The comparative viewpoints of groups of accountants: More on the entity - Proprietary debate

The predominant conceptual viewpoint of accountants is critical in the process by which accounting standards are debated, promulgated and applied in practice. While the intellectual debate on this issue is dichotomized, little empirical evidence exists as to the strengths of competing advocacy. This paper reports the results of a study which show that most accountants subscribe to what has been called "middle positions" and then seeks to explain, at two levels of analysis, the nature of the change process relative to these viewpoints.