How can the public trust charities? The role of performance accountability reporting

Charities rely on public trust to exist. However, that trust has diminished, with a perceived lack of accountability seen as a key reason. This study draws on case studies of two New Zealand charities to examine their performance accountability reporting practices and potential implications for public trust. The findings surface the day‐to‐day agency of charity actors in shifting performance accountability practices towards modes of disclosure that are relevant and accessible to the public. This paper contributes to the literature by extending understandings of how charities produce accountability information that can enhance public trust and, thus, support their mission achievement.     

Accounting for promises: The impact of SFAS No. 116 on charities

SFAS No. 116, Accounting for contributions made and contributions received, issued in 1993, requires that nongovernmental organizations, both proprietary and nonprofit, recognize unconditional promises to give as current period revenue. This study examines whether charities—organizations that rely heavily upon contributions—are affected by SFAS No. 116 adoption along two dimensions: whether an accounting effect exists, and whether a subsequent economic, or behavioral impact is felt by charities reporting positive adjustments to net assets when adopting SFAS No. 116.First, this study documents the effect of SFAS No. 116 adoption on receivables, and considers whether increases in pledges that result from adoption persist in post-adoption periods. The evidence suggests that the accounting effect of SFAS No. 116—that is, the recognition of unconditional pledges—persists in the post-adoption regime.Second, the economic effect of SFAS No. 116 is considered by examining, for charities affected by adoption, whether cash contributions decline in post-adoption periods, whether fundraising increases, and whether reliance on cash contributions decreases in post-adoption periods. Results indicate that cash contributions decrease, that fundraising increases, and that reliance on cash contributions decreases for these organizations.     

问责制理论研究综述

问责制是基于委托代理关系的制度安排,它要求代理人必须积极回应并满足委托人的基本要求。本文在委托代理理论基础上,对问责制相关文献进行了解读,从问责主客体、问责类型和问责激励效果三大层面对问责制成果进行了归纳和评价,对我国问责制理论体系的构建具有一定理论价值和实践意义。     

New development: Transparent impact reporting in charity annual reports—benefits,challenges and areas for development

The effect of charitable activities on beneficiaries and society is at the heart of what charities exist to do, and stakeholders’ reasons for engaging with charities. Reporting publicly and transparently on this impact can form the basis of improved effectiveness, accountability, legitimacy and trust: potentially securing stakeholders’ ongoing support and engagement. However, significant challenges to transparent impact reporting are also acknowledged. This article explores these possible benefits, and challenges and highlights areas for development in practice and research.     

Capital Charging as a VFM Tool in Public Services

This article provides an overview of the key findings and reflections of a detailed, two year comparative study examining experiences with, and without, New Public Financial Management (NPFM) reforms in eleven different countries. The study highlights the problems of trying to explain such developments through simplistic explanatory variables and emphasises the need for alternative modes of analysis more closely rooted in the different national traditions and values associated with the provision of public services.     

电子商务信任管理研究

信任管理是推动电子商务发展的关键因素。本文综述了电子商务中的信任管理模式及其存在的问题;针对上述问题,提出了电子商务信任管理框架,阐述了框架组成的基本原理及各部分之间的关系,为电子商务信任体系建设提供了新的思路。     

Accountability in a Free-Market Economy: The British Company Audit, 1886

The relative merits of market forces compared with regulations as the more efficient mechanism for ensuring adequate accountability from business (and non-business) organizations is a subject of keen debate. Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century is regularly cited as an example of how the market will ensure adequate accountability in the absence of regulatory requirements. There is a great deal of speculation but very little hard evidence concerning the precise levels of accountability during this period. This study is designed to penetrate contemporary attitudes and actions by using primary sources to determine the audit arrangements made by quoted companies in the year 1886. It is discovered that professionally qualified accountants generally, and chartered accountants in particular, had achieved a dominant position by 1886, and possibly rather earlier; a finding which is also used to illuminate the question of the nature of the professional accountants' work in the late nineteenth century.     

