Management Accounting Research: 20 years on

This Editorial Report charts the progress of Management Accounting Research in its second decade. Starting by noting that in 2009 there were almost a quarter of a million downloads of papers from Management Accounting Research, it describes the range and diversity of the papers published in the Journal, their topics, research settings, and the theories and research methods used. It emphasises that the editors strongly encourage the use of a broad range of theories and research methods, and they want such diversity to continue to be a defining feature of the papers published in Management Accounting Research in the future. Finally, they urge management accounting researchers to undertake innovative research and to be both original and creative, thereby avoiding the homogeneity and narrowness which seem to be an increasing feature of accounting research more generally. In this way Management Accounting Research will continue to be the major source of leading edge research in the field of management accounting.     

The nature, use and impression management of graphs in social and environmental accounting

Social and environmental reports are growing in popularity. They are voluntary, unregulated documents. This study investigates graph usage in social and environmental reports. The findings show that graphs are widely used. Key managerial preferences are shown to be air pollution, waste output, energy usage and employees. High profile industrial sectors, particularly the extractive industry, used graphs the most. There was clear evidence of impression management in graph usage. In terms of trends selected and in the distortion of those trends, there was an overwhelming portrayal of good rather than bad news. Companies in high impact industries tended to present relatively more good news than bad news in graphs and distort graphs relatively more favourably than those in low impact companies. This was particularly true for one high impact industry, the extractive industry. Companies are not, therefore, using graphs properly to enhance the communicative effectiveness of their corporate social and environmental disclosures.     

Corporate accountability and human rights disclosures: A case study of Barrick Gold Mine in Tanzania

Analysis and debate on the roles of accounting in human rights issues is an emerging topic of research. This study draws attention to certain human rights dilemmas arising from investment initiatives of transnational corporations within the Tanzanian socio-political and economic context. Evidence is provided on how accounting operates in resolving such dilemmas through an examination of foreign direct investment episodes where the state has agreed contracts with transnational corporations in the mining sector of Tanzania. The study finally considers the possibility of corporate governance reforms informed by accounting ideas in order to promote realisation of human rights alongside other interests.     

Accounting research: An analysis of theories explored in doctoral dissertations and their applicability to Systems Theory

This study examined theories used in accounting doctoral dissertations and found that dissertations in this discipline test theories drawn from economics, finance, psychology, and sociology, with 53% from economics and finance and 27% from psychology. Further, a primary conclusion of this paper is that doctoral research in accounting explores subsets of organizational activity consistent with the premises of Systems Theory.     

Management of environmental and social risks and topics in the banking sector - An empirical investigation

This paper investigates how environmental and social (E&S) risks and topics (i. e. E&S issues that are important in terms of adaptation to a changing business environment) are integrated in the banking sector. Despite banks’ key role in steering financial flows towards sustainable development, little is currently known as to whether and how banks integrate E&S aspects into their management control systems and whether this integration translates into E&S performance. Building on prior studies in the environmental management control literature, we design a conceptual model in which we link contextual factors, a proactive strategy approach, E&S management controls, and E&S performance. Following common practice in the banking sector, we differentiate between two paths of E&S management controls: risk management (value protection) and topic management (value creation). Based on survey data for a small sample of 50 European banks, we find evidence that contextual factors, reflected in the perceived power and legitimacy of clients, voluntary standard setters and NGOs, are positively related to a proactive strategy approach. This proactive strategy translates into both topic and risk management. Yet, in the next step, only topic management is positively related to the E&S performance of a bank, but not risk management.     

Critical reflections on research approaches, accounting regulation and the regulation of accounting

The design and choice of research approaches, the nature of accounting regulation and the reactions to these regulations in organisations, involving, in effect, the regulation of accounting, are three themes of considerable importance in accounting research. They are the three themes that have dominated the research agenda of the author throughout his academic career. This paper explores the nature of these three key research themes developing some critical reflections on what has been discovered about each of these themes using the author's sole and joint research and publications as a vehicle for this analysis.     

Interventionist research in accounting: reflections on the good,the bad and the ugly

Our paper advances understanding of interventionist research (IVR) as a qualitative accounting research approach. It reflects on the potential value, challenges and key issues, as manifested by the good, the bad and the ugly. The reflection contributes towards clarifying the IVR landscape, thereby forging a future path for IVR as a legitimate qualitative methodology, to enthuse qualitative researchers to produce accounting research relevant to theory, practice and society. The primary contribution is synthesising the interventionist theory and practice literature encompassing a view of the good, the bad and the ugly in interventionist accounting research.     

