Preparing for serendipity: an illustrative analysis of participation in the field
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 7 September 2023
Issue publication date: 25 March 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how researchers in general, and field researchers in particular, might respond to systems of governance of the researchers' activity in ways that can support rather than distort the quality of the research.
Design/methodology/approach
We draw upon literature on serendipity to develop a framework for engaging with the positive and negative potentials of systems of governance. We ground our analysis in discussion of participation in the field comprising two parts: first, the examination of our own activities and second, the accounts of participation found in two career-autobiographical interviews with emeritus professors of management accounting from Japan.
Findings
We highlight the potential for a productive tension between two contrasting perspectives that researchers might take on governance of their activity. A contractual perspective sees the value of targets and detailed pre-planning. A reflexive perspective sees the value of exploring the unexpected and considering many alternatives. We offer a framework for considering serendipity and the conditions that facilitate serendipity to help researchers maintain a productive tension between these perspectives.
Research limitations/implications
We build upon retrospective accounts of two successful individuals whose careers evolved in a specific context. The intention is not to set out what might be generally achievable in a research career, nor to propose specific lines of action or planning in relation to specific systems of governance, since these vary across countries and over time. Rather, the paper draws on these materials to illuminate the more general challenge of preparing for serendipity in a way that goes beyond simple opportunism.
Originality/value
We analyse how researchers' mindfulness of serendipity and the nature of contexts that facilitate serendipity can encourage a productive tension between contractual and reflexive perspectives on governance of academic activity.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Professors Michiharu Sakurai, Yasuyuki Kazusa and Toshiro Hiromoto for their time, interest, and insight into our project. We would also like to thank the following individuals for their various helpful comments and suggestions at various presentations of this paper: Dane Pflueger, Niels Joseph Lennon, Tommaso Palermo, Dorothy Toh, Lichen Yu, participants of the Bristol-Kyoto Qualitative Accounting Research Workshop series and Management Accounting Research Seminar at Hitotsubashi University, and the qualitative accounting research group at School of Accounting and Finance, University of Bristol. We would further like to thank Maki Makoto Foundation for their financial support on the aforementioned workshop series. Finally, we wish to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their many constructive challenges and comments.
Citation
Chapman, C., Kimura, A., Sawabe, N. and Selmes-Suzuki, H. (2024), "Preparing for serendipity: an illustrative analysis of participation in the field", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 816-839. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-06-2021-5312
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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