Abstract The relationship between research and teaching is an important, controversial, and frustrating topic. It is an issue all implicitly face in the development of the courses and yet usually do not make the assumptions explicit. In this article, the author illustrates general observations in the context of a second-year, MBA financial accounting class. There are several major issues regarding the role of research, including: (1) What is meant by research? (2) Why attempt to incorporate research into the classroom? (3) When can research be introduced? (4) What type of research can be incorporated? and (5) How can research be incorporated? The article discusses various possible definitions of research and select one for purposes of further discussion. The definition used is critical since it structures the remaining issues. With research defined, the discussion will turn to the basic issue of why attempt to incorporate research into teaching? The perception which is frequently encountered among students is that there are no researchable issues in financial accounting. Under this view, accounting is a set of conventions. Once the rules are specified, the rest follows tautologically.
William H. Beaver (Sun,) studied this question.