Emerging pathways for critical futures research: Changing contexts and impacts of social theory

There has always been a critical, emancipatory tradition within futures studies. Although those voices can still be heard, there has been a growing tendency for futures studies to be driven by more utilitarian needs in business and government. Whilst it is positive that futures thinking and research is increasingly valued within corporate and policy-making settings, much of that work appears to lack genuine plurality of worldviews and interests.The paper traces the changing contexts for futures research over the past 25 years. It argues that futures research needs to be viewed as part of the re-politicisation – in the Habermasian sense – of technocratic decision-making. It suggests that there are three particular reasons for revisiting the need for criticality in futures research: the increasing acknowledgement of systemic interrelatedness (ecological, social, economic), a growth in the forward-looking socio-economic paradigm that permeates both business and policy, and the challenge of theory development. Drawing on social theory and futures research, we suggest three pathways for revived critical futures research: socio-technical practices, future-oriented dialectics, and socio-economic imaginaries. As a result, the paper calls for development in futures studies that would dialectically integrate and overcome the dichotomy between instrumentalisation and (critical) theorising that can be currently understood as somewhat antagonistic. In order to find a balance between these antagonistic dimensions, futures research should be more engaged in enabling critique and revealing assumptions and interests.     

Sixty years of research leadership: contributing authors and institutions to the journal of finance

While corporate executives freely admit that they work in a jungle, faculty members in institutions of higher learning are supposed to pretend that they work in the relaxed atmosphere of an informal English garden (Alice Vandermeulen, 1975).

The Journal of Finance was the first pure finance journal to emphasize research, and it has been the undisputed “gold standard” in academic finance literature for the past 60 years. This study identifies the contributors to JF over these 60 years—the authors, the institutions employing the authors, and the institutions granting PhDs to the authors. The prolific authors listed in this article make it look easy, like Alice’s relaxed English garden, but the information reported herein suggests otherwise.

Cargo cult science and the death of politics: A critical review of social and environmental accounting research

We present here an extensive literature review delineating the main theoretical parameters that have shaped the discursive field of Social Accounting/Social and Environmental Reporting (SER). In doing so, we reflect upon the way in which theory is used in SER focusing particularly on its political character. We show that SER theories have been developed in isolation from, and in contradistinction to, other organisational literatures and the social sciences more generally. This self-referentiality has precluded consideration of whether accountability is a realistic or desirable demand to make of corporations. In an age where political antagonism has been seriously eroded in the Western World, we argue that if SER is to avoid complicity in this, then SER research must break free from its self-imposed theoretical limitations and embrace a goal beyond accountability.     

Testing contingency hypotheses in budgetary research: an evaluation of the use of moderated regression analysis

In the contingency literature on the behavioral and organizational effects of budgeting, use of the Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA) technique is prevalent. This technique is used to test contingency hypotheses that predict interaction effects between budgetary and contextual variables. This paper critically evaluates the application of this technique in budgetary research over the last two decades. The results of the analysis indicate that the use and interpretation of MRA often do not conform to proper methodology and theory. The paper further demonstrates that these problems seriously affect the interpretability and conclusions of individual budgetary research papers, and may also affect the budgetary research paradigm as a whole.     

A theoretical basis for public sector accrual accounting research: current state and perspectives

ABSTRACT

Public sector or government accounting has been the subject of many research endeavors. However, scholars have repeatedly criticized the lack of a consistent and well-defined theoretical basis for international research. So far, most researchers have drawn from various streams of theoretical perspectives with often unsatisfactory results. The goal of this paper is to put forward the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board’s (IPSASB) Conceptual Framework as a point of reference for establishing a better-fitting theoretical basis for public sector accrual accounting research.     

Social and environmental accounting teaching in UK and Irish Universities: a research note on changes between 1993 and 1998.

This research note reports on a questionnaire–based survey of the teaching of social and environmental accounting (SEA) in undergraduate accounting degrees throughout the British Isles in 1998. The study is a replication and extension of Owen et al. 's (1994) survey in 1993 and analyses the significant changes from that study. The results suggest that environmental accounting is still the most prevalent SEA topic taught; and educators teach SEA because of the political prominence of SEA issues. Any absence of SEA teaching appears to be due to lack of time and space in crowded curricula. SEA appears not to be taught in some universities despite sustained interest in, and debate about, the development of environmental and social responsibility agendas throughout the 1990s. As the accounting literature speaks of the failure of teaching to reflect business and practitioner needs (AECC, 1990b), the paper posits that the lack of SEA teaching may be seen as an illustration of this failing.     

The influence of accountability on overconfidence and resistance to change: A research framework and experimental evidence

This paper presents a research framework and demonstrates how commitment to a particular course of action might lead to information search that is biased in favour of the chosen alternative. The framework also incorporates accountability as a strategy for mitigating overconfidence and resistance to change.An experiment was conducted to test the predictions of the proposed framework. Results of the experiment indicate that commitment to a particular cost allocation system leads to increased desirability of the chosen system and decreased desirability of the rejected alternative. The results also show that managers who are committed to a particular cost allocation system become too conservative and overconfident in their preferred system, which leads to high resistance to change. These effects, however, were attenuated by making the managers accountable for the negative consequences of their decisions.     

