An Examination of Accounting Interest Groups' Differential Perceptions of Innovations.

Abstract Innovations often fail to gain adoption by the accounting profession. A factor affecting the rate of adoption of innovations is the perceptions of innovations by individual groups within a profession. The objective of this article is to provide empirical evidence regarding the extent to which differences occur in accounting interest groups' perceptions of the need for and future rate of adoption of accounting innovations. The research evidence indicates that accounting academicians perceive a higher need for adoption and future rate of adoption of innovations. CPAs and financial executives are systematically lower on both variables, and investment analysts fall in the middle range. These findings suggest that the needs and values of the CPA and financial executive groups may be slowing the rate of adoption of accounting innovations. In summary, the findings of this research indicate that system effects are ubiquitous in the accounting profession and could be an important area for research directed toward discovering methods of affecting the rate of adoption of accounting innovations. System effects are the influences of the norms, values, and functions of a group on the behavior of the individual members of that group.