Practice-induced theory reduction in accounting; evolutionary biology, history and the interdisciplinary base

Max Aiken and David Gowland

International Journal of Critical Accounting, 2010, vol. 2, issue 2, 117-145

Abstract: This article induces the pragmatic structure of what financial reporting can be – it does not deduce what financial reporting should be. Empirical studies can show that opportunism is not a feature generally of financial accounting in practice, but challenges exist in the post-Enron era. One task is to explain the nature of macro evolutionary hypotheses of practice underlying international accounting standardisation for firms as whole entities. These hypotheses are to be applied within an interdisciplinary theoretical structure of financial accounting. The focus of financial accounting research is applied to a philosophical framework of accountability and standardisation of measurement. Interdisciplinary aspects of management accountability can promote identification of the 'common good' undefined (Dewey, 1922) for the firm, towards which periodic invested costs are directed for the induction of periodic gain. Non traditional additions of economic values in balance sheets remains subjective for practice in this sense, leading consequently to community uncertainty, chaos and ultimately to uncertainty.

Keywords: cognate disciplines; evolutionary biology; financial reporting; induction of practice; interdependence; interdisciplinary; interfiled; naturalism; objectivity; theoretical reduction; history; critical accounting; international accounting standards; financial accounting; management accountability. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=31385 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijcrac:v:2:y:2010:i:2:p:117-145

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Critical Accounting from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().