The international accounting standardisation crisis, an intellectual crisis

The international accounting standardisation crisis is not a strictly technical crisis linked to a bad application of the fair value criteria, but an intellectual crisis related to the conceptual framework and its underlying episteme. This framework, from which international standards issue, is in itself a factor of market instability, and to an even greater extent, of corporate instability. Centering solely on the information needs of investors, it transmits a representation and stock management of the company that negates and destabilises it as an economic and social entity. The international standards-setter finds itself faced with a real intellectual crisis that calls for a complete re-think of its conceptual framework through reference to an enhanced vision of the company, thus opening up new opportunities for theoretical research on accounting concepts and principles for researchers in accounting.