A Good Theory

Beginning of article

Theory of Accounting and Control by Shyam Sunder South-Western Publishing Cincinnati, Ohio, 1997 212 pages

Dealing with the role of accounting and control in organizations and society, this book attempts to link together the functions of accounting into a coherent framework. The author is the Richard M. Cyert Professor at Carnegie Mellon's Graduate School of Industrial Administration. Contract theory in accounting, which is the focus of the book, views organizations as "sets of contracts among individuals..." Sharing information among those individuals helps to execute the contracts. Additionally, control represents a form of equilibrium among the participants in organizations. …