Integrating Normative and Descriptive Theories of Information Processing

Abstract

In the accounting research of the past decade, considerable emphasis has been devoted to the study of information production and use by decision makers. Most of this research may be characterized as either normative or descriptive. The normative studies have generally relied on information economics (IE) and have concentrated on modeling the selection and use of information systems by rational information evaluators and decision makers, respectively. The descriptive studies have used various deductive and empirical methods in an attempt to develop a positive theory of information production and use. These are often referred to as the human-information-processing (HIP) studies. The normative and descriptive theories are each concerned with the same phenomena, but from different perspectives. Many of the reasons for apparent divergence in the models are due to the lack of explicit representation in one or both models of phenomena that are important attributes of information-processing behavior. Such attributes include information-processing effort, information load and utilization, and information system informativeness. Notwithstanding some differences in the research goals and methods of the two approaches, there is potential benefit in identifying commonalities in the IE and HIP theories. The benefit to IE would be in making the IE model explicitly account for the information-processing limitations of decision makers. The benefit to HIP theory would be the development of precise characterizations of