Measuring public value: a conceptual and applied contribution to the debate

Countries facing austerity measures need to create public value. Academics and practitioners have been discussing the ways in which public value can be created, managed and measured. This paper contributes to this conversation by proposing a public value measurement model. An Italian case study is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the model and the organizational implications when public value measures are available to public sector managers, politicians and the public.     

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.     

On accounting classification and the international harmonisation debate

In an earlier issue of this journal, d'Arcy presents a classification of accounting systems that shows the UK and the US in separate groups and Australia as an outlier. It is suggested here that the classification is unsound because the data were unsuitable in nature and contained errors.     

Adding critical accounting voices to migration studies

The field of migration study is continually evolving and frequently controversial, as diverse people cross the globe and as social and economic transformations prevail. Although scholars in many disciplines have actively contributed to migration research, accounting scholars have been less actively engaged, despite migration's use of concepts so closely aligned with accounting: costs, benefits, risk, and control. This paper considers how accounting researchers may contribute to the study of migration, highlighting the potential for critical researchers to re-define terrains of discourse.Migration theories are introduced, illustrating the complexities and interconnectedness of the role of globalisation, poverty, state functioning, and the social sciences. We integrate previous research of accounting, revealing the discipline as part of the language and neoliberal agenda imbued in migration issues, and its participation in co-creating precarious boundaries and myopic concepts defining the debates. We provide a case analysis, specifically illustrating accounting's calculative practices and rhetoric as limiting and obscuring social issues in migration, providing yet another instance of accounting's participation in social controversies.The rhetoric of accounting as merely a technique and the prevailing view of its objectivity are disputed as we reveal accounting's role in creating a simplifying reality, ignoring the complex interdependencies and powerful forces at play in migration arenas. Although much work is to be done in the accounting field to illuminate its role regarding migration issues, we are optimistic that critical researchers can provide expanded ways of thinking and a contribution to the deliberations. The work's originality is contained in its unique framing of migration discourse, revealing the skewed and shadowy assumptions of its traditional discourse, and examining how critical research expands possibilities for promoting social justice in the migration landscape.     

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.     

Governance and flood: critical reflections on the 1998 deluge

Bangladesh experienced the worst floods of the twentieth century in 1998. The deluge quite starkly brought to the fore the incapacity and unpreparedness of the government to deal with flood and post-flood management issues. Ad hocism, partisanship and more importantly dependence upon donors marked its policies. These had the affect of disempowering and further distressing the affected population. In order to create a sustainable and effective flood management mechanism it is absolutely imperative to come out of the groove of governmentality — both on the part of the government and the governed — and to empower the civil society through degovernmentalizing the structures of governance.     

企业并购会计处理问题探讨

企业并购,即企业之间的合并与收购行为。企业合并是指两家或更多的独立企业合并组成一家公司,常由一家占优势的公司吸收一家或更多的公司。我国《公司法》规定:公司合并可采取吸收合并和新设合并两种形式。一个公司吸收其他公司,被吸收的公司解散,称为吸收合并。两个以上公司合并设立一个新的公司,合并各方解散,称为新设合并。收购是企业通过现金或股权方式收购其他企业产权的交易行为。     

几个特殊会计信息披露问题的探讨

会计信息披露是指影响股东、债权人或潜在投资者等对公司的目前和将来作出理性判断的,进而影响其决策行为的会计信息都应公布于众。一方面,会计信息披露已成为证券市场有效监管的重要组成部分。公开发行股票公司的信息披露能否做到可靠、全面、及时,直接关系到证券市场的公开、公平、公正原则是否能够得到体现和维护,会计信息披露在遵循成本效益原则和重要性原则下应做到充分披露。另一方面,随着企业经济活动的日益复杂化,现有的企业财务会计报告滞后于环境的变化,显示了它的缺陷和不足,财务报告只注重历史而不注重未来,只注重货币信息而忽视非货币信息,使财务报告的有用性受到了挑战。如果财务报告无法为信息使用者提供有用的信息,那么财务报告存在的合理性就必然受到质疑。下面,笔者对几个特殊情形下会计信息披露问题进行探讨。     

Relocating accounting and business ethics: reflections on a business ethics retreat in Scotland's National Park

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This paper describes an accounting and business ethics course that was developed at Glasgow University's Department of Accounting and Finance and recounts an attempt to increase the effectiveness of aspects of the course through relocating the places where it took place. In particular the paper provides some reflections on an ethics retreat in Loch Lomond National Park in Scotland. The paper provides an account of the weekend and describes the activities in which the students participated. It provides some reflections on the weekend and considers how successful the retreat was in promoting the goals of the course. The paper concludes with a call for further thought and discussion on the role that place could play in making accounting and business ethics education more effective.     

