In the last few decades, the alternative research paradigms have challenged the solid, number-driven, natural science-based approach to study social science. In their seminal paper, Baxter and Chua (2003: 112) conclude, “Alternative management accounting research has demonstrated: the many different rationalities of management accounting practice; the variety of ways in which management accounting practice is enacted and given meaning; the potency of management accounting technologies; the unpredictable, nonlinear and socially-embedded nature of management accounting change; and the ways in which management accounting practice is both constrained and enabled by the bodily habitudes of its exponents.”
Required:
Critically evaluate the above statement. Your evaluation must be based on a mainstream or an alternative research paradigm used in management accounting control.