نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی

نویسندگان

• امیر مرادی ¹
• حمیده اثنی عشری ²
• محمدحسین رهبان ³
• محمد عرب‌مازار یزدی ⁴
• محمدحسین صفرزاده ⁵

¹ دانشجوی دکتری حسابداری، گروه حسابداری، دانشکده مدیریت و حسابداری، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، تهران، ایران

² استادیار، گروه حسابداری، دانشکده مدیریت و حسابداری، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، تهران، ایران

³ استادیار، گروه مهندسی کامپیوتر، دانشکده مهندسی کامپیوتر، دانشگاه صنعتی شریف، تهران، ایران

⁴ دانشیار گروه حسابداری دانشکده مدیریت و حسابداری دانشگاه شهید بهشتی،تهران،ایران

⁵ استادیارگروه حسابداری دانشکده مدیریت و حسابداری، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، تهران، ایران.

چکیده

روش‌شناسی علم طراحی، رهیافتی راه‌حل‌محور برای تعقیب پژوهش‌هایی است که فراتر از فهم وضع موجود، به دنبال خلق وضع مطلوب از طریق ارائۀ مصنوعات نوآورانه و بدیع است. با وجود کاربرد گسترده این روش‌شناسی در دیگر رشته‌های فنی و مدیریتی و البته گذشت بیش از دو دهه از نخستین پژوهش علم طراحی در حسابداری، ظرفیت آن به‌قدر مقتضی شناخته نشد، مگر در چند سال اخیر که با استقبال بی‌سابقه پژوهشگران حسابداری مواجه گردید. باهدف واکاوی روندهای موضوعی، شناسایی کنشگران اثرگذار و نیز نگاشت ساختار فکری و مفهومی پژوهش‌های حسابداری مرتبط با روش‌شناسی علم طراحی، در این پژوهش برای نخستین بار، با استفاده از فنون هم‌واژگانی، هم‌نویسندگی، مصورسازی نقشه علمی و ابرواژگان، به تحلیل کتاب‌شناختی 51 مقاله منتشره تا سال 2023 در مجلات نمایه‌شده در آخرین فهرست شورای رؤسای دانشکده‌های علوم مالی استرالیا در نرم‌افزارهای ووس ویور، مایکروسافت اکسل و زبان پایتون پرداخته‌شد. طبق یافته‌های این مطالعه، بیش از نیمی از تولیدات پژوهشی مربوط به سال‌های 2020 تا 2023 است که دلالت بر اقبال نوظهور پژوهشگران حسابداری به این روش‌شناسی دارد. غالب‌ترین حوزه‌های موضوعی در مقالات علم طراحی، حسابرسی و کنترل است که با کاربرد فناوری‌های نوین و تکنیک‌های تحلیل‌شناسی داده‌ها همراه بوده است. پراستنادترین اثر، مقالۀ «روش‌شناسی پژوهش علم طراحی و کاربرد آن در پژوهش سیستم‌های اطلاعاتی حسابداری» اثر گویدو گیرتس (2011) که تاکنون 140 استناد صرفاً در پایگاه دادۀ اسکوپس دریافت کرده است. پرکارترین نویسنده میکلوس وسارهلی با 6 مقاله است که هم‌زمان بیشترین ارتباطات علمی را با سایر نویسندگان این حوزه داشته و دانشگاه محل فعالیت وی، یعنی دانشگاه ایالتی نیوجرسی امریکا، با 8 مقاله، پرکارترین دانشگاه شناخته شد. گویدو گیرتس با دریافت 177 ارجاع از دو مقالۀ خود، پراستنادترین نویسنده در حوزۀ علم طراحی در پژوهش حسابداری شناخته می‌شود که به این واسطه، دانشگاه متبوع وی یعنی دانشگاه دلور امریکا نیز پر استنادترین دانشگاه به‌حساب می‌آید. کشور امریکا مجموعاً با 33 مقاله و 555 ارجاع پرکارترین و پرارجاع‌ترین مقالات را به خود اختصاص داده است. مجلۀ بین‌المللی سیستم‌های اطلاعاتی حسابداری با انتشار 20 مقاله و دریافت 464 ارجاع، بیشترین تعداد نشر و ارجاع را دارد. یافته‌های پژوهش حاضر، با آشکارسازی عوامل و روابط کتابشناختی و جهت‌گیری موضوعی پژوهش‌های علم طراحی در حسابداری، ضمن آگاهی بخشی به پژوهشگران و سیاست‌گذاران علمی از وضعیت و روند این روش‌شناسی، مبنایی برای توسعه و تعقیب پژوهش‌های راه‌حل محور و کاربردی در قلمرو حسابداری فراهم می‌نماید.

