Costs and regulation in the U.K. telecommunications industry

This article is written in the belief that it is important to encourage research into accounting for regulated industries. It seeks to illustrate this by considering as an exemplar the use of Accounting Separation (using regulated industry nomenclature) and hierarchical costing systems in the U.K. telecommunications industry concentrating on their use by BT and the telecommunications regulator. Accounting Separation seeks to use accounting means to partition the organization into elements as independent as possible from other parts of the organization. The published output of this system is meant to inform competitors of BT's costs for the regulated network components they use. These costs are also used in setting interconnection charges. These are charges that other operators pay for connecting with and using the BT system. This is not the accounting system used in decision making by BT. Nor does it represent the only accounting information obtained by the regulator. The focus of this article is upon how far the BT accounting system satisfies the accounting conditions required to allow the incremental costs and stand alone costs of the partitioned elements of the organization to be determined in a setting using a hierarchical accounting system. Methods of overcoming some of the identified problems are suggested. The importance of correct approaches to joint costs is highlighted concentrating on the treatment of joint costs in regulation. The accounting ideas discussed here would seem to have application well beyond regulated firms but seem neglected generally in management accounting.     

组织文化、环境不确定性与管理会计信息认知

管理会计是一门应用性学科,它围绕组织的价值创造服务于企业实践。组织文化在其核心价值观的传递与解释过程中会对管理会计信息的认知程度产生影响,也会改变人们对环境不确定性的态度。管理会计信息支持系统通过对信息有用性的甄别与分析,提高人们对管理会计信息的认知能力,进一步使管理会计控制系统发挥更大的作用,提高管理会计的效率与效果。     

Hardening soft accounting information: Games for planning organizational change

This study provides theory and field evidence on the social process of hardening soft accounting information to make it persuasive for planning organizational change. Accounting information intended to support organizational change is often soft, that is, there is lack of interpersonal agreement about its quality. For example, employees can lack agreement about the quality of accounting information (e.g., activity-based costing) because the information is constructed from subjective information obtained from interviews and surveys. This information can contain unintentional errors as well as intentional distortions that are intended to avoid revealing embarrassing inefficiencies and/or to resist painful organizational change. We use concepts from applied game theory and social psychology to identify from the accounting literature four multi-person games that may be played to harden soft accounting information. These hardening games are characterized in terms of payoffs, players, the comparability of soft accounting information, and the rules of the games that are expected to emerge. We interpret the field evidence as indicating that the hardening games that emerge depend on who the players are and the comparability of their soft accounting information. In addition, we provide evidence on how the rules of the games that harden the information emerge from the players’ social interactions. Finally, we provide evidence on how an organization learns by trial-and-error how to harden soft accounting information by changing the players and the comparability of the soft accounting information.     

Controllers’ role in managerial sensemaking and information trust building in a business intelligence environment

This study explores how an organization’s controllers (management accountants) give sense to the information provided by its business intelligence (BI) system, and thus shape the construction of information trust. A qualitative case study was conducted within a Finnish food manufacturing company, building on the notion of trust related to management accounting information and sensemaking theory. The study was informed through open-ended interviews and an examination of internal accounting and management reports. The authors found that the company used an integrated BI system that enabled the production of information in a timely and perceivably standardized manner. Controllers managed this accounting information and gave sense to it, helping deliver a shared understanding of the daily business situation. The findings show that controllers play a pivotal role in building information trust by giving sense to the information provided by the BI system.     

Accounting logics, reconfiguration of ERP systems and the emergence of new accounting practices: A sociomaterial perspective

This paper extends our knowledge on how software-based accounting tools might work effectively within an organization. The empirical data that we focus on are events that unfolded following the introduction of a new ERP system at an Ivy League University. We describe a negotiation process that occurred after roll-out that resulted in a reconfiguration of the ERP to integrate some of the legacy functionalities that were familiar to organizational participants and which were considered by them to provide a more effective way to manage their finances. Our contribution to the literature is not only to show the importance of such post-roll-out modifications for creating a working information system, but also to extend previous accounts of non-linear accounting change processes by emphasizing how these modifications are dependent on the particular entanglement of users and technology (the sociomaterial assemblage) rather than either features of the technology or the agency of the humans involved. Moreover, our analysis of the case data suggests that management accounting in particular may not be easily captured in ERP packages, even where the technology architectures are supposedly designed for a particular industry. The case data also points to issues of affordability and the power of communities of practice as mediating the extent to which these familiar accounting logics may become integrated within the ERP system.     

Accounting and budgeting systems: The issue of congruency

The importance of designing an accounting system that is congruent with an organization's budgeting system has been noted in the literature. Unfortunately, in many government organization it is common to find incompatible budgeting and accounting systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether gearing the accounting information system to a zero-base budgeting system increases the perceived usefulness of the budgeting process. This issue is examined under conditions of both scare and abundant resources. Based on an empirical study, it is shown that the usefulness of a budgeting system to budget recipients may indeed be dependent on the accounting information system, conditioned on the availability of resources. Given the relationship between budgeting and public policy, implications of the study for the public policy making process are discussed.     

