Replication of Audit and Financial Accounting Research: We Do More than We Think

Abstract

There is a widespread concern that a “replication crisis” exists in the social sciences. Accounting researchers echo this claim and add that little accounting replication research is published. We carry out a conservative study to identify articles published in six leading accounting journals from 1970 to 2016 that attempt to replicate prior financial accounting and auditing research. We find 248 articles that attempted to replicate, in whole or in part, 298 published papers’ results typically in the context of extending the original finds. Highlights of our findings include: (1) the number and percentage of replicating articles have increased over the period; (2) 60 percent of all replication attempts are completely successful, 29 percent report mixed success, leaving 11 percent that fail to replicate. These findings suggest that the accounting academe publishes more replication research than previously documented and that published results are relatively robust when replicated. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request.