The paper examines the scientific debate that took place in 1973 in the journal Rivista dei Dottori Commercialisti (Italian Journal of Chartered Accountants) between Pietro Onida and Raymond J. Chambers concerning the nature of financial statement information. Our research revealed that Onida was the advocate of a teleological theory of the financial statement, whereas Chambers supported the perfect neutrality of accounting information. Going back to theoretical precedents, the thoughts of the two scholars have different ontological and epistemological assumptions. If, ontologically, Chambers conceives reality as unique and objective, being inspired by the neopositivism of the ‘‘received view,’’ Onida admits the existence of multiple realities by adopting an interpretivist perspective. Epistemologically, the Australian scholar approaches accounting as a pure science by leveraging its deductive moment rather than empirical recognition, whereas the Italian author conceives accounting as an ‘‘application science’’ and adopts a method where the inductive approach prevails

This paper focuses on the contribution given by Egidio Giannessi (1908-1982), the founder of the Pisa University’s business school, to Italian studies in Economia Aziendale. In order to better understand his scientific profile and highlight the novelty of his thought, we have set the scholar in the scientific school of which he was one of the most prominent members, the Tuscan School of Economia Aziendale. Our study has mainly looked at two fundamental contributions of his scientific production: the general theory of azienda and the theory of financial valuation, two strictly interrelated scientific constructs where, more specifically, the latter is a consequence of the former. In the authors’ opinion, it is exactly the originality of the conception of azienda formulated by Giannessi that helps understand his theory of financial valuation.

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