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Given the importance of interdisciplinary research in addressing wicked problems, this paper aims to explore the development of and prospects for interdisciplinary research through evidence gained from academic accountants in Australia.

Extant literature is complemented with interviews of accounting academics in Australia to reveal the challenges and opportunities facing interdisciplinary researchers and reimagine prospects for the future.

Evidence indicates that accounting academics hold diverse views toward interdisciplinarity. There is also confusion between multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity in the journals in which academic accountants publish. Further, there is mixed messaging among Deans, disciplinary leaders and emerging scholars about the importance of interdisciplinary research to, on the one hand, publish track records and, on the other, secure grants from government and industry. Finally, there are differing perceptions about the disciplines to be encouraged or accepted in the cross-fertilisation of ideas.

This paper is novel in gathering first-hand data about the opportunities, challenges and tensions accounting academics face in collaborating with others in interdisciplinary research. It confirms a discouraging pressure for emerging scholars between the academic research outputs required to publish in journals, prepare reports for industry and secure research funding, with little guidance for how these tensions might be managed.

The aim of this study is to profile interdisciplinary accounting research and the facilitating role played by researchers by probing the characteristics of published articles in three leading interdisciplinary accounting research journals, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ); Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS); and Critical Perspectives on Accounting (CPA).

Profiling analysis is undertaken with a broad scan of publication descriptors in AAAJ, AOS and CPA between 2005 and 2016. Profiling stems from identifying and quantifying the characteristics of interdisciplinary research, and with further analysis, infer generalisations about its content and the community of interdisciplinary researchers.

The published output of 1,462 articles is produced by 1,688 authors affiliated with 660 institutions in 52 countries. The two most high-ranking topics are social and environmental accounting and management accounting. The highest-ranked authors are Stephen Walker, Rob Bryer, Lee Parker and Yves Gendron. The most productive universities are the University of London, Cardiff University and the University of Manchester. The countries highly involved in interdisciplinary accounting research are the UK, USA, Australia and Canada.

The data is restricted by the sample of manuscripts based on three interdisciplinary accounting research journals for the period 2005–2016 and does not consider manuscripts published in other accounting and non-accounting journals. Additionally, the process of analysing publication descriptors to generate categorised lists was a complex process that may not be replicated precisely by other researchers.

The results reported in this study can assist researchers interested in interdisciplinary research on what they may expect to read and understand.

The present study profiles interdisciplinary research in accounting to gain a picture of the elements that comprise interdisciplinarity, which, at present, is without empirical investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to address and critique the current state and trajectory of the interdisciplinary accounting movement.

An interdisciplinary literature sourced analysis and critique of the movement's positioning and trajectory.

It observes the creeping currency of the financial economics-based accounting research tradition, with its attendant limitations in scope and policy/practice relevance of its subject matter and findings. The paper reveals the persistent growth and development of an interdisciplinary accounting community despite the pressures of careerist research score-based goal displacement produced by government and university performance measurement systems.

The interdisciplinary movement is seen as offering issues focused and innovation-driven research that aims to engage with the complexities of the organisational and institutional actors’ worlds. This remit remains essential to the challenge of the accounting academy's pursuit of issues of societal significance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the origins and development of the “Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ) Community”, a flourishing international interdisciplinary accounting research community. This scholarly community has emerged over some 30 years from the publication in 1988 of the inaugural issue of AAAJ under the joint editorship of James Guthrie and Lee Parker. This historical account discusses the motivation for establishing the journal and the important publishing initiatives, developments and trends across this period. The study positions the journal as a key thought leader, the catalyst for other Community activities such as the Asia-Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting conference.

The investigation involved a selective review of the contents of AAAJ, particularly the annual editorials published since inception, and other relevant literature, analysis of the main research themes and the most cited papers, and oral history interviews with the joint editors. The future prospects for the AAAJ Community are addressed.

The AAAJ Community has shaped and led developments in interdisciplinary accounting research. Recognised for innovation and with a reputation for nurturing scholars, AAAJ continues to grow in stature as one of the world’s leading accounting journals, challenging the status quo and fostering inclusive scholarship.

