Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the motivation for this special issue and its contributions. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a conceptual editorial piece which discusses current methodological tendencies in qualitative accounting research. Findings – The...

Conventional texts on research methods research have a tendency to provide acontextual prescriptive accounts of how research should be carried out. The authors of this paper have recently compiled an edited collection of accounts of how qualitative research was carried out in a variety of social...

Provides a response to Puxty et al. ′s call for academics to become involved in public policy debate. Addresses the issue of the effect on British university accounting research of the promotion and undertaking of continual research selectivity exercises. This should be of direct concern to...

Provides a response to the various calls which have been made by accounting researchers for detailed case studies of accounting practice. Provides a methodological study rather than a detailed case study. Aims to reposition the role of case studies in the continuing generation of alternative...

Provides a response to the comments by Joni Young and Alistair Preston and by Sue Llewellyn, and seeks to clarify the authors’ use of the term “rhetoric”. Argues that both sets of commentators rely on rhetoric to express their own arguments. While the authors recognize and agree with most...

Conventional texts on research methods research have a tendency to provide acontextual prescriptive accounts of how research should be carried out. The authors of this paper have recently compiled an edited collection of accounts of how qualitative research was carried out in a variety of social...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the motivation for this special issue and its contributions. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a conceptual editorial piece which discusses current methodological tendencies in qualitative accounting research. Findings – The...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to outline the development of academic research in the discipline of accounting, paying particular attention to the important contribution made by qualitative research projects. Design/methodology/approach – Provision of a historical trajectory based on...