Accounting, a Multiparadigmatic Science

Once considered an intruder into the academic community, accounting has developed into a full fledged social science, with fierce competition among its different paradigms. Riahi-Belkaoui explains that these paradigms, each striving for primacy through publications, conferences, and other means of self-exposure, are characterized by their exemplars, their image of the subject matter, their theories, and finally the methods they use. In doing so they have given accounting a certain, new cachet. Riahi-Belkaoui thus provides a critical examination of each of these paradigms in an effort to guide researchers and policymakers in their search for proper interpretations and positionings of the products of accounting research. A stimulating discussion for academics and knowledgeable professionals alike. In six chapters each devoted to a specific paradigm, the book elucidates each paradigm's contribution to accounting thought and practice. Covered are the anthropological/inductive paradigm, the true income/deductive paradigm, the decision usefulness/decision model paradigm, the decision usefulness/decision maker/aggregate market behavior paradigm, and the decision usefulness/decision maker/individual user paradigm. The result is a book that makes unique use of philosophy of science concepts in accounting, and a book that will also have applications in university graduate-level courses in research methodology and accounting theory.

AHMED RIAHI-BELKAOUI, is Professor of Accounting, at the College of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago. A prolific author of journal articles and scholarly and professional books and textbooks, he serves on the editorial boards of numerous prestigious journals in his field and is known for his unusual, often groundbreaking research and analysis.