Academic Research in Accounting: The Last 50 Years

ABSTRACT

To live history, know what to believe To write history, sift ‘what to know’ from ‘what to believe’ To read history, probe what the author believes to know.

This paper sketches what I deem to be the landmarks and major research trends since the second World War (WWII) in academic accounting research. The presentation is fairly chronological. It puts some stress on the “revolutionary science” of the 1960s: the introduction of analytical and empirical-statistical tools to accounting, the pioneering work in computer application and simulation of spreadsheets, the refinements in current value and inflation accounting, as well as the dispute over the correct valuation basis. But above all, it outlines the consolidation of these achievements during subsequent decades, thus emphasizing the increasing attention which the many empirical-statistical as well as informational-agency aspects and organizational issues received; furthermore, it draws attention to “positive accounting theory” and the reaction to it from the British “critical- interpretive school” as well as from other quarters. In the Conclusion the paper points at the present crisis, and considers a possible long-term solution.