Recent changes in marketing strategies, competition and production environments, and consequent changes in cost structures, have been argued as imposing pressure for change on current cost accounting. Characteristic of the present situation is the serious lack of information concerning the...

This paper argues for a balanced approach to considering the three intellectual virtues of Aristotle, brought forth by Flyvbjerg [2001. <italic>Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again</italic>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] - techne, episteme and phronesis -...

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to distinguish two roles of theories, domain theory and method theory, and examine their relationships in management accounting research. Are these two roles explicitly distinguished in management accounting studies? Can this be achieved in an unambiguous...

This paper suggests how the contemporary theory of causality, based on the notions of counterfactuality and contrastive thinking, offers helpful direction on how to generate plausible causal arguments in interpretive research. For an interpretive researcher, this opens a route from rich emic...

This paper extends and contributes to emerging debates on the validation of interpretive research (IR) in management accounting. We argue that IR has the potential to produce not only subjectivist, emic understandings of actors' meanings, but also explanations, characterised by a certain degree...

Viewing Zimmerman (2001) as propagating for an economics-based monolithic paradigm to be adopted in management accounting research, we examine the nature and implications of such Kuhnian 'normal science'. Acknowledging that normal science can produce cumulative knowledge efficiently, we examine...