Visualizing the negative space: Making feminine accounting practices visible by reference to Japanese women's household accounting practices

This study explores the nature of feminine accounting practices by examining the household accounting practices of Japanese women in the second half of the twentieth century. Household accounting in Japan provides an excellent research site to understand the nature of feminine accounting practices. The social significance of the Japanese household and the country's cultural emphasis on interdependence mean that accounting has a different meaning in the life of Japanese women, compared to what has been identified in Anglo-Saxon-based studies. The study finds that their accounting practice is characterized by the integration of masculine and feminine qualities, as illustrated by Dillard and Reynolds (2008), and is more enabling in nature. Women use ‘hard’, objective accounting figures both to foster the long-term development of the family and to contribute to Japanese society. Accounting has been a vehicle for women to express their motherhood and construct their identity as women. The distinctive nature of Japanese women's accounting practice and the role this practice plays in facilitating feminine values highlight how important it is to further investigate feminine accounting practice in different social and cultural contexts in order to develop gender research in accounting.     

Understanding the changes in accounting thought

Financial accounting and reporting are in the midst of one of the most significant revolutionary changes in modern history. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework that will contribute to the dialogue surrounding these developments. We use Kuhn’s [Kuhn, T. S. (1970). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press] framework on the theory of scientific revolution to describe how changes in the need for information, coupled with the lack of relevant accounting information, led to reporting anomalies that have spurred a revolutionary shift in accounting paradigms. We are moving from an accounting paradigm that existed in the age of an industrial economy to an accounting paradigm that fits the economy in an information age. This redirection has resulted in the following: a change in the conceptualization and application of relevance and reliability, an increased use of fair value versus historical cost measurements, a renewed emphasis on principles versus rules, and an evaluation of the composition of the basic financial statements.     

Boundary-work in management accounting: The case of hybrid professionalism

This paper investigates boundary-work in management accounting in the context of globalization and hybrid professionalism. The paper demonstrates how permeable symbolic boundaries of the management accounting field can be altered by employing expansion boundary-work. Contrasting boundary-work of IMA officials and IMA members in Russia, we show that IMA officials employ primarily monopolization boundary-work while IMA members employ primarily expansion boundary-work. Our findings illustrate how boundary-work is employed to exhibit organizational and occupational professionalism in the symbolic realm. The paper provides additional insight into the discursive domain of the accounting profession by linking boundary-work to globalization, two forms of professionalism, legitimacy, status and professional identity. This suggests that the professionalization process is influenced by the properties of professional boundaries.     

Exploring accounting history and accounting in history

Accounting history, as the history of accounting and the consideration of accounting in history, provides insight into an understanding of accounting in the past, for the present, and into the future. Whilst often viewed as a routine, rule driven practice, the accounting history discipline recognises accounting as having a much wider pervasiveness as social practice and even moral practice. As social practice, accounting affects individual, organisational and societal behaviour. This collection of articles demonstrates the importance of looking at history to provide context and illustrates that understandings of the past lead to comprehension of the present and foresight for the future. The articles in this special issue, international in essence, epitomise the diversity of the accounting history field in exploring accounting in diverse organisations, in investigating accounting in its wider context and in employing different theoretical approaches. In considering the accounting phenomenon that occurred, there is additionally the insight of that which did not occur, the relevance of past events and non-events as an ingredient to better understanding the present and to potentially reshaping the future.The articles explore of the role of actors/agents around accounting and organisational change, how key individuals and networks of individuals, can influence others, both within and external to the organisation, to enact change or prevent change in areas where accounting contributes. It is suggested that these studies could be extended, to consider more widely the influence of the interaction of individuals via prosopographical or similar studies. This collection of articles has global reach, and we make an additional call for more international, interactional or comparative approaches to studies in accounting history. Accounting history studies can further investigate organisational contexts and situations, exploring reporting internally and externally to the organisation and informing current and future accounting and related practices.     

Means versus ends: a review of the literature on Japanese management accounting

As an introduction to the topic of Japanese management accounting, we provide here a review of the literature and an attempt to categorize what has been written previously on the subject. One obvious characteristic that emerged during this review is that Japanese management accounting is designed to operate in a 'Japanese setting', not a Western one. Much of the literature on Japanese methods recognizes some aspect of that setting when describing the techniques. During the review process, several related clusters of recurring practices surfaced. We have crystallized these clusters into five themes. They are: (1) examining work using the 'eyes' of the market; (2) focusing on the quality of work; (3) employing 'waste' as the measure of cost; (4) continually improving the way work is done, and (5) sharing knowledge through vertical and horizontal communication. It is our contention that the Japanese management accounting techniques described in the literature cannot be sensibly and effectively used in Western venues without an understanding of how the Japanese employ these particular management accounting techniques to pursue the multiple themes behind their use.     

