Showing papers in "Accounting Organizations and Society in 2002"
TL;DR: This article examined the relation between 1990 annual report environmental disclosures for a sample of 131 US companies and their environmental performance as based on toxics release data from 1988 (made available in 1990).
Abstract: Previous studies of the relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure have consistently documented a lack of significance. This study examines the relation between 1990 annual report environmental disclosures for a sample of 131 US companies and their environmental performance as based on toxics release data from 1988 (made available in 1990). In contrast to the previous examinations, results indicate that, controlling for firm size and industry classification (two factors previously shown to be related to the extent of environmental disclosure), there is a significant negative relation between performance and disclosure for the sample firms. However, the disclosure level of firms from non-environmentally sensitive industries is more affected by toxic release levels than is the disclosure of firms from environmentally sensitive industries.
1,240 citations
TL;DR: A review of the social accounting literature of the last 25 years or so with particular attention to the role played by Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS) in its development can be found in this article.
Abstract: This paper provides one review of the social accounting literature of the last 25 years or so with particular attention to the role played by Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS) in its development. The principal theme of the essay is that social accounting, at its best, is designed to open up a space for new accountings between the ‘conventional' accounting literature and practice and the ‘alternative' critiques and theorising. It seeks to do this, as the title suggests, through privileging — even demanding — engagement and imaginings of new accountings that — it seems inevitable — owe at least as much to pragmatism as to critique. Despite many poor beginnings and a heavy weight of substantive critique, the social accounting project(s) are advancing and are increasingly informed by the alternative/critical projects. The way forward proposed is for social accounting to both draw more from the wealth of theorising and, simultaneously, to take more confidence in itself and learn how to write up — and publish — the extensive experience of engagement which is so central to social accounting.
900 citations
TL;DR: This article reviewed theories and evidence regarding the effects of monetary incentives on individual effort and task performance and provided a framework for understanding these effects in numerous contexts of interest to accounting researchers and focus particularly on how salient features of accounting settings may affect the incentives-effort and effort-performance relations.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to review theories and evidence regarding the effects of (performance-contingent) monetary incentives on individual effort and task performance. We provide a framework for understanding these effects in numerous contexts of interest to accounting researchers and focus particularly on how salient features of accounting settings may affect the incentives-effort and effort-performance relations. Our compilation and integration of theories and evidence across a wide variety of disciplines reveals significant implications for accounting research and practice. Based on the framework, theories, and prior evidence, we develop and discuss numerous directions for future research in accounting that could provide important insights into the efficacy of monetary reward systems.
868 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe how specific streams of experimental financial accounting research have addressed questions about financial communication between managers, auditors, information intermediaries, and investors, and indicate how future research can extend those streams.
Abstract: This paper uses recent experimental studies of financial accounting to illustrate our view of how such experiments can be conducted successfully. Rather than provide an exhaustive review of the literature, we focus on how particular examples illustrate successful use of experiments to determine how, when and (ultimately) why important features of financial accounting settings influence behavior. We first describe how changes in views of market efficiency, reliance on the experimentalist’s comparative advantage, new theories, and a focus on key institutional features have allowed researchers to overcome the criticisms of earlier financial accounting experiments. We then describe how specific streams of experimental financial accounting research have addressed questions about financial communication between managers, auditors, information intermediaries, and investors, and indicate how future research can extend those streams. We focus particularly on (1) how managers and auditors report information; (2) how users of financial information interpret those reports; (3) how individual decisions affect market behavior; and (4) how strategic interactions between information reporters and users can affect market outcomes. Our examples include and integrate experiments that fall into both the “behavioral” and “experimental economics” literatures in accounting. Finally, we discuss how experiments can be designed to be both effective and efficient.
799 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the discourse in terms of which the accounts are rendered serves to negate the very relation of obligation from which this accountability derives, and propose the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas to establish a broader accountability on the part of economic entities.
