IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijfss/v9y2021i3p35-d586237.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intellectual Structure and Evolution of Accounting Conservatism Research: Past Trends and Future Research Suggestions

Author

Listed:
  • Umair Bhutta

    (Business Administration Department, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Ibri 516, Oman)

  • Jéssica Nunes Martins

    (NOVA Information Management School (NOVA IMS), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1099-085 Lisbon, Portugal
    BPI-Banco Portugês de Investimento-CaixaBank Group, Accounting Department, Largo Jean Monnet 1 9° andar, 1269-067 Lisboa, Portugal)

  • Mário Nuno Mata

    (School of Management and Technology (ESGTS-IPS), Polytechnic Institute of Santarém, 2001-904 Santarém, Portugal
    ISCAL-Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, 1069-035 Lisboa, Portugal)

  • Ali Raza

    (Knowledge Unit of Business, Economics, Accountancy and Commerce, University of Management and Technology, Sialkot, Pakistan)

  • Rui Miguel Dantas

    (ISCAL-Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, 1069-035 Lisboa, Portugal)

  • Anabela Batista Correia

    (ISCAL-Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, 1069-035 Lisboa, Portugal)

  • Muhammad Rafiq

    (Economics and Business Administration, Vehari Campus, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan)

Abstract

Accounting conservatism (AC) is one of the components of financial reporting, and has been widely studied by academicians to identify its impact on information quality. Scholars in accounting have started to explore how AC is related to different fundamental functional areas of organizations. The interest of the scholars has resulted in an increasing number of publications in this field. In this study, we examined 408 indexed publications related to AC. This work’s objectives include analyzing the regional distribution, size, and evolution of this knowledge base by identifying key authors, documents, and journals while exploring current literature, scholarly structure, and highlighting contemporary trends. The findings of the study concluded that most of the studies are conducted in developed nations contexts. However, there are still areas that need further exploration to obtain more profound insights on the subject. This bibliometric review inspires a new generation of researchers on the topic by giving them an overview of the past studies related to AC.

