THE “REVOLUTION” IN FINANCIAL REPORTING THEORY: A KUHNIAN INTERPRETATION

Abstract

A Kuhnian perspective is used to explain the transition in financial reporting theory from an “economic income perspective” to an “informational perspective” (a transition that Beaver refers to as a “revolution”), and to examine the subsequent development of the latter. The demise of the economic income perspective (represented by the normative a priorists) is attributed to the lack of a paradigm which could serve to identify research problems and provide methodological guidance. The success of the informational paradigm, on the other hand, is attributed to the fact that it was, in essence, a sub-paradigm of the broader and well-established market economics paradigm. The study concludes, however, with a discussion of two types of persistent anomalous findings (the first with respect to the EMH and the second with respect to the CAPM) that have the potential to generate a crisis for the informational paradigm.

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