IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/acbsfi/v12y2002i1p113-129.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The use of the postal questionnaire in accounting history research

Author

Listed:
  • Derek Matthews

Abstract

This methodological article discusses the first project in accounting history to use the postal questionnaire as a research tool. The historical context was the changing nature of the company audit in Britain, and this article outlines the process by which the questionnaire was devised, the stages through which the project developed, the data that were collected, and how these were analysed and interpreted. A significant innovation was to sample, in equal proportions, accountants who qualified in each decade from the 1920s and 1930s down to the 1980s, and direct the questioning toward their early training and careers, thereby generating historical trends in the responses. Some of the results of the survey are given here by way of illustrating the weaknesses and strengths/costs and benefits of the technique in comparison with oral history and traditional documentary sources.

Suggested Citation

  • Derek Matthews, 2002. "The use of the postal questionnaire in accounting history research," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 113-129.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acbsfi:v:12:y:2002:i:1:p:113-129
    DOI: 10.1080/09585200110107984
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585200110107984
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09585200110107984?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. Matthews, Derek & Anderson, Malcolm & Edwards, John Richard, 1998. "The Priesthood of Industry: The Rise of the Professional Accountant in British Management," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198289609.
    2. Richard K. Fleischman & Thomas N. Tyson, 1998. "The Evolution of Standard Costing in the U.K. and U.S.: From Decision Making to Control," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 34(1), pages 92-119, March.
    3. Derek Matthews, 2000. "Oral history, accounting history and an interview with Sir John Grenside," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 57-83.
    4. Derek Matthews & Malcolm Anderson & John Richard Edwards, 1997. "The rise of the professional accountant in British management," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 50(3), pages 407-429, August.
    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. Said, Jamaliah & Asry, Salsabila & Rafidi, Marhamah & Obaid, Rawia Rida & Alam, Md. Mahmudul, 2019. "Integrating Religiosity into Fraud Triangle Theory: Empirical Findings from Enforcement Officers," SocArXiv wcyg4, Center for Open Science.

    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. Kotb, Amr & Roberts, Clare & Sian, S., 2012. "E-business audit: Advisory jurisdiction or occupational invasion?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 468-482.
    2. Sam Mckinstry, 1999. "Engineering culture and accounting development at Albion Motors, 1900-c.1970," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 203-223.
    3. Kurunmaki, Liisa, 2004. "A hybrid profession--the acquisition of management accounting expertise by medical professionals," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 327-347.
    4. Fiona Anderson-Gough & Christopher Grey & Keith Robson, 2002. "Accounting professionals and the accounting profession: linking conduct and context," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 41-56.
    5. Hannah, Leslie & Foreman-Peck, James S., 2023. "Business Forms and Business Performance in UK Manufacturing 1871-81," MPRA Paper 119447, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. McBride, Karen, 2021. "A French connection; paths to a ‘new system’ of accounting for the Royal Navy in 1832," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(2).
    7. Walker, Stephen P., 2000. "Benign sacerdotalist or pious assailant. The rise of the professional accountant in British management," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 313-323, April.
    8. Masayoshi Noguchi & John Richard Edwards, 2004. "Accounting Principles, Internal Conflict and the State: The Case of the ICAEW, 1948–1966," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 40(3), pages 280-320, October.
    9. Graham Francis & Clare Minchington, 1999. "Quantitative skills: is there an expectation gap between the education and practice of management accountants?," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(4), pages 301-319.
    10. Derek Matthews & Michael Peel, 2003. "Audit fee determinants and the large auditor premium in 1900," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 137-155.
    11. Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo, 2017. "Between Novelty and Fashion: Risk Management and the Adoption of Computers in Retail Banking," Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance, in: Korinna Schönhärl (ed.), Decision Taking, Confidence and Risk Management in Banks from Early Modernity to the 20th Century, pages 189-207, Palgrave Macmillan.
    12. Noguchi, Masayoshi & Edwards, John Richard, 2008. "Harmonising intergroup relations within a professional body: The case of the ICAEW," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 123-147.
    13. Hammond, Theresa & Clayton, Bruce M. & Arnold, Patricia J., 2012. "An “unofficial” history of race relations in the South African accounting industry, 1968–2000: Perspectives of South Africa's first black chartered accountants," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 332-350.
    14. Stephen Walker, 1999. "Introduction," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 1-6.
    15. Nicolas Berland & Trevor Boyns, 2002. "The development of budgetary control in France and Britain from the 1920s to the 1960s: a comparison," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 329-356.
    16. T. Colwyn Jones & Robert Luther, 2005. "Anticipating the Impact of IFRS on the Management of German Manufacturing Companies: Some Observations from a British Perspective," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 165-193, January.
    17. Martin Quinn & Desmond Gibney, 2018. "Accounting at an Irish maltster – the accounting practices of Bennetts of Ballinacurra in the 1920s and 1930s," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1-2), pages 61-84, May.
    18. John Edwards & Malcolm Anderson & Roy Chandler, 2005. "How not to mount a professional project: the formation of the ICAEW in 1880," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 229-248.
    19. John Edwards & Roy Chandler & Malcolm Anderson, 1999. "The ‘public auditor’: an experiment in effective accountability," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 183-197.
    20. McPhail, Ken & Paisey, Catriona & Paisey, Nicholas J., 2010. "Class, social deprivation and accounting education in Scottish schools: Implications for the reproduction of the accounting profession and practice," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 31-50.

    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:taf:acbsfi:v:12:y:2002:i:1:p:113-129. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RABF21 .

    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.