The Commercialization of Government's Departmental Accounting (AAS 29): Quasi Rents and Public Welfare

In the Australian public sector. departmental administrative reform is intent on producing lean. efficient. commercially orientated government entities. An accounting regulatory response is AAS 29. Financial Reporting for Governtizetzt Departments. which requires all government departments as reporting entities to adopt in principle much of the whole corpus of private sector accounting standards and statements including. importantly, current cost accounting. This paper explores the proposition that the commercialization of departmental accounting through AAS 29 or similar pronouncements is directly associated with a significant reduction in social and public welfare accountability. Accounting processes are powerful. value-laden agents of social change. Benston (1980) states that 'benefits (net of costs) of accounting standards to society' cannot be measured but can be specified for individuals. Here. accounting outcomes are identified to be the residuals of economic policies to eliminate quasi rents in government. Standardization in AAS 29 rests on the assumption that rights and obligations being equities of generations of participants can be periodically measured as A -L = E at current factor prices. This economic notion lacks cultural heritage in financial disclosure of continuing equities in government and may, for any generation of consumers. induce an excess of social costs over social benefits for the accounting standardization process under prevailing managerialist philosophies.     

Changes in social and environmental reporting practices in an emerging economy (2004–2007): Exploring the relevance of stakeholder and legitimacy theories

We examine social and environmental reporting (SER) practices of listed companies in the island economy of Mauritius. Based on a content analysis of annual reports, quantitative and qualitative changes in SER were analyzed in light of recent developments in corporate governance and with regard to the prevailing social and political contexts of this emerging economy. We find a significant but selective increase in the volume and quality of SER over the period under review (2004–2007). We rely on Suchman's (1995) conceptualizations of legitimacy to argue that the changes in SER are related to a need for companies to demonstrate an affiliation to pro-social objectives (moral legitimacy) and, to a lesser extent, are motivated by the need to manage specific stakeholders (pragmatic legitimacy). More specifically, the increase in ethical disclosures reflects an attempt at gaining procedural legitimacy in response to criticisms of corruption and unfair/unethical business practices. Furthermore, the increase in social disclosures can primarily be seen as a mechanism to gain consequential legitimacy in response to concerns that local companies are not sufficiently contributing to the country's social development. We suggest that future empirical research should devote more attention to the specific characteristics of emerging economies (such as levels of corruption and unethical business practices and the level of corporate governance) and examine whether these can explain patterns of corporate SER in a given national context or on a cross-country basis.     

A review of Australian management accounting research: 1980–2009

This paper reviews 231 papers published by 10 leading management accounting journals between the years 1980 and 2009. The review is structured according to research topics, research settings, research theories, research method and primary data analysis technique. Based on the results of this review, the paper provides reflections on the evolution of Australian management accounting research over the last 30 years and discusses opportunities for future research.     

Mental models and social representations of hazards: the significance of identity processes

This article examines the social influence processes that underpin the development of individual mental models of hazards and analyses the role that identity processes play in determining the nature and plasticity of the representations of risk that an individual will employ. It outlines the nature of the mental models approach (Morgan, Fischhoff, Bostrom and Atman, in press) to developing interventions in risk communication. It describes how social representations theory (Moscovici, 1988) can be used to account for the genesis and maintenance of a mental model of a hazard. In doing so, it is argued that mental models of hazards are social constructions, serving identifiable social purposes for the subculture in which they are elaborated, and that they are generally shared by the members of that subculture. However, within a group or subculture, there will be some individual variation in access to and use of a mental model of a hazard. It is suggested here that these variations are largely predictable on the basis of identity processes (Breakwell, in press). The implications of this analysis for risk communication strategies is explored.     

Top management adoption of a locally driven performance measurement and evaluation system: A social network perspective

This paper traces the adoption process by top management of a performance evaluation system initiated by the financial controllers at the Research And Development site of a leading multinational company. The research puts forward that the success of the change efforts depends on the nature of relationships among the organizational members involved in the process. Because performance measurement and evaluation systems have notoriety for being controversial, the notion of trust, operationalized through strong ties, emerged as pivotal to reduce uncertainty during the change process and facilitate the introduction of the performance evaluation system. The research also points out that the structural position of financial controllers within organizational networks is an important aspect in the success/failure of implementing such problematic control systems. Also, the social network analysis used in this paper has proved to be a useful methodology for studying the relational patterns that occurred during the change process.