Richard Mattessich

[5][6] Born in Trieste, Mattessich obtained his degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1940 at the Engineering College, Vienna IV, his MBA in 1944 at the Vienna School of Economics and Business Administration, where in 1945 he also obtained his Dr. rer.

This book anticipated, by almost twenty years, major elements of such bestselling microcomputer programmes as VisiCalc, SuperCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, etc.

[9][10] Murphy (1997) acknowledged that this work "foreshadows the basic principles behind today's computer spreadsheets: the use of matrices, (budget) simulation, and, most important, the calculations that support each matrix cell.

[7] Mattessich specified: Its main emphasis is on accounting research in the English, German, Italian, French and Spanish language areas; it also contains chapters dealing with research in Finland, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Russia, Poland and the Ukraine as well as Argentina and Japan.

[12]And furthermore its "focus is not on the history of accounting, but on the history of its research and the publications underlying it (though, wherever necessary, accounting facts beyond research were taken into consideration)... A major goal was to offer a broad overview, covering the pertinent publications of an international spectrum, as wide as possible, under the given limitations.