Methodological Insights Experiencing and knowing in the field: an autoethnographic account of conducting audit fieldwork in China
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 24 December 2020
Issue publication date: 10 March 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This paper provides a researcher's account of fieldwork experience in conducting audit research in China. By illustrating on-site fieldwork encounters, the paper reflects stages of access negotiation and management in the fieldwork, reveals the researcher's embodied “affects” in the fieldwork and reasserts the value of researcher's openness and attention in the fieldwork.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses autoethnography as its overall epistemology. Fieldwork diaries and vignettes are written in the first-person voice to present the researcher's embodied account of fieldwork experience, researcher’s learning and coping skills in managing the fieldwork.
Findings
The research findings are not detached from the researcher's experience of the fieldwork. The fieldwork experiences in this study highlight that the fieldwork access is an ongoing process. Different stages of access negotiations, from rejection to acceptance, reveal the tensions between researcher and participants. This study draws attention to the online platform, WeChat, in connecting with auditors to learn from them and suggests openness to the fieldwork encounters and a resilient engagement with auditors.
Originality/value
In reflecting on the researcher's transformation during the fieldwork, this paper argues for a relational and engaged way of conducting fieldwork, rather than a disengaged and judgemental approach in studying auditors' working lives. The paper pays attention to fieldwork as a process and how the knowledge learned in the field is infused with researcher's fieldwork experiences.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author is indebted to all audit professionals who have encountered in the author’s fieldwork in China. Without their invaluable help this paper cannot be actualised. Hearty thanks to Lee Parker for his multiple readings of the whole manuscript, for his very helpful comments and careful proofreading. The author thanks John McKernan and Greg Stoner for their presence, listening and feedback during the fieldwork time. Finally, the author thanks Robert Gibb for his reading of an earlier draft and Catriona Paisey, Alvise Favotto and Sonja Gallhofer for their encouragement on this paper.
Citation
Zou, Y. (2021), "Methodological Insights Experiencing and knowing in the field: an autoethnographic account of conducting audit fieldwork in China", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 34 No. 3, pp. 680-698. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-07-2020-4706
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited