The authors investigated the results of the Educational Testing Service Major Field Test (ETS-MFT) administered to business majors at a U.S. state university. Longitudinal trends and cross-sectional differences are documented, including significant performance differences among students of different majors. Findings suggest that a cohort affect may influence testing outcomes. The authors discuss with possible explanations for performance differences and explore means of remediation.

This paper analyzes the longitudinal development of accounting thought by characterizing the content of accounting research over several decades (1963 to 2003). The paper also investigates the interaction among accounting scholars and examines the relationship of research quality, topical coverage, methodological tools, and citation behavior. Thus, this analysis describes how accounting research has evolved, both in its content and in the way it has been used and perceived by its adherent scholars.

Many criticisms have been leveled at the dominant positivist accounting research paradigm. This paper links this modern research paradigm to the development of double entry bookkeeping, which itself was part of a larger intellectual movement toward quantitative knowledge production, referred to herein as the quantification paradigm shift. Among the items discussed are the socio-economic forces that facilitated this shift, the role played by this movement in the development of accounting techniques, the advent of the concept of profit, and the emergence of positivism in accounting research. These items will be analyzed in the light of historical changes in philosophy and science, critical perspectives on the dominant research paradigm, and calls for alternative research programs.

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