A pragmatist neoclassical accounting research agenda for identifiable intangibles
Journal of Applied Accounting Research
ISSN: 0967-5426
Article publication date: 20 March 2023
Issue publication date: 30 October 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This paper offers a way of revivifying classical accounting research in the form of a pragmatist neoclassical programme with a sound epistemological underpinning.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on a pragmatist perspective on financial accounting and accounting research springing from John Dewey's theory of inquiry.
Findings
Although a pragmatist underpinning does not entail specific methodological prescriptions, it can provide fruitful insights in research design. The paper discusses the structure and content of a research programme drawing on a pragmatist underpinning and sets out proposals for a practical research agenda. Although the agenda is shaped around the topic of identifiable intangibles, much of the paper has substantially wider relevance.
Research limitations/implications
The approach justifies a revival in scholarly research employing classical methods and directed at improving accounting methods and standards.
Practical implications
The approach would promote closer engagement between scholarly accounting and practitioners such as standard-setters, making some contribution to closing the widely acknowledged gap between research and practice.
Originality/value
The paper offers a neoclassical programme of research drawing considerably more extensively on pragmatist philosophy than did theorisation in the classical period.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author is very grateful for the helpful and supportive comments of the editor and anonymous reviewers.
Citation
Rutherford, B.A. (2023), "A pragmatist neoclassical accounting research agenda for identifiable intangibles", Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 933-966. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAAR-05-2022-0114
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited