Volume 12, Issue 4

Although we have been incessantly trying to construct accounting studies as a proper academic subject over half a century, neither what we have attained is great nor the road ahead easy. Nonetheless we have no choice but to pursue the way of positive (not necessarily empirical) scientific research with productive feedback between theoretical and empirical analyses, going beyond theory without data and data without theory. It is crucially important to grasp rationally the self-development of accounting rules as a spontaneous order without any preconceived rigid understanding of rationality, and accordingly we must first build a consistent conceptual framework in consonance with accounting norms and phenomena as the vital analytical tool for the development of accounting research based on solid foundation.

This article summarises the purpose and contents of Nohora Garcia’s book on the contributions of R. Mattessich and Y. Ijiri to accounting theory

For Nohora Garcia’s monograph, Understanding Mattessich and Ijiri: A Study of Accounting Thought , as well as the practice of Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium ( CONVIVIUM ) to organize a book-critics’ panels at the SASE annual meetings, are welcome developments for accounting scholarship. Fortunately, interest in exploring the history of accounting remains strong in many parts of the world. Garcia’s analysis of Mattessich and Ijiri’s thought is a unique and deep intellectual contribution to accounting. I hope that it will help bring more scholarly attention to the history of accounting thought.

Nohora García’s meticulously researched work on Richard Mattessich and Yuji Ijiri cannot be timelier when the marginal productivity of mainstream empirical accounting studies seems to become smaller and smaller. It is high time to revisit neglected but important contributions of axiomatic approach in the 1960s and 1970s in order to enrich our understanding of accounting phenomena.

The recent book mentioned in the title is by Prof. Garcia Nohora, Understanding Mattessich and Ijiri: A Study of Accounting Thought , Emerald Publishing, Bingley, U. K., 2018. Richard Mattessich ’ s “Accounting and Analitycal Methods” (1964) and Yuji Ijiri’s “Theory of Accounting Measurement” (1975), contributed to the debate on the foundational research in accounting and management science. Through the axiomatics they introduced a requirement of a rigorous standard for effective and reliable accounting and management science knowledge. The major practical consequences are linked to the less rigorous FASB conceptual framework. Prof. Garcia investigates also the internal and external environmental conditions where Mattessich and Ijiri could develop their researches.