An Analytic Review to Positivism and Critical Realism in Accounting Research

This paper shows an overview on the positivist philosophy and critical realism. The review of this research paradigm commences with the identification of the underlying motivations that prompted of critical realism. This process is provided by a brief review of ontology, epistemology, methodology and the research philosophies and methods popularly applied in accounting. The theoretical basis of critical realism and the ontological and epistemological assumptions are establishing the ‘truth’ and validity of basic criteria of this paradigm, thus the new paradigm is discussed that relate to critical realism with accounting research. The purpose of this discussion is using of different approaches of research for accounting and assisting to accounting researchers for using of different research method