I consider three questions about innovation in current accounting scholarship. First, what is “innovation” and how do we know that the level of innovation in accounting scholarship is low? Second, if innovation in accounting scholarship is low, how did this state of affairs come to exist?...

This paper investigates alternative models of learning to explain changes in uncertainty surrounding earnings innovations. As a proxy for investor uncertainty, we use model-free implied volatilities; as a proxy for earnings innovations, representing signals of firm performance likely to drive...

We examine the relationship between the board's IT expertise and firm innovation. Using a novel hand–collected dataset from biographies of directors, we find that the board's IT expertise has a positive influence on firm innovation – measured in terms of R&D expenditures and patents...

Although the introduction of a number of successful management accounting innovations over the past few decades has generated a vast amount of research, we have limited knowledge about how the diffusion of innovations is affected by the interplay between characteristics of adopters and...

This essay is based on a presentation at the American Accounting Association Strategy Retreat in May 2011 on the assertion ‘‘Accounting research as of 2011 is stagnant and lacking in significant innovation that introduces fresh ideas and insights into our scholarly discipline.’’ It poses...

Researchers have used patent counts, citation weighted patent counts, as well as research and development spending to measure innovation with, at times, conflicting results. We benchmark the validity of these innovation proxies using a novel data set of appraised tangible and intangible assets....