Showing papers in "Accounting Organizations and Society in 2009"
TL;DR: The recent financial crisis has led to a vigorous debate about the pros and cons of fair value accounting (FVA) as discussed by the authors, and this debate presents a major challenge for FVA going forward and standard setters' push to extend FVA into other areas.
Abstract: The recent financial crisis has led to a vigorous debate about the pros and cons of fair-value accounting (FVA). This debate presents a major challenge for FVA going forward and standard setters’ push to extend FVA into other areas. In this article, we highlight four important issues as an attempt to make sense of the debate. First, much of the controversy results from confusion about what is new and different about FVA. Second, while there are legitimate concerns about marking to market (or pure FVA) in times of financial crisis, it is less clear that these problems apply to FVA as stipulated by the accounting standards, be it IFRS or US GAAP. Third, historical cost accounting (HCA) is unlikely to be the remedy. There are a number of concerns about HCA as well and these problems could be larger than those with FVA. Fourth, although it is difficult to fault the FVA standards per se, implementation issues are a potential concern, especially with respect to litigation. Finally, we identify several avenues for future research.
810 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse the development of carbon markets: markets in permits to emit greenhouse gases or in credits earned by not emitting them, and discuss the attitude that should be taken to carbon markets (for example by environmentalists) and the possibility of developing a "politics of market design" oriented to making such markets more effective tools of abatement.
Abstract: This paper analyses the development of carbon markets: markets in permits to emit greenhouse gases or in credits earned by not emitting them. It describes briefly how such markets have come into being, and discusses in more detail two aspects of the efforts to ‘make things the same’ in carbon markets: how different gases are made commensurable, and how accountants have struggled to find a standard treatment of ‘emission rights’. The paper concludes by discussing the attitude that should be taken to carbon markets (for example by environmentalists) and the possibility of developing a ‘politics of market design’ oriented to making such markets more effective tools of abatement.
626 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the impact of annual report environmental disclosures and environmental press releases as legitimation tools, and find that environmental legitimacy is significantly and positively affected by the quality of the economic-based segments of environmental disclosures.
Abstract: Using a direct measure of environmental legitimacy, we explore the impact of annual report environmental disclosures and environmental press releases as legitimation tools. The sample comprises North American firms (Canada and the United States). The results obtained show that environmental legitimacy is significantly and positively affected by the quality of the economic-based segments of annual report environmental disclosures and by reactive environmental press releases, but not by proactive press releases. Moreover, our results suggest that negative media legitimacy is a driver of environmental press releases but not of annual report environmental disclosures.
616 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a critique of the operation and adequacy of transparency as a form of accountability is presented, grounded in an ethic of humility and generosity, made possible by a conscious acknowledgement of the ways in which I can never quite know what it is that I am doing.
Abstract: This paper draws on the work of Butler [Butler, J. (2005). Giving an account of oneself. New York: Fordham University Press] to develop a critique of the operation and adequacy of transparency as a form of accountability. The paper begins with an exploration of accountability as subjection explored through Lacan’s account of the social dynamics of recognition, and Freud’s account of guilt. This analysis then informs an exploration of what is argued to be our typically ambivalent embrace of transparency as a form of accountability. The final section of the paper investigates the potential for a more ‘intelligent’ form of accountability, grounded in an ethic of humility and generosity, made possible by a conscious acknowledgement of the ways in which I can never quite know what it is that I am doing.
509 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a discussion of some of the ways in which accounting and other calculative mechanisms are involved in environmental matters is presented, focusing on a number of questions that emerge from accounting for carbon emission permits and corporate environmental reporting.
Abstract: Introducing a discussion of some of the ways in which accounting and other calculative mechanisms are involved in environmental matters, the article focuses on a number of questions that emerge from accounting for carbon emission permits and corporate environmental reporting. Both are areas where there is already a need for more research and where that need will increase in the coming years. Identifying some of the interests and pressures that already influence approaches in the area, the case is made for the need for both critical and facilitative research.
