The interplay of knowledge innovation and academic power: Lessons from “isolation” in twentieth-century Italian accounting studies

Abstract

Accounting scholars investigate the role of academia in the process of knowledge production, highlighting how paradigms may produce negative effects on knowledge innovations, nourish academic elites, and limit fruitful debates. The current article extends this debate by investigating the cultural isolation experienced by Italian accounting scholars during the twentieth century, when accounting academia supported and protected the Italian paradigm of Economia Aziendale. Drawing on a Foucauldian genealogy perspective, this story of Italian accounting studies demonstrates that isolation results from an interplay of broad paradigmatic content and a recruitment policy focused on professors aligned with this paradigm. The Foucauldian perspective helps interpret knowledge innovation, thus enriching the debate about knowledge production, paradigm innovation, and the role of elites in accounting research.