This post is based on my working paper “Recognition and Disclosure of Intangible Assets—A Meta-Analysis Review” co-authored with Anne Jeny (ESSEC Business School). Following prior literature in one’s field is generally a good thing. That is how science and knowledge is built—incrementally. This, however, is the story of why we chose to not follow prior accounting literature that uses meta-analysis techniques. A while back, my co-author and I set out to review the empirical accounting literature on intangible assets. We are both empirical archival researchers, so our interest was the “regression-based” literature. As we were putting together the relevant papers,…