Czech accounting academia and practice : historical roots and current issues

The purpose of this article is to investigate the development of Czech accounting research and education and their links to current practice. The paper uses the autoethnography method and deals with some of the main issues arising in current university research management practices. To this aim we apply our own experience and combine personal perspectives and existing literature (research papers on historical and contemporary academic environment and the current debates regarding management of academic research). The underlying premise of the analysis is that the actual status of accounting academics and accounting education in the Czech Republic is rooted in its past and is closely linked to practice. Characteristics of educational institutions involved in the process of accounting research and education are provided in the main body of the article. The paper also delves into current relations amongst academia, practice and training institutions. The article addresses the quality of Czech accounting research and financial support of universities and it ends with an analysis of current academic and research topics. We finally characterize major shortcomings of the Czech academic accounting research community which seems to be one of the results of changes in the management system of higher education and research. However, it must be stressed in this respect that most current published Czech accounting research reflects the needs of accounting practice rather than academic research as traditionally understood in western countries.