Management accounting,performance measurement and strategy in English local authorities

This paper analyses the results of an extensive survey of UK local government which explored the relationship between strategy, management accounting practices (MAPs), and performance measurement techniques (PMTs). The research investigated a resource-based view of strategic capabilities and Porter’s strategic typologies. PMTs and MAPs were shown to be associated with strategic capabilities. Strategic typologies, however, were found to be only weakly associated with the use of PMTs and MAPs.     

完善地方自发自还债券制度体系建设的思考

财政部于2014年5月正式推出地方政府自发自还债券试点。自发自还债券试点可谓地方政府市场化融资的标志性事件,试点省市将成为独立的举债主体,须主动适应市场规则,接受市场检验,此次试点具有里程碑意义。但同时也要看到,目前包括自发自还债券融资在内的地方政府各类举债行为,还欠缺完善的制度保障。文章回顾了地方政府债券市场融资的模式变迁,在梳理地方政府融资现有制度的基础上,分析了地方政府融资相关制度存在的问题,就构建并完善我国地方政府债券的制度体系提出相关建议。     

The effects of institutional typologies on the performance of state-sponsored local government investment pools

This paper extends the risk-return argument of modern portfolio theory to the institutional typologies with which state-sponsored local government investment pools (LGIPs) operate. By using fixed-effects regression on monthly panel data from 18 LGIPs across seven years, the author found that institutional typologies with which LGIPs operate matter. An LGIP should be structured and managed based on its ability to mitigate risks. The paper contributes to increasing the accountability and fiscal governance over public money and promotes public funds investment laws in the US, UK and internationally.     

The power of accounting: a field study of local financial management in a police force

This paper describes the introduction of management accounting change in the form of local financial management in a police force, West Mercia Constabulary, using an ethnographic study. The study applies institutional theory to understand the context, process and consequences of the introduction of devolved budgeting systems to the organization.The field study explains how the devolution of budgets in West Mercia was accompanied by a shift in power that helped to reconcile the interests of those pursuing a legitimating accountability with those who prioritized operational policing.This paper makes two contributions to institutional theory. First, is the development of understanding of relations of power, particularly where interests coincide and shifts in power are a by-product of legitimating processes. Second, is an explanation of how loose coupling can take place through accounting, in which a devolved budget can satisfy both institutional and technical demands.     

The impact of contingencies on management accounting system development

Four hypotheses relevant to the contingency theory of management accounting are presented. Data relate to the period 1994–98 for a sample of new Scottish microfirms. First, correlation analysis is applied to test the hypothesis that the introduction of management accounting system (MAS) developments is related to the timing of contingent events such as cashflow crises, shortfalls of finance, and innovation. Second, cluster analysis is used to test the hypothesis that contingencies cluster to form three configurations of small firms, adaptive, running blind, and stagnant. Third, regression analysis is used to test the hypothesis that an index of organizational form, measured by weighted headcount, is explained by aspects of the generic contingencies, technological uncertainty, production systems, business strategy and market environment. The fourth hypothesis is that MAS complexity is determined by sub-unit interdependence, market dynamics, and work methods. The four hypotheses tested support several aspects of contingency theory, as modified to a small firms context.     

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.     

Participatory and incremental development in an African local government accounting reform

Despite significant donor funding, government accounting reforms seeking transparent and effective management of public resources often fail or have limited success, especially in Africa, prompting questions about donors’ implementation approach and calls for studies of successful reforms. This paper investigates a local government accounting reform in Benin supported by a German development agency–perceived as successful due to the participatory, pragmatic, and incremental approach reinforced by conditionalities in the face of neo‐patrimonial leadership.     

Deadlines and software: disentangling local government accounting reforms in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This paper shows how ongoing accounting reforms in Brazilian local governments were affected by a shift from a universal to a gradual implementation approach. Deadlines being postponed led to a decrease in local governments’ willingness to reform. This effect varied according whether the accountants involved depended on commercial software to operate a particular accounting policy. An important finding from this research was that software providers are to some extent setting the IPSAS implementation agenda in Brazil.     

The societal relevance of management accounting innovations: economic value added and institutional work in the fields of Chinese and Thai state-owned enterprises

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about the relevance of management accounting. In doing so, we widen the definition of ‘relevance’ from the largely managerialist focus dominating this debate to examine how management accounting innovations get imbued with a broader range of societal interests and how actors representing vested interests go about entrenching and resisting such innovations. We explore these issues with reference to the institutionalisation of Economic Value Added (EVA?) as a governance mechanism for Chinese and Thai state-owned enterprises. Adopting a comparative, institutional field perspective, we theorise our observations through the conceptual lens of institutional work, or the human agency involved in creating, maintaining and disrupting institutions. We extend extant research on institutional work by exploring how the evolution of such work was conditioned by differences in field cohesiveness, defined in terms of how consistent and tightly coordinated key interests clustered around EVA? are. Our analysis also draws attention to how different types of institutional work support and detract from each other in the process of upholding such cohesiveness. We discuss the implications for future research on the societal relevance of management accounting innovations and institutional work.     

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.