کلیدواژه‌ها

• روش‌شناسی پژوهش علم طراحی
• حسابداری
• نگاشت علمی
• کتاب‌سنجی

موضوعات

• حسابداری وجنبه های مختلف مالی

عنوان مقاله [English]

Twenty-Five Years of Design Science Methodology in Accounting Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

نویسندگان [English]

• Amir Moradi ¹
• hamideh asnaashari ²
• Mohammad Hossein Rohban ³
• Mohammad Arabmazar Yazdi ⁴
• MohammadHosien SafarZade ⁵

¹ Ph.D. student, Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

³ Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Computer Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.

⁴ Associate Professor, Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

⁵ Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

چکیده [English]

Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) is a solution-oriented approach for conducting research that transcends mere understanding of existing situations, aiming to generate innovative and novel artifacts to realize desired outcomes. Despite its widespread use in other technical and managerial domains, and more than two decades since the first exploration of DSRM in accounting literature, its true potential went largely unrecognized until the recent years, when it gained unprecedented recognition from accounting researchers. In this pioneering research, we analyze trends, identify influential figures, and map the intellectual and conceptual landscape of accounting research related to DSRM. Utilizing co-word analysis, co-authorship techniques, as well as scientific mapping and word cloud visualization, we scrutinize 51 articles from journals indexed in the most recent Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) list from 2023. Our findings reveal that more than half of the research output is concentrated in the four-year period spanning from 2020 to 2023, signaling a growing interest among accounting researchers in this methodology. The dominant subject areas in design science articles are audit and control, coupled with the integration of emerging technologies and data analytics techniques. The most cited work is Guido Geerts (2011) paper, "A design science research methodology and its application to accounting information systems research" with 140 citations in the Scopus database alone. The most prolific author, Miklos Vasarhelyi, has authored six articles and boasts the most scientific connections with other researchers in this field. The State University of New Jersey, USA, where Vasarhelyi is affiliated, stands as the most prolific institute with eight articles. Guido Geerts receives 177 references from his two articles, earning him the title of the most cited author in the realm of design science in accounting research, while the University of Delaware, where he is affiliated, is also the most cited university. Among countries contributing to this field, the United States leads with the highest number of productive articles and references, totaling 33 articles and 555 references. The International Journal of Accounting Information Systems has published the most articles (20) and received the most references (464). The findings of this research illuminate bibliographic factors, relationships, and thematic orientations within design science research in accounting. They inform researchers and policymakers about the current status and trajectory of this methodology, providing a foundation for the advancement of solution-oriented and applied research in the field of accounting.
 

Introduction

Applied research that seeks solutions to practical issues cannot be pursued through natural science research methods as they aim to design and implement solutions to improve the current situation. For this purpose, the methodology of design science (Simon, 1996) was introduced. Although accounting is a practical field of knowledge, this methodology is less known and utilized in accounting, until the last five years, when it was embraced by accounting and auditing researchers. Thus, in this study, we investigate the bibliometric factors and trends in accounting research using the design science research methodology (DSRM) to answer the following questions:
RQ1: What are the main topics of articles related to design science research methodology?
RQ2: What are the emerging topics in design science research in accounting?
RQ3: Which are the most cited articles, the most prolific authors, the most prolific universities, the most prolific journals, and the most prolific countries in DSRM in accounting?

