The Accounting Review Vol. 61 No. 4 1986
Radical Developments in Accounting Thought.
Abstract
Mainstream accounting is grounded in a common set of philosophical assumptions about knowledge, the empirical world, and the relationship between theory and practice. This particular world-view, with its emphasis on hypothetico-deductivism and technical control, possesses certain strengths but has restricted the range of problems studied and the use of research methods. By changing this set of assumptions, fundamentally different and potentially rich research insights are obtained. Two alternative world-views and their underlying assumptions am elucidated-the interpretive and the critical. The consequences of conducting research within these philosophical traditions are discussed via a comparison between accounting research that is conducted on the "same" problem but from two different perspectives. In addition, some of the difficulties associated with these alternative perspectives are briefly dealt with.
- DOI
- 10.2308/tar-4479026
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 601-632
- Language
- en
- Sources
- openalex crossref