Purpose – The paper is an exercise in “metaphoric defamiliarisation”. The metaphor of the search for a conceptual framework as “quest” is unpacked and an alternative, based on Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark , is proposed in its place. Design/methodology/approach – Many...

The paper examines the role of metaphor in debates about “conceptual frameworks” for financial reporting and accounting standard setting. It takes the form of a dialogue between a standard setter and an academic. The paper demonstrates the power of metaphor by substituting a different,...