Experimental Management Accounting Research in Transition: Opportunities and Challenges of Technological Advances

Abstract

This paper reviews experimental research in management accounting from a methodological perspective and discusses the opportunities and challenges created by recent technological advances. After outlining the basics of experimental methods and the features of online experiments, it examines (1) wider access to target participant groups through crowdsourcing, (2) new experimental approaches using generative AI (particularly large language models), and (3) the importance of replications and pre-registration to improve reproducibility. It also summarizes key issues in experimental task design, including the trade-off between internal validity and practical relevance, and concerns about data quality in online experiments, and it suggests directions for wider use in Japan.