Reflections on theory efficiency of current issues in financial reporting
Part of : Αρχείον οικονομικής ιστορίας ; Vol.I, No.2, 1991, pages 145-165
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145-165
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It seems rather inadequate to attempt to make a contribution to theeffort for better financial reporting in the information supplier's sidewithout attending to the gap, on the one hand, that is created by the tendency of most studies on accounting changes to emphasise either the change's charecteristics (innovation diffusion-based approaches) or the changer's predisposition towards it (corporate personality and positive accounting theories), and to the view (of Watts and Zimmerman, 1979, for example), on the other, that a theory explaining all accounting standards is impossible. Although - with respect to the first case - both approaches could convincingly claim a contribution to the change, in the event of an impasse, however, they both must be ineffective. In relation with the second case, it is obvious of how little practical value and contradictory to a (Hembelian) theory's generality concept becomes the alternative to pursue explanations from an individualistic point of view. In this paper, the explanatory efficiency of theories in financial accountingand reporting is examined in the backround of the problematic state of accounting theory in the aftermath of the great research purge of the I960's and 1970's and the ill - fated efforts to resolve several controversial issues in modern accounting - most notable the reporting the effects of price changes. In this context one particular theory is also looked upon, learning-set theory, as one of promise in the direction of contributing to the efficiency of financial reporting theory and methodology. Learning-set 1 theory suggests the exploitation of firms' experience with specific accounthing and reporting methods in making behavioral, at least, compliance to reporting standards in economic information processing and reporting easier, reducing thus the economic and political cost of authoritative intervention and ultimately social confict that mightbe caused by non-market solutions to the problem of financial disclosure.
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Περιέχει σημειώσεις στις σελίδες 161-162