Literature review

DSRM is a research methodology that focuses on problem-solving (March & Storey, 2008), and its purpose is to create and evaluate artifacts that are used to solve organizational problems through transforming the current state into a desired state (Hevner et al., 2004; March & Smith, 1995; March & Storey, 2008). Considering the focus of this science on problem-solving, the application of design science research can potentially reduce the existing gap between theory and practice (Aken, 2004, 2005; Romme, 2003).

Methodology

Bibliometric analysis is the application of quantitative techniques (e.g., citation analysis) to bibliometric data (e.g., publication and citation units) (Broadus, 1987; Pritchard, 1969). Researchers apply bibliometric analysis for various reasons, such as discovering emerging trends in the performance of articles and journals, collaboration patterns among authors and research components, and discovering the intellectual structure of a specific field in existing literature (Donthu et al., 2021).
In this research, in the first step, the Scopus database was used due to the inclusion of more scientific documents than other databases (Echchakoui, 2020). Then, the relevant keywords were identified and selected, and by setting the query phrase, applying it to the Scopus database and performing the necessary filters, a total of 58 articles from the journals ranked in 2023 rankings by the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) were obtained. This number decreased to 51 articles as the basis of analysis after reviewing the content by the authors and discarding unrelated articles. In this research, the VOSviewer software (Eck & Waltman, 2021) was chosen for bibliographic data analysis and visualization. Also, the matplotlib and wordcloud libraries in Python programming language were used for drawing wordcloud, and Microsoft Excel software was used for drawing trend charts.

Results

Our findings reveal that approximately half of the research output is concentrated in the four-year period from 2020 to 2023. The dominant subject areas in design science articles are audit and control, coupled with the integration of emerging technologies and data analytics techniques. The most cited work is Geerts (2011)‎ paper, ‘A design science research methodology and its application to accounting information systems research’ with 140 citations in the Scopus database alone. The most prolific author, Miklos Vasarhelyi, has authored six articles and boasts the most scientific connections with other researchers in this field. The State University of New Jersey, USA, where Vasarhelyi works, stands as the most prolific institute with eight articles. Geerts (2011) receives 177 references from his two articles, earning him the title of the most cited author in the realm of design science in accounting research, while the University of Delaware, where he is affiliated, is also the most cited university. Among countries contributing to this field, the United States leads with the highest number of productive articles and references, totaling 33 articles and 555 references. The International Journal of Accounting Information Systems has published the most articles (20) and received the most references (464).

Discussion

The recently observed surge in publications indicates a growing interest among accounting researchers in this methodology. However, auditing literature hosts more DSR research (nearly half) than financial accounting and other branches. According to co-word analysis results, the design of auditing artifacts based on emerging technology is the predominant research trend, pursued by researchers to enhance audit quality and integrate emerging technologies into the auditing practice. These trends suggest an increasing emphasis on advanced audit and tech research in the future, with a focus on robotic process automation, analytics, and machine learning. In terms of actors at the levels of author, institution, and country, dominance lies with American contributors. Notably, journals that accept DSR papers are primarily technology-related, and mainstream accounting journals, such as The Accounting Review, have not yet embraced this research paradigm.

Conclusion

This is the first attempt in accounting literature to conduct a bibliometric study on the research method known as DSR. Given the practical nature of accounting and the criticisms of low practical relevance of accounting research, scholars in the field have turned to DSR in recent years to undertake problem-solving inquiries through the design and evaluation of artifacts. Prospective researchers can benefit from examining seminal and highly cited papers and exploring current hot topics identified by this study to become acquainted with applying this research methodology and selecting trending topics for further inquiries.
 

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

• Accounting
• Design Science Research Methodology
• Bibliometric Analysis
• Science Mapping