Background. Functional fixation has been originally discovered by psychologists and it consists in the difficulty of noticing the possibility of using an object with a known, specific function in a new, unconventional way. It has been studied by behavioural accounting researchers since 1960s who, with time, adopted the idea into accounting and developed a phenomenon called accounting fixation or data fixation. Despite various experiments conducted in the field, the theoretical framework constituting a basis for such research has not yet been summarized in the literature.

Research aims. The paper aims to present theories, models, hypothesis etc. harnessed by researchers to investigate functional fixation phenomenon in accounting.

Methodology. The method of literature analysis available in the Internet was used. The scientific publications’ databases were searched by means of the combinations of relevant keywords. Finally, 39 articles and 6 monograph published in the years 1966–2018 were included in the analysis.

Key findings. Studies on functional fixation based on three groups of psychological theories: behavioural decision theory, learning theory and motivation theory. The first two were intended mainly to explain the genesis of this mechanism whereas the last was exploited in research on how to reduce the occurrence of functional fixation in accounting. However motivation theory has not been treated so far as a main theory for the accounting fixation research, but its potential for further studies of this type seems quite promising.

JEL Codes: D91, M41

Background. Functional fixation has been originally discovered by psychologists and it consists in the difficulty of noticing the possibility of using an object with a known, specific function in a new, unconventional way. It has been studied by behavioural accounting researchers since 1960s who, with time, adopted the idea into accounting and developed a phenomenon called accounting fixation or data fixation. Despite various experiments conducted in the field, the theoretical framework constituting a basis for such research has not yet been summarized in the literature.

Research aims. The paper aims to present theories, models, hypothesis etc. harnessed by researchers to investigate functional fixation phenomenon in accounting.

Methodology. The method of literature analysis available in the Internet was used. The scientific publications’ databases were searched by means of the combinations of relevant keywords. Finally, 39 articles and 6 monograph published in the years 1966–2018 were included in the analysis.

Key findings. Studies on functional fixation based on three groups of psychological theories: behavioural decision theory, learning theory and motivation theory. The first two were intended mainly to explain the genesis of this mechanism whereas the last was exploited in research on how to reduce the occurrence of functional fixation in accounting. However motivation theory has not been treated so far as a main theory for the accounting fixation research, but its potential for further studies of this type seems quite promising.

JEL Codes: D91, M41