Dialogic accounting and stakeholder engagement through social media: the case of top-ranked Universities

This study examines whether online interaction through social media is used as a mechanism of dialogic accounting and stakeholder engagement by top-ranked universities. Our research adopts a quantitative methodology based on the Content Analysis of the Facebook and Twitter accounts of the top 200 universities in the QS World University Rankings. Our analysis confirms that many universities take advantage of social media to provide public information and engage stakeholders. This highlights some early signs of dialogic accounting and the attempts of top-ranked universities to create spaces for stakeholders whose opinions are ignored in traditional accounting.