A dream deferred: interdisciplinary accounting in the US

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to set out to examine and critique the current state and future trajectory of interdisciplinary accounting research in the USA.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is based on the author's involvement in and research into accounting research and publication contexts, drivers and patterns in the accounting discipline.

Findings

In all likelihood, research will continue established traditions that prevent the explorations of economics and finance from material broadening. This paper identifies how that which everyone believes to be such a good idea cannot bear fruit.

Research limitations/implications

Conventional economics-based accounting research has proliferated in volume but has largely exhausted its potential for significant contributions to knowledge. Failure to embrace broadened interdisciplinary perspectives risks a crisis of accounting research contribution to policy, practice, and society.

Originality/value

This critique reveals the serious weaknesses and serious risks to international accounting scholarship of the continuance and global mimicking of the North American pursuit of an exclusively economic accounting research perspective.

Citation

J. Fogarty, T. (2014), "A dream deferred: interdisciplinary accounting in the US", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 27 No. 8, pp. 1265-1270. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-08-2014-1800