Whereof one cannot speak … a comment on Vollmer (2019)
Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management
ISSN: 1176-6093
Article publication date: 5 July 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual reflection based on the author’s personal research experience, reading of the literature and contact with the academic education of emerging scholars.
Design/methodology/approach
In this reflection on the paper “Accounting for tacit coordination: The passing of accounts and the broader case for accounting theory” (Vollmer, 2019), the author argues that the silences of the qualitative empirical management accounting research process may preclude research from understanding the silences of accounting practitioners and shape the trajectory of the discipline as a whole.
Findings
The author presents a slightly exaggerated depiction of the qualitative empirical management accounting research process. From this, the author infers what impedes empirically studying unorthodox phenomena such as the silences of accounting practitioners.
Originality/value
The author offers a critical perspective on the author’s own research process, using accounting silences as way of reflecting on the potential and limitations of empirical research. Finally, the author makes tentative suggestions for opening up the standard research process.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Nadine Gerhardt for her feedback and continuous support in developing the paper. The author would also like to thank the editors Lukas Goretzki and Thomas Ahrens for their initiative in making this text possible and guidance throughout. The author thanks also go to Hendrik Vollmer and the participants of the QRAM workshop on Hendrik’s text. Finally, The author want to thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments and Jacob T. Reilly for language support and comments on a previous version of the paper.
Citation
Huber, C. (2022), "Whereof one cannot speak … a comment on Vollmer (2019)", Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-11-2021-0206
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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