Abstract: Expanding global markets have resulted in renewed concern with accountability by transnational corporations and other economic agents. Reflections on economic accountability, however, often inadequately theorize necessary ethical presuppositions regarding the moral status of economic collectivities, including the scope of the moral community and the good that this community seeks. This essay addresses these ethical considerations. Taking as my starting point Schweiker's [Schweiker, W. (1993). Accounting for ourselves: accounting practice and the disclosure of ethics. Accounting Organizations and Society, 18(2/3), 231–252] claim that economic entities are properly accountable to a wider scope of good than their own by virtue of the accounts that accountants render of such entities, I argue that the discourse in terms of which the accounts are rendered serves to negate the very relation of obligation from which this accountability derives. Specifically, I argue that the discourse of neoclassical economics that informs accounting practice constructs the identity of the accountable entity such that it is obligated to pursue only its own good. Consequently, extant accounting practices are inadequate to meet the demands for accountability that are legitimately entailed by the act of rendering an account. I explore the implications of this conclusion for understanding economic accountability and related social accounting practices, and I propose the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas to establish a broader accountability on the part of economic entities.
415 citations
TL;DR: This story evaporates simple distinctions between invention/discovery and theory/practice in the development of management accounting and portrays ABC as a socio-technical expert system that is formed mutually with the construction of the actor-networks that create it.
Abstract: The paper explores the rise of activity-based costing (ABC). Drawing on actor-network theory, we follow key actors, and their intermediaries, as they construct ABC through a network of human and non-human allies. Drawing on Giddens' discussion of the dynamics of modernity, we show how ABC is formed, and reformed, in processes of disembedding and reembedding, and how it becomes affiliated to ‘new wave management’. Through close attention to detail, our story evaporates simple distinctions between invention/discovery and theory/practice in the development of management accounting. We portray ABC as a socio-technical expert system that is formed mutually with the construction of the actor-networks that create it. As an expert system, ABC is both a response, and a contributor, to risks of the modern world—a bandwagon hitched to a juggernaut.
359 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined judgmental effects of the balanced scorecard's organization and found that performance evaluations are affected by organizing the measures into balanced scorecards when multiple below-target (or above-target) measures are contained within a category but that evaluations are not affected when the above/below-target measures are distributed across the scorecard’s four categories.
Abstract: We examine judgmental effects of the balanced scorecard’s organization. The balanced scorecard contains a large number of performance measures divided into four categories. We examine whether the scorecard’s organization results in managerial performance evaluation judgments consistent with a recognition of the potential relations (i.e. nonindependence) of measures within a category. Supporting this idea, we find that performance evaluations are affected by organizing the measures into the balanced scorecard categories when multiple below-target (or above-target) measures are contained within a category but that evaluations are not affected when the above/below-target measures are distributed across the scorecard’s four categories. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
294 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the results of a survey appraising the frequency and perceived merit of customer accounting practices are reported, showing that CA usage appears to be greater than what might have been reasonably anticipated given the limited attention afforded the subject in normative and empirical literatures.
Abstract: The results of a survey appraising the frequency and perceived merit of customer accounting (CA) practices are reported. Given the limited attention afforded the subject in the normative and empirical literatures, CA usage appears to be greater than what might have been reasonably anticipated. Evidence of a positive association between market orientation and CA, as well as a weak positive association between competition intensity and CA is provided.
233 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate whether agency theory faces an urgent need to incorporate the construct of intrinsic motivation and its hidden costs of reward as postulated by supporters of the concept.
Abstract: Cognitive evaluation theory and its hypothetical construct of intrinsic motivation are enjoying increasing popularity in the fields of business administration and economics. Consequently, intensifying skepticism towards performance incentives and agency theory is postulated. According to cognitive evaluation theory, it is argued that performance pay may undermine an agent's intrinsic motivation. In contradiction to agency theory, the principal might be worse off when providing an incentive contract to the agent than without doing so. Since the contention is substantiated by empirical evidence, it seems worrying enough for further investigation. Restricting attention to performance pay in business corporations, the scope of this article is to evaluate whether agency theory faces an urgent need to incorporate the construct of intrinsic motivation and its ‘hidden costs of reward' as postulated by supporters of the concept. The subsequent analysis reveals good and bad news for agency theory. The bad news is that hidden costs of reward do indeed exist. The good news is that the empirical evidence on undermining effects cannot be interpreted as being contradictory to agency theory. In particular, the antecedents for such effects not only seldomly prevail in business corporations, they are also easily avoidable.
