if professors are CEO or the management, then associate profs could be the main body employees including HRs, and assistant profs are just interns who never know what will happen after couple of years.
well, I would say research experience may not be the most disadvantage since most applicants with master degree in other fields do not have research experience in accounting. I think (1) some schools have the trandition of not recruiting students directly from mainland china, for example, some fields in kellogg, I guess accounting is included but I am not sure, (2) undergraduate students do not have adv microeconomics and econoemtrics training, which is required for accounting phd students. Although you could say my interests are more related to like internal control and do not require lots of econ training, not remember, there are lots of chinese applicants every year, if they could pick one with solid background, why they pick you?