CSR and Accounting:
Drawing on Weber and
Aristotle to Rethink
Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles
NANCY CHRISTIE, BRUNO DYCK, JANET MORRILL, AND
ROSS STEWART
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this article is to discuss and provide an
alternative, less materialist–individualist approach to
interpret the four assumptions of generally accepted
accounting principles: economic entity, unit measure,
periodic reporting, and going concern. The article draws
from and builds on arguments first developed by Weber
Nancy Christie is an Associate Professor of Accounting, University of Maryland University
College, Adelphi, MD. E-mail: nancy4597@gmail.com. Bruno Dyck is a Professor of Management,
Department of Business Administration, I. H. Asper School of Business, University of
Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada. E-mail: bdyck@ms.umanitoba.ca. Janet Morrill is an Associate
Professor of Accounting, Department of Accounting and Finance, I. H. Asper School of
Business, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada. E-mail: Janet.Morrill@umanitoba
.ca. Ross Stewart is a Professor of Accounting, School of Business and Economics, Seattle
Pacific University, Seattle, WA. E-mail: rstewart@spu.edu.
The authors would like to thank Dean Neu, Jeff Everett, Doug McKenna, Linda Thorne,
participants of the University of Manitoba-CGA Accounting Research Conference, the Asia
Pacific Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Conference in Singapore, and the University
of Calgary Critical Accounting Research Conference for their helpful comments. Janet
Morrill gratefully acknowledges funding received from the Institute of Chartered Accountants
of Manitoba through the Centre of Accounting Research and Education at the University of
Manitoba. Bruno Dyck also thankfully acknowledges funding received from the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
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Business and Society Review 118:3 383–411
© 2013 Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.,
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK.
and Aristotle to demonstrate how a materialist–
individualist moral point of view influences the conventional
interpretation of the four basic assumptions for
generally accepted accounting principles. We then
propose an ideal-type conceptual framework upon which
to critique mainstream accounting theory and to develop
alternative accounting theory that balances multiple
forms of well-being (including financial, but also social,
physical, spiritual, and ecological well-being) for multiple
stakeholders (including owners, employees, customers,
suppliers, competitors, neighbors, future generations,
and so forth).
INTRODUCTION
I
n recent decades, the relevance of the accounting profession
and the traditional financial reporting model has been aggressively
challenged. A large body of empirical accounting
research has documented a decline in the value relevance of conventional
accounting information in recent years (Balanchandran
and Mohanram 2011). Part of this decline may be attributable to
the increase in disclosures firms make outside of financial statements:
firms are increasingly reporting extensive nonfinancial
measures, and in many circumstances use them as an important
component of manager compensation (Ittner et al. 1997). Many
firms also have chosen to provide disclosures of their social and
environmental activities outside of the traditional financial statements,
and several external certification bodies have sprung up
outside of the accounting profession to provide assurance on that
information (Power 1997). These phenomena can be seen as
threats to the legitimacy and usefulness of mainstream accounting,
and they question the ability of the accounting profession to meet
the information needs of society with respect to measuring and
reporting corporate performance and question whether formal
accounting information has been marginalized (Hopwood 2009;
Matthews 1997; Wallman 1996).
In this article, we argue that these initiatives may appear
unrelated but are in fact piecemeal solutions to one underlying
problem: that the accounting profession has generally failed to
384 BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW
recognize that the most foundational building blocks of our conceptual
framework reflect a set of values or moral point of view
that is increasingly being called into question by society.
We use Weber’s insightful landmark study The Protestant Ethic
and the Spirit of Capitalism (1958, original 1904) to provide a
framework for the sociohistorical analysis of the relationships
between accounting and organizations and society (Colignon and
Covaleski 1991). Specifically, for this article, it provides a useful
lens through which to view accounting and suggests alternative
perspectives. In teasing out these alternative perspectives, we also
draw on Aristotle, who notes that human agents cannot simply be
reduced to self interest-maximizing homo economicus, and thus,
accounting should not be limited to describing narrowly defined
market exchanges. Aristotle’s view of economics suggests that
markets rely on virtues such as human dignity, trust, creativity,
and sociality to function justly and humanely. Accounting concepts
and practices should engender and secure such values
rather than conceal or corrode them (Hinze 2004).
