This paper has two purposes. The first is to demonstrate that over time, and in a number of professional and academic places, the concept of auditor independence has been contested; that is, there have been different concepts of auditor independence within different time periods, and even when...

The purpose of this chapter is to trace the evolution of the concept of measurement in financial reporting and to address the question of whether measurement in financial reporting is a process of “measurement” or whether it constitutes something else, which should not be called measurement,...

Both American and International Accounting Standards lead to the invisibility of most brand values in financial statements, as these standards recognize only those brands acquired externally either through a purchase or a merger. Nonetheless, over the last several decades, it has become...

This chapter explores the concept of prudence in accounting from several different perspectives. In particular, we discuss the elimination of prudence from the conceptual framework of the International Accounting Standards Board in 2010 and its reinstatement in 2018. We also explore the tension...

It has been said that standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are more congruent with a principles-based approach to standards setting than those of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). Revelations concerning accounting manipulations at Enron Corp.,...

Accounting history has tended to ignore the accounting research enterprise, focusing instead on particular episodes or periods, such as histories of standards setting or histories of the accounting profession. In effect, methodological and theoretical differences within the accounting research...

During the first half of the twentieth century, “accounting theory,” developed primarily by accounting scholars and academics, provided the primary basis for the practice and teaching of financial accounting in the United States. Since the creation of the Financial Accounting Standards Board...

Accounting conventions, norms, and standards play an important role in modern society in various areas related to the measurement of economic performance, allocation of capital, regulation of commercial activity, and taxation. From a historical perspective, the emergence of accounting...

In this chapter, we study the evolution of the auditor’s report from its emergence more than 150 years ago to the present. During this period, the standard auditor’s report has evolved from a rudimentary form to its current and more sophisticated structure with a clearly defined title,...

The development of the public accountancy profession in the last 200 years has increased the demand for the labor of professional accountants and enhanced the role and status of the professional public account. This increase in both the demand for the labor of professional accountants and for...