The Problem of Ambiguity and Vagueness in Accounting
Awni Zebda
The problem of ambiguity and vagueness has been the subject of discussion
in many scientific disciplines such as economics, statistics, behavioral
sciences, psychology, philosophy, and system sciences. The objective of
this paper is to address the problem of ambiguity and vagueness in accounting
and auditing. The paper establishes the importance and extensiveness of
the problem and argues that the neglect of the ambiguity and vagueness
in accounting may cause accounting analysis to be less useful. The paper
also shows that probabilistic accounting models may not be appropriate
for addressing the problem because probability theory is not equipped to
deal with the ambiguity and vagueness in decision making. Finally, the
paper examines briefly the usefulness of fuzzy set theory as a possible
solution to the problem of ambiguity and vagueness in accounting and suggests
opportunities for future research.
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