Engineering culture and accounting development at Albion Motors, 1900-c.1970

This paper examines the relationship between the engineering-oriented culture at Albion Motors, Scotland's most successful vehicle manufacturers, and the development and use of accounting systems there. Utilizing primary sources and information obtained from interviews, the study concludes that Albion's comparatively rudimentary management accounting systems, in particular, were a direct result of the firm's technological values. The study also concludes that there is no evidence that any major disadvantage accrued directly from this. It ends with a discussion of the relevance of the findings for issues in the accounting and business history literature and for future research.     

The relevance of history in accounting education: Some observations

This paper was commissioned by the Journal of Accounting Education in order to provide our readers with an assessment of the relevance of history in accounting education. Based on over 40 years of accounting experience, the author contends that accounting curricula should be broadened to include the teaching of accounting history. It is suggested that valuable insights can be gained from the study of how accounting has developed and changed in response to environmental changes (economic, political, social). Without such a historical perspective, accounting graduates will not have the necessary background to critically evaluate current accounting practices or be in a position to contribute significantly to our constantly changing profession.     

Linking international business theory to accounting history: implications of the international evolution of the state and the firm for accounting history research

Accounting is an interdisciplinary subject. We routinely draw insights and models from the base disciplines (e.g. economics, psychology etc.) as a starting point for research on accounting issues. As accounting researchers, and accounting historians in particular, explore the international dimensions of accounting it is appropriate, therefore, to look to the literature on international relations for insights. This paper provides examples of how we could use the literature on the nation-state and international enterprises to frame questions about international accounting history.     

Determinants of accounting innovation implementation

Accounting innovations are often not successfully implemented or diffused throughout the organization. This study seeks to explain this phenomenon. One of the major impediments to the successful implementation of accounting innovation is that management accounting systems are generally used to serve the decision control needs of top management while at the same time purportedly supporting the decision management needs of lower level managers. To the extent that the accounting system is used for decision control, innovation creates the potential for wealth effects to occur. This prompts managers, whose wealth will be negatively affected, to resist accounting innovation. We present conditions where it is likely for negative wealth effects to occur. Under these conditions the system will fail to achieve its intended objectives. Our theoretical model examines how decentralization choices influence resistance to accounting innovation. We argue that delegation of decision rights can limit the potential for resistance in two ways—(a) by creating the environment which allows managers to ensure that their subunits are able to adapt to the new signals provided by accounting innovations and (b) by enabling subunit managers to become involved in the design of these systems. Our model also enables us to assess the consequences on organizational outcomes when subunit managers resist accounting innovations. Based on data collected from production managers, our results demonstrate the importance of decentralization choices on the effective implementation of accounting innovations.     

Modern slavery and the accounting profession

This first paper in the Special Issue on “Modern slavery and the accounting profession” considers how various branches and functions of the accounting profession in business operations and supply chains are implicated by the move to end modern slavery. Accounting has always been involved with slavery practices. When slavery was legal, accounting focused on reporting slaves as assets and expenses in the accounts. In these more humane times, now that ownership of slaves is illegal, the accounting profession has different functional responsibilities towards modern slavery. These include external reporting in line with and above and beyond requirements of legislation; internal management accounting to build awareness and support planning, control and decision making to reduce modern slavery risk and look for opportunities from mitigation; and audit and assurance to ensure credibility of claims made by business. The papers presented in this Special Issue touch upon some of the key aspects of the connection between modern slavery and management control systems, corporate disclosures and the historical role of professional auditors/the accounting profession, but much remains to be achieved in the research agenda ahead.     

Management accounting and corporate governance: An institutional interpretation of the agency problem

Challenging the dominant economic agency theory of corporate governance with a new discourse drawn from institutional theory, the paper analyses how management accounting is implicated in corporate governance. The proposed institutional theory of agency links the micro-institutions of the organization that are informed by the practices of management accounting with external institutional players and stakeholders. The paper identifies emerging narratives in which the management accounting profession has recognised a distinctive, post-Enron set of sensibilities. Although techniques drawn from strategic management accounting can be adapted to embed better corporate governance practices, the institutional theory of agency identifies tensions between the heroic CEO narrative and the routinization of strategy implicit in strategic management accounting.     

