Abstract This introductory essay comments on the four subsequent reviews of the behavioral accounting literature. The essay emphasizes the factors that have been implicated in the emergence of the behavioral accounting literature, the cumulative progress that has been achieved and the need for further work. Accepting the diversity of the human sciences, the discussion also notes the problems that can emerge when one perspective is used to encapsulate the perspectives and approaches of another. Hoping that in the future behavioral accounting researchers will be able to articulate a more mature intellectual stance, the essay elaborates on some of the ways in which this might be achieved.
Anthony G. Hopwood (Sun,) studied this question.