Knowledge that Transforms

Considerable attention has been given in accounting literature to the development and refinement of alternative procedures of measurement and calculation, However, the problem of establishing the descriptive validity of accounting measurements and calculations has only recently received direct attention. The necessity of verifying the descriptive validity of accounting calculations issues directly from the accounting objective of providing descriptions or explanations of economic activity that are relevant to the purposive actions and adaptive behavior of data users. There is a tendency in contemporary accounting thought to argue or assume that the propriety of accounting calculations is sufficiently established (1) by the employment of ratio measurement scales and/or (2) by the ability of the number system governing measurement to satisfy the mathematical requirements of a field. We submit that neither of these two factors establishes the descriptive validity of accounting calculations. Further, we conclude that verification of descriptive validity necessarily requires empirical operations in the form of independent measurements that prove the additive nature of the property being measured.

Reviews the book "Readings in Accounting Theory," by Paul Garner and Kenneth B. Berg.

Reviews the book "The Meaningful Interpretation of Financial Statements," by Donald E. Miller.

Reviews the book "The Elusive Art of Accounting," by Howard Ross.

Reviews the book "Advanced Consolidation of Financial Statements," by H.S. Cillers and S. Rossouw.

Reviews the book "Analysis for Expansion or Contraction of a Business."

This article focuses on the growth and expansion of accounting as a profession in the industrial community, government, and public practice. this growth of accounting profession have stimulated a re-examination of the educational framework within which preparation for the profession of accountancy occurs. Among the important questions which relate to such education is one which focuses upon the possible role of separate professional schools. The frequent enumerations of alleged advantages and disadvantages of such schools are unrewardingly familiar to all of us. It is evident that professional education so conceived must be broad in dimension and multidisciplinary in approach. The changing environment within which the accountant operates and the changing character of his practice, brought on by the accelerating needs of government and business for information to assist in the decision-making process, accents the importance of integrating the educational attributes of the professional accountant.

Reviews the book "Outlines in Federal Income, Estate, and Gift Taxation," by Irwin Shechtman and Jack B. Wollman.

Management services as practiced by CPAs have expanded very substantially in the past two decades. The author believes that this expansion is a sensible process reflecting the relevance of the CPA's basic abilities as a systems man and interpreter of financial data, and the logical evolution of the accountant from his role as the practitioner of the first well-developed quantitive method into a broader role based on the new realm of information science. The computer and, more recently, management science have been important catalysts in moving these services to their present status in the CPA environment. At the same time, most of us now realize this is the logical structure for a management services activity in the business environment of the 60's, dominated as it is by the complexity and interconnectedness of its various activities. The scope of consulting activity as performed by professionals operating as members of a CPA firm is a thorny subject. That might be surprising when one observes that consultants have never been beset by any collective difficulty in this regard. They purport to be competent in one or more of the many phases of management; over time the assertion of competence is tested.

The article is concerned with the rule of mathematical subject matter in the undergraduate business curriculum treated from an applied point of view. The plan of the paper is to illustrate the need for more preparation in mathematical areas by students of business administration, discuss the present status of mathematical offerings by colleges of business, cite the recommendations offered by professional mathematicians, suggest a minimal core mathematics sequence, and, finally, discuss problems of making the core a required sequence and applying it in accounting and other disciplines. A decade of more ago, a very small proportion of undergraduate business students took a significant amount of college-level mathematics. The only widespread required course in the area of present interest was an introductory course in statistics. This course was essentially descriptive and authors of texts were careful to point out that either no mathematics was required to understand their books or, at most, the books assumed only an elementary background in mathematics.