Accounting as an accounting research program
INTRODUCTION
This brief refers to the theme of scientific research program, which is addressed in an article by the author Leandro Cañibano, who explains his concept according to Lakatos, a Karl Popper student, based on him and Thomas Kuhn. In addition to that, relating it to accounting and how you could find or create a theory by this method.
With this tool you could gather related theories and many hypotheses derived from these for the creation of new knowledge or investigate the current ones more. In addition, with accounting, being a science that still does not have a defined theory, to find or formulate it within the research fields that it covers and that can cover.
What is a research program and how it arises?
According to Lakatos (1978), a scientific research program “is the descriptive unit of great scientific achievements, also considered as a unit of epistemological analysis constituted by a sequence of scientific theories with space-time continuity that relates its members, establishing versionsmodified according to a common initial plan ”. That is, a set of theories related to each other, so that some derive from others. Also, the research program can be used as a guide for the next investigations, either for a positive way, in which it indicates the paths to follow or negative, being an aid to avoid unnecessary investigations.
Likewise, this originates from the emergence of new theories, which can replace existing or complement them, since it speaks that a theory can be falsified by another theory and not by experiments or investigations.
The methodology of the research program with accounting
Accounting has long been considered a merely technical science, where new theories are not generated, only the discoveries of some people recognized in history that are useful for accounting practice and that are making it a little easier touse, given the advances that humanity has had. Therefore, accounting currently does not have a general theory that covers all its field of action.
However, according to the text written by Cañibano, he mentions that, for the creation of a general accounting theory, this requires basic premises and subsidiary or auxiliary hypotheses, emphasizing that the latter are very necessary for the creation of general theory,since, as Mattessich, cited by Cañibano, says, "the axioms or subsidiary premises constitute the starting point for the assembly of any theory" . Although, many of them can be false and without a weigh.
The foregoing is related to the raised of Lakatos, because in its research program he mentions that he must include a central nucleus, which would be the basic premise and its protective nucleus, which is the auxiliaries to protect that basic premise and othersmore elements that are complemented. With which, through what is raised by Lakatos, the general accounting theory can be sought.
Accounting research programs
Today, accounting has been based on three fields of research: legalistic, economic and formalized, where they have been applied to research programs to prove their influence on administrative, economic, environmental and even social fields and their participation for theCapital and heritage generation.
With this, research programs such as “a structure that guide for recent and future research in a positive or negative way are defined, as they manage to conduct or not to the discovery of new procedures, methods or areas of development for accounting science”. Therefore, the investigations carried out can be based on those already carried out, either to create new knowledge or complement it, helping the understanding of new fields of knowledge and more about accounting.
Although, this has always been based on these three fields, it is always looking at the legal part, since humanity will always be governed by norms that control it, as well as its actions, since its knowledge must be adapted to the legal to be able to take itto practice. The economic part is also very marked, since it is what comes to control, measure and register, seeking that this information based on reality serves for decision making. For the formalization part, it is the advance that accounting has had in technological and computer issues, since, your information can be faster and more efficient through it, giving it a greater analysis and interpretation and adapting to the new more technologiesperfected.
In short, despite the fact that accounting has long beenfields of knowledge that complement her and help her perfect. Although, the research program indicated by Lakatos can or has helped the development of fields of knowledge, since it is a tool that generates an approach to a main idea, surrounded by many hypotheses for the creation of new knowledge, solving paradigms or revealing others.
Accounting, during stages, has had to evolve, having needs for its best understanding and used within the economic, legal and formal framework. That can go beyond these issues, presenting useful and necessary information to carry out all types of processes within organizations for decision -making, with it, giving a guarantee to third parties through the information presented.
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