490 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an exploratory analysis of the emergent reporting practices used by social entrepreneurs in terms of their institutional settings and strategic objectives, using three theoretical interpretations to conceptualize the function and effects of reporting, disclosure, and audit in social entrepreneurship.
Abstract: This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the emergent reporting practices used by social entrepreneurs in terms of their institutional settings and strategic objectives. These reporting practices not only account for financial performance but also disclose more nuanced and contingent social and environmental impacts and outcomes. Furthermore, they act as symbolic objects expressing the market orientation of many socially entrepreneurial organizations in that they aim to provide more complete and transparent disclosure of a variety of performance impacts. Conceptually, this paper draws upon approaches developed within the sociology of accounting as institutional practice and uses three theoretical interpretations to conceptualize the function and effects of reporting, disclosure, and audit in social entrepreneurship: positivist; critical theorist; and interpretative. A discussion of five case studies leads to the development of a new theoretical construct - 'Blended Value Accounting' - that constitutes a spectrum of disclosure logics used by social entrepreneurs to access resources and realize organizational mission objectives with key stakeholders. Conclusions consider some further questions around socially entrepreneurial reporting practices and strategies and suggest some new lines of research going forward.
477 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest that an impoverished notion of risk appetite is part of the "intellectual failure" at the heart of the financial crisis and suggest that risk appetite should be understood more as the consequence of a dynamic organizational process involving values as much as metrics.
Abstract: This essay challenges core elements of enterprise risk management (ERM) and suggests that an impoverished conception of ‘risk appetite’ is part of the ‘intellectual failure’ at the heart of the financial crisis. Regulators, senior management and boards must understand risk appetite more as the consequence of a dynamic organizational process involving values as much as metrics. In addition, ERM has operated as a boundary preserving model of risk management subject to the ‘logic of the audit trail’, rather than a boundary challenging practice which confronts and addresses the complex realities of interconnectedness. The security provided by ERM is at best limited to certain states of the world and at worst it is illusory – the risk management of nothing. In contrast, Business continuity management (BCM) may provide clues about how risk management might be reconstructed.
454 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that many financial enterprises have sought state support within a short period of receiving unqualified audit opinion and that auditors collected large amounts in audit and non-audit fees.
Abstract: Against the backdrop of the current financial crisis, this paper seeks to stimulate debates about contemporary auditing practices. It notes that many financial enterprises have sought state support within a short period of receiving unqualified audit opinion. Auditors collected large amounts in audit and non-audit fees. The events raise questions about the value of company audits, auditor independence and quality of audit work, economic incentives for good audits and the knowledge base of auditors.
448 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that carbon trading is an exceptional site for identifying the stakes involved in such experiments and for identifying better what the dynamics of civilizing markets could be.
Abstract: The creation of carbon markets is one of the solutions currently envisaged to meet the widely recognized challenge of global warming. The contributions in this special section of Accounting, Organizations and Society show that many controversies nevertheless exist on the ways in which these markets are organized, the calculative tools that are devised to equip them, and the role that they are supposed to play, especially in relation to other types of intervention which favour political measures or technological research. In light of these controversies, the article considers carbon markets as on-going collective experiments. It is argued that carbon trading is an exceptional site for identifying the stakes involved in such experiments and for identifying better what the dynamics of civilizing markets could be.
435 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that the level of information system integration fosters the four design characteristics that make up an enabling approach to management control, and each of these in turn is related to both perceived system success and business unit performance.
Abstract: The literature has demonstrated the complex relationship between information system integration approaches, such as Enterprise Resource Planning systems, and management control. In this paper, we begin our analysis by focussing on just one aspect of information system integration, namely in terms of data architecture, commonly referred to as the single database concept. We argue that whilst this particular aspect of integration should be related to perceived system success, the variety of ways in which information might be drawn on in practice means it provides no strong basis for predicting a link to business unit performance. Instead, building on Adler and Borys [Adler, P., & Borys, B. (1996). Two types of bureaucracy: Enabling and coercive. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41 (1), 61–90] we argue that the level of information system integration fosters the four design characteristics that make up an enabling approach to management control. Each of these in turn is related to both perceived system success and business unit performance. We present PLS analysis of survey data collected from 169 managers that broadly supports these expectations.
