An Invitation to Theory

In this essay, I wish to invite young scholars to learn, use, and contribute to accounting theory. In this invitation, I argue theory has lineage, is important and can be fun. Its lineage comes from the post-WWII scientific revolution in management education and research. Theory is important because it is the successful interaction between theory and empirical work that ultimately advances an academic discipline. Theory can be fun because when done well, learning, using and contributing to theory can be an enjoyable activity for all scholars, either as consumers or as producers of theory.