Influencing factors of empirical accounting

Many scholars have summarized the possibility and necessity of the development of empirical accounting. These discussions pay more attention to the development of empirical accounting abroad. Let's focus on the reality of our country. On the theoretical basis, the development of early empirical accounting was influenced by Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) and Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Empirical accounting since 1980s is closely related to enterprise theory, contract theory and regulation theory. In addition, as a calculation method, the development of mathematical statistics is much earlier than empirical accounting and empirical economic theory. This shows that we must first understand the relevant disciplines of empirical accounting research. If you are not satisfied with the research of "old methods+new data" and want to innovate, you need to have high attainments or even breakthroughs in related disciplines.

Comparing accounting theory with economic theory, we can find a phenomenon. In China and the United States, the rise of positivism in accounting theory is later than that in economic theory. According to simple statistics, the proportion of empirical papers published in economic research (not limited to accounting field) in China in recent years is more than that in accounting research. The number of financial and accounting papers published in Economic Research has increased significantly in recent three or four years. The main reason is that these papers adopt the method of empirical analysis. Is it possible for empirical accounting to get rid of the shadow of subordination and follow other disciplines? (For example, the test of efficient market hypothesis has been studied in economics, finance and management. Although the subject attribute of this topic is not controversial, this kind of research is easy to repeat, which is not conducive to the development of accounting. In other words, is there empirical accounting based on accounting theory? These problems deserve our deep thought. At present, the strong interest of accounting theorists in China in earnings management may be related to this. The urgent research topics in the accounting field should be more about disciplines. Such as profit forecast, accounting standards, financial reporting and other issues. Both of them are closely related to computers and can be classified into one category. Information processing technology mainly refers to the sorting and processing of original data, especially all kinds of complicated calculations. Commonly used softwares in China are TSP, Excel, SPSS, etc. All kinds of software have their own advantages and disadvantages. TSP is a small software based on DOS, which is a bit old. Excel is one of the most popular office software, which is easy to find. SPSS is powerful and professional.

Database business is to provide the original data needed for research. Judging from the empirical results I have seen, most researchers collect raw data from securities newspapers and periodicals, and the workload and cost can be imagined. A few qualified researchers have started to use electronic data, which is really "envy others". If there are consulting organizations specializing in information services such as Standard & Poor's and Moody's, and detailed data such as Compustat Tape and Datastream International for research, I believe it will definitely promote the development of empirical accounting.

Recently, the CSRC issued the Notice on Issues Concerning the Disclosure of Annual Reports of Listed Companies in 2000, requiring the full text of the annual report to be published on the website designated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (see further reading for details), and the summary of the annual report to be published in the designated newspaper. A listed company may disclose its annual report on its website or webpage, but the disclosure time shall not be earlier than the designated website. This requirement will have a great impact on the data collection of researchers. In addition, related websites often publish some preliminary data about the securities market and listed companies, which deserves the attention of empirical accounting researchers. According to Kuhn's scientific paradigm revolution theory, the new theoretical paradigm was born after the crisis of the old paradigm. The so-called theoretical crisis refers to the theoretical imbalance between supply and demand, especially the supply shortage, including the total shortage and structural shortage. Around the 1960s, the normative accounting theory in the United States had a crisis in guiding the formulation of accounting standards, so there were pioneering empirical studies by Bauer and Brown (1968) and Beaver (1970). Is there a crisis in China's accounting theory? For China's economy, which is facing the dual tasks of development and system transformation, the demand for theory is undoubtedly enormous. As far as the supply of theory is concerned, if only from the number of published papers, how prosperous our accounting theory is. However, there are too many bubbles. From the formal point of view, it includes repeated research, plagiarism, multiple contributions for one manuscript, etc. From the content point of view, there are "papers" that are entangled in concepts and principles and have no substantive significance, "innovations" in the form of "old wine in new bottles", and "filling gaps" that hastily put forward new concepts and theories. How to change the social phenomenon of academic bubble is no longer the theme of this paper. But through this phenomenon, we can see that there is at least a potential theoretical crisis. In recent years, we can hear the criticism that accounting theory lags behind the reform practice from time to time, which is also a proof of the theoretical crisis. We believe that breaking the academic bubble as soon as possible and making the theoretical crisis clear will be beneficial to the real progress of academics.

According to economic theory, some people may initiate changes and become the primary action group of institutional changes, because they expect that the benefits of institutional changes may be greater than the costs they bear. The initiators of the paradigm change of China's accounting theory are accounting researchers from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Xiamen University, Tsinghua University and other universities. Their income-higher academic status is very obvious. A group of far-sighted researchers are trying to become the second action group. The development of foreign capital market is much earlier than that of empirical accounting. In China, both developed almost simultaneously. The reason is that the capital market is one of the necessary conditions for the development of empirical accounting, but it is not a sufficient condition. If computer technology is the latest necessary condition in foreign countries, China is the capital market.

The relationship between empirical accounting and capital market can be summarized as follows: the accounting norms of capital market need the guidance of accounting theory, and the development of capital market also creates conditions for the research of empirical accounting (,Xu, 1997). On the one hand, a typical example is that the discovery of "10% phenomenon" in accounting research has obvious influence on the CSRC's change of the rights issue conditions of listed companies. On the other hand, it is mainly manifested in the original data needed for empirical research. There are not many opportunities for theoretical researchers in China to directly contact with the practical world, and the data found in various statistical yearbooks are mostly macro. Therefore, the information publicly disclosed in the capital market has a prominent impact on the development of accounting theory in China, which is not the same as that in foreign countries. At the end of 1980s, there was a strong voice of "close to international practice" in China accounting field, but there was no soil for the development of empirical accounting at that time. In recent years, with the increase of accounting academic exchanges between China and foreign countries, the change of research paradigm has been gradually recognized by accounting theorists in China. Its main performance is:

(1) In order to publish their achievements in foreign academic journals, some theoretical elites have to apply the popular research paradigm abroad-empirical research.

(2) Accounting Research sponsored by Chinese Accounting Society, as the authority of China accounting journal, has changed the purpose of running the journal and increasingly praised empirical accounting, which undoubtedly played a guiding role in the development of accounting research.

(3) In some international academic seminars, the achievements brought by foreign scholars are mostly empirical, which further broadens our horizons.

(4) Some Hong Kong accounting scholars have been trained by Chinese mainland's traditional normative theory and influenced by western empirical theory, and they have criticized Chinese mainland's accounting theory in good faith. This criticism is very convincing. At the same time, we should also see that the communication between China and foreign countries is limited to a few people after all, and the promotion from international practices is not enough to popularize empirical accounting in the theoretical circle.

To sum up, the necessary conditions for empirical accounting research in China have basically been met. With sufficient motivation and correct methods, researchers can deeply understand related disciplines and learn computer application technology, tirelessly collect data and engage in empirical accounting research to standardize the capital market. However, the problem is that the development of things needs more than necessary conditions.