Network Analysis of Accounting Departments of Iranian Governmental Universities

The aim of this study is to investigate and analyze the communication structure between the accounting departments of Iranian governmental universities.

The method of this research based on the type of data collected and analyzed is a quantitative research of the network analysis. Network analysis focuses on relationships between individuals, organizations, institutions, countries, and etc. These connections together form networks. Using the network analysis method, the structural pattern governing the networks is examined and analyzed. The statistical population of this study is all accounting departments of Iranian Governmental universities. In this research, the faculty members of accounting departments whose information is available until the end of September 2020 are reviewed. Therefore, according to the conditions, 44 universities were selected for the study. Finally, the results are analyzed using network analysis method and PreMap software version 1 and UCINET software version 6.

The findings of the research showed that unconventional inequality prevails in the communication network of accounting departments of governmental universities, and some of the universities were in a better position. On the other hand, the Pareto distribution showed that the division of power between the accounting departments has a 22-78 skewness. That is, 78% of the faculty members are graduates of 22% of universities and the remaining 22% are graduates of 78% of universities. Also, Bradford's law stated that the distribution of power between accounting departments almost follow an exponential function, and the difference between the frequencies of different groups was about 3.266. The universities of Tehran, Tarbiat Modares and Allameh Tabatabai were universities related to Group 1 of Bradford Law. Also, the University of Tehran was the most key university in the structure of relations between the accounting departments of governmental universities.

Based on research results, decent position of some universities in the communication structure causes that these universities need less intermediaries than the other universities and therefore have much simple access to the existing resources. In addition, their ability to obtain effective information through the network cluster is further enhanced. Therefore, it can be claimed that these universities can play the role of key actors in the rulling structure.