Standards for Field Research in Management Accounting

This paper begins with a discussion of the nature of qualitative research and then turns to consider the nature and characteristics of field research. The paper discusses the major insights and benefits of field research and three critical steps in field research: observing behavior, summarizing observations, and reporting results. Of particular concern in the observation step is the potential for bias being introduced either by the act of observation itself or through the observational framework that the researcher imposes on the fieldwork. In evaluating results, the researcher must be careful to ensure, to the extent possible, that the work has met the critical tests of validity and reliability. Finally in reporting results, the analysis, discussion, and conclusion should reflect the logical criteria of relevance, sufficiency, and acceptability. The paper concludes with a summary of proposed field research standards organized by field research stage.