ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses primarily on research carried out by researchers based in North American universities. One factor which may underlie the lack of practical application is a refereeing process which focuses on rigour in the research design and on methodological innovation, rather than on either the relevance of the research topic or the value of the results obtained. Although the great majority of the studies use, with varying degrees of sophistication, similar statistical methodology, both the methodology and the interpretation of the results have been open to question. One fundamental statistical issue is whether the collection of data by reference to an ordinal scale makes that data, taken singly or in aggregation, inappropriate for the statistical purposes to which it is put. Hood and Koberg studied the extent to which different organizational cultural dimensions of bureaucracy, innovation and supportiveness exist within the auditing, taxation and management consultancy departments of large accounting and auditing firms.
