scholarly journals What the Right Hand is Doing: Academic and Practitioner Perceptions of the Research-Practice Gap in Management Accounting

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basil P. Tucker
2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Murray Lindsay

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to expand on some of the points made in Ken Merchant's paper (this issue) in connection with the research‐practice gap.Design/methodology/approachAiming to be provocative for the purpose of evoking further discussion, this commentary adopts the perspective that some deeply rooted misconceptions about the nature and production of scientific knowledge underpin the research‐practice gap.FindingsThere are three key findings. First, contrary to popular belief, practical knowledge does not simply derive from basic (“scientific”) knowledge “trickling down” to practice; instead, basic knowledge needs to be transformed into a theory or phronesis of management accounting in a manner that reflects the context and purpose of organizations. Practical knowledge therefore becomes a distinct and rigorous mode of knowing in its own right, no less important than basic knowledge. Second, the adoption of field research or the case study method may be the only way to overcome all of the dimensions associated with the “data problem” existing in management accounting. Finally, a strong argument can be made to suggest that the research‐practice gap and its epistemological underpinnings not only impede the discipline's ability to carve out its own unique intellectual identity (Malmi and Granlund), but they also explain the discipline's inability to produce a cumulative body of knowledge.Originality/valueThe paper suggests that a key step, among others, in addressing the researcher‐practitioner gap is the need to overcome philosophical misconceptions about the nature and production of scientific knowledge. This perspective has not received significant coverage in accounting.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basil P. Tucker ◽  
Stefan Schaltegger

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast perceptions about the research-practice “gap” as it may apply within management accounting, from the perspective of professional accounting bodies in Australia and Germany. Design/methodology/approach – The findings reported in this paper is based on the collection and analysis of data from interviews with 19 senior representatives from four Australian Professional bodies and 14 representatives of German Professional accounting bodies. Findings – In Australia and Germany, there exist common as well as unique barriers preventing a more effective engagement of academic research with practice. Common to both countries is the perception that the communication of research represents a major barrier. In Australia, practitioner access to academic research is seen to be a principal obstacle; in Germany, the relevance of topics researched by academics is perceived to represent a significant barrier to academic research informing practice. Research limitations/implications – This paper directly engages with, and extends recent empirically based research into the extent to which academic research may “speak” to management accounting practice. It extricates both common and specific barriers contributing to the oft-quoted “research-practice gap” in management accounting, and points to the pivotal nature of an intermediary to act as a conduit between academics and practice. Originality/value – By investigating this issue in two quite different cultural, educational, academic and practice contexts, this paper provides much-needed empirical evidence about the nature, extent and pervasiveness of the perceived research-practice gap in management accounting, and provides a basis for further investigation of this important topic.


1946 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-2

In the article “Infant Speech Sounds and Intelligence” by Orvis C. Irwin and Han Piao Chen, in the December 1945 issue of the Journal, the paragraph which begins at the bottom of the left hand column on page 295 should have been placed immediately below the first paragraph at the top of the right hand column on page 296. To the authors we express our sincere apologies.


VASA ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 344-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jandus ◽  
Bianda ◽  
Alerci ◽  
Gallino ◽  
Marone

A 55-year-old woman was referred because of diffuse pruritic erythematous lesions and an ischemic process of the third finger of her right hand. She was known to have anaemia secondary to hypermenorrhea. She presented six months before admission with a cutaneous infiltration on the left cubital cavity after a paravenous leakage of intravenous iron substitution. She then reported a progressive pruritic erythematous swelling of her left arm and lower extremities and trunk. Skin biopsy of a lesion on the right leg revealed a fibrillar, small-vessel vasculitis containing many eosinophils.Two months later she reported Raynaud symptoms in both hands, with a persistent violaceous coloration of the skin and cold sensation of her third digit of the right hand. A round 1.5 cm well-delimited swelling on the medial site of the left elbow was noted. The third digit of her right hand was cold and of violet colour. Eosinophilia (19 % of total leucocytes) was present. Doppler-duplex arterial examination of the upper extremities showed an occlusion of the cubital artery down to the palmar arcade on the right arm. Selective angiography of the right subclavian and brachial arteries showed diffuse alteration of the blood flow in the cubital artery and hand, with fine collateral circulation in the carpal region. Neither secondary causes of hypereosinophilia nor a myeloproliferative process was found. Considering the skin biopsy results and having excluded other causes of eosinophilia, we assumed the diagnosis of an eosinophilic vasculitis. Treatment with tacrolimus and high dose steroids was started, the latter tapered within 12 months and then stopped, but a dramatic flare-up of the vasculitis with Raynaud phenomenon occurred. A new immunosupressive approach with steroids and methotrexate was then introduced. This case of aggressive eosinophilic vasculitis is difficult to classify into the usual forms of vasculitis and constitutes a therapeutic challenge given the resistance to current immunosuppressive regimens.


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