Research directions in accounting history: Reflections and prospects
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/1808-057x2026100-8.enKeywords:
accounting history, contexts, levels of theory, sources and methods, international collaborationAbstract
This article revisits the author’s “Research directions in accounting history” (1989), an early contribution to the historiographical study of accounting. That article identified three key approaches to accounting history: “understanding the past,” “contextualizing accounting,” and “the new positivism,” and anticipated to some degree the intellectual conflict between so-called traditional accounting history and new accounting history, which arose in the 1990s and persists to some extent. This conflict often stressed different views of the role of theory in historical accounting research, different notions of sources and methods, and even different views about the limits and boundaries of accounting itself. Accounting historians still have significant scope for innovation, and many gaps remain to be researched. Some dimensions that historical accounting researchers can consider are periods, places, people, practices, propagation, products, and professions, where newer researchers can collaborate fruitfully with more established accounting historians to expand our knowledge of accounting’s past.
Downloads
References
Bertalan, N.-I., & Napier, C. J. (2016). The emergence of “the new accounting history”. Paper presented at the 14th World Congress of Accounting Historians, Pescara, Italy.
Bigoni, M., Maran, L., & Occhipinti, Z. (2024). Of power, knowledge and method: The influence of Michel Foucault in accounting history. Accounting History, 29(3): 344-387. https://doi.org/10.1177/10323732241243088
Brief, R. P. (1965). Nineteenth century accounting error. Journal of Accounting Research, 3(1): 12-31. https://doi.org/10.2307/2490048
Broadbent, J., & Laughlin, R. (2013). Accounting control and controlling accounting: Interdisciplinary and critical perspectives. Emerald Group Publishing.
Carnegie, G. D. (2014). Historiography for accounting: Methodological contributions, contributors and thought patterns from 1983 to 2012. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 27(4): 715-755. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-08-2013-1430
Carnegie, G. D., & McBride, K. M. (2023). Prosopography and microhistory: Illuminating historical actors. In S. Decker, W. M. Foster, & E. Giovannoni (Eds.), Handbook of historical methods for management (pp. 245-263). Edward Elgar.
Carnegie, G. D., & Napier, C. J. (1996). Critical and interpretive histories: Insights into accounting’s present and future through its past. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 9(3): 7-39. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513579610121956
Carnegie, G. D., & Napier, C. J. (2002). Exploring comparative international accounting history. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 15(5): 689-718. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570210448966
Carnegie, G. D., Edwards, J. R., & West, B. P. (2003). Understanding the dynamics of the Australian accounting profession: A prosopographical study of the founding members of the Incorporated Institute of Accountants, Victoria, 1886 to 1908. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 16(5): 790-820. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570310505998
Carnegie, G., McBride, K., Napier, C., & Parker, L. (2020). Accounting history and theorizing about organizations. British Accounting Review, 52(6): 100932. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2020.100932
Chow, C. W. (1983). The impacts of accounting regulation on bondholder and shareholder wealth: The case of the Securities Acts. The Accounting Review, 57(2): 485-520.
Committee on Accounting History (1970). Report to the Executive Committee of the American Accounting Association. The Accounting Review, 45(Suppl.): 53-64.
Cordery, C., Gomes, D., Leoni, G., McBride, K., & Napier, C. (2023). Innovation in accounting historiography: Where to from here? Accounting History, 28(3), 368-389. https://doi.org/10.1177/10323732231168457
Cowton, C. J. (1985). The hero in accounting history: An assessment of the role of biography. Accounting and Business Research, 16(61): 73-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.1985.9729298
Doron, M. E. (2025). Can we stop calling ‘critical theory’ ‘history’? Accounting History, 30(3): 392-401. https://doi.org/10.1177/10323732251346561
Ferri, P., Lusiani, M., & Pareschi, L. (2021). Shades of theory: A topic modelling of ways of theorizing in accounting history research. Accounting History, 26(3): 484-519. https://doi.org/10.1177/1032373220964271
Fleischman, R. K., & Tyson, T. N. (1997). Archival researchers: An endangered species? Accounting Historians Journal, 24(2): 91-109.
Graham, C., Persson, M. E., Radcliffe, V. S., & Stein, M. J. (2023). The state of Ohio’s auditors, the enumeration of population, and the project of eugenics. Journal of Business Ethics, 187(3): 565-587. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05279-8
Green, E. (1982). A business of national importance: The Royal Mail Shipping Group, 1902-1937. Taylor & Francis.
Hopwood, A. G. (1983). On trying to study accounting in the contexts in which it operates. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 8(2-3): 287-305.
Hopwood, A. G. (1987). The archeology of accounting systems. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 12(3): 207-234. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(87)90038-9
Hopwood, A. G. (1988). On origins and development: Some reflections on the 40th anniversary of Pergamon Press and the 65th birthday of its founder, Robert Maxwell. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 13(4): 329-331.
Hopwood, A. G., & Johnson, H. T. (1986). Accounting history’s claim to legitimacy. International Journal of Accounting, 21(2): 37-46.
Johnson, H. T. (1983). The search for gain in markets and firms: A review of the historical emergence of management accounting systems. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 8(2-3): 139-146. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(83)90021-1
Kuter, M., Sangster, A., Gurskaya, M., Lugovsky, D., & Evtykh, S. (2025). Digitalising medieval accounting research: Andrea Barbarigo’s Venetian Cash Account 1430-1434. Accounting History, 30(1): 44-67. https://doi.org/10.1177/10323732241301777
Lister, R. J. (1983). Accounting as history. International Journal of Accounting, 18(2): 49- 68.
Littleton, A. C., & Yamey, B. S. (1956). Studies in the history of accounting. Sweet & Maxwell.
