Theoretical studies of the historical development of the accounting discipline: A review and evidence

Vivien Beattie and Elizabeth Davie

Accounting, Business and Financial History, 2006, vol. 16, issue 1, pages 1-25

Abstract: Many existing studies of the development of accounting thought have either been atheoretical or have adopted Kuhn's model of scientific growth. The limitations of this 35-year-old model are discussed. Four different general neo-Kuhnian models of scholarly knowledge development are reviewed and compared with reference to an analytical matrix. The models are found to be mutually consistent, with each focusing on a different aspect of development. A composite model is proposed. Based on a hand-crafted database, author co-citation analysis is used to map empirically the entire literature structure of the accounting discipline during two consecutive time periods, 1972--81 and 1982--90. The changing structure of the accounting literature is interpreted using the proposed composite model of scholarly knowledge development.

Keywords: accounting theory; author co-citation analysis; history of accounting thought; scholarly knowledge development; theory closure; theory groups (search for similar items in EconPapers)
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