An Empirical Investigation of the Structure of Accounting Research
通过实证方法推断并验证会计研究的学科结构，考察其碎片化与整合程度，帮助学者理解会计研究领域的组织方式。
This study empirically infers and statistically validates a disciplinary structure of accounting research, and then examines the inferred structure for evidence of fragmentation and integration. Among a discipline's research areas, fragmentation and integration represent two extremes of a continuum of intellectual association, consisting of shared attributes such as models, theories, methods, findings, and implications. The research areas of an integrated discipline are characterized by shared attributes, while those of a fragmented discipline are not. The building blocks of particular research areas are individual research studies with common attributes whose distinctiveness corresponds to the level of specialization of the research area. Research areas that are separate at one level of specialization may belong to a single research area at a lower level of specialization, one whose common attributes are less distinctive. Thus, the structure of a discipline may be portrayed as a hierarchical arrangement of research areas. Accounting, for instance, may be conjectured to consist of a number of small, specialized research areas. As the level of specialization is reduced, the distinctions among the research areas disappear. Ultimately, at the disciplinary level, only accounting as a discipline is (or should be) individually identifiable.