. Discussant Comments 2 • Uncritical analysis • AAA colloquium is “most prestigious” • “The potential to publish is seen as the major benefit of writing”

  17. Discussant Comments 3 • “Freedom” of structured streams? • Is this what your interviews indicate? • ID student said lack of structure was “difficult” not “constraining” • This is your key counterintuitive finding,yet the data support is weak

  18. Discussant Suggestions • Tighten up the paper • Reduce section 2 on accounting academy • Focus section 3 more on Knorr-Cetina • Draw on other data mentioned in methods section • Documents • Autoethnography • Weave critique into analysis • Add critical reflection after each quotation • Make the discussion add value by theorizing • Draw on Knorr-Cetina’s vocabulary

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