Maintaining accounting as the paramount interest in accounting research: Re-examining the contributions of D.R. Scott

Cushing\u27s [1989] recent analysis of Kuhn\u27s [1970] characterization of the state of crisis within a discipline\u27s research agenda suggests that the accounting discipline is showing symptoms of such a crisis. In this paper, D.R. Scott\u27s [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\u27s 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 intellectual underpinnings of D.R. Scott\u27s work are traced to that of Max Weber, Thorstein Veblen, and other scholars concerned with examining 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\u27s concern for the fundamental issues at stake for accounting research

Use of accounting information in governmental regulation and public administration: The impact of John R. Commons and early institutional economists

This paper examines the socio-political process by which an ensemble of such calculative practices and techniques as accounting came to be developed, adopted, and justified within turn-of-the-cen-tury public administration. We are particularly concerned with examining the influence of John R. Commons and other early institutional economists during this Progressive era. Using primary and secondary archival materials, our purpose is to make three main contributions to the literature. First, the paper explores Commons\u27 contribution to the debates over value which seems to be somewhat unique in that he explicitly recognized that there exists no unproblematic, intrinsic measure of value, but rather that it must be socially constituted as reasonable with reference to common law. To illustrate this point, this paper explores Commons\u27 role in the historical development and implementation of rate of return regulation for utilities. Second, the paper describes the contradictory role accounting played during this period in ostensibly fostering administrative objectivity while accommodating a more pragmatic rhetoric of realpolitik in its development and deployment. The third contribution is to establish a linkage between current work in economics and accounting concerned with utility regulation and the debates of ninety years ago, noting that Commons\u27 contribution has not been fully explored or recognized within the accounting literature

Labor\u27s changing responses to management rhetorics: A study of accounting-based incentive plans during the first half of the 20th century

This study compares organized labor\u27s reactions to changing management rhetorics as these rhetorics surrounded accounting-based incentive plans, including profit sharing. Results suggest that labor\u27s perceptions of profit sharing changed dramatically from the 1900-1930 period to post-World War II. The shift, in turn, prompts an exploration of two research questions: (1) how and why did the national labor discourse around the management rhetoric and its emphasis on accounting information change, and (2) how did this change render unions more governable in their support for accounting-based incentive plans