Introducing the representational measurement project in accounting

Abstract

This study introduces a representational measurement (a theory that establishes measurement in the social sciences) perspective to the accounting concept of measurement. Accounting studies have long sought to establish foundations (theory) of measurement in accounting without success. This is because the accounting concept of measurement is based on the axioms of quantity which ultimately result in the classical theory of measurement and are not suitable for social science disciplines such as accounting, but rather for the natural sciences. The measurement of attributes of social science phenomena does not give rise to a natural concatenation operation, which is pivotal to invoking a theoretical concept of an absolute continuous quantity that forms the basis of the classical theory of measurement. As a result, this study suggests criteria whose development might eventually lead to the construction of representational measurements in accounting.