Scholarly Literature on Accounting in China 1999-2006: An Analysis and Evaluation

With the expanding role of China in the worldwide political arena and global markets, understanding of accounting policies, standards and practices in China has increasing value in furthering the advancement of accounting as well as in promoting international trade and investment in that nation. Research on accounting and accounting issues in China which is published in English is a relatively recent phenomena and is a matter of both scholarly interest and practical relevance. Within the existing tradition of examining and evaluating accounting literature appearing in scholarly journals, this paper presents an analysis of 83 articles on accounting in China published in 23 quality English language accounting journals across the 1999 to 2006 period. While the academic literature focusing on accounting in China is still maturing, our analysis revealed increasing sophistication, particularly in relation to subject matter and research methods, in comparison to the findings of prior studies of this body of literature. We also explore some issues of concern arising from the analysis and provide suggestions for furthering the research effort in this field.