A Pragmatist Defence of Classical Financial Accounting Research

One reason for the disdain in which classical financial accounting research has come to held by many in the scholarly community is its allegedly insufficiently scientific nature. While many have defended classical research or provided critiques of post‐classical paradigms, the motivation for this paper is different. It offers an epistemologically robust underpinning for the approaches and methods of classical financial accounting research that restores its claim to legitimacy as a rigorous, systematic and empirically grounded means of acquiring knowledge. This underpinning is derived from classical philosophical pragmatism and, principally, from the writings of John Dewey. The objective is to show that classical approaches are capable of yielding serviceable, theoretically based solutions to problems in accounting practice.     

Trends in research on international accounting harmonization

International harmonization of financial accounting standards has been the goal of many professional and academic accountants during the last 40 years. As of January 1, 2005, international accounting harmonization entered a new and perhaps decisive phase. From that date, all companies domiciled in the European Union with shares listed on securities exchanges are required to prepare their consolidated accounts in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This landmark event presents an opportunity for accounting researchers to assess the status of research on international accounting harmonization. In this paper, we review articles published in major English language accounting journals during the period from 1965 through 2004 in order to trace thematic and methodological trends in this line of research and to assess where the research may evolve from here.     

Financial and external reporting research: the broadening corporate governance challenge

This study provides a critical examination of contemporary financial and external reporting research from a corporate governance perspective. Adopting Hines' social constructionist approach to financial reporting, the study investigates research into accounting publishing patterns, published reviews of major subject areas within financial and external reporting research, and interviews a sample of accounting professors in British universities. The findings reveal a strong North American economics and finance-based positivist influence, a largely uncritical acceptance of accounting's subservience to the demands of the market, a reluctance to engage major policy questions and broader reporting constituencies. These appear to be conditioned to a large degree by internal features and pressures within the academic research community. Evidence is presented for greater attention to major environmental shifts impacting accounting and communities globally, a reinvigoration of researchers' direct engagement with reporting constituents in the field, a revisiting of major accounting, business, social and environmental policy questions, and a preparedness to address today's major corporate governance concerns of communities and governments.     

The changing technological environment and the future of behavioural research in accounting

In an era where the pace of change continues to escalate, behavioural research provides an ongoing avenue for explaining the likely effects of emergent changes on decision‐making by providers, users and assurers of accounting information, and for providing ex ante enlightenment for policy‐makers. The purpose of this discussion is to identify contemporary changes affecting the accounting environment, discuss the potential impact to individual and organisational decision‐making, and explore how behavioural research can be utilised to examine these changes. Specifically, this discussion focuses on the impact that technological changes have had on financial reporting, external auditing and managerial accounting, with an eye towards the potential for these changes to radically alter the future of accounting and auditing research.     

Is mark-to-market accounting destabilizing? Analysis and implications for policy

Fundamental economic principles provide a rationale for requiring financial institutions to use mark-to-market, or fair value, accounting for financial reporting. The recent turmoil in financial markets, however, has raised questions about whether fair value accounting is exacerbating the problems. In this paper, we review the history and practice of fair value accounting, and summarize the literature on the channels through which it can adversely affect the real economy. We propose a new model to study the interaction of accounting rules with regulatory capital requirements, and show that even when market prices always reflect fundamental values, the interaction of fair value accounting rules and a simple capital requirement can create inefficiencies that are absent when capital is measured by adjusted book value. These distortions can be avoided, however, by redefining capital requirements to be procyclical rather than by abandoning fair value accounting and the other benefits that it provides.     

The Impact of Journal Rankings on Australasian Accounting Education Scholarship – A Personal View

Abstract

The higher education environment in which academics currently find themselves is one characterised by corporatisation and commodification. The pursuit of scholarly academic research is increasingly plagued by quantification, ranking pursuits, and what might be referred to as a ‘publication’ maximisation culture. This paper provides reflective insight into the impact felt of journal rankings on Australasian accounting education research. The paper challenges the short-termism and narrow focus currently adopted by many business faculty executives, who continue to use journal rankings as the sole measure of academic performance. The paper argues that this results in incentive schemes not too dissimilar to that recently found within the financial industry. The paper concludes that such a narrow approach to measurement should be abandoned in order to encourage creativity and innovation in business research that assists in solving business problems today and well into the future.     

财务会计目标之透视

财务会计目标是会计准则的基石,用来指引整个财务会计概念框架和会计准则体系的构建,在会计准则制定工作中起重要的导航作用。本文在对财务会计目标综述的基础上,分析了我国会计环境对财务会计目标的影响;进一步明确了在我国目前的会计环境下,财务会计目标应定位于"决策有用观+受托责任观"。     

Financial Statements and Positive Accounting Theory: The Early Contribution of Aldo Amaduzzi

This paper examines some of the accounting ideas that were developed in the late 1940s by an Italian professor, Aldo Amaduzzi, with regards to positive accounting studies and the content of financial statements. The paper briefly reviews the aim, methodological assumptions and key findings of the so-called 'positive accounting theory' based on the works of the Rochester school of accounting. A content analysis of the early work of Amaduzzi, in relation to his view that the contents of financial statements can be seen as the equilibrium outcome of a conflict of interests between corporate stakeholders, shows that many of the methodological issues on accounting theory stressed by the 'Rochester school of accounting' were raised by Amaduzzi (1947, 1949). The paper concludes that although some key differences between the two approaches do exist, Amaduzzi may be considered as a forerunner of positive accounting theory.     