395 citations
TL;DR: The authors conducted an online survey of Canadian chartered accountants and found that, contrary to current accusations, a majority of accounting professionals remain committed to their profession, despite profound changes in the context, content and location of their work.
Abstract: This study analyses the degree to which change in the organizational context , content and location ( both of the individual within the organization and the organization within the field ) of professional work has contributed to variation in attitudes toward professional ideology and institutions. Through an online survey of Canadian chartered accountants we observe that, contrary to current accusations, a majority of accounting professionals remain committed to their profession, despite profound changes in the context, content and location of their work. We do find, however, that the strongest espoused deviation from core professional values and logics has occurred in traditional work contexts (i.e. public accounting firms), and for the distinctive value of commitment to independence enforcement, the deviation is most pronounced in the elite core of the profession – the Big Four professional service firms. Accountants in higher ranks also tend to identify more with commercialistic values. We speculate on the implications these findings hold for the professional project of accountancy.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the concrete conflicts, contradictions and resistances engendered by environmental accounting techniques and the perpetually incomplete efforts of accountants and their allies to overcome them, and explore how costbenefit analysis and the carbon accounting techniques required by the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and other carbon trading mechanisms "frame" new agents, spaces, relations and objects, and what the consequences have been and are likely to be.
Abstract: Many champions of environmental accounting suggest that calculating and internalizing ‘externalities’ is the solution to environmental problems. Many critics of neoliberalism counter that the spread of market-like calculations into ‘non-market’ spheres, is, on the contrary, itself at the root of such problems. This article proposes setting aside this debate and instead closely examining the concrete conflicts, contradictions and resistances engendered by environmental accounting techniques and the perpetually incomplete efforts of accountants and their allies to overcome them. In particular, it explores how cost–benefit analysis and the carbon accounting techniques required by the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and other carbon trading mechanisms ‘frame’ new agents, spaces, relations and objects, and what the consequences have been and are likely to be.
TL;DR: The methodological and theoretical gaps in accounting research that explain our failure to anticipate the crisis and limit our ability to analyze and respond to it are discussed in this article, with the focus on the shortcomings of accounting practices.
Abstract: Accounting practices are deeply implicated in the current financial crisis and in proposals for recapitalizing financial institutions and restoring stability to the global financial system. This essay discusses the methodological and theoretical gaps in accounting research that explain our failure to anticipate the crisis and limit our ability to analyze and respond to it.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how regulatory relationships in the global audit arena are being affected by the current financial crisis, along with institutional interactions, in particular between the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), international regulators and the large audit firms.
Abstract: This paper explores how regulatory relationships in the global audit arena are being affected by the current financial crisis. Key policy initiatives and debates are analyzed, along with institutional interactions, in particular between the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), international regulators and the large audit firms. The events are placed in the context of the new international financial architecture which has developed over the last decade. Using the illustrative lens of bank auditing, questions are asked of the nature and status of audit practice and the regulatory arrangements governing such practice. The paper shows the active nature of the regulatory responses to the crisis and the shifting and competing influences among key regulatory and professional participants in the global audit arena. Emphasis is placed on the need for audit researchers to be sensitive to the developing global financial architecture, and its potential implications for the study of audit practice in different national and international contexts.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the accountable self as an opaque, exposed, and mediated self that is inherently limited in its ability to give an account of itself, and point out the ethical importance of recognizing this limited nature of accountability.
