The number one question I get when I tell people I'm in a PhD accounting program is - what the heck does accounting research mean? Rather than explain it myself, the BYU accounting wiki has a great explanation, plus everything else you want to know about an accounting PhD. In short, accounting research looks at how accounting affects the world around us and how the world affects accounting. There are four areas of accounting research; I am still determining where my focus will be, but I'm thinking a mix of managerial and audit. For example, one of my research ideas is identifying the correlation between online sports gambling across the US and the occurrence of embezzlement/employee fraud.
The Value of the PCAOB: A Literature Review. Co-authored with Jan Bouwens, Ranjani Krishnan, and Shiva Rajgopal, but with my first-year paper draft available here: Kyle Sutton First Year Summer Research Paper