Methodological Issues in African Accounting Research: Towards Alternative Theories and Methods

The purpose of this special issue is to advance the knowledge and discussion aroundalternative methodologies in accounting research on African countries. Albeit from arelatively low base, there has been a gradual increase in African accounting research andarticles published in major accounting journals, thereby representative of a growing voiceof African scholarship (e.g. Neu et al., 2010, Soobaroyen and Ntim, 2013; Goddard et al.,2016; Bakre et al., 2017; Ntim et al., 2017; Mbelwa at al., 2019; Lassou et al., 2018; Lassouet al., 2019; Kan et al., 2020; Jayasinghe at al., 2020; Lassou et al., 2021; Moses andHopper, 2022). However, until recently, a large number of empirical studies draw on thepositivist perspective, adopting quantitative methodologies and market-based theories.Many of the accounting research contributions on African accounting can be alsoattributed to diaspora academics based in international universities (Hopper et al, 2009;van Helden and Uddin 2016; Ashraf et al., 2019). Thus, it is not surprising to note thatvery few studies have gained centre stage in relation to non-market-based approaches(e.g. Neu et al., 2010; Lassou et al., 2018; Lassou et al., 2019; Jayasinghe at al., 2020).