230 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between the level of just-in-time (JIT) practices implemented by US manufacturing firms and the performance measures and incentive systems that are incorporated in their MAS.
Abstract: The shift to world-class manufacturing strategies has necessitated complementary changes in management accounting systems (MAS). Using survey data obtained from top manufacturing executives at 253 US firms, this study empirically examines the relationship between the level of just-in-time (JIT) practices implemented by US manufacturing firms and the performance measures and incentive systems that are incorporated in their MAS. The statistical tests provide empirical evidence that the use of non-traditional performance measures such as bottom-up measures, product quality, and vendor quality, as well as incentive systems of employee empowerment and compensation rewards for quality production are related to the degree of JIT practices implemented.
222 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that in the context of responsiveness strategies, the difficulty of designing complete measures inhibits the effectiveness of performance measurement systems as a facilitator of strategy implementation.
Abstract: Drawing on qualitative data collected during semi-structured interviews with 36 profit centre managers in manufacturing firms in Victoria, Australia, this study seeks to explore the mechanisms used to manage multiple manufacturing performance dimensions arising from the pursuit of profit centre strategy. Where measures capture potentially conflicting influences on the manufacturing cost function, strategy implementation is facilitated by loosening control reactions to cost variances and through explicit attempts to integrate multiple measures. However, a joint emphasis on performance dimensions relating to manufacturing efficiency and customer responsiveness emerges as problematic. In contrast, a joint emphasis on quality and efficiency is relatively easily managed. It is suggested that in the context of responsiveness strategies, the difficulty of designing complete measures inhibits the effectiveness of performance measurement systems as a facilitator of strategy implementation.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the limitations of ABM as an approach to the management of staff activity and show that ABM can lead to a dumbingdown of staff departments in which non-routine initiatives aimed at competitive advantage in fields such as human resource management or marketing may be stifled because they cannot be accommodated within the language of accountability imposed by ABM.
Abstract: Activity-based costing and management are now the stock-in-trade of a lucrative industry, with at least one Big Six consultancy operation devoted wholly to their promotion. Both techniques represent a major extension of accountability in the modern corporation, into a zone previously defined in accounting terms as fixed overhead. The mechanics depend on treating the staff department as a mass-producer of repeated acts of routine service (‘activities’) performed ‘for’ particular cost-objects, usually products. By treating these activities as performance indicators, payroll budgets can be linked to activity volumes thus creating pressures for the casualisation of staff employment. The activity frame of reference, particularly when linked with ‘value analysis’, also encourages the stripping-out of all staff work which cannot be accommodated within its definition of activities. This threatens a dumbing-down of staff departments in which non-routine initiatives aimed at competitive advantage in fields such as human resource management or marketing may be stifled because they cannot be accommodated within the language of accountability imposed by ABM. These arguments are concretised through an examination of the ABM treatment of one of its favoured targets: the purchasing function. The contrast between this and the supply chain management approach advocated by practitioners and academics who take the function seriously is a stark illustration of the limitations of ABM as an approach to the management of staff activity.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the incentive problems to which buyer-supplier transactions are subject and discuss some of the inter-firm design instruments that can be used to mitigate these problems.
Abstract: This paper discusses the incentive problems to which buyer-supplier transactions are subject and, by surveying the incentives literature, discusses some of the inter-firm design instruments that can be used to mitigate these problems. Most of the literature discussed is based on the incomplete contracting model, which is better suited to analyzing inter-firm issues. We also discuss some of the managerial accounting issues which are raised by this literature and suggest some managerial accounting issues for further research.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop criteria for "good" scientific conversation, which leads to progress (defined as innovation and relevance), and conclude that structural barriers result in a lack of adequate transformative critique, which contributes to the lack of progress in the accounting research program.
