A decade of international diversity in collaborative research published in highly ranked accounting journals

Abstract

Purpose – This study examines the patterns of international diversity in collaborative research published in highly ranked accounting journals. Design/methodology/approach – We examine four types of collaborations: regional, inter-regional, European national and European international. The empirical study is based on 4,033 articles published in 13 journals between 2010 and 2019. Social network analyses were carried out for the inter-regional and the European international collaborations. Findings – The broad analysis of the regional and inter-regional collaborations reveals not only significant differences between the non-North American journals and the North American but also important dissimilarities among the non-North American journals. The analysis of the European collaborations reveals significant differences between the journals where the UK institutions play a significant role in leading a network of European researchers and the journals where the Dutch and/or German institutions also play a significant role in another network as European leaders in terms of research. Research limitations/implications – Although it reveals the patterns of internationalization of the highly ranked accounting journals, and offers some insights regarding why such patterns exist, it does not assess co-authorship networks with regard to the authors’ orientation in terms of methods and research topics. We acknowledge that the networks amongst authors should also be influenced by the specific PhD-granting institutions. However, we let the data speak to these points, showing how journals differ in publication patterns. Not all highly ranked journals in accounting have the same networks and patterns of co-authorship. Another limitation pertains to the limited aspect of diversity it focuses on, that of geographical diversity. Furthermore, our analyses do not speak directly to the nationalities of the authors, but to the country in which the publication was granted at the time of the paper’s publication. Practical implications – Our findings show that the patterns of international diversity in all the types of collaborations under examination in the highly ranked accounting journals vary across different groups of journals. The “North-American or North-American inspired journals” (Guthrie et al., 2019, p. 12) have the highest level of geographical concentration and the North American universities/institutions contribute with the majority of the papers. The “non-North American journals” – the leading journals for critical, interpretive and interdisciplinary approaches (Hussain et al., 2020) and those which are more acceptive of these latter approaches – have a lower level of geographic concentration of the papers and there is a broader set of regions and countries involved, including North American countries, the UK and two Continental European countries (Germany and the Netherlands). Originality/value – Our study shows empirically that the patterns of international diversity in all the types of collaborations under examination in the highly ranked accounting journals vary across different groups of journals, revealing not only significant differences between the North American and non-North American journals in accounting, but also showcasing how the non-North American journals present a lot more heterogeneity. We also believe the analysis of the European case is a noteworthy contribution of this study given existing accounting literature fails in acknowledging European diversity.