Question 1
In the last few decades, alternative research paradigms have challenged the
solid, number-driven, natural science-based approach to study social science.
In their seminal paper, Baxter and Chua (2003: 112) conclude, “Alternative
management accounting research has demonstrated: the many different
rationalities of management accounting practice; the variety of ways in which
management accounting practice is enacted and given meaning; the potency
of management accounting technologies; the unpredictable, nonlinear and
socially-embedded nature of management accounting change; and the ways in
which management accounting practice is both constrained and enabled by the
bodily habitudes of its exponents.
Required:
Discuss and critically evaluate the above statement. Focus your evaluation on
a chosen mainstream or alternative research paradigm used in management
accounting control, in comparison to the numbers-driven approach