Approach epistemológico: uma pesquisa no programa de pósgraduação em controladoria e contabilidade da FEA/USP

This research aimed to identify and analyze which are the theoretical positions and research strategies employed in theses and dissertations of FEA/USP Post-Graduate Programs in Controllership and Accounting. In addition, we analyzed the contents of 125 researches, 73 dissertations and 52 theses, defended between 2004 and 2009 and available electronically by The Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations of University of São Paulo. The analysis of results was performed by reading the Abstracts and consulting others researches topics in case of doubts about the classification. To classify, the analysis criterion adopted was the one used by Fülbier and Sellhorn (2006) and replicated by Mendonça Neto, Riccio and Sakata (2009); Cardoso, Oyadomari and Mendonça Neto (2007), as well as the concepts of Bunge (1983) on the topic. Regarding the theoretical stance, the results show a predominance of positive posture over the normative posture, in both theses and dissertations. This result corroborates the work by Theóphilo and Iudícibus (2005) when they said there is a paradigm shift, having the positive studies as being predominant in the scientific production in Brazil. Regarding the Technical Pole, there was greater adoption of theoretical and empirical research strategies in both works, the ones with a positive posture and the normative ones. Thus, It was not confirmed the tendency predicted by the work of Theóphilo and Iudícibus (2005) that mostly normative studies would be theoretical studies. The evidence suggests that in fact, in both theses and dissertations, there is a growing in the use of the theoretical positive posture and the theoretical and empirical research strategies, regardless of the posture adopted, whether positive or normative A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo geral identificar e analisar quais as posturas teóricas e as estratégias de pesquisa empregadas nas teses e dissertações do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Controladoria e Contabilidade da FEA/USP. Para tanto, foram analisados os conteúdos de 125 trabalhos, sendo 73 dissertações e 52 teses, defendidas no período de 2004 a 2009 e disponibilizadas em meio eletrônico pela Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da USP. A análise foi realizada com ênfase na leitura dos resumos e com a consulta a outros tópicos dos trabalhos no caso de dúvidas nas classificações. Para classificação, o critério de análise adotado foi o utilizado por Fülbier e Sellhorn (2006) e replicado por Mendonça Neto