The underpinnings of the Construction of Social Reality, according to John Searle: an interpretation from the Accounting perspective

Los fundamentos de la construcción de realidad social de John Searle: una interpretación desde la perspectiva contable

This paper aims at applying the theoretical underpinnings offered by Searle (1997), to the field of Accounting. Methodologically, this study was grounded in a dual interrelated Research Model: the first part, trying to interpret the main concepts of Searle’s theory; the second one, based on the application of these ideas to Accounting. To develop this project, a hermeneutical perspective was used, taking into account its pertinence to interpret texts. The results of this research can be summarized as follows: a) Accounting, as a professional activity of registration and information is an institutional fact; b) the agency and non-agency functions are reproduced in the Accounting Field within the context of any situation to be reported; c) the constitutive rules in Accounting are defined in the FRIN (criterion of recognizance); d) the legitimacy of Accounting is the product of its universal acceptance and its legality.