Volume one of the Handbooks of Management Accounting Research sets the context for both Handbooks, with three chapters outlining the historical development of management accounting as a discipline and as a practice in three broad geographic settings. The bulk of the first volume then draws together a series of contributions that analyse the scholarly literature in terms of distinct intellectual and theoretical social science perspectives. The volume includes a chapter which looks at work informed by psychology as a base discipline. The volume also includes a set of chapters that seek to evaluate and explain issues of research method for the different approaches to research found within management accounting.

The scope of the management accounting research literature1.01 Management accounting: A bibliographic study; 1.02 Mapping Management Accounting: Graphics and Guidelines for Theory-consistent Empirical Research; Theoretical perspectives1.03 Theorizing Practice in Management Accounting Research; 1.04 Psychology Theory in Management Accounting Research; 1.05 Economics in Management Accounting; 1.06 Theorizing Contingencies in Management Control Systems Research;1.07 Critical theorizing in Management Accounting Research; 1.08 Agency theory and Management Accounting; 1.09 Historical Theorizing in Management Accounting Research; 1.10 Management Accounting and Sociology; Research methods1.11 Doing Qualititative Field Research in Management Accounting: Positioning Data to Contribute to Theory; 1.12 Doing Quantitative Field Research in Management Accounting; 1.13 Comparative Management Accounting Research: Past Forays and Emerging Frontiers; 1.14 Analytical Modelling in Management Accounting Research; 1.15 There and Back Again: Doing Interventionist Research in Management Accounting; 1.16 Doing Archival Research in Management Accounting; 1.17 Experimental Research in Management Accounting; 1.18 Doing Management Accounting Survey Research.