Accounting academia and the threat of the paying-off mentality

This essay reflects on a trend that increasingly affects ways of thinking and doing in accounting academia, namely, the expansion of the paying-off mentality. The latter relates to behavior being driven by a sense of benefits and rewards that are expected to materialize in the short run. Specifically, the essay brings to the fore a number of threats, engendered through short-termism, that arguably impede the development of accounting research and education. Does paying-off prevent publishers from facilitating public access to research articles? Does paying-off constrain the attractiveness of academic careers in the eyes of young accounting practitioners? Does paying-off increasingly transform universities into places that aim to deliver, first and foremost, technical education? Does paying-off increasingly constrain innovativeness in the field of accounting research? In addressing such questions, the essay aims further to sensitize academics to the serious risks of allowing such a field of academic activity and inquiry to be overexposed to the influence of short-termism.