Abstract: Calls for greater accountability from managers and corporations are regularly voiced these days, both in the academic literature and in public discussions more generally. Specifically, it is often suggested that extant financial and management accounting practices embody a rather restricted form of accountability that falls short of our mutual responsibilities as more than economic subjects. Against this backdrop, this paper raises the question of whether more accountability is always and unambiguously desirable from an ethical point of view. It does so by inquiring into the limits that the accountable self faces when giving an account. Building upon the recent work of Judith Butler, the paper describes the accountable self as an opaque, exposed, and mediated self that is inherently limited in its ability to give an account of itself. Because of these limits, we cannot expect demands for accountability always to be fully met. The paper points to the ethical importance of recognizing this limited nature of accountability and outlines possible ramifications of this fact for practice.
TL;DR: In this paper, the adoption of MCS in product development, arguably one of the business processes where innovation plays a major role, was examined in a sample of 69 early-stage entrepreneurial companies, and data were collected from questionnaires and interviews with each of the CEO, financial officer, and business development managers pertaining to product development MCS.
Abstract: Recent theoretical and empirical work indicates that management control systems (MCS) are an important element in enhancing innovation. We extend this research thrust examining the adoption of MCS in product development, arguably one of the business processes where innovation plays a major role. Using a sample of 69 early-stage entrepreneurial companies, data are collected from questionnaires and interviews with each of the CEO, financial officer, and business development managers pertaining to product development MCS. We examine seven different systems: project milestones, reports comparing actual progress to plan, budget for development projects, project selection process, product portfolio roadmap, product concept testing process, and project team composition guidelines. We address three distinct questions: (1) What are the reasons-for-adoption of these systems? The nature of our sample allows us to trace back to the adoption point and develop a set of reasons-for-adoption from the analysis of the data. While MCS fulfill certain roles as described in the literature, these reasons-for-adoption are distinct from these roles. Results indicate that certain events lead managers to adopt these systems and address the challenges that they face. They include contracting and legitimizing the process with external parties and internal reasons-for-adoption such as managers’ background, learning by doing, need to focus the organization, or reaction to problems. (2) Are these reasons-for-adoption associated with differences across companies in the time from their founding date until these systems are adopted (time-to-adoption)? Prior research has looked at the covariance of various organizational variables with this timing; this study goes a step further by looking at the effect of different reasons-for-adoption on this timing. Our evidence finds an association between these two variables. (3) Are these reasons-for-adoption relevant to performance? We find that the reason-for-adoption is associated with the on-time dimension of product development performance.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate whether the SPMS characteristics are associated with perceived organizational fairness and the extent to which employees perceive that a strategic performance measurement system reflects a strategic causal model and the degree to which it is technically valid are positively associated with their perceptions of organizational justice.
Abstract: Economic theory suggests that multiple financial and non-financial measures (i.e., a strategic performance measurement system “SPMS”) be used in compensation contracting to properly direct employees’ attention and motivate behavior aligned with organizational goals. Conversely, linking incentives to the SPMS can result in various dysfunctional behaviors, including game playing by employees, the achievement of unbalanced performance, and the potential of basing compensation on an incomplete performance measurement system. Prior literature has investigated the use of subjectivity in compensation contracting as a means of potentially mitigating these problems; however, subjectivity can introduce other problems including claims of favoritism and bias. Economic theorists have recently begun expanding the traditional agency model to include the notion of fairness or justice. In this study, we obtain data from an organization that uses an SPMS as the basis for the allocation of bonuses and investigate whether characteristics of the SPMS are associated with perceived organizational fairness. Specifically, we hypothesize and show that the extent to which employees perceive that the SPMS reflects a strategic causal model and the degree to which it is technically valid are positively associated with their perceptions of organizational justice. We also provide evidence that heightened levels of organizational justice are the mechanism though which the perceived characteristics of the SPMS are associated with employee performance. The implication is that firms do not necessarily need to introduce subjectivity into the incentive contracting system, but can enhance performance by linking incentive contracts to their SPMS if the system contains characteristics that enhance employees’ perceptions of justice.