Other lives in accounting: Critical reflections on oral history methodology in action

This paper critically evaluates the nature and practice of oral history as a narrative research methodology in accounting. Oral history allows individual subjectivity and experience to be central to the empirical data. The paper argues that such an approach allows the voices of those who have arguably been ignored, marginalised or silenced within particular contexts to be heard. Drawing on feminist approaches to research methodology, it also evaluates and problematises some of the ethical issues within an oral history methodology, arising from the interpretation and ownership of research, disclosure and reciprocity within the research relationship, and the use of friends and strangers as research participants. The paper concludes that, when approached critically and reflexively, oral history provides a sound epistemological and methodological base for understanding the meaning of events and experience to individuals, and the impact of accounting institutions and practice on their lives.     

Binary response and logistic regression in recent accounting research publications: a methodological note

We review 31 articles in leading accounting journals that performed a logistic regression analysis for a binary dependent variable. Our review shows that many of these articles have ambiguities and errors in the presentation of the logistic regression model. We explain that incorrect presentations of the model, even in conjunction with a correct analysis, may lead to a serious misinterpretation of research findings. Two articles are critiqued to demonstrate the reporting problems. Our note is a call for improvement in model presentation and related statistical analysis in the accounting field.     

An essay on conceptualization of issues in empirical accounting research

Empirical research in accounting has lately focused much on sophisticated statistical methodology and econometrics and relatively less on conceptualization of the issues concerned. This essay is written to highlight the conceptualization of the issues as an important ingredient of empirical research in accounting. I present two methods of conceptualization – the single-entity approach and the game theoretic approach. I give several examples in accounting research to explain the conceptualization process. I hope that this essay will fill a much needed void in the research process in accounting and restore the balance between conceptualization and methodology.     

Wall Street''s contribution to management accounting: the Stern Stewart EVAfinancial management system

EVA^®is a variant of residual income marketed byStern Stewart & Co., a New York consulting firm, with the purpose of promoting value–maximizing behaviour in corporate managers. This paper reviews the EVA system in the light of this purpose. First, it outlines the rationale for the use of residual income in ‘value-based management’, highlighting the potential shortcomings of residual income as a single-period performance indicator. Second, it considers the adjustments to GAAP-based accounting advocated by Stern Stewart in order to produce a more economically meaningful version of residual income (EVA) which might serve as an effective indicator of single-period performance. Third, it examines the Stern Stewart approach to the setting of EVA benchmarks. Finally, it reviews the logic behind the use of the ‘bonus bank’ to separate the award of EVA–based bonuses from the payment of such bonuses.     

中注协发布2010年会计师事务所综合评价前百家信息

在经过一周公示后,中注协于2010年4月30日正式发布"2010年会计师事务所综合评价前百家信息"(会协[2010]通告4号). 信息显示,前百家事务所2009年业务收入合计为206亿元,较2008年增长了5%.在前百家事务所中,有34家事务所收入超过亿元,比去年的32家增加了2家,其中,有16家事务所收入超过3亿元,行业做大做强成效进一步显现. 信息显示,前百家事务所注册会计师共23124人,较上年增长了17%,占全国注册会计师总数的26%.其中,具有硕士及以上学历的注册会计师共2519人,占前百家事务所注册会计师总人数的11%;前百家事务所共拥有领军人才后备人选165人,占行业领军人才总人数169人的98%.     

Defining management accounting constructs: A methodological note on the risks of conceptual misspecification

This paper stresses the need for a sound conceptual specification of research constructs prior to fitting them to explanatory models. It emphasizes that in addressing the conceptual level of the predictive validity framework [Libby, R., Bloomfield, R., & Nelson, M. (2002). Experimental research in financial accounting. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 27, 775–810], special attention must be paid to two issues: (1) the production of a specific agreed-upon meaning and domain for each construct of interest; and (2) the specification and conceptual justification of the nature and direction of the epistemic relationships between constructs, dimensions and indicators (i.e., reflective vs. formative models; latent vs. emergent models). The paper highlights the importance of both issues especially in the case of practice-defined variables, and it provides guidelines on how to address both aspects of conceptual specification. While the issues raised are pertinent to many research areas, the paper concentrates on the implications for management accounting and control systems (MACS) research, using interactive use of control systems [Simons, R. (1995a). Levers of control. Boston: Harvard Business School Press] to illustrate how researchers should go about specifying meaning and epistemic relationships in MACS research.     

Public interest accounting: A look at the issues

Within the last ten years, a very unique and controversial accounting organization, Accountants for the Public Interest, has been developed to assist previously unrepresented citizens and organizations in financial matters involving issues of broad public concern. This paper examines the fundamental issues that must be resolved in the minds of practicing accountants as regards implementation of the services, if the public interest accounting concept is to survive.     

The crisis of fair-value accounting: Making sense of the recent debate

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.