| Summary: | This study is concerned with explaining the reality underlying the dominance of a western accounting approach in Islamic states, and in particular, the case of Jordan. This study has been motivated by the fact that Muslim society has its own cultural and socio-economic values, which renders the economic and financial information needed to be different from the information needed by, for example, capitalist and secular societies. Considering the relevant literature, including that concerned with Islamic accounting and economy, the researcher found that: 1 A Muslim society does need its own accounting system that suits the ideology and values of Muslims and assists them to meet their religious obligations (Hameed, 2001). 2 Western accounting has been criticised by different scholars as being unsuitable and irrelevant for developing nations (Briston, 1978 and 1984; Hove, 1982 and 1986; Samuels and Oliga, 1982, Wallace, 1990) as it reflects the objectives and socio-economic environmental values of developed nations. Accordingly, the current researcher has attempted to gain a deeper understanding of and explanation for those factors or mechanisms that determined accounting policy in Jordan, through examining the current situation from a critical point of view, employing dependency theory and the neocolonialism concept as the research theoretical framework. This framework has been used to achieve two goals. Firstly, to examine its suitability and applicability to explain the research phenomenon, which in tum might contribute to clarifying this phenomenon by exposing the structures and mechanisms underlying the accounting policy in Jordan, and this is the second objective. Also, this study tried to explore the prospects for/barriers to changing the situation to inform future action research. This research employs a qualitative case study approach based on a critical realist methodology. The selected case studies consist of all institutions that influence accounting practices and regulations in Jordan either directly (JSC, CBJ, etc), or indirectly, such as the governmental institutions that influence the economic and financial policy of Jordan which in tum influences its accounting policy. After finishing the qualitative analysis process, using Nvivo 7 software, this study has concluded that: 1. Dependency/ neocolonialism (critical research) has offered much richer insights into, and a much better understanding of the phenomenon (the dominance of capitalist accounting in a developing Islamic country, and in particular the case of Jordan) rather than other possible explanations such as normative isomorphism and rational choice theory. 2. Accounting policy in Jordan has been determined in conformity with dependency and neocolonialist structures and mechanisms. In almost all cases, the external pressures, such as international aid, Jordan's relationship with imperialist countries, Jordan's integration into the global economy, etc, have been too great, and western influences have dominated accounting regulation and practice and in academia. 3. There was an enthusiasm among the greater part of the interviewees to modify the current accounting policy. On the other hand, this result has provided an initial contribution to the dependency theory/neocolonialism concept, which might contribute to the enhancement of the theoretical framework employed. This thesis concludes with some practical implications of this study, as well as recommendations for future research.
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