An international comparison of strategic management accounting practices

Following a consideration of what accounting practices may comprise strategic management accounting (SMA), the results of a questionnaire survey investigating the incidence and perceived merit of 12 SMA practices are reported. The survey sample comprises large companies in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. There is a wide range of application rates for the 12 practices appraised; competitor accounting and strategic pricing are the most widely-used. Most of the SMA practices appraised are not widely used. However, based on the perceptions of the benefits from adopting such practices, the potential for greater use exists in all countries examined. Cross-country comparisons highlight fairly similar levels of SMA usage. However, when controlling for company size, there is a suggestion that some practices are used relatively more in N.Z. and relatively less in the U.K. and U.S. There appears to be negligible use of the term `strategic management accounting' in organizations and practising accountants have a limited appreciation of what the term means.     

Contingencies influencing the management accounting practices of Estonian manufacturing companies

Having regained independence in 1991, Estonia has undergone fundamental political and structural changes over the last decade, which have also affected the operation of its companies. This paper examines the management accounting practices of Estonian manufacturing companies, exploring the main impacts on them within a contingency theory framework. The methodology comprises an analysis of 62 responses to a postal questionnaire survey carried out among the largest Estonian manufacturing companies. It is comparatively infrequently that Estonian manufacturing companies have made improvements in their cost accounting methods, although the majority of respondents appear to acknowledge the importance of these practices in finding and lowering real product costs and modernizing the cost accounting systems. The effectiveness of an accounting systems’ design depends on its ability to adapt to changes both in external circumstances and internal factors. We have found some evidence that changes in cost and management accounting practices are associated with shifts in the business and accounting environment as external contingencies, and with those in technology and organizational aspects as internal contingencies. This research aims on the one hand to confirm earlier findings related to the ‘contingent factors’ that influence management accounting and on the other, to identify possible new factors, such as, for example, the legal accounting environment and shortage of properly qualified accountants.     

Adoption and benefits of management accounting practices: Evidence from Greece and Finland

This study investigates the extent to which large-size Greek manufacturing firms have implemented various traditional and currently developed management accounting practices (MAP), the benefits received from those practices and the intentions to focus on specific practices in the future. The findings indicate, that, implementation rates for many currently-developed practices were of a high level and similar than those presented in other countries, in total, traditionally MAP were found to be marginally higher implemented than the currently developed ones. However, there is an increasing trend for firms to place greater emphasis in the future on currently developed techniques instead the traditional ones, particularly on performance evaluation techniques. The results of this survey are compared to the findings of a similar study in Finland.     

Strategic management accounting and strategy practices within a public sector agency

Empirical strategic management accounting (SMA) research has paid insufficient attention to the practices through which strategising occurs. SMA research has also overlooked the importance of strategy in the public sector and the specificities of this context that problematise existing knowledge of techniques that might make up SMA. Consequently, this study examines the role of management accounting in organisational practices through which strategy is enacted, and does this by way of a longitudinal study of a public sector agency. It is informed by the strategy-as-practice perspective that increasingly features in strategy research. The study identifies roles for management accounting in strategising that extend beyond the typically ascribed functions of decision-facilitation and decision-influencing. Its main contribution is the detailing of specific ways in which management accounting is constitutive of strategising through specific organisational practices. The findings of particular management accounting techniques being used for strategising by entities in the public sector provide a useful counter-point to the private sector orientation that has dominated SMA research to date. The study also outlines particular directions that a rebalanced SMA research agenda might take.     

Understanding financial accounting practice

In introducing three papers on the institutionalised nature of financial accounting practices, this paper argues for the importance of research that can provide more adequate insights into the wider institutional and social positioning of financial accounting. Illustrating the argument by appeal to both contemporary and earlier examples, emphasis is placed on the ways in which changes in the wider interests in and around the enterprise can and do mediate financial accounting practice.     

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.     

Cloud-based client accounting and small and medium accounting practices: Adoption and impact

Cloud accounting represents a major disruptive technology for the accounting industry. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to collect data from eight small and medium accounting practices (SMPs) to test a preliminary model of the determinants and impact of cloud-based client accounting adoption by SMPs. Accordingly, the SMP was the unit of analysis. The complex triadic relationship between SMPs, their clients and cloud accounting provider necessitated an interorganisational perspective. Four factors contributed to SMPs’ adoption decisions: perceived benefits of cloud-based client accounting, perceived benefits of partner programs, organisational readiness (IT sophistication and client readiness), and external pressure (client and competitive pressures). Subsequent to adoption, SMPs experienced a decline in the levels of traditional (statutory) services provided. However, most noted increases in income from business advisory. All firms were at least as well off after adoption. Improvements in client relationships and the perceived value of accountants’ services were also noted. An adoption/impact typology predicted and found positive impacts for cloud initiators, in particular. The findings have implications for owners of SMPs, their SME clients, and for accounting professional bodies.     

