MEASUREMENT OPERATIONALIZATION AND WRITTEN CLARITY IN ACCOUNTING RESEARCH: AN INTEGRATED PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH FOR A DOCTORAL RESEARCH SEMINAR

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrated pedagogical approach that professors can use with doctoral students to immerse students in a decision-making process that is critical to a successful research project: variable operationalization.  Using articles from well-regarded journals to evaluate the operationalization choice of the “restatement” variable, the authors assemble a pedagogical approach that includes exercises professors can use with doctoral students.  The setting chosen explores three methods used to operationalize the financial restatement variable in empirical archival accounting literature that students can explore: announcement date, first occurrence, and all occurrences.  Students are first tasked with identifying the elements influencing measurement choice.  Next, students assess whether findings reveal that statistically distinct results arise from each of the three measurement choices evaluated.  Finally, students come to realize that an incorrect measurement choice may subject research findings to reductions in explanatory power, risk of type 1 and type 2 errors, and altered direction (sign) of coefficients.  Achieving clarity in measurement choice and exposition are challenges inherent in accounting scholarship.  This pedagogical approach helps nascent scholars work through these challenges using an actual empirical research setting, i.e., financial restatements.  The insights gained can be applied by doctoral students in their own research efforts. JEL Classification Codes: M4, C8, C0.