Accounting Principles, Internal Conflict and the State: The Case of the ICAEW, 1948–1966

The series of Recommendations on Accounting Principles (RoAPs) issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) between 1942 and 1969 demonstrated the willingness of a professional accounting body to take a degree of responsibility for the form and content of British corporate financial reports. RoAPs 12 and 15 focused on the enduring problem of whether and how to take account of changing prices when constructing published financial reports. This article reveals disagreement between practising and industrial members in general, concerning how to address this issue, and examines the way in which the Council of the ICAEW sought to resolve this internal conflict within the constraints imposed by the need to be seen to behave in the 'public interest'. Major discord between the two main categories of membership emerged within the operation of the Taxation and Financial Relations (T&FR) Committee. What were judged by the ICAEW's leadership to be the extreme views of the industrial members were marginalized and suppressed by bypassing the normal channel for designing RoAPs and, instead, formulating them at the higher level of the Parliamentary and Law (P&L) Committee. The conflict between practising and industrial members continued in the period following the publication of RoAP 15, when further attempts were made to tackle the problem of accounting for inflation.     

Institutional Dances: How the First Accounting Degree in Canada Came to Be at the University of Saskatchewan*/ PÉRIPÉTIES COMPTABLES: LA CRÉATION DU PREMIER DIPLÔME CANADIEN EN COMPTABILITÉÀ L'UNIVERSITÉ DE SASKATCHEWAN

This paper tells how the School of Accounting and the bachelor of science in accounting degree were established at the University of Saskatchewan. Archives, various published histories, and contemporaneous periodicals serve as the main sources of information. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Saskatchewan plays a key role in the history and it is evident that the establishment of the accounting program was critical for the legitimacy of both the University and the Institute. The paper argues that the University of Saskatchewan had the first school of accounting and the first accounting degree in Canada. A brief overview of the development of other business‐oriented degrees and diplomas in universities across Canada is provided in order to support this claim. Based on the history provided and some additional contextual material, some speculation is offered as to why the University of Saskatchewan was the first to offer an accounting degree instead of one of the older, more established universities in eastern Canada. The paper makes three contributions. First, it fills a void in the literature with regard to the history of the School of Accounting and the accounting degree at the University of Saskatchewan. Second, it provides a bird's‐eye view of the establishment of business education programs at other universities in Canada. Third, it adds to our understanding of the relationship between the accounting profession and academe by demonstrating how people and institutions align to create new educational mechanisms.     

Increasing the number of black chartered accountants in South Africa: an empirical review of educational issues

South Africa has a shortage of black chartered accountants. This situation has arisen due to a combination of political, socio-economic and related educational reasons during the four decades of apartheid rule. In recent years, numerous academic ventures have commenced in an attempt to increase the number of black chartered accountants. This paper reviews and identifies, through an empirically-based exploratory study, the educational issues potentially inhibiting the development of black chartered accountants in South Africa, as well as the academic support structures which have arisen in response to these perceived educational barriers. Both academic support organizations and recently qualified black chartered accountants in South Africa were surveyed through in-depth interviews and structured self-administered questionnaires. This study found, inter alia, that role models, as a motivational factor for black accounting students, were extremely important. Cognitive factors, such as writing skills and the interpretation of numerical data, were identified as areas of primary concern, whilst issues with respect to certain study needs, such as assistance with study skills and examination techniques, also warranted attention. This study also found that the overall approach of academic support organizations to programme structure and design appears to be addressing student needs adequately. Certain improvements, however, are recommended. Of particular concern, is the general lack of studies on the effectiveness of academic support programmes.     

