Maintaining accounting as the paramount interest in accounting research: Re-examining the contributions of DR Scott

              The Accounting Historians Journal Vol. 18, No. 1 June 1991
Mark A. Covaleski UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
and
Mark W. Dirsmith THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
MAINTAINING ACCOUNTING AS THE PARAMOUNT INTEREST IN ACCOUNTING RESEARCH: RE-EXAMINING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF DR SCOTT
Abstract: Cushing's [1989]-recent analysis of Kuhn's [1970] character-ization of the state of crisis within a discipline's research agenda sug-gests that the accounting discipline is showing symptoms of such a crisis. In this paper, DR Scott's [1931] classical work The Cultural Significance of Accounts is developed in terms of it being one of the earlier and more significant efforts to recognize a pending crisis within the accounting research arena. Scott's work is defined as not only being a precursor to identifying the crisis in accounting research, but also as providing a meaningful basis for addressing the significant issues embedded within the contemporary research crisis. The intel-lectual underpinnings of DR Scott's work are traced to that of Max Weber, Thorstein Veblen, and other scholars concerned with examin-ing the changing status of society and economic organizations. It is argued that it is this critical appraisal of the relationship between economic organizations and society which drives Scott's concern for the fundamental issues at stake for accounting research.
The authors thank the University of Wisconsin-Madison Industrial Research Program and Price Waterhouse Foundation for their financial support. Earlier versions of this paper were presented to and benefitted from presentation and constructive comments in the organizational and accounting seminars at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Pennsylvania State University, Queen's University, the University of Connecticut, and the Institute for Informatik & Okonomistyring at the Copenhagen School of Economics and Business Adminis-tration. We particularly wish to thank Stan Biggs, Anthony Hopwood, John Meyer, Jeff Michelman, Anne Miner, and Mayer Zald for comments pertaining to earlier versions of this paper. The authors also wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and insightful comments towards the improve-ment of this paper.