Research Methods in Accounting by Malcolm Smith

Author:Malcolm Smith [Smith, Malcolm]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2017-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

A subsequent study involving Young (i.e., Van der Stede et al., 2005) over the 20-year period (1982–2001) assessed the quality of survey design in management accounting research according to the five key elements suggested by Diamond (2000):

purpose and design of the survey;

population definition and sampling;

survey questions and other research method issues;

accuracy of data entry; and

disclosure and reporting.

They note that around 30% of empirical management accounting research over the period had used mail surveys, and that there had been a significant improvement in survey quality over that time period, as measured across these dimensions. However, they highlighted a number of interesting issues:

Nearly all of the surveys (98%) were cross-sectional in nature, even though they were investigating causal relationships. They noted the almost total absence of longitudinal studies, which they attributed to time cost, and complexity factors. Askarany and Smith (2008) provide an example of such a survey.

Most of the surveys addressed only one person in an organisation, who was taken to be representative of that organisation, and even where multiple respondents were addressed, corroboration of responses was rarely analysed.

A detailed analysis of non-respondents in the sampling frame was rarely considered. Guilding et al. (2000) provided a notable example. Indeed, the manner in which non-response bias was considered (or rather dismissed) in most papers, was an area of concern to which we return below.

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