Abstract: Doubts were raised within the accounting research program in the United States in the late 1980s about its progress and future potential. In this paper, we develop criteria for “good” scientific conversation, which leads to progress (defined as innovation and relevance). The key to this process is critical evaluation of background assumptions. The structure of scientific conversation in accounting and economics, whose theories and practices accountants adopted, are examined. We conclude that structural barriers result in a lack of adequate transformative critique, which contributes to the lack of progress in the accounting research program.
TL;DR: This paper examined the effect of information asymmetry on the budget negotiation process, and whether subordinates consider superiors imposing a budget following a failed negotiation as being low in procedural justice, which in turn causes low subordinate performance.
Abstract: This study examines three issues: (1) the effect of information asymmetry on the budget negotiation process, (2) the effect of information asymmetry on budgetary slack when budgets are set through a negotiation process, and (3) whether subordinates consider superiors imposing a budget following a failed negotiation as being low in procedural justice, which in turn causes low subordinate performance. The results suggest that smaller differences in initial negotiation positions do not indicate a higher likelihood of agreement when initial differences are due to differential information symmetry. Further, information asymmetry affects the relationship between negotiation agreement and budgetary slack. Last, inconsistent with a pure economic perspective, having superiors impose a budget after a failed negotiation causes justice or fairness considerations to demotivate subordinates.
TL;DR: Results show that ABC team cohesion is the key determinant of the time it takes to develop the first ABC model.
Abstract: This paper examines how the group dynamics of activity based costing (ABC) development teams and the level of organizational resources devoted to model development affect model complexity and development time. A theoretical framework is developed based on the organizational literature on teams. The framework is tested using objective data from 18 ABC projects in two automobile manufacturing firms and survey data from ABC team members. Results show that ABC team cohesion is the key determinant of the time it takes to develop the first ABC model. Further, ABC models become more complex in the presence of an external consultant and as the level of competition increases.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the communication structures within the management accounting academia, with a view to illustrating and thereby possibly alleviating the difficulties of dialogue between the different discussion circles identifiable within the field.
Abstract: The major purpose of this study is to examine the communication structures within the management accounting academia, with a view to illustrating and thereby possibly alleviating the difficulties of dialogue between the different discussion circles identifiable within the field. Research on activity-based costing (ABC) is used as an illustrating example case. We distinguish three genres of ABC research (Consulting research, Basic research, and Critical research) and analyse their nature as well as their internal and external communication patterns. We are particularly interested in the interests of knowledge, research methods, argumentation styles, and results of these genres. Also, we will pay attention to their effects both on the progress of science and management accounting practice. The theoretical points of support lean on the ideas of Bourdieu, Gadamer, Habermas, Latour, and Stegmuller. Overall, the field of ABC research appears to be fragmented. Our analysis suggests that the current communication pattern between various research genres is not inclined to enhance the accumulation of accounting knowledge. Applying the ideas of Stegmuller (1969), we conclude that the discussion circles within the accounting academia appear to be estranged to an extent to which the arguments of researchers representing different approaches do not frequently meet each other, resulting in the unfruitful development of knowledge.
TL;DR: This article examined the impact of two features of the organizational context in which budget decisions are made: reputation concerns and variance investigations and found that concern for maintaining a favorable reputation leads to lower budget slack as does the existence of a variance investigation policy.
Abstract: Experimental research and survey studies have yielded conflicting findings about the conditions under which budget slack is likely to arise. This study begins to reconcile the contradictory evidence by examining the impact of two features of the organizational context in which budget decisions are made: reputation concerns and variance investigations. The results of a laboratory experiment show concern for maintaining a favourable reputation leads to lower budget slack as does the existence of a variance investigation policy. The findings extend the agency theory framework by incorporating both pecuniary and non-pecuniary features that influence behavior when budgets have consequences beyond the immediate period. The results also suggest reputation concerns and control system features may serve as cost-effective substitutes for exhaustive incentive contracting in practical settings.
