{"title":"Accounting Research on Private Firms: State of the Art and Future Directions","authors":"Sasson Bar-Yosef, Carlo D’Augusta, A. Prencipe","doi":"10.1142/S1094406019500070","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Private companies play a significant role and are the main growth engine of the global economy. Yet, until recently, empirical research in accounting has focused primarily on public companies. Over the last few years, we have observed a change in trend. Accounting scholars have started researching private firms and have contributed to a better understanding of their accounting decisions. This growing attention is likely due to a better availability of public data and to the fact that several regulators issued specific regulations on private firms’ financial reporting. In this paper, we analyze the state of the art of accounting research in this area. We review 95 papers published in 21 accounting journals over the period 1986–2018. After looking into the definition of private firms, we highlight the role of the private firm status in the research design, classify each paper into four main research areas (i.e., financial accounting, taxation, auditing, and valuation) and discuss the main contributions. We argue that the current state of accounting research on private firms — although quite rich — is still insufficient in light of the relevance of such a segment of the world economy. After soliciting additional research, we devise possible venues for future studies.","PeriodicalId":47122,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Accounting","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2019-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1142/S1094406019500070","citationCount":"17","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Accounting","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S1094406019500070","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 17
Abstract
Private companies play a significant role and are the main growth engine of the global economy. Yet, until recently, empirical research in accounting has focused primarily on public companies. Over the last few years, we have observed a change in trend. Accounting scholars have started researching private firms and have contributed to a better understanding of their accounting decisions. This growing attention is likely due to a better availability of public data and to the fact that several regulators issued specific regulations on private firms’ financial reporting. In this paper, we analyze the state of the art of accounting research in this area. We review 95 papers published in 21 accounting journals over the period 1986–2018. After looking into the definition of private firms, we highlight the role of the private firm status in the research design, classify each paper into four main research areas (i.e., financial accounting, taxation, auditing, and valuation) and discuss the main contributions. We argue that the current state of accounting research on private firms — although quite rich — is still insufficient in light of the relevance of such a segment of the world economy. After soliciting additional research, we devise possible venues for future studies.
期刊介绍:
The aim of The International Journal of Accounting is to advance the academic and professional understanding of accounting theory, policies and practice from the international perspective and viewpoint. The Journal editorial recognizes that international accounting is influenced by a variety of forces, e.g., governmental, political and economic. Thus, the primary criterion for manuscript evaluation is the incremental contribution to international accounting literature and the forces that impact the field. The Journal aims at understanding the present and potential ability of accounting to aid in analyzing and interpreting international economic transactions and the economic consequences of such reporting. These transactions may be within a profit or non-profit environment. The Journal encourages a broad view of the origins and development of accounting with an emphasis on its functions in an increasingly interdependent global economy. The Journal also welcomes manuscripts that help explain current international accounting practices, with related theoretical justifications, and identify criticisms of current policies and practice. Other than occasional commissioned papers or special issues, all the manuscripts published in the Journal are selected by the editors after the normal double-blind refereeing process.