会计信息披露政府监管的经济后果——来自中国证券市场的经验证据

本文选取会计稳健性作为衡量会计信息质量指标,运用股票收益模型和盈余持续性模型来考察深沪证券交易所设立的诚信档案制度对上市公司会计信息质量的改善程度,籍此评价政府有关机构对我国证券市场会计监管措施的效果。研究结果表明:诚信档案制度对我国上市公司的会计信息质量提高具有一定的促进作用,但作用效果并不十分显著。这说明,我国政府部门对证券市场实施的一系列会计监管措施,在一定程度上能够发挥作用,从而达到缓解会计信息失真,完善市场机制的目的。     

论会计原则体系的重构

我国理论及实务界对于什么是会计原则、会计原则的内容体系应如何构建、会计原则与会计信息质量特征的关系如何界定等问题存在不同见解,影响会计规范体系的建立和健全。文章从逻辑学的角度,结合会计原则的本质,界定了会计原则的概念,揭示了会计原则与会计信息质量特征之间的关系,重构了会计原则体系的内容,为合理构建我国会计规范体系,会计信息质量特征体系,提供了一种新的思路和视野。     

信息化背景下中国企业会计职能拓展

会计职能的拓展往往以信息化建设作为实现路径。本文从信息化建设的基本定位、信息化建设方式和信息化运行等三个方面分别探讨了信息化条件下会计职能转型的具体特征,为会计职能拓展、强化公司管理决策的财务导向提供理论支持。     

构建国库会计分析框架模式研究

国库作为人民银行的重要职能部门,在经理国库、协调财政政策与货币政策的配合方面有着重要作用,本篇通过对国库会计数据整理及研究,运用数学统计和比较方法,结合财政与货币政策执行的重点信息,以建立国库会计分析框架体系为主导思想,力求通过国库会计分析准确全面地描述国库资金运行特点及变化,从国库税收和支出规模角度反映社会经济运行水平,预测及反馈财政政策的实施效果及对社会经济的影响。     

Ferranti and the accountant, 1896-1975: The struggle between priorities and reality

As a firm which was owned and managed by three generations of the same family over the period 1896-1975, Ferranti was one of the most innovative and successful British electrical and electronics companies of its era. The family remained committed to a technology-led strategy which was implemented through a highly devolved form of organization, giving departmental managers considerable freedom to develop new ideas. This long-termism was also backed up by an extensive reporting system which evolved over the period after 1896, providing senior management with accurate information on both corporate and departmental performance. The article considers how the family matched the images conjured up by the accounting data with the commitment to engineering innovation, concluding that the latter frequently remained the most important priority in this highly unusual British firm.     

Continuity and change in British cost accounting development: the case of Hawthorn Ieslie,shipbuilders and engineers, 1886–1914

This article examines the cost accounting system of a British shipbuilding and engineering firm during the late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries. Research findings indicate a high level of continuity in the essential features of the system, with a trend to produce information outside of the accounting ledgers in order to satisfy managerial information requirements. Furthermore, while accounting information provided the basis for much routine decision making and control, it played only a limited role in strategic decision making which was underlain by social and cultural considerations. The current research adds to the body of work of the neoclassical revisionists in building a new conventional wisdom of the development of British cost accounting.     

Rational, rationalizing, and reifying uses of accounting data in organizations

This paper reports the results of a longitudinal field study of information use in a public sector organization. The investigation focused on the extent to which the use of cost accounting data by military repair facilities in the U.S. fits one of three conceptual models of information use. The models reflected the technical-rational, socio-political and institutional perspectives on organisations. Data were obtained by visiting 14 military installations, interviewing 95 people in depth, examining archival data, and conducting in-depth studies of problem areas within the cost system. The study included data covering a period of 22 years. Results indicated little use of the cost data consistent with the technical-rational perspective. Most uses of the data were consistent with either the social-political or institutional perspectives. The study also revealed interesting dynamic properties of the system over time such as the change in the patterns of data use from socio-political and institutional to technical-rational, and the creation of new users for the system.     

Utilising a typology of management accounting change: An empirical analysis

Management accounting change, currently an increasingly popular focus for research, is not a uniform phenomenon. Its nature and form may vary across multiple dimensions and this variation has been neglected by researchers who have tended to study change per se rather than distinguishing it though a categorisation by type. This paper explores the forms which management accounting change has taken in a sample of manufacturing companies by utilising a simple typology of management accounting system change, derived from the existing research literature, consisting of addition, replacement, output modification, operational modification and reduction. This classification is combined with information on the incidence, location, importance and success of management accounting changes to provide some analytical insights into the variety and patterns of change within these companies and to derive some guidance for future research on the topic.     

