Accounting Faculty Perceptions of Criteria for Tenure

ABSTRACT Accounting departments are challenged to mentor and evaluate faculty pursuing tenure in a changing employment market. We surveyed 464 accounting faculty asking them to rate the importance of 41 tenure factors and provide qualitative insight into general skills, teaching, research, service, professional experience, and other. We find although some factors are considered important across institutional characteristics, there is significant variation across institutional type for most factors, with Research Intensive schools placing higher importance on publication success in top-tier and highly ranked journals, and Non-Research Intensive schools placing higher importance on a broader range of factors (e.g., service, teaching, communication, publications, industry experience). Additionally, we find salient differences between those with and without tenure committee service. We provide implications for early-career professors, doctoral students, prospective doctoral students, and others as well as avenues for future research. Data Availability: Data will be made available on request.