ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the academic theorization. It explains the component of professional knowledge and outlines the role that scientific epistemology or academic theorization plays in the construction and justification of professional knowledge. Scientific justification of mainstream management accounting knowledge rests on two interrelated modes: rationalist justifications and empiricist justifications. The chapter also focuses on the fundamental differences between mainstream and critical theorization in accounting and explaining the different socio-political and technical roles they play. It deals with economic and systems rationality. The chapter discusses the main features of the empirical testing of theoretical propositions of management control systems. It evaluates the way case studies are used in constructing and justifying management accounting knowledge. The initial cybernetic model of management control has been revisited, critiqued, and extended towards a wider framework of management control systems. While cybernetics equates social entities to machines, structural functionalism equates them to biological beings.