上市公司偏好、政府策略选择与会计信息失真均衡

上市公司会计信息失真可分为治理性失真、竞争性失真和干预性失真三大类.模型均衡表明,寡占博弈下的竞争性失真由真假会计信息市场信息产品边际净收益决定,与干预性、企业性因素无关,而干预性失真则由政府干预策略选择、干预强度、企业偏好和会计信息产品边际净收益等企业性、市场性和干预性三大因素决定.三大因素不对称地影响上市公司和市场的会计信息均衡,并通过改变干预性失真均衡而改变上市公司和市场会计信息绝对和相对均衡,以调节上市公司和市场的会计信息质量.实际市场信息失真主要是竞争性失真和干预性失真叠加的结果.     

论我国会计信息质量特征体系的构建

会计信息质量特征是现代会计理论体系中的重要组成部分,与会计目标间存在着较为密切的内在逻辑关系.构建一套系统完善的会计信息质量特征体系不仅有利于会计理论的进一步发展完善,而且对于全面有效地提高会计信息质量水准、遏制日益严重的会计信息失真具有重要意义.本文拟借鉴国内外这方面的研究成果,结合我国的会计环境以及已有的原则性规定,提出会计信息质量特征体系构建问题上的一些设想.     

Changes in accounting and financial information system in a Spanish electricity company: A new institutional theory analysis

This paper reports on the results of an intensive case study that investigated changes in the accounting and financial information system of a large Spanish electricity company (Sevillana). Sevillana was acquired by the Endesa Group upon the deregulation of the Spanish electricity sector (SES). Drawing on data from multiple sources including interviews, observations, discussions and documents, the paper aims to theorize the change in the accounting and financial information system. An integrated accounting and financial information system was imposed by the Endesa head office on Sevillana and other Endesa subsidiaries to support organizational changes designed in response to regulatory requirements. The institutional senvironment also interacted with market forces and intra-organizational power relations to either directly or indirectly influence the changes in the accounting and financial information system. Given the interplay between these forces, the paper draws on and extends the New Institutional Sociology (NIS) theory [DiMaggio, P.J., Powell, W.W., 1983. The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. Am. Sociol. Rev. 48, 147–160; Powell, W.W., DiMaggio, P.J., 1991. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. The University of Chicago Press, pp. 183-203] to understand the dynamics of the change.     

再谈会计等式的变化

会计恒等式完整地反映了企业财务状况和经营成果及其形成过程,是会计核算的理论依据,由于受会计计量模式、会计核算范围的影响,会计等式亦发生不同的变化,对企业资产价值产生结果,并且决定其提供的会计信息是否有用,本文对这一问题进行了初步探讨。     

FACTORS IMPACTING ON ACCOUNTING LAG: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF RESPONDING TO TQM

The academic literature is critical of management accountants for their failure to initiate change and their inability to promote changed accounting information systems and performance measurement. The motivation for this study is provided by Kaplan (1986) who suggests that ‘when manufacturing operations change, the last and most difficult component to change is the accounting system’, and by Dunk (1989) who finds that accounting innovations lag operational innovations and that there are benefits arising from minimizing the time taken to adopt new accounting measures.The introduction of new management accounting systems to support management initiatives, provides the opportunity to investigate those factors contributing to accounting lag, and to determine those strategies which might usefully be employed to reduce accounting lag. This study examines the responses of accounting systems to TQM implementations at six diverse manufacturing sites in Adelaide, South Australia.Wolfe (1994), Rogers (1995), Gosselin (1997) and Bjornenak (1997) provide a theoretical framework for the investigation of the diffusion of accounting innovation and suggestions of the contextual factors which will influence its impact. This study suggests that industry sector, management commitment, organizational structure, participation and financial performance are all influential in the diffusion process, but in an inconsistent manner.     

Extending influence and accounting use—Developing the Frameworks to incorporate Galician legal matters about the proposed healthcare changes with managers and organizations for empirical study

The previous paper provided the general approach to Frameworks of research and research methods to study accounting changes in Galician healthcare [Purdy DE, Gago S. Towards a framework to study influence and accounting use. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 2003;14:663–78]. Consideration of the Galician legal and institutional materials provided the details and indicated the need for further analysis. This paper analyses Galician materials and the Spanish notion of retos, considers autonomy in the context of influence and changing information provision. Consequently, the Information–Influence Matrix is revised as are those anticipated for a Financial Manager and a Health Centre Manager. Further Frameworks now consider the organization and institution effects.Work elsewhere has indicated that the promotion of more involvement by employees and the provision of more information to employees has been accompanied by strong narratives favouring such changes. Generally such change has been more favourable for managers than non-management employees.