Importing accounting: the case of Trinidad and Tobago

In the period immediately following its achieving independence, Trinidad and Tobago switched from a pattern of importing British professional accountants to one of importing British professional qualifications. It was also in this period that the first professional accounting association appeared: that is, eighty years after such bodies emerged in Britain and her settler colonies. This paper seeks to explain why the achievement of political independence in Trinidad and Tobago (and perhaps in some other British non-settler colonies) signified a critical turning point in the development of a local accounting profession. The paper also explores how the history of importing accounting impacted on the contemporary organization of the profession in Trinidad and Tobago.     

The relationship between accounting and spatial practices in the factory

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.     

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.     

Social and environmental accounting,organisational change and management accounting: A processual view

Consistent with calls for in-depth studies of social and environmental accounting and reporting (SEAR) intervention (Bebbington, 2007, Fraser, 2012, Contrafatto, 2012), our paper focuses on the interrelationship between organisational change and SEAR practices, as well as the involvement of management accounting in such organisational dynamics. Drawing insight from both Laughlin (1991) and Burns and Scapens’ (2000) theoretical frameworks, we explore the processes of change through which SEAR practices become elevated to strategising status, in the context of broader organisational and extra-organisational developments, but we also illuminate how institutionalised assumptions of profit-seeking limit the extent to which broader sustainability concerns become infused into day-to-day business practice. Our paper highlights the importance of management accounting in facilitating and shaping the cumulative path of SEAR practices (and sustainability more generally); however, we also heed caution against uncritical reliance upon conventional management accounting tools. The following paper extends our understanding of SEAR practices as cumulative process over time, an awareness of the potential limits to such developments in profit-seeking organisations, and stresses a need to be circumspect when involving management accounting.     

The impact of introductory accounting courses on student perceptions about the purpose of accounting information and the objectives of business: A comparison of the UK and Japan

This paper is concerned with the impact of introductory financial accounting courses on student perceptions of business objectives. The paper reports the results of a questionnaire survey of UK and Japanese university students which investigated their views at the start and end of an introductory financial accounting module. The views of Japanese students, in comparison with those from the UK, are of particular interest given evidence in the literature that traditional “social market” traditions in Japan are being influenced by Anglo-American “stock market” values. Our results are consistent with such a phenomenon in that Japanese students’ values regarding business objectives show significant changes that are not mirrored by changes in the perceptions of their UK counterparts. We suggest that accounting education is acting as a conduit for views more commonly held in Anglo-American societies.     

Organisational change, outsourcing and the impact on management accounting

New empirical evidence is presented on organisational change, outsourcing and the impact on management accounting in three types of organisations: private sector companies, the National Health Service and Local Authorities. Spearman rank correlations are used to examine three propositions: that (i) change in organisational form exists and may be related to an increased use of outsourcing or subcontracting; (ii) outsourcing is expected to improve organisational flexibility and/or the service of an activity, to lead to cost savings, or to allow the organisation to focus more clearly on its core business; and (iii) outsourcing promotes change in management accounting. Statistical support is found for each of our three propositions. This is further supported by reference to three illustrative case studies. Overall, we conclude that organisational change, as effected by the use of outsourcing, is related to specific changes in the organisations' management accounting systems.     

Stochastic dominance as an approach to uncertainty in cost accounting

Presently textbook treatment of the topic of uncertainty in cost accounting never goes beyond the notions of mean and variance and the maximization of expected utilities. Because the application of these models requires artificial assumptions about either loss functions or utility functions, students are often left wondering how practical probabilistic models are afterall. This paper suggests that stochastic dominance be used to supplement the current textual material on uncertainty. Since these models are easy to implement in a cost accounting context, the class can devote more time to accounting issues in the context of uncertainty rather than get lost in decision theory. Three models of stochastic dominance are discussed here: the first order, the second order, and the third order stochastic dominance. All the necessary assumptions about each model are stated, and each model is accompanied by a numerical example.     

Management accounting innovations for rationalizing the cost of services: The reassessment of cash and accrual accounting

ABSTRACT

Management accounting can be a useful tool in austerity government because it produces information about the costs of public services and can be used for informed decision-making. Spanish local governments are required to submit data on the cost of their services to central government, which publishes this information online. The calculation of costs is based on budgetary cash accounting instead of accrual accounting; therefore cash accounting is being used for decision-making and accrual accounting has no role in this process. This paper critically analyses the innovation from three perspectives: the use assigned to the cost information in the legal framework; the opinion of academics and experts; and the perception of professionals about the usefulness of the information produced with the new system.