Qualitative management accounting research: Assessing deliverables and relevance

Parker, L. D. (2012) Qualitative management accounting research: Assessing deliverables and relevance. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 23(1), pp. 54-70. (doi: 10.1016/j.cpa.2011.06.002)

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Abstract

This paper examines the positioning of qualitative research to date in the field of management accounting. It offers a critical reflection and an appraisal of its profile relative to the dominant positivist quantitative accounting research literature. In the accounting literature, management accounting research is arguably a leader in applying qualitative research methodologies. Drawing on both the management accounting and qualitative research methodology literatures, the paper critically evaluates key features of the qualitative tradition and the future trajectory of the qualitative contribution to management accounting research. The qualitative tradition emerges as contributing to the understanding and critiquing of management and accounting processes, as well as having the ability to address the concerns of practitioners and policymakers. Close researcher engagement with the field, a concern with process, embracing situational complexity, as well as critical and reflective understandings of organisational phenomena remain as hallmarks of the tradition.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Parker, Professor Lee
Authors: Parker, L. D.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Accounting and Finance
Journal Name:Critical Perspectives on Accounting
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:1045-2354
ISSN (Online):1095-9955
Published Online:23 June 2011

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