accounting theories like positive accounting theory, agency theory, behavioral accounting theory
@Abiola, perhaps clarify the context in which you are using the term "accounting theory" for meaningful engagement on the matter.
Dear Solanke Abiola
Accounting does not have its own theory. All mainstream accounting theories are theories borrowed from the fields of economics and sociology, and maybe from the sciences too.
Such as:
1. Agency theory (from finance, which is a branch of economics)
2. Positive accounting theory (from the contracting literature in economics)
3. Grounded theory
4. Structuration theory (from sociology)
5. Constructionist theory (from sociology)
6. Institutional theory (from sociology)
7. Behavioral accounting theory (from the behavioural economics literature)
8. Chaos theory (from the field of mathematics and physics). Chaos theory is used to understand fraud in the field of forensic accounting.
Accounting does not have its own encompassing theories. But, accounting has its own set of hypotheses which have been very useful, such as the political cost hypothesis, size hypothesis, debt covenant hypothesis, bonus plans hypothesis, income smoothing hypothesis, and many more.
Hope this helps
Regards
Peterson
Dear Solanke,
the book: "Craig Deegan & Jeffrey Unerman, Financial accounting theory, McGraw Hill", could help you.
Best regards,
Marco
there are many theories used in accounting coming not only from economics or sociology but also from psychology, e.g.heuristics and biases, cognitive dissonance theory, attribution theory, level of aspiration theory
I think that you should focus on what you really want to clarify the theory your research need. As Peterson and Nelli, so much theories can you in accounting comprising not only from economic but also from other fields.
Hope this help
I think solanke wanted to write 'theories used in accounting' and not 'accounting theory'. Accounting is a borrower of theories.
You may also find this article by William Hahn useful.
Article Accounting research: An analysis of theories explored in doc...
At present, Accounting does not have its own theories. Theories we use in accounting are theories borrowed from other fields and disciplines, as they relate to your research area.