Endowed chairs in accounting worldwide

Abstract

Colleges and universities worldwide have benefited from the growth of the stock market of the 1990s. Many universities have seen marginal increases in their endowments. Accounting programmes have been among the beneficiaries of endowment growth and a concurrent increase in the number of endowed chairs. The primary purposes of this study are to: (1) examine the nature and status of endowments in accounting programmes worldwide; (2) determine objectives, criteria, benefits, and challenges of establishing endowed chairs; and (3) establish benchmarks for universities worldwide for assessing the credentials and qualifications necessary to obtain endowed chair positions. Findings indicate that: (1) the primary purpose of the endowed chair is to enhance the reputation and provide better recognition for the college or university; (2) research is considered the most important objective; (3) although excellence in teaching is considered important, this is not always reflected in the time spent on professional activities; (4) professional and college service is considered an important part of the duties of the chaired professor; and (5) the amount of time spent on teaching activities is less than that spent on research and service. The results of this study should help accounting programmes worldwide in both assessing existing endowed chairs and in establishing new chaired professorships.

Keywords:

• endowed chairs
• colleges and universities
• accounting education

Notes

¹Examples of these fully financed corporate endowed chairs or professorships are the Yahoo! Chair of Information Systems Technology at Stanford University, the University of Minnesota's General Mills Chair of Cereal Chemistry and Technology, the University of Memphis's FedEx Chair of Information Management Systems, the Coca-Cola Distinguished Professor of Marketing at the University of Arizona, K-Mart's Chair of Marketing at Wayne State University, and the Big Five (now Big Four) supported chairs in accounting (Basinger, 1998).

²Although results presented in Tables 1–3 regarding profiles of chair professorships extended to year 2002, the focus of this study and survey results are on determinants and attributes of endowed chairs in accounting worldwide up to the year 2000. Thus, the results do not reflect the possible impacts of recent changes in political, economic, and legal environments, including economic downturns, stock market plummeting, the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, reported business and accounting scandals in the USA, regulatory responses and congressional reforms (the Sarbanes–Oxley Act).

³Since the focus of this study is on endowed chairs, excluded from the sample chair professorships were those with no endowment to constantly generate annual revenue.