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the conditions which allow the emergence of accounting as a performable technique that can spread successfully across economies and societies, drawing on insights offered by studies on the art of memory, Actor-Network Theory, and that broader branch of history known as the history of the book.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explore the conditions which allow the emergence of accounting as a performable technique that can spread successfully across economies and societies. Drawing on insights offered by studies on the art of memory, Actor-Network Theory, and that broader branch of history known as the history of the book, it is argued that the emergence and spread of accounting can be understood by studying the relationships among four interrelated aspects: the nature of accounting as a method of classification for the organisation of thinking and knowledge; its reliance on images and its visual impact; its ‘orthopraxis’ nature, which offers a workable space and time; and the relationships between accounting and the medium through in which it materialises. The combination of these four features explains how it is that accounting is a practice which is homogeneous enough to be recognised as autonomous and heterogeneous enough to attract diversity and create difference. I was motivated to study these issues after examining two early accounting treatises: the Indirizzo degli Economi, by the Benedictine, Pietra (1586) [Pietra, A. (1586). Indirizzo degli economi o sia ordinatissima istruttione da regolamente formare qualunque scrittura in un libro doppio. Aggiuntovi l’essemplare di un Libro nobile co ‘l suo Giornale ad uso della Congregatione Cassinese dell’Ordine in San Benedetto. Mantova: Francesco Osanna]; and the Trattato del libro doppio domestico col suo essemplare, by the Jesuit, Flori (1636) , [Flori, L. (1636). Trattato del modo di tenere il libro doppio domestico col suo essemplare composto dal P. Lodovico Flori della Compagnia di Gesu per uso delle case e dei collegi della medesima Compagnia nel Regno di Sicilia, in Palermo, per Decio Cirillo]. Along with studies examining the emergence of modern management as a result of an economic need for rationalisation, the paper offers material for reflecting on a concomitant rationale which views innovations in the method of organisation, visual presentation, medium of communication, and praxis, as the mayor forces in the diffusion of accounting in both historical and contemporary settings.
TL;DR: In this article, a group of essays and articles on the implications of the current economic and financial crisis for accounting practice and research are presented, highlighting the importance of having a wider understanding of an organization's information environment.
Abstract: Introducing a group of essays and articles on the implications of the current economic and financial crisis for accounting practice and research, this article provides an overview of some of the principal issues and themes. Noting that very little research has been done on the management accounting implications of such crises, particular consideration is given to exploring the significance of and potential for research on this topic. Drawing on unpublished research and personal experiences, the importance of having a wider understanding of an organization’s information environment is stressed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse stable and durable relationships as being the results of interaction between control and trust building, and propose an additional conceptualisation of accounting as a trust building technology.
Abstract: This paper theorises the accounting-control-trust nexus in interfirm transactional relationships. In the context of such relationships, accounting has predominantly been conceptualised as a control technology. However, in our paper we analyse stable and durable relationships as being the results of interaction between control and trust building. Such an analysis calls for an additional conceptualisation of accounting as a trust building technology. Furthermore, we explain the interaction between accounting for control and accounting for trust building in the context of a process of embedded agency. Accounting for control is underpinned by a governance structure, which includes accounting structures that have the potential to act as safeguarding and incentivizing devices with the aim of aligning long-term interests. The governance structure is flanked by trust from the institutional environment of the transactional relationship. Accounting for trust building originates from voluntary local decisions to show commitment to the relationship. It takes the form of ad hoc calculations and accounts and becomes a device for relational signalling. Adequate interaction between accounting for control and accounting for trust building results in stable and durable interfirm transactional relationships.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the movement of a specific brand of commercial consumer credit analytics into mortgage underwriting, and demonstrate that what might look like the spontaneous rise (and fall) of a free market divested of direct government intervention has been thoroughly embedded in the concerted movement of calculative risk management technologies.
