La investigación en lo social. El rol de la contabilidad

The function of accounting is to inform of the periodic economic result obtained by the entities that it reports about. The present work tries to demonstrate that the vision that aims to add to this discipline the function of communicating other data intended to explain how those entities have fulfilled their commitment to social responsibility or how they have collaborated in a solidarity action towards the community is false. To this aims, a review of publications is made. It could prove the difficulties that studies on research carried out in this social field would experience, due to the diversity that is naturally observed in the perception of group behaviours for the demonstration of laws that can guarantee universal causal relationships. The work affirms the social nature of the entities that prepare financial statements and the suitability recognised in accounting to explain the economic consequences of human activity. But also, it is not considered enough for its integration at a broader level for purposes other than social. It also shows the technical characteristics that identify accounting with a system; the perspectives of its objective transactional mechanisms through which its effects can be assessed by the protagonists, and their belonging to separate units that give rise to the data that explain the facts that relate those economic entities with their social environment demonstrating their consequences quantified with a common measure. This paper recalls the responsibility that is instrumentally assigned to accounting in the demonstration of the economic results obtained by the entities that procure them. It also focuses on and its importance for the eventual consideration by the legal persons on which they depend. However, they do not have so much importance for other prospective determinations related to a vision of the future and the impact they may have on society, for which its capacity is recognised as insufficient.