This paper discusses the roles and effects of paradigms in accounting research in general,
and management accounting research in particular. In addition, it forms an introduction
to the Special Section of this issue of Management Accounting Research on “Paradigms in
Accounting Research”. The paper takes an issue of the notable narrowness of accounting
research of today, regarding it as forming a threat to scholarly developments in the field.
It argues for the importance of keeping paradigm debates alive in order to foster multidimensional
openness and true scholarship in accounting research