Abstract: The investment fueled US mortgage market has traditionally been sustained by New Deal institutions called government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). Known as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the GSEs once dominated mortgage backed securities underwriting. The recent subprime mortgage crisis has drawn attention to the fact that during the real estate boom, these agencies were temporarily overtaken by risk tolerant channels of lending, securitization, and investment, driven by investment banks and private capital players. This research traces the movement of a specific brand of commercial consumer credit analytics into mortgage underwriting. It demonstrates that what might look like the spontaneous rise (and fall) of a ‘free’ market divested of direct government intervention has been thoroughly embedded in the concerted movement of calculative risk management technologies. The transformations began with a sequence of GSE decisions taken in the mid-1990’s to implement a consumer risk score called a FICO ® into automated underwriting systems. Having been endorsed by the GSEs, this scoring tool was gradually hardwired throughout the industry to become a distributed and collective ‘market device’. As the paper will show, once modified by specific GSE interpretations the calculative properties generated by these credit bureau scores reconfigured mortgage finance into two parts: the conventional, risk-adverse, GSE conforming ‘prime’ and an infrastructurally distinct, risk-avaricious, investment grade ‘subprime’.
TL;DR: The authors examined the relation between managers' use of discretionary accruals and environmental uncertainty and found that managers use discretionary accounting accrual to reduce the variability in reported earnings more when firms operate in high uncertainty.
Abstract: Although an organization’s environmental uncertainty may induce greater variability in reported earnings, managers have incentives to reduce this variability. The flexibility accorded by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) provides managers the means to accomplish this via exercising discretion in recognizing accounting accruals. Thus, we examine the relation between managers’ use of discretionary accruals and environmental uncertainty. Overall, evidence suggests managers use discretionary accruals to reduce the variability in reported earnings more when firms operate in high uncertainty.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the remarkable success of today's financial risk management methods should be attributed primarily to their communicative and organizational usefulness and less to the accuracy of the results they produced.
Abstract: Is the growth of modern financial risk management a result of the accuracy and reliability of risk models? This paper argues that the remarkable success of today’s financial risk management methods should be attributed primarily to their communicative and organizational usefulness and less to the accuracy of the results they produced. This paper traces the intertwined historical paths of financial risk management and financial derivatives markets. Spanning from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, the paper analyses the social, political and organizational factors that underpinned the exponential success of one of today’s leading risk management methodologies, the applications based on the Black–Scholes–Merton options pricing model. Using primary documents and interviews, the paper shows how financial risk management became part of central market practices and gained reputation among the different organisational market participants (trading firms, the options clearinghouse and the securities regulator). Ultimately, the events in the aftermath of the market crash of October 1987 showed that the practical usefulness of financial risk management methods overshadowed the fact that when financial risk management was critically needed the risk model was inaccurate.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on stakeholder theory to explore organizations' use of different types of environmental audits and find that significant variations in the use of environmental auditing are associated with differences in stakeholder influences, and that more nuanced treatment is needed when evaluating these audits.
Abstract: While the use of internal, external, and both types of environmental audits are becoming more pervasive in society, little is known about the stakeholder influences associated with their use, in large part because previous research has viewed them as a uniform type of management practice. This study draws on stakeholder theory to explore organizations’ use of different types of environmental audits. It uses international manufacturing data to show that significant variations in the use of environmental audits are associated with differences in stakeholder influences, and that a more nuanced treatment is needed when evaluating these audits.
TL;DR: Camfferman and Zeff as discussed by the authors reviewed the organizational development of the IASC and contextualized it in the broader literature of cross-border standardization in accounting, taking a clear Anglo-American perspective.
Abstract: The development of the current International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) from the earlier International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) provides insight into many issues of international financial reporting, among them the characteristics of international accounting standards themselves. This article reviews Camfferman and Zeff’s [Camfferman, K., & Zeff, S. A. (2007). Financial reporting and global capital markets. A history of the international accounting standards committee 1973–2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press] volume on the organizational development of the IASC and contextualizes it in the broader literature of cross-border standardization in accounting. While having produced a seminal piece, the authors take a clear Anglo-American perspective. The downsides are insufficiencies regarding a simplistic understanding of experts and expertise, a neglect of the role of auditing firms, and only an imbalanced integration of different stakeholders.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show how management accounting calculations rather than describing the properties of innovation add perspective to them mediating between innovation concerns and firmwide concerns through short and long translations.