In the Protestant Ethic, Weber describes how a moral point of
view characterized by its emphasis on materialism and individualism
underlies contemporary management theory and practices
(Dyck and Schroeder 2005). Weber argues that in order to properly
understand mainstream management theory and practices,
we must understand this underlying moral point of view (what he
calls “substantive rationality,” Dyck 1997; Kalberg 1980; Townley
2002). Regrettably, even though scholars affirm Weber’s general
argument about the importance of understanding the moral point
of view that underpins management theory, they seldom put it
into practice. “As Weber pointed out, the value-laden nature of
assumptions can never be eliminated. Yet if a theory is to be used
or tested, the theorist’s implicit assumptions, which form the
boundaries of the theory, must be understood. Unfortunately,
theorists rarely state their assumptions” (Bacharach 1989, p. 498,
emphasis added here; see also Calas and Smircich 1999). The
general failure to articulate the underlying moral point of view
results in fruitless debates among scholars (Bacharach 1989),
hides organizational stakeholders’ interests (Calas and Smircich
1999; Perrow 1985), and stifles opportunities for practitioners and
scholars to give voice to nonutilitarian “moral impulses” (Bos and
Willmott 2001).
CHRISTIE ET AL. 385
We examine how Weber’s allusion to competing moral points of
view is reflected in current accounting theory and practice in the
same way that it is embedded in management. Interestingly,
although the key assumptions underlying contemporary management
theory and practice have not been widely acknowledged in
the literature, the four basic assumptions underlying generally
accepted accounting principles (GAAP) have. Those assumptions
are (1) going concern, (2) unit of measure, (3) entity, and (4)
periodic reporting. We argue, however, that what is not stated is
how a particular moral point of view has informed the conventional
interpretation of these GAAP assumptions despite the aspiration
of accountants to be “neutral.” Conventional accounting,
built upon specific value-laden assumptions, reinforces the existing
power structures, morality, and ethical conventions of society.
To the extent that these values are being called into question, so
will conventional accounting be called into question.
This research adds to the dialogue on developments in social
and environmental accounting (SEA) research. Nikolaou and
Evangelinos (2010) note that existing SEA is not comprehensive
nor standardized, and there is a need to provide this information
within the conventional accounting system to ensure relevance
and reliability. To that end, they suggest foundations of a framework
to classify existing SEA information according to the type of
measures used, the formality of the accounting principles applied,
and the nature of the content. That is, they explain how SEA
information is different from current financial accounting information.
In our article, we attempt to explain why the current
accounting system is different, that those differences are based on
fundamental assumptions that reflected a certain moral point of
view, and how changes in the values held by society will make
those assumptions increasingly problematic.
Our article is divided into several parts. In the next section, we
review Weber’s argument that conventional management theory
reflects a predominant materialist–individualist moral point of
view. We then present several sections where we apply and identify
the implications of the Weberian framework and Aristotelian
economics for accounting theory and practice. This includes a
description of how a conventional materialist–individualist substantive
rationality gives rise to a conventional formal rationality
of accounting theory and practice, and how an alternative sub-
386 BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW
stantive rationality gives rise to a radical formal rationality of
accounting theory and practice. Implications are discussed for the
four foundational assumptions of accounting.
WEBER’S MORAL POINTS OF VIEW FRAMEWORK
Max Weber, still considered a leading management moral philosopher
(Clegg 1996; cf Greenwood and Lawrence 2005), argues that
the conventional management paradigm can be characterized by
the fact that it places primary emphasis on individualism and
materialism.1 First, the contemporary secular idea of individualism
can be traced back to the notion of calling developed during
the Reformation. According to this view, not only does God call
individuals to work intensely in their job