The present dissertation addresses itself to methodological issues in conjunction with financial accounting research. Its objective is to assess the implications of the nature of financial reporting information for the design of academic research in this discipline. In the thesis, 'classification models' of national financial accountancy systems and the methodology of 'positive accounting theory' serve as examples of contemporary research in the subject. These theoretical notions are subjected to scrutiny from two different perspectives. Firstly, they are critically evaluated on the basis of an abstract analytical line of reasoning. Secondly, a survey of the accounting policies of British and German chemical companies provides empirical evidence which complements the aforementioned abstract critique. The enquiry arrives at the conclusion that the claims to the achievement of high 'scientific standards' in their research which are typically advanced by the authors of international accounting 'classification models' and by certain advocates of 'positive accounting theory', ought to be qualified. The analyses carried out in this dissertation indicate that such claims are logically flawed, in that they proceed from a number of fundamental metatheoretical misconceptions. Moreover, they turn out to be empirically valid only up to a point if confronted with financial accounting data prepared in distinct economic and legal frameworks. The above-mentioned findings suggest that the very aims of academic research in financial accounting need to be thoroughly reconsidered as a prerequisite for the proposal of theoretical principles
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:633093 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Feige, Peter |
| Publisher | University of Birmingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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