Researching accounting changes in a period of change : theories and methods of accounting history

This thesis consists of ten papers published between 1996 and 2006 in the field of accounting history. Six of the papers are conceptual or methodological in nature, and the other four are specific studies of episodes from accountings’ past. The conceptual papers advocate a critical and interpretive approach to historical accounting research, with a balance between theory and evidence. Research using primary archival material is supported, but accounting historians need to be aware that the narratives they develop from their evidence are not neutral and objective, but rather reflect implicit or explicit theoretical positions. These positions may go so far as to influence what the historian considers to be evidence, the forms of explanation that are preferred, and the extent to which general theories are used to understand specific cases. The papers provide support for the ‘New Accounting History’ that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, and include a review of a substantial body of historical literature in accounting, demonstrating the diversity of theories and methods that are being used by accounting historians. Two of the specific studies address the relationship between accounting and economics. Institutionally, accounting education and research in Britain drew heavily on economic thinking, even though many economists had a disdainful attitude to accounting. However, a systematic ‘business economics’ did not emerge in Britain. A study of auditor liability shows the significance of law to the limitation of liability for auditors, while an examination of the relationship between a parent company and its subsidiaries in the inter-war years provides insights into the personal nature of management, and the weak nature of accounting controls, in Britain at that time. The studies all demonstrate the use of theory as a framing device for narrative histories of accounting.