They point out that one of the deficiencies of positive accounting research is the failure to explain ‘‘both the ex ante choice of accepted set and the ex post choice of accounting method within the accepted set’’. (p.137) Likewise, they criticize most researchers as focusing on one accounting choice at a time when most managers seek a result that could be due to the combined effects of several choices (see Zmijewski and Hagerman, 1981, for an example of an early attempt to incorporate the latter into the research design).