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between accounting practices and spatial practices in two radically different factory premises is examined, and it is argued that accounting practices have the capacity to function as time-space ordering devices and, through networking with spatial practices, provide the scope for managers/administrators to enhance employee surveillance and overall factory discipline.
Abstract: During the eighteenth century, tobacco production in the Royal Tobacco Factory (RTF) of Spain moved from the San Pedro Factory located in downtown Seville to the purpose built New Factories outside the city walls. This paper examines the relationship between accounting practices and spatial practices in these two radically different factory premises. The paper explores how the intervention of detailed accounting calculations into spatial configurations and the intertwining of accounting and spatial practices provide discipline in the factory by yielding calculable spaces and accountable subjects. The spaces produced by architects in the New Factories were subsequently mediated through administrative arrangements that rendered enclosure and partitioning more disciplinary. Moreover, accounting practices were developed as a coding system to reconfigure factory space by classifying it into cost centres, quantifying activities carried out in these cost centres, and rendering spaces visible and subjects accountable. In this context, we argue that accounting practices have the capacity to function as time–space ordering devices, and, through networking with spatial practices, provide the scope for managers/administrators to enhance employee surveillance and overall factory discipline.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the interconnectedness of national politics with global forces and the ramifications of this interaction for the regulation of accounting and the state-profession relationship, and examined the international aspects of an attempt by a group of indigenous auditors in Greece to recapture their monopoly status following the liberalisation of the Greek auditing profession in 1992.
Abstract: In response to recent calls for systematic and in-depth studies of the impact of international forces on local accounting practices, discourses and institutions, this essay explores the interconnectedness of national politics with global forces and the ramifications of this interaction for the regulation of accounting and the state–profession relationship The paper employs Held's (1991) framework [Held, D (1991) Democracy, the nation-state and the global system Economy and Society , 20 (2), 138–172] on the role of the nation state in the age of globalisation, extended to encompass insights from the realist paradigm on international politics, to examine the international aspects of an attempt by a group of indigenous auditors in Greece to recapture their monopoly status, following the ‘liberalisation' of the Greek auditing profession in 1992 The paper explores changes in the state–profession relationship in the era of ‘globalisation' and documents the catalystic role of major states (the USA), politico-economic blocks (the EU), and other powerful international actors It is posited that the politics of international accounting professionalism in the ‘globalisation' era are becoming more polycentric with (lesser) nation-states as merely one level (of diminishing importance) in a complex system of superimposed, overlapping and often competing national and international agencies of governance The lessons to be learned from the Greek experience seem to be relevant to a number of countries — weaker or more important players in the world economy and politics — as they realign the assemblage of government in accounting and in other domains, in response to the progressive internationalisation of the world economy
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the role that the accounting firm organization plays when auditors make difficult client-acceptance decisions in the midst of conflicting influences, specifically between the professional and commercial "logics of action".
Abstract: The objective of this research is to better understand the role that the accounting firm organization plays when auditors make difficult client-acceptance decisions in the midst of conflicting influences—specifically between the professional and commercial “logics of action”. The investigation was conducted via a field study at three Big Six firms located in Canada. The main argument that is developed in the paper is that the firm sets the stage for auditors’ decision-making by making its formal organizational components (e.g., the firm's partner-compensation scheme and decision-making policies) more reflective of one of the two logics, thereby establishing and helping reproduce certain patterns of order and consistency within the firm. However, the firm's organizational components are also to some extent reflective of the other logic, thereby providing decision-makers with a legitimizing space to influence the decision process differently. I present fieldwork data that is consistent with the paper's argument.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze representations of gender in financial annual reports of 30 corporations and conclude that stereotypical images are dominant and the representational practices reinforce the traditional gendered division of labour.