受托责任及其评价指标体系研究

新会计准则提出的财务报告目标之一是反映企业管理层受托责任履行情况,但企业管理层受托责任具体有哪些以及如何评价尚未明确。本文根据利益相关者理论和实际案例,界定了企业管理层受托责任对象及内容,并提出受托责任评价体系。     

深化人民银行内部审计职能探析

本文主要依托于国内外受托责任理论的相关研究成果,通过对内部审计历史沿革的考察,对人民银行内外部受托责任体系及内部审计的理论职能进行了分析。然后结合人民银行内部审计成立以来的管理和操作实践,对其管理体制和职能特点进行了评析,并就未来人民银行内部审计的职能及作用途径进行了思考。     

论信托财产的主体性

传统观念秉持的信托财产“唯权利客体论”暴露了力所不逮的疲态。有鉴于此,立法与学界立场发生转变,表现为“客体实体化”“选择性主体化”“特殊类型组织化”和“一般性主体地位”四种对信托财产主体化的认知层次。主体性证成上,信托财产是目的财团,信托具备团体属性,特殊信托演化出组织特征;独立信托目的“冻结能力”是信托财产获得独立人格的根本原因,其引致的独立意思、独立财产与独立责任是直接原因。是以信托财产满足法人资格实质条件,未获主体地位是立法选择而非理论障碍。规范进路上,对信托财产主体地位的承认应采“信托法默示主义”,即尊重设立者意图,兼顾公共利益及对现实的追认,缺省性地肯定商事信托与公益信托法主体地位,赋权性地允许民事信托拥有权利能力,以对特殊类型的强制性规定为例外。     

Improved Accountability Disclosures by Canadian Universities*

Canadian university disclosures have been tracked from 1988 to 2000 using the modified accountability disclosure (MAD) index developed by Coy, Dixon, and Tower (1993) and Coy, Tower, and Dixon (1993) in their study of New Zealand universities. During the first eight years of the period under investigation, there was very little change in accountability disclosures. However, for the periods ending in 1997 through 2000, there has been a statistically significant annual improvement. This paper examines the reasons for these changes as indicated in the interviews with the presidents, or their designates, of Canadian universities. Factors include increased fund raising by the universities and pressures by the public and governments for universities to become more accountable, while a change in accounting pronouncements appears to have had little effect.     

Camouflage play: Making moral claims in managed investments

The paper claims theoretical, empirical and normative contributions to the fledgling research on social accountabilities in financial services. Managers of managed (mutual) funds with public social mandates are obligated to pursue clients’ economic interests and exercise claimed moral considerations. Theoreticians working in post-modern accounting are invited to examine alignment difficulties. Guidance is offered in the form of Foucault's resigned response to Nietzsche's moral cynicism. Theoretical antagonisms are empirically illustrated in interviews with managers of social investment portfolios, comparisons of the portfolios of selected Australian social funds with conventional counterparts, and comparisons of selected investment decisions with claimed investment criteria in a sample of Australian social funds. Research has suggested that a recognisably distinct management bias in Australian socially screened investment products may have diffused into the investment styles adopted by managers of conventional unscreened products. The paper suggests that performance convergence might also be attributable to similar stock holdings. The requirement to sustain competitive economic performance renders the use of moral considerations in managed funds as camouflage play. A number of investment policy innovations are suggested that might serve to increase net fund inflows and so bring closer the objective of social investment to transform capital.     

Do corporate governance recommendations improve the performance and accountability of small listed companies?

This study examines whether the implementation of the 2003 Australian Securities Exchange Limited governance recommendations influenced the governance choices of small companies and whether compliance improves their accounting and market performance and earnings quality. Our analysis examines small and large companies because we are interested in the different effects of the governance recommendations on the two groups. The analysis shows a significant shift by small and large companies to comply with the recommendations around the time of their introduction. We find that formation of an audit committee surrounding the reform period is significantly associated with improved earnings quality for small and large companies. However, compliance with other governance recommendations is not systematically associated with improved performance or earnings quality.     

Hull House: An autopsy of not-for-profit financial accountability

Analyzing financial information for Hull House, an iconic not-for-profit organization, students are asked to explore the clues to its unfortunate demise. Hull House filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after 123 years of service to the Chicago community. Evaluating the reported financial data from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Forms 990, we seek to determine causes for this event and identify issues the board of trustees might have addressed in the years leading up to Hull House’s ruin that may have changed the outcome for this not-for-profit organization and its 60,000 clients. We also investigate the changing responsibilities of an organization’s leadership as it enters the “zone of insolvency.” This case requires real-life application of financial analysis to the not-for-profit accounting data provided by IRS Forms 990, which are publicly available on the website www.GuideStar.org.