IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/aaajpp/v23y2010i6p759-763.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A comment on “Towards a paradigmatic foundation for accounting practice”

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Laughlin

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the paper entitled “Towards a paradigmatic foundation for accounting practice” by Nørreklit, Nørreklit and Mitchell as a way to open a debate about whether a “paradigm of accounting practice” exists and, if so, the nature of the methodological approach that would be needed to discover its nature. Design/methodology/approach - The paper employs a critical, reflective discursive analysis. Findings - The main finding is that there is a confusion in the paper by Nørreklitet al.about the nature of a “paradigm of accounting practice”, which, if it exists, should be a “skeletal theory” (Laughlin), rather than a methodology. The conclusion of the commentary is that a “paradigm of accounting practice”, using this understanding, might exist, but that Nørreklitet al.'s argument for the use of “pragmatic constructivism”, as a methodology for its discovery, is open to question. Research limitations/implications - The implication of the argument of this commentary is that the search for “paradigm of accounting practice” is important and should be pursued but the choice of an appropriate methodology for this discovery still needs further consideration. Originality/value - Nørreklitet al., and this commentary, re‐energise an important debate and concern about paradigms in accounting that was present in the literature in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The search for a “paradigm of accounting practice” and how best it can be discovered is an important consideration for the future development of accounting thought.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Laughlin, 2010. "A comment on “Towards a paradigmatic foundation for accounting practice”," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(6), pages 759-763, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:v:23:y:2010:i:6:p:759-763
    DOI: 10.1108/09513571011065853
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09513571011065853/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09513571011065853/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/09513571011065853?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laughlin, Richard, 2007. "Critical reflections on research approaches, accounting regulation and the regulation of accounting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 271-289.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lehman, Glen, 2013. "Critical reflections on Laughlin's middle range research approach: Language not mysterious?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 211-224.
    2. Hanne Nørreklit & Lennart Nørreklit & Falconer Mitchell, 2010. "Paradigms and pragmatic constructivism: a reply," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(6), pages 764-773, August.
    3. Kuruppu, Sanjaya & Lehman, Glen, 2018. "Commentary: A proposal for theoretical models of stakeholder perceptions of a new financial reporting system," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 167-169.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oleh Pasko, 2018. "Theories of Regulation in the Context of Modern Practice of Accounting Regulation," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 2, pages 37-46, June.
    2. Rosanna Spanò & Adele Caldarelli & Luca Ferri & Marco Maffei, 2020. "Context, culture and control: a case study on accounting change in an Italian regional health service," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(1), pages 229-272, March.
    3. Vassili Joannides & Danture Wickramasinghe & Nicolas Berland, 2012. "Critiques on gray-hofstede’s model: what impact on cross-cultural accounting research?," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-01661667, HAL.
    4. Oladeji E. OLADUTIRE & Kazeem A. SOYINKA & Mofehintolu T. AKINNOLA, 2023. "Accounting Theory Formulation: the Methodological Approach," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(11), pages 1645-1655, November.
    5. Vassili Joannides, 2011. "Influences de la pré-connaissance sur le design de la recherche:le cas des liens entre comptabilité et gestion," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 14(4), pages 91-127, December.
    6. Sylvain Durocher, 2009. "The future of interpretive accounting research," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(3), pages 137-159, July.
    7. Broadbent, Jane, 2011. "Discourses of control, managing the boundaries," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 264-277.
    8. Larson, Robert K. & Herz, Paul J., 2011. "The academic community’s participation in global accounting standard-setting," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 34-45.
    9. Francesca Manes-Rossi & Alessandra Allini & Rosanna Spanò & Riccardo Macchioni, 2018. "Performance management change in archaeological sites: The case of Herculaneum Conservation Project," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(4), pages 947-979, December.
    10. repec:dau:papers:123456789/9497 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. A. Mendes & R. L. Cardoso & P. C. Mário & A. L. Martinez & F. R. Ferreira, 2014. "Insolvency Prediction In The Presence Of Data Inconsistencies," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 155-167, July.
    12. Bruns, Hans-Jürgen, 2014. "Accounting change and value creation in public services—Do relational archetypes make a difference in improving public service performance?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 339-367.
    13. Brooks, Chris & Schopohl, Lisa, 2018. "Topics and trends in finance research: What is published, who publishes it and what gets cited?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 615-637.
    14. Lehman, Glen, 2013. "Critical reflections on Laughlin's middle range research approach: Language not mysterious?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 211-224.
    15. Vassili Joannides & Danture Wickramasinghe & Nicolas Berland, 2012. "Critiques On Gray-Hofstede'S Model: What Impact On Cross-Cultural Accounting Research?," Post-Print hal-00690933, HAL.
    16. Vassili Joannides & Danture Wickramasinghe & Nicolas Berland, 2012. "Critiques on gray-hofstede’s model: what impact on cross-cultural accounting research?," Post-Print hal-01661667, HAL.
    17. Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2013. "Critical accounting and communicative action: On the limits of consensual deliberation," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 176-190.
    18. Thomson, Ian & Grubnic, Suzana & Georgakopoulos, Georgios, 2014. "Exploring accounting-sustainability hybridisation in the UK public sector," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 453-476.
    19. Oakes, Helen & Oakes, Steve, 2016. "Accounting colonisation and austerity in arts organisations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 34-53.
    20. Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, Jim & Yonekura, Akira, 2013. "Further critical reflections on a contribution to the methodological issues debate in accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 191-206.
    21. Maroun, Warren & Atkins, Jill, 2014. "Section 45 of the Auditing Profession Act: Blowing the whistle for audit quality?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 248-263.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:v:23:y:2010:i:6:p:759-763. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.