Analisi del grado di “apertura internazionale” della Rivista dei Ragionieri dal 1915 al 1924: prime riflessioni.

Over the past thirty years, the research in business economics has been the subject of an intense process of internationalization. To date, however, a branch of studies that focuses particularly on the analysis of this recent phenomenon does not exist yet. Certainly, this process is presently discussed in academic debates and analyzed in several recent publications. Nevertheless, the internationalization of business research still remains a topic to be well studied in a scientific context. Although the internationalization is a recent trend, we can trace back its origin in the first decades of the XX century. That said, the research aims to find in the roots of our discipline some connecting elements with the current trend of internationalization of accounting studies. More precisely, the present work aims to examine and evaluate the degree of "internationality" of the “Rivista dei Ragionieri” (Journal of Accountants) and its evolution over the period from 1915 to 1924. In this context, with "internationality" we intend a general term to express all the tendence of the journal towards the accounting studies and practices of foreign countries. The concept, therefore, must be interpreted as an effort by the Italian review to give resonance to international topics as well as original contribution from a foreign context. Both deductive and inductive methodology approaches were employed to carry out the analysis. More specifically, the study has developed in relation to three main phases. The former approach was employed for the critical analysis of the major contributions to the literature, nationally and internationally, in the field of accounting history, with particular focus on contributions that studied the evolution of different forms of divulgation of our discipline. Moreover, we studied the part of the recent literature that examines the reason behind the tendency of the present internationalization process of the research in business economics. In the inductive phase, the articles of the “Rivista dei Ragionieri” published during the years under investigation (1915-1924) were critical analyzed. Finally, the feedback phase was aimed on the systematization and analysis of the considerations formulated during the research. The results of the analysis showed a significant propensity of the journal towards international topics, especially in the years of the First World War and the immediate postwar period. In addition, the survey confirmed the existence of a relationship between the political and social events that have characterized the Italian history in the decade investigated, and the international orientation of the “Rivista dei Ragionieri”.