Chapter 8 Brunswikian Research in Accounting and Auditing

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews Brunswikian research in accounting and auditing. It also describes accounting research and behavioral accounting research. Brunswikian research in internal accounting, external accounting, and auditing is also discussed. The objective of accounting is to provide useful information to decision makers whose actions determine the allocation of scarce resources in organizations and markets. A primary concern of accounting researchers and policymakers involves the direct and indirect effects of alternative accounting information systems on decision maker's actions and related outcomes. Internal accounting (or managerial accounting) is concerned with providing quantitative, usually financial information to decision makers within an organization. However, external accounting (or financial accounting) is concerned with providing financial information to decision makers outside the reporting organization. Auditing is concerned with providing independent assurance to decision makers who use accounting reports that prescribed information systems have been employed in report preparation. It restrains both careless and creative accounting. The theoretical and methodological tools used by researchers to examine aspects of accounting and auditing have largely been imported from other disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences, especially economics and psychology.