Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to revisit the special issue of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal published in 1996 on the theme “Accounting history into the twenty‐first century”, in order to identify and assess the impact of the special issue in shaping developments...

Accounting historians have long recognised accounting’s international scope but have typically concentrated their research endeavours on region- or country-specific studies, or on investigating the diffusion of accounting ideas, techniques and institutions from one country to others. Much...