The study does not examine the journal’s publication patterns nor assess in detail the research studies that have been published in the journal.

The study recognises AAAJ as central to the development of an interdisciplinary accounting research community, firmly located in the sociological, critical and interpretative tradition also associated with some other leading accounting journals.

The paper seeks to explore the ongoing development of an array of interdisciplinary specialist research areas in the accounting research community and its literature. It sets out to explore developments over the last 25 years with the aim to identify a number of important trends for the accounting scholarly community and to consider the role of AAAJ and various interdisciplinary accounting conferences and other journals.

This paper employs a literature‐based analysis, critique and argument. The paper's scope includes the trend towards specialisation by interdisciplinary accounting scholars in a contemporary context, where mainstream technical accounting research has privileged positivist research.

In sharp contrast with the successful emergence of interdisciplinary research in the 1980s, a trend towards at least a proportion of specialist research groupings is now seen, such as accounting historians, opting to retreat behind closed doors. Some researchers are increasingly exhibiting a trend towards seeking their own company focusing on attending only their specialised conferences, and publishing their work in their special interest journal. This carries a risk of retreating from engagement with the broader and particularly interdisciplinary accounting research community outside their own specialised confines. This could lead to fragmentation and fellow specialist researchers are invited to return to “the coming‐out parade” and re‐engage with the wider scholarly community.

Accounting scholars not only need to engage with their interdisciplinary specialised research areas, but also should connect with the wider scholarly community in order to maintain the pursuit of significant contribution to knowledge.

The paper focuses on personal values of accounting academic scholars as well as the importance of specialised and more generalised interdisciplinary research scholarly groups.

The paper alerts researchers to significant issues associated with the retreat into specialised groups and scholarly activities. It offers a practical illustration of a 25‐year history of accounting history research and calls for the coming‐out of accounting scholars from specialist groups to an engagement with the broader accounting interdisciplinary research community.

This paper aims to present a preliminary exploration of the intersections between the accounting and information systems (IS) disciplines. Using the illustrative example of the COVIDSafe app, released by the Australian federal government in response to the “wicked problem” of COVID-19, we demonstrate the value of interdisciplinarity to broaden the boundaries of accounting beyond a technical orientation to encompass social and moral considerations.

We apply a high-level view of socio-technical theory derived from the IS discipline by using a close-reading method of publicly available media and federal government sources related to the COVIDSafe app collected between April 2020 and April 2021. This theoretical lens allows for an enhanced understanding of the technical, environmental/regulatory, and social subsystems relating to accounting and accountability while supporting interdisciplinary reflection.

Addressing complex and wicked problems in accounting requires interdisciplinary approaches, whereby the accounting discipline must move beyond its technical origins. Dialogue between the accounting and IS disciplines is necessary to gain a deeper appreciation of the social, technical and moral implications of accounting in context.

Viewing accounting beyond a technical practice through collaboration between accounting and IS offers a theorisation to consider the multi-dimensional nature of complex societal challenges. This theorisation can support the advancement of our practice and research meaningfully toward a view of accounting that centres on ideas of the public interest and the betterment of society. There remains much scope for progressing this dialogue, and we commend other scholars to engage in interdisciplinary work on the boundaries of accounting.

This study illustrates opportunities for accounting and IS approaches to solving “grand challenges”. Further, the study answers multiple calls for interdisciplinary discourse in accounting scholarship by contributing a socio-technical framing toward addressing complex challenges in our calculative era by initiating a dialogue that moves beyond accounting's traditional technical practice or the “accounting information systems” context.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on 30 years of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ), and contemplates the future. It makes a case for diversity, including a broad range of theories and research methodologies, as a defining feature of AAAJ. As we have done since 1988 in AAAJ’s first editorial, we continue to urge interdisciplinary accounting researchers to undertake innovative research and be both original and creative, avoiding the narrow focus and detachment from society that is characteristic of globally pervasive North American economics-based accounting research.

The paper employs an analysis and critique of trends in interdisciplinary research, drawing upon the previous 29 editorials/commentaries published in AAAJ. It also elucidates the field of scholarship associated with AAAJ in 2016 as evidence of the patterning of recent research and publishing trends.