Abstract: This study analyses representations of gender in the financial annual reports of 30 corporations. Building on several critical theoretical perspectives, it examines how annual reports contribute to the gendering of organisations through an empirical study of representations of gender in their texts, statistics and images. The results suggest that stereotypical images are dominant and the representational practices reinforce the traditional gendered division of labour. We conclude that the masculine connotation of financial reports thwarts a more diverse representation of gender in organisations.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the organizational cultures of public accounting firms with data from US affiliated international accounting firms in Taiwan and Taiwanese local firms, and found that while culture is relatively homogeneous across function, differences are found across rank.
Abstract: This study examines the organizational cultures of public accounting firms with data from US affiliated international accounting firms in Taiwan and Taiwanese local firms. Hypotheses are tested about the impact of the national culture of the US firms on their Taiwanese affiliates, and about cultural differences across function and rank. The study extends previous research by (1) examining an oriental country whose culture is significantly different from that of the US, (2) using the Hofstede, G., Neuijen, B., Ohayv, D. D., & Sanders G. (1990). Measuring organizational cultures: a qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, 286–316 practices-based measure of organizational culture, and (3) examining the importance of the fit between employee preferences and organizational culture in influencing organizational commitment, job satisfaction and propensity to remain with the organization. Support is found for the cultural impact and fit hypotheses. Additonally, while culture is found to be relatively homogeneous across function, differences are found across rank.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show how the strength of weak ties between parts of a periphery characterised by inter-colony differences (as well as similarities) imposed constraints on the imperial centre.
Abstract: British imperialism not only changed borders, it made the British model of accounting associations and the imaginary of ‘professional accounting men’ known to spaces far from the metropolis (mother state). Imperialism was thus integrative in this sense. In administrative terms, however, a very large, differentiated and spatially dispersed Empire became expensive. It could not be ruled uniformly or in detail and different governance structures emerged. In the settler colonies, relatively autonomous ‘self-government’ embodying variants of British precedents and institutions, provided a loose coupling of centre and periphery. The accounting associations that developed in this type of colony were, then, not compliant clones of the centre but hybrids reflecting the specificity of place and British accommodation of peripheral demands. The result was the emergence of an imperial accountancy arena. These empirics contribute to our understanding of the nineteenth century professionalisation of accounting as a cross-border phenomenon by showing how the strength of weak ties between parts of a periphery characterised by inter-colony differences (as well as similarities) imposed constraints on the imperial centre.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the results of a study on the emergence and development of an auditing profession in Belgium in the late 1940s and 1950s, focusing on the autonomy and structure of the profession, the services to be provided by the auditors, and access to the profession.
Abstract: This paper presents the results of a study on the emergence and development of an auditing profession in Belgium in the late 1940s and 1950s. Recent research on Anglo-Saxon professions stresses the role of the state in their development. In continental European contexts, the state played an even more significant role, and civil servants in public administration often served as a model for professional organization and behaviour. The main parties that were involved in the creation of the Belgian auditing profession were the state, the employers and the unions. The state maintained a separation between the Belgian profession of independent auditors, the reviseurs d'entreprises, and the associations of accounting professionals, the experts comptables, who tried first to prevent the creation of an auditing profession and then to obtain control over it. This paper demonstrates that the parties in the debate supported different professional models, depending on what they considered the main role of the auditors to be. The debates preceding and following the introduction of the profession focused on the autonomy and structure of the profession, the services to be provided by the auditors, and access to the profession.
