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Imagined Worlds of Accounting

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  • Sunder Shyam

    (Yale University)

Abstract

Science, engineering, and all other learned disciplines, as well as our socio-political-economic organizations are artifacts--results of our imagination and ingenuity. Modern corporation--a marvel of organizational engineering--would not be possible without imagination. To run organizations, in the face of the centrifugal forces of divergent self-interest and inherently dispersed information, we need accounting. Accounting, too, is an artifact that arose from human imagination, as a precursor of, or contemporaneously with, mathematics, writing and the civilization itself. We explore the case for imagination in our discipline with respect to its environment, scholarship and instruction. Specifically, accounting scholarship includes examination not only of the way things were and are, but also of how they can be. Why should we imagine alternate scenarios, instead of simply waiting for changes to occur, or being forced upon us? We must do so, because imagination is necessary to bring about innovation in practice and in institutions, so our children might live in a better world.

Suggested Citation

  • Sunder Shyam, 2011. "Imagined Worlds of Accounting," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-14, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:aelcon:v:1:y:2011:i:1:n:8
    DOI: 10.2202/2152-2820.1014
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Herbert A. Simon, 1996. "The Sciences of the Artificial, 3rd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262691914, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ratzinger-Sakel, Nicole V.S. & Gray, Glen L., 2015. "Moving toward a learned profession and purposeful integration: Quantifying the gap between the academic and practice communities in auditing and identifying new research opportunities," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 77-103.
    2. Ramanna Karthik, 2013. "The International Politics of IFRS Harmonization," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 3(2), pages 1-46, January.
    3. Yuri Biondi & Simone Righi, 2013. "What does the financial market pricing do? A simulation analysis with a view to systemic volatility, exuberance and vagary," Papers 1312.7460, arXiv.org.
    4. Biondi Yuri, 2017. "The Firm as an Enterprise Entity and the Tax Avoidance Conundrum: Perspectives from Accounting Theory and Policy," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-9, April.
    5. Mark C. Dawkins, 2024. "Rethinking the academic accounting research model," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2024(1), pages 5-22.
    6. Tang Vicki Wei, 2019. "The Role of Accounting and the Debate between Historical Cost and Fair Value," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-3, March.
    7. Yuri Biondi & Pierpaolo Giannoccolo, 2015. "Share price formation, market exuberance and financial stability under alternative accounting regimes," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 10(2), pages 333-362, October.

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