A Closer Examination of some Aspects of Behavioural Accounting Research

This article consists mainly of a description, analysis and criticism of four research studies in the area of behavioural accounting. We have selected these particular studies because of the frequency with which they are referred to in articles on behavioural accounting in a wide number of journals, which have as their basic audience both practising and academic accountants. To generalise, the majority of these articles are concerned with how the behavioural variable in relation to accounting information should be managed, and vice‐versa, i.e. they are predominantly prescriptive. The prescription is sometimes presented as a set of guidelines for management action, based on references to research studie.