Accounting involves the creation and use of information within and outside organizations. Accounting research investigates questions about how information is gathered, organized and used by individuals and by markets, and encompasses managerial accounting issues, assurance (auditing) issues, taxation issues and financial accounting/reporting issues.

The Ph.D. program in accounting is designed to prepare students for careers in research and teaching at leading academic institutions. Training consists of coursework, research seminars, joint work with faculty on research projects, and individual, original research including a thesis. Our goal is not only to provide doctoral candidates with skills and tools for conducting scholarly research, but also to impress on students the desire and ability to think conceptually, carefully and creatively about accounting issues.

The frameworks used in accounting research vary depending on the specific focus of the research and the orientation of the researcher, and include empirical-archival approaches (which rely primarily on historical data and statistical techniques), analytical methods (which seek to model one or more phenomena in a stylized setting), behavioral approaches (which rely primarily on psychological theories to derive testable predictions about individual and group behavior), and experimental-markets approaches (which create economic settings in controlled laboratory market environments). As part of their training, doctoral students would be exposed to research using each of these frameworks.

The American Accounting Association recently issued a report detailing the supply and demand for accounting PhD students. The report provides general information and is based on surveys conducted by their committee and was issued in 2006. The report details current supply and demand forecasts as well as a detailed survey of current PhD student demographics, backgrounds, and doctoral program experiences which may be of particular interest to students considering pursuit of a PhD in accounting.

Fuqua's Ph.D. program in accounting is special in two respects. First is its emphasis on collaborative work between students and faculty; second is the fact that the accounting faculty span the analytical, behavioral and empirical-archival paradigms. These features make Fuqua's accounting program a particularly attractive program for students who wish to do inter-disciplinary or cross-paradigm research.