We review the academic literature on the use of financial reporting information by capital providers. We classify our findings by investor type and by information objective. While most capital providers use accounting information, our survey indicates that they do so in a variety of ways with...

In this article, we analyse factors that explain the success of the empirical methodology of ‘positive accounting theory’ (PA) in accounting research. In fewer than ten years, between 1960 and 1967--1968, PA became dominant in the main accounting journals, and normative theories disappeared...