University - profession partnership in accounting education: the case of Sri Lanka

This paper analyses accounting education in Sri Lanka with particular reference to the university-profession partnership. In terms of the establishment of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Sri Lanka (ICASL) in 1959, the availability of accounting degree programmes in the university, and the on-going British influence in accounting, one might expect to find a vigorous accountancy profession in place, actively seeking to produce highly competent accounting professionals in adequate numbers suitable for its country's economic needs. However, such a situation would be misplaced. Over the past four decades ICASL has produced only 1800 qualified accountants in a country of 18 million population. Drawing upon a theoretical framework of professional accounting education, this paper explains the lack of a proper partnership between the university and the professional body over the last four decades in Sri Lanka, and speculates as to whether ICASL purposely exerts control over the supply of accountants by limiting the membership only to those who complete its own examinations.     

Evaluating National Capacity for Direct Participation in International Accounting Harmonization: France as a Test Case

This article evaluates national capacity for direct participation in international accounting harmonization through its principal current formal institutional forum, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), with France as a test case. The objective is to derive propositions by which individual nation states, their indigenous accounting professions and other significant elements of their institutional framework might: (a) evaluate their present national capacity to contribute to international accounting harmonization; and (b) address policy issues relevant to development and deployment of capacity for effective engagement. The objective of the framework of analysis employed is to infer essential or desirable attributes for direct participation in international accounting harmonization by reference to the observed attributes of the initial IASB appointments. The likelihood and sustainability of direct French participation in the process is then assessed in relation to those attributes.     

Interaction between tax and accounting practice: Accounting for stock-in-trade

This paper studies the issue of interaction between tax and accounting practice through an examination of the process followed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) when formulating Recommendation on Accounting Principles (RoAP) No. 22 as a replacement for RoAP No. 10. We show that the ICAEW had a clear intention of persuading the Board of Inland Revenue of the legitimacy of replacement cost as a basis of stock valuation, and that the preparation and publication of RoAP 22 succeeded, to a significant extent, in achieving that outcome. We also reveal that RoAP 22 appears to have affected the way in which some companies valued their stock and how their bases of stock valuation were disclosed in corporate published accounts.     

The mystery of the missing members: the first 600 chartered accountants in England and Wales

There are a number of factual errors within the authoritative literature on the history of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and of its five founder bodies. The aim of this article is to outline some of these errors, explain how and why they arose, and attempt to correct them. Its primary concern is to establish the membership of these early professional accountancy bodies at the time of the granting of a royal charter in May 1880.     

Harmonization of Accounting in France and Britain: Some Evidence

The European Community's accounting harmonization initiative is intended to create harmonized reporting by Community companies. If the Community's programme is successful, measurement practices in each member state should be such that the same transactions receive broadly comparable treatment irrespective of the country where the accounts are prepared. This study sets out to test whether this is the case in France and Britain and the application of the Fourth Directive, and whether in practice there is any consensus even within each jurisdiction. An empirical test for harmony and uniformity is made by asking accountants within each jurisdiction to compile financial statements from a common set of data.
The results of the test show that in this sample there is relatively little harmony within each national group, let alone between one jurisdiction and another.     

The life and career of John Spence Ogilvy (1805-71), the first chartered accountant to emigrate to Australia

So far as the available evidence allows, this paper examines the life and career of John Spence Ogilvy, foundation member of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh in 1854, who emigrated to Melbourne in 1856, but did not play a part in the development of an organized accounting profession in Australia. The paper also attempts to explain the gap of thirty-two years between the formation of the first accounting bodies in Edinburgh and Melbourne.     

The unethical practices of accountants and auditors and the compromising stance of professional bodies in the corporate world: Evidence from corporate Nigeria

