Replication in experimental management accounting research - an editorial

Over the past two decades, experimental management accounting research has increased in volume and prominence, especially in Europe where it remained something of a niche area well into the early 2000s. As experimental management accounting research became part of the mainstream literature, experimental researchers also faced challenges. Small samples and flexibility in data collection methods (Simmons et al., 2011) casted doubt on the conclusions that could be drawn from early experiments, large collaborative initiatives failed to replicate core findings in fields such as social psychology and behavioral economics (Camerer et al., 2016; Open Science Collaboration, 2012), and experimental studies of prominent researchers such as Hunton (Stone, 2015) and Stapel (Enserink, 2012) turned out to be fraudulent.