Research-practice gap in accounting journals? A topic modeling approach

Florian Philipp Federsel · Rolf Uwe Fülbier · Jan Seitz

8 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Accounting Literature

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Computational and Text Analysis Methods scientometrics and bibliometrics research Accounting Education and Careers

Abstract

Purpose A gap between research and practice is commonly perceived throughout accounting academia. However, empirical evidence on the magnitude of this detachment remains scarce. The authors provide new evidence to the ongoing debate by introducing a novel topic-based approach to capture the research-practice gap and quantify its extent. They also explore regional differences in the research-practice gap. Design/methodology/approach The authors apply the unsupervised machine learning approach Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) to compare the topical composition of 2,251 articles from six premier research, practice and bridging journals from the USA and Europe between 2009 and 2019. The authors extend the existing methods of summarizing literature and develop metrics that allow researchers to evaluate the research-practice gap. The authors conduct a plethora of additional analyses to corroborate the findings. Findings The results substantiate a pronounced topic-related research-practice gap in accounting literature and document its statistical significance. Moreover, the authors uncover that this gap is more pronounced in the USA than in Europe, highlighting the importance of institutional differences between academic communities. Practical implications The authors objectify the debate about the extent of a research-practice gap and stimulate further discussions about explanations and consequences. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to deploy a rigorous machine learning approach to measure a topic-based research-practice gap in the accounting literature. Additionally, the authors provide theoretical rationales for the extent and regional differences in the research-practice gap.

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References

1983The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields 1977Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony 1966Financial Ratios As Predictors of Failure 2016Textual Analysis in Accounting and Finance: A Survey 2005Radical Developments in Accounting Thought 2017The evolution of 10-K textual disclosure: Evidence from Latent Dirichlet Allocation 2000Rational Choice Theory 2009Why the Rigour–Relevance Gap in Management Research Is Unbridgeable

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