This paper identifies challenges confronting interdisciplinary researchers in the globalised academic community. These include our obsession with theoretical engorgement and our adversarial rather than cooperative approach to knowledge development. Furthermore, the authors argue that researchers must reflect on their motivation, informing theories and values if they intend to contribute to practice, policy and a wider societal good. Accounting researchers have a responsibility to go beyond observation, engaging in and constructing a more equal and fair society.

This commentary reflects on developments in AAAJ and its community over three decades. The authors also address the wider AAAJ community, including the Asia Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting (APIRA) conference attendees, AAAJ special issue editors, the editorial board, ad hoc reviewers, authors and supporters across AAAJ’s 30 years.

The contribution of accounting research to the space sector has arguably been less discernible, less visible and less appreciated than that made by STEM disciplines. This paper aims to ascertain the nature and extent to which management accounting can contribute to interdisciplinary advancements of the space sector. This is accomplished by investigating possible contributions realised by management accounting research to the space sector and identifying the opportunities and challenges facing interdisciplinary accounting researchers in making a contribution.

This qualitative empirical study draws on interviews with 25 academic researchers and practitioners from Australia, the USA, the UK, Canada, Europe, India and China, with research or practitioner experience on accounting issues germane to the space sector. The purpose is to seek their perceptions of how interdisciplinary management accounting research can solve contemporaneous problems in the space sector.

The potential contribution that management accounting research can make in the space sector is grounded in the inherent interdisciplinary of the discipline. The propensity to draw on other disciplines, theories, methodologies and methods is a strength of management accounting, as it is arguably by such interdisciplinarity that “wicked problems’ such as those presented by space exploration, policy and research can be solved.

This is one of the first papers to explore the role and contribution management accounting research can offer to what has traditionally been a STEM-dominated field. In so doing, it underscores the central importance and value-added by an interdisciplinary approach to management accounting research.

This editorial reflects on 25 years of AAAJ and on the interdisciplinary accounting movement and its future direction. It emphasises the Editors' commitment to encouraging the application of a broad range of theories and research methodologies as well as their ongoing support for diversity as a defining feature of AAAJ. This includes the wider community, which includes the APIRA conference attendees, Special Issue editors and the many individuals who have all played an important part in AAAJ's 25 years. The Editors continue to urge interdisciplinary accounting researchers to undertake innovative research and be both original and creative, thereby avoiding a narrowness that is an increasing feature of North American economics based accounting research. The important role of academic researchers is highlighted in not simply observing, but also engaging in and constructing an enabling accounting. The purpose here is to reflect on the past and to look towards the future.

The paper employs a literature‐based analysis and critique. It also identifies via empirical data the field of scholarship associated with AAAJ and evidence of the patterning of recent publications.

This editorial draws together various themes in our previous AAAJ editorials and highlights milestones in the journey to our current position. It identifies various challenges that confront interdisciplinary researchers in the globalised academic community. It also points to the need for researchers to reflect on their motivation, informing theories and values to ensure that their academic endeavours are making a contribution to practice, policy and a wider societal good.

It is hoped the practical and research issues explored in this editorial will invoke more interdisciplinary perspectives on accounting and the accounting profession, and assist scholars in reflecting on their academic studies and potential challenges facing them.

This editorial reflects on the developments in AAAJ over the past 25 years and discusses various contributions. It also celebrates the top ten authors, topics, Special Issue editors, and the last ten AAAJ Best Paper awards.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of interdisciplinary accounting research and suggest ways of broadening its creative scope to embrace significant contemporary phenomenon.

The paper is conceptual in nature and therefore draws only on secondary sources.

The paper suggests that one of the defining features of interdisciplinary accounting research is that it should be a creative space in which novel ideas emerge and new agendas flourish. The authors identify three such creative spaces of scholarly inquiry: the media space, the virtual space and the popular culture space.

The paper identifies three new creative spaces in which interdisciplinary accounting research may continue to flourish. It also identifies a possible threat to creativity within future interdisciplinary accounting research.