Investors in Nigeria have lost several billions of dollars through the collusion of accountants and external auditors with companies’ management and directors to falsify and deliberately overstate companies’ accounts. As a consequence of unethical practices by accountants and auditors, which have resulted in the distress or occasionally the closure of companies, some indigenous Nigerian Managing Directors of multinational corporations such as Lever Brothers Nigeria Plc and Cadbury Nigeria Plc have been sacked and replaced with expatriates. Some companies placed under receivership have also lost billions of dollars due to professional misconduct by their official receivers. Contrary to the claim of ‘protecting the public interest,’ accountants and auditors may be partly responsible for cases of distress and closure of companies and banking institutions in Nigeria. However, the various Statutory Provisions and Acts relating to companies and professional bodies all place the responsibility on the accountants and auditors to detect and report to the regulators cases of suspected fraud and accounting malpractice. Through detailed consideration of cases of fraud, falsifications and deliberate overstatement of companies’ accounts, this paper examines the claim that the professional bodies are capable of protecting the public interest. It utilizes archival documents to provide evidence that suggests professional misconduct by accountants, particularly the members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). The paper provides further evidence that ICAN has been reluctant to either investigate or sanction its erring members. The paper posits that the reluctance or inability of the ICAN's “Investigation and Disciplinary Machinery” to either investigate or discipline the erring accountants and auditors suggests that whether by design or default, the ICAN's “Investigation and Disciplinary Machinery” operates to shield the activities of its erring members in accountancy firms from critical scrutiny.     

An Historical Analysis of Ethical Pronouncements and Debate in the Australian Accounting Profession

This paper traces the forerunners of the present-day ethical rulings of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and the Australian Society of Accountants from the earlies professional Australian accounting bodies of the 1880s and 1890s. Various codes of ethics, articles, and memoranda of association, by-laws, charters, and professional publications are reviewed. Key Australian ethical issues are identified and their orientation over time considered. There is an early orientation towards overseas viewpoints and the issue of advertising is identified as a key impetus for ethical code development. The profession's self-interest is identified as an underlying rationale. This is presented as an historical case study of the development of accounting ethics with a view to identifying factors influencing change over time.     

Reflections on some of the formative years of the British Accounting Review: Thoughts of ducklings and swans

Between 1978 and 2004 we were engaged in a variety of editorial roles with the British Accounting Review, its forerunner (The AUTA Review) and (what became) The British Accounting Review Research Register. This was a period of considerable change for both the journal and the Association. In this short essay, we look back on those 26 years, describing (as we see it) the changes and the reasons for them and indulge in a little reflection on some of the positives and negatives that have flowed around the journal over this period and up to the present.     

Accounting and Business Research: the first 50 years, 1970–2019

This article is a historical review and analysis of the first 50 years of Accounting and Business Research.     

Regulatory flexibility and management opportunism in the choice of alternative accounting standards: an illustration based on large French groups

Due to the flexibility of domestic accounting regulations, French groups are entitled to refer to international or American standards for their consolidation. The objective of this research paper is to focus on the choices made by the 100 largest French companies during the last 16 years (1985-2000). In practice, apart from the French rules, three “alternative” sets of standards are used: the International Accounting Standards (IAS), “international principles,” and the U.S. GAAP. The percentage of companies referring to alternative (i.e., non-French) standards rose in the first part of the period, then fell. Additionally, while the number of companies choosing U.S. GAAP increased over the period as a whole, the number preferring IAS or “international principles” has been in sharp decline since 1994-1995. Our results show that in this voluntary move towards international accounting harmonization, the choices made by French companies have clearly varied according to developments in French accounting regulations and the changing power balance between the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) and the SEC-FASB. This indicates a certain degree of opportunism by the management, who clearly keeps one eye constantly on the cost-benefit trade-off.     

Using photographs in interpreting cultural and symbolic meaning: A reflection on photographs of the Korean Association for Government Accounting

Building on a sociological tradition of using photographs as a methodology, we suggest that accounting researchers more fully utilize photographs to understand accounting actors’ everyday lives. While most accounting studies have focused on the photographic imagery in published documents, such as corporate annual reports, a few authors found photographs can highlight how physical artefacts can deliver symbolic messages. We explored photographs drawn from the Korean Association for Government Accounting (KAGA) to illustrate how social actors used physical artefacts. To guide our analysis, we relied on Bourdieu’s theorization of how physical artefacts reflect forms of capital. We argue that the use of photographs as a methodology provides a deeper insight into the cultural and social meanings of physical artefacts as a form of language open to multiple interpretations by both the author and the reader.     