Abstract: Over the years several, sometimes conflicting, theories attempting to explain the development of professions have emerged. The “functionalist” and “interactionist” theories have since lost the spotlight to a more critical approach based on the Weberian concept of closure. Limitations in the concept and practice of this neo-Weberain concept have led to suggestions that research into the sociology of professions, should also include historical analyses of professionalism that capture historical specificities with the aim of generating theory that sees beyond “just massive historical variation” [Collins, R. (1990). Changing conceptions in the sociology of the profession. In R. Torstendahl, & M. Burrage, The formation of professions: Knowledge, state and strategy. London: Sage Publications]. Such research should also investigate the structural conditions under which the professionalisation process takes place [Johnson, T. (1977). The profession in the class structure. In R. Scase, Industrial society: Class, cleavage and control. London: George Allen and Unwin.]. In order to achieve this, there is the need to critically study the relationship of the State and the profession [Klegon, D. (1978). The sociology of professions: an emerging perspective. Sociology of Work and Occupations, 5, 3, 259–283.] and to document more extensively, the process, rather than the product, of closure [Chua, W. F., & Paullaos, C. (1993). Rethinking the profession-state dynamic: the case of the Victorian Charter Attempt, 1885–1906, Accounting, Organizations and Society, pp. 128–691; Chua, W. F., & Paullaos, C. (1998). The dynamics of “closure” amidst the construction of market, profession, empire and nationhood: an historical analysis of an Australian Accounting Association. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 23 (2), 155–187; Ramirez, C. (2001). Understanding social closure in its cultural context: accounting practitioners in France (1920–1939), Accounting, Organizations and Society.]. Such is the approach of this article, which focuses on the development of the accounting professions in Nigeria. It critically examines the profession/ State dynamics that have helped shape the outcome of the various episodes in the history of the accounting profession in Nigeria. An important influence in this dynamics is the nature of government in place (i.e. military or civilian).
TL;DR: In this paper, an examination of the nature of consumer credit and accounting's role in its techniques of operation is presented, informed by Foucauldian concepts of disciplinary power and governmentality, revealing that a new mode of record keeping played a decisive role in the creation of an alternative to local knowledge in the granting of credit.
Abstract: The purpose of this essay is to stimulate an examination of the nature of consumer credit and accounting's role in its techniques of operation. The site of this examination is the US department store of the 1920/1930s. Our study, informed by Foucauldian concepts of disciplinary power and governmentality, reveals that a new mode of record keeping played a decisive role in the creation of an alternative to local knowledge in the granting of credit. This manifested itself in new accounting techniques, particularly, the analysis of age-based accounts receivable.
TL;DR: This paper examined the management of traders in financial markets from the perspectives of agency and prospect theory, using interview data from a sample of traders and managers in four investment banks, arguing that managers focus on avoiding losses rather than making gains.
Abstract: The paper examines the management of traders in financial markets from the perspectives of agency and prospect theory. Using interview data from a sample of traders and managers in four investment banks, the paper argues that managers focus on avoiding losses rather than making gains. This focus emerges from the characteristics of managers and the nature of their role. The implications for agency and prospect theory, together with the policy issues for managers, are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the main features of a system of open corporate accountability to active working and middle class investors supported by an evolving capital market operating in late nineteenth century Lancashire are analyzed.
Abstract: This paper analyses the main features of a system of open corporate accountability to active working and middle class investors supported by an evolving capital market operating in late nineteenth century Lancashire. The economic causes and social consequences of the collapse of this system are documented and examined with special reference to the process of accounting change. Centralization of share ownership was associated with the rise of a clique of new investors skilled at mill flotation. This new group of shareholder-entrepreneurs is shown to be the instigator accounting manipulation. Social capital demanded accurate financial information. Co-operative governance allowed shareholders a temporarily effective means of achieving this.
TL;DR: The authors examines the contest between rival interests following the Treasury's decision to explore the potential of "the mercantile system of double entry" bookkeeping as the basis for recording and reporting the financial affairs of British central government.
Abstract: The study examines the contest between rival interests following the Treasury's decision to explore the potential of “the mercantile system of double entry” bookkeeping as the basis for recording and reporting the financial affairs of British central government. At the heart of the ensuing dispute was an ideological conflict between individuals representing the competing interests of the aristocracy and those of the new capitalist classes. The battleground was whether the mercantile system of double entry should be designed to reflect the “old society” priorities of stewardship, patronage and personal accountability or “new society” pressure for a business framework judged capable of achieving “cheap and efficient government”.