Economic transition,strategy and the evolution of management accounting practices: the case of India

Liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991 increased the intensity of international competition and changed the internal information needs of Indian managers. This paper explores the evolution of a broad range of management accounting practices in 14 firms using a contingency theory framework. Differences in management accounting practices in 1996 are examined in relation to firms’ experience in and exposure to world markets prior to liberalization and as a function of contemporaneous differences in competitive strategy. We find evidence of changes associated with shifts in the external environment. ©     

The role of multiple values in developing management accounting practices in hybrid organisations

The aim of this study is to investigate how multiple values in non-profit hybrid organisations influence the adoption of management accounting practices. The empirical analysis centres on hybrid organisations established as co-production and co-management initiatives in social care. Pragmatic constructivism, centred on the role of values, informs the empirical analysis. This research shows that management accounting practices can develop without conflicts when only some actors are interested in management and their values predominate, despite the coexistence of multiple and conflicting values. However, in this situation, where conflicts are eliminated, the validity of accounting is compromised, as it does not represent all values. The evidence of this lack of validity is clear when considering the poor development of management accounting practices and the inability to develop some relevant measures, such as outcome measures. When only some values predominate, the opportunity provided by the multiplicity of values to the development of management accounting practices is lost, and possible inefficiencies may emerge. The use of pragmatic constructivism shows that this lack of validity, determined by the non-integration of values, would be reduced by increasing the discussion among conflicting actors’ values. Findings suggest that the presence of conflicting values, that at first glance may be interpreted as an impediment, would, on the contrary, be useful to support accounting validity, when stimulating discussion. In this respect, conflicting values should work alongside communication, to include dimensions of reality.     

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.     

Accounting Community of Practice pedagogy: a course management invention for developing personal competencies in accounting education

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory qualitative study using the implementation of Wenger’s [(1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press; Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization, 7(2), 225–246] Theory of Communities of Practice to develop an Accounting Community of Practice (ACOP) pedagogy. Students from eight accounting courses who participated, in the120 narratives and 280 surveys used as data, practice and develop critical real-world professional accounting competencies by linking three structural foundations: (1) accountability to joint enterprise, (2) mutual engagement, and (3) shared repertoire of communal resources. Competencies promoted by the AICPA [(1999). Core competency framework of entry into the accounting profession. Retrieved from http://www.aicpa.org/edu/corecomp.htm; AICPA. (2006). Core competency framework of entry into the accounting profession. Retrieved from http://www.aicpa.org/edu/corecomp.htm); International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). (2003). International education standard No. 3, professional skills. Retrieved from www.ifac.org; IFAC. (2015). Meeting future expectations of professional competence: A consultation on the IAESB’S future strategies and priorities. Retrieved from www.iaesb.org; ICAEW. (1996). Added value professionals: Chartered accountants in England and Wales. London: Author], and other professional bodies include problem-solving, leadership, project management, and interaction. ACOP strategy is effective in maintaining dynamic learning environments, increasing students’ awareness of trust, open communication, and creative thinking. Meaning and knowledge are owned in ACOP where the focus of the class shifts from instructor to students. This study adds to limited empirical research in communal forms of learning in accounting.     

The politics of professional accounting research: some personal reflections

Professional research is generally undertaken by committees and is almost invariably commissioned and monitored by committees. This article deals with the politics of such research. It draws on the author's experiences with professional bodies and government organisations in several countries, with particular reference to the production of The Corporate Report in the United Kingdom and Corporate Reporting: its Future Evolution in Canada. Types of professionally sponsored research are analysed, and proposals for improvements in this type of research are presented, along with suggestions for further investigation of the issues dealt with.     

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.     

Conscious practices and purposive action: A qualitative study of accounting and social change

The paper develops a methodology of accounting practices as conscious representations of purposive action, which seeks to build broader insights from qualitative research into the social aspects of accounting change, and how these relate to wider organisational and social transformations. The paper constructs the methodology by linking together and developing interpretive and labour process perspectives through an analysis of ethnographic material drawn from an extensive field study of the empresas recuperadas – cooperatives formed by workers during economic and political crisis in Argentina in 2001. The analysis traces the involvement of accounting practices within collaborative dynamics that transformed a hierarchical organisational structure, embedded within accountability systems that manifest prevailing notions of identity and collectivism, into a decentralised organisation that established relations with grass roots societal groups informed by new purposes and values. This perspective develops into a concept of the differentiated and contradictory social aspects of profitability, and highlights a range of potential relations between representations and realities. The final part conceptualises the collective and nuanced conditions through which accounting practices represented individual needs more effectively. The paper concludes by highlighting how its methodology and findings help to understand the conscious, collaborative involvement of accounting practices within social life.     

New development: China promotes government financial accounting and management accounting

In late 2013, China's political leadership decided to require the government to practice accrual accounting and prepare whole-of-government financial reports. This decision was codified in the new budget law and followed up by a State Council directive endorsing the reform proposal of the Ministry of Finance. Some basic government accounting standards have been made public for comment. In the same timeframe, the ministry also decided to promote management accounting in order to raise the competency and contributions of China's millions of accounting personnel.     

Understanding financial crisis through accounting models

This paper presents evidence that accounting (or flow-of-funds) macroeconomic models helped anticipate the credit crisis and economic recession. Equilibrium models ubiquitous in mainstream policy and research did not. This study traces the intellectual pedigrees of the accounting approach as an alternative to neo-classical economics, and the post-war rise and decline of flow-of-funds models in policy use. It includes contemporary case studies of both types of models, and considers why the accounting approach has remained outside mainstream economics. It provides constructive recommendations on revising methods of financial stability assessment and advocates an ‘accounting of economics’.