Abstract: Management accounting calculations relate innovation to the firm through translations where both can change. Based on examples of the management of innovation from three firms the study shows how management accounting calculations rather than describe the properties of innovation add perspective to them mediating between innovation concerns and firm-wide concerns. This mediation happens through short and long translations. In short translations, management accounting calculations extend or reduce innovation activities via a single calculation. In long translations innovation activities are problematised via multiple calculations. When calculations challenge each other in long translations they problematise not only what innovation should be, but also where it should be located in time and space. In the three examples, calculations mobilised alternative propositions about the relevance of technical artefacts and linked this to innovation strategy and sourcing strategy in the firm’s inter-organisational relations. Tensions between calculations associated with technological, organisational and environmental entities framed considerations about the value of innovation to the firm strategically differently. All this happens because management accounting calculations are partial rather than total calculations of firms’ affairs and value.
TL;DR: The European Union Emissions Trading Directive (EU ETS) as discussed by the authors was developed by an issue-specific policy network established by some staff members from DG Environment, including experts from consultancies, environmental NGOs and the business sector.
Abstract: This paper starts with a recapitulation of how emissions trading became a cornerstone of the European Union’s climate policy. While a whole bouquet of reasons can be identified the major reasons why the EU Commission decided to pursue the establishment of an emissions trading scheme within the EU are: (1) the integration of international emissions trading into the Kyoto Protocol; (2) the failure of the 6th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the withdrawal of the United States from the Kyoto Protocol negotiations; and (3) the unsuccessful attempt to introduce an EU-wide CO2-tax. Other reasons were the fact that emissions trading did not need unanimity in the European Council like the CO2-tax; the economic efficiency of emissions trading which appealed not only to the Commission but also to industry and Member States; the danger of a fragmented carbon market as the United Kingdom and Denmark had already set up domestic emissions trading schemes that were incompatible; the incentive a European emissions trading scheme would be for the formation of a global carbon market; and the possibility to influence investment strategies of power companies towards a sustainable modernisation of the EU’s power generation infrastructure.
Drawing upon these preconditions, this paper analyses the development of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Based on the fact that the EU is embedded in a multi-level policy-making architecture which encourages the emergence of policy networks it is argued that the EU ETS has been shaped by an (informal) issue-specific policy network established by some staff members from DG Environment, including individuals knowledgeable on emissions trading – such as experts from consultancies, environmental NGOs and the business sector. It is argued that within this European policy network on emissions trading the European Emissions Trading Directive – as adopted on 13 October 2003 – has been negotiated and developed. It is concluded that the sharing of knowledge about this relatively new and largely unknown regulatory instrument and about design options for a potential European emissions trading scheme was the key momentum for the establishment and continuity of this policy network and that the ability of managing knowledge generation processes was the main factor to allow for a few staff members from DG Environment to play a dominant role as policy entrepreneurs in developing the European Emissions Trading Directive, even beyond their formal role of proposing the scheme as representatives from the EU Commission.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that a source of this incoherence is the transformation of the US accounting academy into a sub-discipline of financial economics, a transformation in which accounting became a servant of the imaginary world of neoclassical economics.
