Advances in Public Interest Accounting

Recent studies of the U.S. accounting academy provide strong evidence of a hierarchical structure within its research community. The hierarchy is defined by the doctoral origins of individual accounting researchers, and contains an elite group of graduates from a small number of U.S. universities. The presence of this elite is particularly evident on the editorial boards of three major U.S. accounting research journals. It has therefore a significant gatekeeping role to perform in the production of accounting knowledge.

Based on the rationale of a need to know the nature and composition of the élite group in these circumstances, this paper provides insight by observing its faculty recruitment practice. The evidence reveals a cross-hiring strategy with a focus on replacing and augmenting faculty with graduates from elite doctoral programs. This practice has the potential to sustain an elitist community of influential U.S. editorial gatekeepers.

The evidence is consistent with a well-established theoretical argument relating to the construction of academic élites, and reinforces public interest concerns in previous research about the long-term effects of the élite group on the production of accounting knowledge.