Llewellyn, S. (2003). What counts as “theory” in qualitative management and accounting research? Introducing five levels of theory. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 16(4): 662-708. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570310492344
Maclean, M., Harvey, C., & Clegg, S. R. (2016). Conceptualizing historical organization studies. Academy of Management Review, 41(4): 609-632. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0133
Macve, R. (2021). In memory of Basil Selig Yamey, 1919-2020. Accounting History Review, 31(1): 121-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/21552851.2021.1889625
McCloskey, D. N. (1987). Econometric history. Macmillan.
Merino, B. D., Koch, B. S., & MacRitchie, K. L. (1987). Historical analysis – A diagnostic tool for “events” studies: The impact of the Securities Act of 1933. The Accounting Review, 62(4): 748-762.
Miller, P., & Napier, C. (1993). Genealogies of calculation. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 18(7-8): 631-647. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(93)90047-A
Miller, P., Hopper, T., & Laughlin, R. (1991). The new accounting history: An introduction. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 16(5-6): 395-403. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(91)90036-E
Napier, C. J. (1989). Research directions in accounting history. British Accounting Review, 21(3): 237-254. https://doi.org/10.1016/0890-8389(89)90095-4
Napier, C. J. (1990). Fixed asset accounting in the shipping industry: P&O 1840-1914. Accounting, Business & Financial History, 1(1): 23-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209000000013
Napier, C. J. (1991). Secret accounting: the P&O Group in the inter-war years. Accounting, Business & Financial History, 1(3): 303-333. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209100000040
Napier, C. J. (2006). Accounts of change: 30 years of historical accounting research. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 31(4-5): 445-507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2005.12.004
Napier, C. J. (2017). The good fraud: Accounting, finance and banking in a 1930s English novel. Accounting and Cultures – Contabilità e Cultura Aziendale, 17(2): 43-70.
Napier, C. J. (2020). Historiography. In J. R. Edwards, & S. P. Walker (Eds.), The Routledge companion to accounting history (2nd ed., pp. 32-53). Routledge.
Napier, C. J. (2021). Vale Basil S. Yamey. Accounting History, 26(2): 332-335. https://doi.org/10.1177/10323732211009907
Napier, C. J. (2022). How theorising can enhance historical accounting research. Accounting and Management Review – Revista de Contabilidade e Gestão, 26(special issue): 133-153. https://doi.org/10.55486/amrrcg.v26i.6a
Neimark, M., & Tinker, T. (1986). The social construction of management control systems. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 11(4-5): 369-395. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(86)90008-5
Ohrvik, A. (2024). What is close reading? An exploration of a methodology. Rethinking History, 28(2): 238-260. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2024.2345001
Parker, R. H. (1965). Accounting history: A select bibliography. Abacus, 1(1): 62-84. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6281.1965.tb00312.x
Previts, G. J., Parker, L. D., & Coffman, E. N. (1990a). Accounting history: Definition and Relevance. Abacus, 26(1): 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6281.1990.tb00229.x
Previts, G. J., Parker, L. D., & Coffman, E. N. (1990b). An accounting historiography: Subject matter and methodology. Abacus, 26(2): 136-158. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6281.1990.tb00250.x
Richards, T. (2002). An intellectual history of NUD*IST and NVivo. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 5(3), 199-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570210146267
Sangster, A. (2021). Basil Yamey (1919-2020): A reflection on his contribution to accounting history. Accounting Historians Journal, 48(1): 67-70. https://doi.org/10.2308/AAHJ-2020-024
Sangster, A. (2025). ‘Going digital’ – Its place in research into the history of modern accounting. Accounting History, 30(1): 7-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/10323732231196256
Stewart, R. E. (1992). Pluralizing our past: Foucault in accounting history. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1108/09513579210011862
Tinker, A. M. (1980). Towards a political economy of accounting: An empirical illustration of the Cambridge controversies. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 5(1): 147-160. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(80)90031-8
Vasconcelos, A., Sangster, A., & Rodrigues, L. L. (2022). Avoiding Whig interpretations in historical research: An illustrative case study. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 35(6): 1402-1430. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-10-2020-4977
Watts, R. L., & Zimmerman, J. (1986). Positive accounting theory. Prentice-Hall.
Yamey, B. S. (1949). Scientific bookkeeping and the rise of capitalism. Economic History Review New Series, 1(2-3): 99-113. https://doi.org/10.2307/2589824
Yamey, B. S. (1964). Accounting and the rise of capitalism: Further notes on a theme by Sombart. Journal of Accounting Research, 2(2): 117-136. https://doi.org/10.2307/2489995
Yamey, B. S. (1981). Some reflections on the writing of a general history of accounting. Accounting and Business Research, 11(42): 127-135. https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.1981.9729690
Yuan, W., Macve, R., & Ma, D. (2017). The development of Chinese accounting and bookkeeping before 1850: Insights from the Tŏng Tài Shēng business account books (1798-1850). Accounting and Business Research, 47(4): 401-430. https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.2016.1263182
Downloads
Additional Files
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The content of the article(s) published in the RC&F are of the entire liability of the authors, including with regard to the truth, updating and accuracy of data and information. The authors shall assign the rights in advance to the Department of Accounts and Actuarial Sciences of the FEA/USP, which shall permit the publication of extracts or of the whole, with prior permission, provided that the source is cited (Creative Commons – CCBY).
RC&F shall not charge a fee for the submission of articles. The submission of articles to RC&F shall imply that the author(s) authorizes/authorize its publication without the payment of author’s rights.
The submission of articles shall authorize the RC&F to adjust the text of the article(s) to their publication formats and if necessary, to make spelling, grammar and regulatory changes.