Financial Accounting Research,Practice, and Financial Accountability

Financial accounting is essential to financial accountability, which is essential to a prosperous society. There are many examples of how improvements to financial accounting, supported by research, have enhanced financial accountability. Such research requires a strong relation between accounting academics and practice; this relation has ebbed and flowed during the life of Abacus. The relation seems to ebb when accounting academics embrace related fields and flows when the relevance to accounting practice emerges. Economics and finance have provided new perspectives and meaningful insights about the information investors need to make informed decisions. Regardless, there are many intriguing and open questions awaiting accounting research that can provide insights into how financial accounting—and thus financial accountability—can be improved. The future is bright for financial accounting researchers who do research relevant to accounting practice and want to contribute to a prosperous society.     

浅析财务会计与税务会计的协调

本文从财务会计与税务会计的目标、原则及核算的差异出发,探讨如何协调财务会计与税务会计.     

论我国政府财务会计信息质量特征

政府财务会计作为政府会计的重要组成部分,其职能主要是对外提供满足各利益相关者进行决策所需的会计信息,从而解除政府的受托责任。作为对外会计,其所提供的产品即会计信息必须严格遵循相关准则制度的要求,并符合相应的质量标准。本文认为政府财务会计信息质量特征具有多维性,首先受成本收益的约束,只有在成本小于收益的前提下提供会计信息才是可行的,提供的所有信息从总体上要求具有可理解性,在内容上要满足可靠性和相关性,在会计信息的口径和方法上应遵循可比性,同时应保持一定程度的谨慎性,而在信息的取舍上主要取决于重要性特征。     

A half-century of Accounting and Business Research: the impact on the study of international financial reporting

This paper celebrates the contribution of this journal, over its first 50 years, to research on international financial reporting, defined as comprising writings on comparative or harmonisation topics. The paper examines the journal’s output in that field and how it contributed to the field’s development. Even though the journal was sympathetic to international financial reporting, less than 1% of output in its first decade (the 1970s) related to it. In its first 35 years, a large proportion of the journal’s limited output in the field was produced by two small groups of researchers. However, during its fourth decade, the field gradually became dominant as the accounting world changed. By then, the journal had already published the seminal papers on several central topics in international financial reporting, including measuring harmonisation, using reconciliations to measure international accounting differences, assessing international differences in the influence of tax on financial reporting, and measuring international difference in the application of international standards. These topics were later taken up by many researchers in several other journals.     

Accounting System Reform in Japanese Local Governments

The New Public Management (NPM), of which the change from cash accounting to accrual accounting is considered an important tool, has been in fashion in many developed countries. Japanese governments, however, have preserved control of expenditures on a cash basis, though recently financial management reforms in local government have begun to adopt NPM ideas. Using a contingency framework which views the reform of accounting sub-systems (management accounting, financial accounting and auditing) as stimulated by a combination of internal and external pressures, this paper explores why Japanese local governments managed to survive without accrual accounting and the prospects for further reform in the future. It is suggested that system change itself can be accomplished by internal pressures, in the form of mandated policies, alone but that sustained external pressures by citizens are required in order to achieve the intended outcomes of accounting reform.     

Financial Accounting Reform in Flemish Municipalities: An Empirical Investigation

This paper examines the cross-sectional differences in the level of adoption and implementation of the financial accounting reform in Flemish municipalities. For the first time ever in Belgian governments a cash-based budgetary accounting system is obligatorily being supplemented by an accrual accounting system. This study is based on an empirical analysis of municipal accounting practices and annual accounts 1995 in Flanders. The findings indicate that municipalities are coping with a lot of problems regarding transferability of business accounting and the study reveals significant factors explaining the level of compliance with the reformed accounting regulations.     

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.     

政府会计二元结构体系中的概念框架研究

我国理论界已达成"政府会计由预算会计和财务会计两大相对独立的系统构成"的新共识。政府会计二元结构格局的形成决定了人们迫切需要运用二元结构思维重新考究政府会计概念框架的构建,以指引即将展开的政府会计改革。二元结构新理念可以融入政府会计目标、政府会计核算对象与适用范围、政府会计主体、政府会计信息质量特征、政府会计核算基础与计量属性、政府会计要素、政府财务报告等概念框架及其表现形式之中,进而形成新的政府会计概念框架体系。     

Accounting for government guarantees: perspectives on fiscal transparency from four modes of accounting

Government guarantees are increasingly important as a policy instrument in public infrastructure investment and to assist the banking and financial sectors following the global financial crisis. This paper analyses how different modes of accounting characterize such guarantees in the contexts of public sector financial reporting, statistical accounting, budgeting and long-term fiscal projections. Guarantees are difficult to specify for accounting treatment and consistent conceptualization of liabilities. These difficulties make it attractive for governments to treat obligations as off-budget and off-balance sheet contingent liabilities, rather than recognize them in financial statements and statistical accounts. Miller and Power’s territorializing, mediating, adjudicating and subjectivizing roles of accounting are utilized to analyse the reporting of UK government guarantees. Provisioning for guarantees is complex in financial reporting statements and often absent in national accounts, a deficiency which Eurostat has attempted to address by devising the concept of standardized guarantees and by securing more disclosure of contingent liabilities. There is potential for future research especially where there is greater mediation between the four modes of government accounting.     

Valuation-based accounting research: Implications for financial reporting and opportunities for future research

This paper discusses the relation between financial reporting research and practice, particularly standard setters. Many studies addressing financial reporting issues use a valuation approach. The paper describes alternative approaches to valuation research and summarises the findings relating to four major current issues: fair value accounting for financial, tangible, and intangible assets, cash flows versus accruals, recognition versus disclosure, and international harmonisation of accounting standards. The summaries include identifying what standard setters and others would like to learn from research, what we have learned, and what is left to learn. The paper concludes with observations about future financial reporting academic research.