Conceptual Structure of Fraud Research and Its Dynamics

The concept of fraud, its antecedents and outcomes as well as its detection and prevention, have been discussed by both academics and practitioners for decades. The scope and complexity of the concept of fraud attracts scholars from diverse disciplines. The purpose of our study is to gain a broader understanding of how fraud is viewed in the compendium of academic literature. Using semantic network analysis method, we explore the structure of fraud-related research and analyze the internal connections among the current areas of interest for fraud researchers. We are particularly interested in the relationship between the mainstream financial accounting and audit research and the field of information systems and technology. Our work makes a big stride toward the understanding of current state of fraud-related research. The interdisciplinary semantic map of keywords and subject terms helps understand the trends in fraud scholarship, identify gaps and propose directions for future research