Theatre & Intolerance in Financial Accounting Research

Abstract

Much of the process of financial accounting research is merely theatre, a ritual with a facade of sophistication and scientism. This paper outlines the causes, manifestations and outcomes of such theatricality and provides a critical, introspective assessment of the state of contemporary financial accounting research. The view that financial accounting research is worthy and scientific only if it imitates research methods in the physical sciences is contested. The need to re-think the way the financial accounting research community selects research topics, motivates research and directs doctoral education is emphasised. How influential, but rather narrow and dubiously-conceived attitudes towards contemporary financial accounting research are associated with an onset of cultural illiteracy is the subject of speculation. The paper calls for greater tolerance by financial accounting researchers of scholarly work which embraces subject matter, research modes and guiding paradigms, other than their own.