Toshiba is one of the ten biggest firms in Japan in terms of revenues, and one which is widely respected. In 2014 Toshiba overstated its profits by more than 1.2 billion dollars, or about one-third of the total figure reported, in order to meet the (otherwise unrealistic) targets that top management had established for the company and its subunits. According to the New York Times (Soble, 2015), there were problems in "virtually all corners of its business, which encompasses products stretching from refrigerators to nuclear power plants." Therefore, it is easy to conclude that the practice did not have to do with one manager occasionally misbehaving, but with the whole reporting and reward system. The same newspaper also reports that Hisao Tanaka, the serving chief executive, who has subsequently resigned, acknowledged that the company had engaged in "inappropriate accounting," but said this had not been done intentionally, and denied that he had told subordinates to exaggerate the profitability of their divisions.

question : Give critical analysis of the company's "failure" in the perspective of Accounting Science and the contribution of the epistemological approach in accounting regarding this case.