ABSTRACT
The existence of a school of thought in the Netherlands in which accounting is studied as part of a more general discipline of bedrijfseconomie or “business economics” 1 has been acknowledged both inside and outside of the Netherlands. It is equally clear that this approach to accounting is, by now, largely a historical phenomenon. This tradition had its roots in the late nineteenth century, became fully developed by the mid-twentieth century, and had, by the end of that century, largely disappeared as a distinguishing feature of accounting in the Netherlands. This chapter outlines the historical development of this understanding of accounting as part of business economics in the Netherlands. Its main argument is that this historical episode is best understood by considering it as an aspect of the history of the Dutch accountancy profession. The trajectory of emergence and disappearance of the conceptualization of accounting as a part of business economics follows the emergence, strengthening, and gradual loosening of the ties between the Dutch accountancy profession and higher business education in the Netherlands, a dynamic that is in turn part of the more general stories of the evolution of the profession and the universities. In terms of the international linkages explored in this volume, the peculiar flavor of Dutch accounting and business economics is considered in this chapter as resulting from a mingling of a German-oriented business education movement with an accountancy profession oriented primarily toward the English-speaking world. In terms of influential individuals, it means that in this chapter, the life and work of Theodore Limperg (1879–1961) loom large, as he was both a key actor in the forging of the institutional links between the profession and higher education, as well as the one who provided the most influential articulation of the conceptual link between accounting and business economics.
