Globalization and international accounting research

Abstract

The study of international accounting is increasingin importance because of its ramifications uponbusiness practices world-wide. Internationalaccounting is inextricably linked to the globalizationmovement that is sweeping all economies. Indeed,the availability of accounting information constitutesan integral and indispensable input to the existenceand acceleration of this movement. This paperprovides a step toward the examination of suchbeliefs and their impact on international accountingthrough a historical investigation of the academicliterature in this field as exemplified by two journals:Advances in International Accounting and theInternational Journal of Accounting Educationand Research. The wider project involved ahermeneutic interpretation of documents in anattempt to analyze trends in internationalaccounting research appearing in academicaccounting journals from 1987to 1996throughthe lens of postcolonialism. However, due to spaceconstraints this paper focuses on the predominanceand the championing of the globalization themein this literature and its impact on research. Thissection of the paper provides a description of themethods employed in selecting the journals, therelevant time period, the articles constitutingthe data set, and the procedure followed inconstructing the qualitative themes