Accounting education, training and the profession in the Commonwealth Caribbean: Integration or internationalisation?

In light of the January 2006 inauguration of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), regional accountants now face the challenge of reshaping the system of professional education and training inherited from the UK-based ACCA at independence or transferred to the Caribbean economies by the American-based CPA and the Canadian-based CGA after independence, in order to better serve the socio-economic needs of Caribbean economies. This paper therefore examines the way forward for the professional education and training in accountancy in the context of the now independent post-colonial developing economies of the Caribbean. Given the structural, economic and social deficiencies deriving from their colonial history, these countries need to move away from the externally derived model of accounting education and its legacy of inappropriate content, methodology and pedagogy. Available evidence suggests that the integration of the accountancy profession could aid and accelerate the successful operation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy. In fact, such evidence suggests that the integration of the accounting profession represents the preference of the people of the Commonwealth Caribbean. In addition the evidence suggests that the integration of the profession could contribute significantly to the projection of a Caribbean identity, to economic development and could ultimately make a major contribution to the survival of the Commonwealth Caribbean economies in the global economic system.     

Accounting as a social and institutional practice: perspectives to enrich our understanding of accounting change

In the past two decades, a body of literature has developed which depicts accounting as a social and institutional practice. Researchers adopting this perspective typically demonstrate an appreciation for the pervasive and enabling characteristics of accounting and an awareness of the importance of local, time-specific factors which shape accounting change within particular instances. This work examines this literature and classifies its content using the themes identified by Miller (1994 ). Drawing upon aspects of this literature, the final sections develop a broad, thematic framework to assist researchers in future studies directed at understanding the diverse and complex processes through which changes to the accounting domain can occur.     

Twenty years of the International Journal of Accounting Information Systems: A bibliometric analysis

The International Journal of Accounting Information Systems (IJAIS) celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2019. This study conducts a retrospective analysis of IJAIS articles using a bibliometric analysis to commemorate the event. Findings show a consistent increase in both journal publications and citations. Authors affiliated to United States institutions are the predominant contributors. However, Australian institutions also show up among the most prolific institutions for the journal. The most dominant themes the journal has followed over the years are related to issues of information technology and emerging technologies in accounting, and the application of technologies to assurance and corporate disclosures. Researchers who are studying or willing to explore such topics should consider IJAIS as a premium outlet for their work. Besides these well-studied research topics, the entity linking analysis results also revealed valuable research topics that need more attention, such as the application of technologies to Tax and non-profit accounting. This finding may inspire AIS researchers with new research ideas.     

新中国七十年企业会计改革发展的演进逻辑与理论诠释

建国七十年来企业会计改革在社会主义建设中纵横捭阖,在改革开放中创新开拓,交织出中华民族伟大复兴棋局中的会计经纬。随着新中国七十载时代变迁和历史沉淀,企业会计改革发展持续释放出影响深远的力度、深度与温度,焕发出蓬勃的制度生命力与广泛的理论影响力。站在新的历史方位上,以马克思实践唯物主义为逻辑起点,以我国企业会计改革发展历程为研究基础,钩沉与梳理七十载企业会计改革发展演进脉络,探索与诠释七十载企业会计改革发展理论内涵,以期进一步丰富和发展中国特色企业会计理论与方法体系,推动企业会计改革发展更好地服务新时代经济社会进步。     

Accounting in the late medieval town: the account books of the stewards of Southampton in the fifteenth century

The fifteenth-century account books of the Southampton town officer known as the steward are the main source used here for a study of accounting in the late medieval town. The article considers internal and external influences on Southampton's early change to paper account books, improved presentation of accounting information and use of English in the stewards' books. It explores the links between writing materials, format and language in the preparation of town accounts at Southampton and other towns. The article concludes by suggesting that the classified account introduced in the steward's book of 1441-2 is evidence of a wider function for charge/discharge accounting than is normally attributed to it.