Abstract Many accountants hold profit maximization as the objective of the corporation. It is argued that this assumption implies equating stockholders' interest to the corporate interest, equating profit generation to corporate self-sufficiency, and equating economic theorems to corporate motivation, On all three points, references are cited from various disciplines to suggest the inadequacies of this assumption. On the other hand, the hypothesis of survival and growth has been defended from logical, biological, and sociological points of view. Although profit as a basic objective is rejected, its role as a subordinate objective in the implementation of survival is recognized. The need for further research in exploring the implications of this hypothesis to accounting is acknowledged.
David H. Li (Thu,) studied this question.