Innovators Dilemma And An Association For Accounting Information Systems Educators

Abstract

Recently, there have been debates on whether it will be services to the accounting information systems (AIS) educators and the society if AIS educators form a new organization independent of American Accounting Association. As like any new discipline, AIS emerged from many existing disciplines, including accounting, computer science and information systems. Yet, different from their counterpart in industry, the leadership in accounting academics across the nation has been slow in embracing the new reality based on information technology and has the difficult time to make a smooth transition to restructure their old curriculum to the fast changing market places. Yet, the strong market demands for information technology graduates and declining enrollments in the traditional accounting programs across the nation provide an incentive for accounting educators in many institutions to rethink their long term strategy in surviving this tumultuous time and preparing for the challenging future ahead (Albrecht and Sack, 2000). Against this backdrop of radical changes, the new conferences for AIS educators held consecutively for two years (AIS Educator Conference, 1999, 2000) were devoted to the professional growth of AIS educators. And the conferences drew serious attention from AIS faculty, particularly, those who are interested in teaching practical and hands-on application-driven information technology (IT) to their students. In this paper, I examine various issues related to this idea of creating a new organization for AIS educators independent from AAA. First, I highlight the paradigm shift in accounting industry for the last three decades from the traditional accounting services to accounting and information systems (AIS) services. Then, I delve into exploring who AIS educators are. Once the AIS educators model is established, I examine the missions and purposes of two independent organizations: one is the existing AAA, and the other is one yet to be formed, a new organization for AIS educators. Once the differences and similarities between organizations missions and purposes are established, I examine the implications of creating the new AIS educators organization, using the findings from Christensens study (1997), and similar studies on the impact of innovative technology on organizational changes.