Title: Look who's talking: a postcolonial critique of the discourse on international accounting

Authors: Armond Manassian

Addresses: Accounting Department, Olayan School of Business, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, P.O. Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon

Abstract: This paper discusses trends in international accounting research through a qualitative study of two refereed accounting journals, Advances in International Accounting and The International Journal of Accounting Education and Research, from 1987 to 1996. A multidimensional approach is used to provide the reader with a general descriptive background, pertinent characteristics such as the international breadth of the research, the authorship concentration, the institutional affiliation concentration and the extent of foreign authorship. This paper applies a critical perspective to the extant international accounting literature using a postcolonial lens to determine how the concept of |international accounting| is constructed. The paper answers the following questions: Who is doing international accounting? Whose interest is being served by the particular way in which |international accounting| is constructed? Who is absent from this conversation? What is the role of international accounting literature in mediating unequal social relations and constructing the |other|?

Keywords: international accounting; postcolonialism; otherness; critical theory; international business; entrepreneurship; literature review.

DOI: 10.1504/JIBED.2009.029013

Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 2009 Vol.4 No.3, pp.207 - 230

Published online: 26 Oct 2009 *

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