The accountability chameleon in the 21st century. Has it changed its colours?

Accountability was described by Sinclair in 1995 as having a chameleon quality due to it being subjectively constructed and changing with context, and also 'residing in a bottomless swamp where the more definitive we attempt to render the concept the more murky it becomes' (Sinclair, 1995, p. 221). To test whether the accountability chameleon has changed its colours a content analysis was undertaken of all articles related to accountability published in the top international accounting journals this century. The content analysis indicates that the term 'accountability' is still an elusive concept to grasp, with little progress being made in rendering it more definitive. The paper argues that greater research efforts should be devoted to developing a framework of accountability.