Suggested Citation

  • Umair Bhutta & Jéssica Nunes Martins & Mário Nuno Mata & Ali Raza & Rui Miguel Dantas & Anabela Batista Correia & Muhammad Rafiq, 2021. "Intellectual Structure and Evolution of Accounting Conservatism Research: Past Trends and Future Research Suggestions," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-13, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:9:y:2021:i:3:p:35-:d:586237
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/9/3/35/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/9/3/35/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anwer S. Ahmed & Scott Duellman, 2013. "Managerial Overconfidence and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 1-30, March.
    2. Valeri V. Nikolaev, 2010. "Debt Covenants and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 137-176, March.
    3. Sridhar P. Nerur & Abdul A. Rasheed & Vivek Natarajan, 2008. "The intellectual structure of the strategic management field: an author co‐citation analysis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 319-336, March.
    4. Barth, Mary E. & Beaver, William H. & Landsman, Wayne R., 2001. "The relevance of the value relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting: another view," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 77-104, September.
    5. Jing LI, 2013. "Accounting Conservatism and Debt Contracts: Efficient Liquidation and Covenant Renegotiation," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1082-1098, September.
    6. Ryan Lafond & Sugata Roychowdhury, 2008. "Managerial Ownership and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 101-135, March.
    7. Bouyssou, Denis & Marchant, Thierry, 2011. "Bibliometric rankings of journals based on Impact Factors: An axiomatic approach," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 75-86.
    8. Francisco Collazo-Reyes, 2014. "Growth of the number of indexed journals of Latin America and the Caribbean: the effect on the impact of each country," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(1), pages 197-209, January.
    9. Khan, Mozaffar & Watts, Ross L., 2009. "Estimation and empirical properties of a firm-year measure of accounting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 132-150, December.
    10. Fagerberg, Jan & Fosaas, Morten & Sapprasert, Koson, 2012. "Innovation: Exploring the knowledge base," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 1132-1153.
    11. Nees Jan Eck & Ludo Waltman, 2010. "Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 84(2), pages 523-538, August.
    12. Beatty, Anne & Weber, Joseph & Yu, Jeff Jiewei, 2008. "Conservatism and Debt," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 154-174, August.
    13. Frank Gigler & Chandra Kanodia & Haresh Sapra & Raghu Venugopalan, 2009. "Accounting Conservatism and the Efficiency of Debt Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 767-797, June.
    14. Kothari, S.P. & Ramanna, Karthik & Skinner, Douglas J., 2010. "Implications for GAAP from an analysis of positive research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 246-286, December.
    15. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2013_008 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Akram Khalilov & Beatriz Garcia Osma, 2020. "Accounting conservatism and the profitability of corporate insiders," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3-4), pages 333-364, March.
    17. Simon Ho & Annie Li & Kinsun Tam & Feida Zhang, 2015. "CEO Gender, Ethical Leadership, and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 351-370, March.
    18. José M. Merigó & Christian A. Cancino & Freddy Coronado & David Urbano, 2016. "Academic research in innovation: a country analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(2), pages 559-593, August.
    19. M. Humayun Kabir & Fawzi Laswad, 2014. "The Behaviour of Earnings, Accruals and Impairment Losses of Failed New Zealand Finance Companies," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 24(3), pages 262-275, September.
    20. Scott B. Jackson & Xiaotao (Kelvin) Liu, 2010. "The Allowance for Uncollectible Accounts, Conservatism, and Earnings Management," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 565-601, June.
    21. Hui, Kai Wai & Matsunaga, Steve & Morse, Dale, 2009. "The impact of conservatism on management earnings forecasts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 192-207, June.
    22. García Lara, Juan Manuel & García Osma, Beatriz & Penalva, Fernando, 2016. "Accounting conservatism and firm investment efficiency," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 221-238.
    23. Thomas J Boulton & Scott B Smart & Chad J Zutter, 2017. "Conservatism and international IPO underpricing," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(6), pages 763-785, August.
    24. Valeri V. Nikolaev, 2010. "Debt Covenants and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 51-89, March.
    25. Albort-Morant, Gema & Ribeiro-Soriano, Domingo, 2016. "A bibliometric analysis of international impact of business incubators," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1775-1779.
    26. Guay, Wayne & Verrecchia, Robert, 2006. "Discussion of an economic framework for conservative accounting and Bushman and Piotroski (2006)," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 149-165, October.
    27. Holthausen, Robert W. & Watts, Ross L., 2001. "The relevance of the value-relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 3-75, September.
    28. Yihua Wu & Muhammad Farrukh & Ali Raza & Fanchen Meng & Imtiaz Alam, 2021. "Framing the evolution of the corporate social responsibility and environmental management journal," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 1397-1411, July.
    29. Cao, Viet Nga & Pham, Anh Viet, 2021. "Behavioral spillover between firms with shared auditors: The monitoring role of capital market investors," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    30. S.P. Kothari & Karthik Ramanna & Douglas J. Skinner, 2009. "Implications for GAAP from an Analysis of Positive Research in Accounting," Harvard Business School Working Papers 09-137, Harvard Business School, revised Sep 2010.
    31. Henry Small, 1973. "Co‐citation in the scientific literature: A new measure of the relationship between two documents," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 24(4), pages 265-269, July.
    32. Ball, Ray & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2005. "Earnings quality in UK private firms: comparative loss recognition timeliness," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 83-128, February.
    33. Basu, Sudipta, 1997. "The conservatism principle and the asymmetric timeliness of earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 3-37, December.
    34. Donthu, Naveen & Kumar, Satish & Pattnaik, Debidutta, 2020. "Forty-five years of Journal of Business Research: A bibliometric analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 1-14.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Araceli Mora & Martin Walker, 2015. "The implications of research on accounting conservatism for accounting standard setting," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(5), pages 620-650, August.
    2. Richard Barker & Anne McGeachin, 2015. "An Analysis of Concepts and Evidence on the Question of Whether IFRS Should be Conservative," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 51(2), pages 169-207, June.
    3. Yuying Xie, 2015. "Confusion over Accounting Conservatism: A Critical Review," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 25(2), pages 204-216, June.
    4. Tri Tri Nguyen & Chau Minh Duong & Nguyet Thi Minh Nguyen & Hung Quang Bui, 2020. "Accounting conservatism and banking expertise on board of directors," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 501-539, August.
    5. Ha, Joohyung & Feng, Mingming, 2018. "Conditional conservatism and labor investment efficiency," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 143-163.
    6. Khalifa, Mariem & Trabelsi, Samir & Matoussi, Hamadi, 2022. "Leverage, R&D expenditures, and accounting conservatism: Evidence from technology firms," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 285-304.
    7. Venky Nagar & Madhav V. Rajan & Korok Ray, 2018. "An information-based model for the differential treatment of gains and losses," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 622-653, June.
    8. Kim, Jaewoo, 2018. "Asymmetric timely loss recognition, adverse shocks to external capital, and underinvestment: Evidence from the collapse of the junk bond market," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 148-168.
    9. Ha, Joohyung, 2019. "Agency costs of free cash flow and conditional conservatism," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Akram Khalilov & Beatriz Garcia Osma, 2020. "Accounting conservatism and the profitability of corporate insiders," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3-4), pages 333-364, March.
    11. Ruch, George W. & Taylor, Gary, 2015. "Accounting conservatism: A review of the literature," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 17-38.
    12. Juan Manuel García Lara & Beatriz García Osma & Fernando Penalva, 2014. "Information Consequences of Accounting Conservatism," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 173-198, June.
    13. Jayaraman, Sudarshan, 2012. "The effect of enforcement on timely loss recognition: Evidence from insider trading laws," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 77-97.
    14. Jagadison K. Aier & Long Chen & Mikhail Pevzner, 2014. "Debtholders’ Demand for Conservatism: Evidence from Changes in Directors’ Fiduciary Duties," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(5), pages 993-1027, December.
    15. Inder K. Khurana & Changjiang Wang, 2015. "Debt Maturity Structure and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1-2), pages 167-203, January.
    16. Yin, Meiqun & Zhang, Jidong & Han, Jing, 2020. "Impact of CEO-board social ties on accounting conservatism: Internal control quality as a mediator," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    17. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Guay, Wayne R. & Weber, Joseph P., 2010. "The role of information and financial reporting in corporate governance and debt contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 179-234, December.
    18. Sudipta Basu & Yi Liang, 2019. "Director–Liability–Reduction Laws and Conditional Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 889-917, September.
    19. Chang-yeol In & Taeheung Kim & Sambock Park, 2020. "Key Audit Matters for Production-To-Order Industry and Conservatism," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-19, January.
    20. Scott D. Dyreng & Rahul Vashishtha & Joseph Weber, 2017. "Direct Evidence on the Informational Properties of Earnings in Loan Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 371-406, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:9:y:2021:i:3:p:35-:d:586237. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.