Researching in the middle ground

Scientific approaches to research produce one kind of knowledge and have tended to dominate accounting research, particularly research concerning disclosure and disclosure indices. Other research paradigms are equally important and generate other kinds of knowledge (Morgan, 1983). This paper describes a methodology used in the development and application of a disclosure index to measure the extent and quality of disclosure in a series of company annual reports. The research seeks to be descriptive, critical and then normative. The approach developed by the authors incorporates a number of the elements of the scientific approach and complements these with aspects of the naturalistic approach, using subjective processes and acknowledging the biases, values, knowledge and traditions of the researcher and the stakeholder groups. The methodology therefore sits to the right of the centre point identified by Laughlin (1995) as “middle-range” thinking. The authors describe how the methodology was used to develop a disclosure index to measure the quality of New Zealand electricity company annual reports.