Qualitative management accounting research: Assessing deliverables and relevance

Positivism and “alternative” accounting research

“…However, this type of research has been heavily criticized by various researchers from di erent parts of the world, namely Europe, and in particular by those dedicated to studying phenomena in management accounting (Williams, 2014;Scapens, 2006;Parker, 2012;Hopper & Bui, 2016). For them, the domination of positivism in accounting research results in serious problems in terms of developing knowledge and innovation in the area, impeding consideration of questions that do not methodologically t into "positivist logic" and that cannot be expressed numerically (Hopwood, 2007;Hopper & Bui, 2016).…”

“…ese positivist research problems as a whole have led various researchers in accounting to distance themselves from the positivist theories and adopt "alternative" theoretical and methodological perspectives (Parker, 2012;Hopper & Bui, 2016). is distancing from the mainstream paradigm, as I have already mentioned, has occurred mainly in management accounting, with researchers from the United Kingdom and regions such as Scandinavia assuming an important role in the movement since the end of the 1970s (Bromwich & Scapens, 2016).…”

“…In contrast to the scienti c method, which is based on observation, the naturalistic methods derived from social sciences are proposed for forming and testing hypotheses and con rming/rejecting prevailing theories (Parker, 2012). The adoption of naturalistic methods, by means of qualitative research, is of key importance in this type of study.…”

“…However, these proposals have come up against various barriers, whether due to the di erent ontological and epistemological assumptions on which the positivist and alternative paradigms are based, or due to the di erent agendas and concerns of the researchers who defend these paradigms. From the perspective of alternative researchers, their positivist colleagues maintain a closed and hegemonic perspective with regards to what they believe to be "good science", making any attempt to connect di cult (Parker, 2012). e proposal for building a bridge between positivists and non-positivists has been the object of criticism; for some, this attempt to connect merely represents an e ort on the part of the alternative paradigm to be closer to the deductive logic belonging to positivism, without there being any signs on the other side of attempts to converge with the qualitative and naturalistic methodologies (Lukka, 2010).…”

“…Questions related to the distribution of resources, power relations, class, gender, relationships between individuals, as well as relationships between organizations and their surrounding environments, are topics that are analyzed via the adoption of case studies (Parker, 2012).…”