Purpose Large-scale financial scandals in business have increased public awareness of fraud and the need for forensic accounting (FA) services. Despite a steadily growing body of knowledge of FA, Huber (2012) argued that the term FA is ill defined. This paper aims to support the development of a nomenclature for FA by gathering evidence on the prevalence of the term in the Southern Hemisphere. Hence the authors ask how, when, where and in which context the term FA appears. In analysing the evidence gathered, the authors also aim to identify changes to the use of the term. Finally, they intend to make suggestions for future development and research relating to the term to advance knowledge. The authors also aim to suggest a definition for the term FA. Design/methodology/approach To obtain evidence to support the development of an accepted definition for FA, a rigorous search of the literature is performed, using a structured review framework. Findings The findings of this paper demonstrate the prevalence of the term FA in publications in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, but that limited publications from SA create opportunities for researchers from emerging economies to publish in the FA field. This meta-analysis shows among others a strong focus on the role of FA in fraud prevention and increased reliance on websites (in contrast to reliance on academic literature) for information on FA. This research identifies changes to the use of the term and concludes that the narrow definition of FA prevails. Delivering on the third objective of this paper, the authors provide insights into future developments in FA and find that a need exists to explore FA in a much wider context. Research limitations/implications The research is limited to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Limitations exist in that the authors focused particularly on high-quality journals and excluded other journals from our search. As they were specifically searching for the use of the term “forensic accounting”, they excluded any other term, e.g. fraud auditing, from the research. Future research may well expand the search terminology. Practical implications Without an established definition of the commonly used term forensic accounting, the general public will be confused about the services that can be expected from forensic accountants. To date, FA definitions have been formulated mostly intuitively; however, if FA is to grow as a field, an accepted definition needs to be formulated. Social implications FA offers a new area of growth in the accounting field. Clarification of exactly what is meant by the term has implications for future careers in the field of accounting. Originality/value To date, no study of this nature has been undertaken anywhere in the world.
Social media play an increasingly important role as both a means of communication and a source of information. Furthermore, social media provide a variety of time and cost-efficient, as well as participant-friendly, communication and networking channels, which expand the research repertoire in terms of recruitment and conducting interviews. The purpose of this paper is to broaden researchers' understanding of the potential of using social media to facilitate qualitative research, and to guide them in the selection and use of social media channels considering the contextual differences. This paper adopts a qualitative methodology aimed at reflecting on the researcher's experience of recruiting participants and conducting interviews using social media. The paper is the first of its kind to explore the potential of incorporating social media as a tool in qualitative research while considering contextual and cultural factors.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.