Abstract: West [West, B. (2003). Professionalism and accounting rules. London: Routledge] and Chambers [Chambers, R. J. (1966). Accounting evaluation and economic behavior. Houston: Scholars Book Company] have provocatively argued that financial reporting has reached a state of near-total incoherence. In this paper, we argue that a source of this incoherence is the transformation of the US accounting academy into a sub-discipline of financial economics, a transformation in which accounting became a servant of the imaginary world of neoclassical economics. After noting the unusually prominent role of rules within the accounting profession, we describe the displacement of accounting’s centuries-old root metaphor of accountability by the metaphor of information usefulness, and situate that displacement within neoliberalism, a broader political movement that arose after World War II. Finally, we use SFAS 123R, the recently issued stock option standard, as a case study of the incoherence that West and Chambers assert. Through various issues – such as reflexivity, theory paradox, and unexplained questions of responsibility – we demonstrate the logical inconsistencies involved in SFAS 123F. The incoherence of stock option reporting rules raises serious questions about the information metaphor as a foundation for either individual rules or the standard setting process. The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) attempts to make the imaginary world of neoclassical economics real have resulted in rules which are not defensible. “We may start with a simple observation: so far as modern scientists know no one, not even the most adapt (sic) fakirs and clairvoyants, have ever learned anything from the future (all emphases in original)” Carl Thomas Devine (1962, p. 13). In his critique of current accounting theory, West observed that accounting failures and public relations crises tend to precipitate “calls for formally stated accounting rules,” (2003, p. 106). A highly salient and contentious example of the accounting profession’s rule-making response is the recent well-publicized battle over accounting for stock options in the US. The history of stock option accounting is the history of an accounting problem never solved. In the US the use of stock options was blamed as a key feature of the irrational exuberance driving the stock bubble of the late 1990s (Berenson, 2003 and Walters and Young, 2008); when that bubble burst, the stock market declined dramatically. As a way to restore the public’s confidence in capital markets, legislators and public accounting rule-makers seized upon changing the required accounting for stock options, exhibiting a conventional faith that disclosing the magnitude of such compensation to market participants would lead to market solutions to the problem. Instead of asking whether stock option abuses could be addressed more effectively by taxation or other regulations, the accounting profession created yet another complicated rule to provide greater “transparency.” If legislators and rule-makers could create new rules to address the abuse of stock options, then perhaps less attention would be paid to deeper, more systemic problems underlying the practice and structure of capital markets and of public accounting. We use the FASB’s rules on stock option accounting (Statement of Financial Accounting Standards 123R, henceforth SFAS 123R) as a case study illustrating the incoherence of accounting that West (2003) describes. We look first at the unusually prominent role of rules in public accounting. We then describe the current root metaphor (information) which provides the underlying rationale for the form and content of accounting rules and explore the earlier metaphor it explicitly replaced. We then look at how the metaphor of information usefulness emerged in the US and contributed to the formation of current stock option reporting rules. We expose the internal contradictions within stock option reporting rules, which arise because of theoretical weaknesses underlying the current information usefulness metaphor. Finally, we briefly look at what we believe the resulting incoherence within the stock option reporting rules tells us about accounting theorizing and standard setting.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the network of rule and use social network analysis to document the linked organizations, both domestic and international, that affect the creation of accounting and auditing standards in Canada.
Abstract: Rose and Miller [Rose, N., & Miller, P. (1992). Political power beyond the state: Problematics of government. British Journal of Sociology, 43 (2), 173–205] note that governmentality is exercised through “centers of calculation” embedded in “networks of rule;” we focus on the “networks of rule” and use social network analysis to document the linked organizations, both domestic and international, that affect the creation of accounting and auditing standards in Canada. The network is defined as the set of regulatory bodies and other organizations that have the right to appoint (or approve the appointment of) members of another organization’s standard-setting body. The network consists of 61 organizations, sharing 131 interlocks. These organizations are clustered into four groups centered on, respectively, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Canadian Securities Administrators, International Federation of Accountants and the IOSCO/World Bank. The analysis identifies the boundaries of these clusters and the key organizations that maintain the cohesion of the network. The conclusion identifies research opportunities opened by this perspective on accounting and auditing regulation.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the trust in the superior depends on the formality of the performance evaluation procedure and that this relationship is mediated by managerial perceptions of justice and feedback, and that formality matters more for trust formation for those managers that are in functions with less contractible outputs.
Abstract: An important question in the control literature concerns the role of interpersonal trust in the design and functioning of formal control systems for collaborative settings. In this paper, we argue that subordinate’s trust in the superior depends on the formality of the performance evaluation procedure and that this relationship is mediated by managerial perceptions of justice and feedback. The findings confirm our predictions. Furthermore, we find that formality matters more for trust formation for those managers that are in functions with less contractible outputs.