The stratification of academic accounting in the USA: a theoretical and empirical evaluation of institutional reproduction

Academic accounting units at universities possess varying degrees of social esteem. The maintenance of relative position requires continuous efforts of reproduction. Using Bourdieu's theoretical analysis, this paper hypothesizes institutional positioning as a function of cultural, economic and symbolic capital possessed by these institutions of higher education. Operationalizing the hierarchy of universities in the USA according to their results in the academic labour market, the results suggest that reproduction occurs directly based on cultural capital (research productivity) and indirectly based on economic capital (unit size) and symbolic capital (university reputation).