The behavioral sciences and concepts and standards for management planning and control

This article reviews behavioral research on the individual, small groups and organizations and the implications of this research for management accounting. Also, opportunities for accounting research are identified and, where appropriate, extant accounting research is discussed. The conclusion is that studies of individual and group behavior are inseparable from studies of complex organizations and vice versa. Furthermore, fundamental research into personal, oragnizational, and environmental variables and their impact on effective management planning and control systems is urgently needed.     

Flipped v’s traditional teaching perspectives in a first year accounting unit: an action research study

With the need to move accounting students towards deeper learning approaches and understandings, this first cycle of an action research study sought to determine the student’s perspective of the flipped learning approach. With this learning approach gaining momentum in recent times, this study focuses on a first-year introductory accounting class in an undergraduate business degree. In making changes to the learning environment, we survey students and find that there are significant differences between the flexible student, that is, students that are already exposed in a limited way to this approach, and the face-to-face student. Results indicate further action research is required if the flipped learning approach is to be considered a serious teaching and learning contender for the first-year student.     

Accounting and Accountability in Fiji: A Review and Synthesis

This paper reviews accounting and accountability research in Fiji. The review is based on 47 papers published since 1978 in accounting refereed journals, professional journals, edited book chapters and theses and other refereed journals outside accounting. In addition to categorisation of the reviewed papers according to accounting topics, theories and methods of data collection, some themes to which the papers could be related are discussed. Financial reporting/accountability research is the most popular research in Fiji followed by new public management research, with sustainability accounting research the third most popular. The paper's findings suggest some directions for future accounting research in Fiji and where the data can possibly be sourced for such research. We conclude that more research is needed in the Fijian context that focuses on accounting and the state, performance auditing, indigenous accounting, SMEs and accountability.     

Exploring (false) dualisms for environmental accounting praxis

This paper focuses on the political nature of the linguistic dualisms or ‘false antinomies’ that inhere in environmental accounting practice and environmental accounting research. These dualisms, ‘subject–object,’ ‘man–woman,’ ‘mind–body,’ and ‘culture–nature,’ the paper argues, need to be ‘ambiguized’ if the politics inherent in these dualisms are to be resisted. Two strategies for the ‘ambiguization’ of these dualisms are suggested: ‘performative parody,’ which is a strategy intended for environmental accounting practitioners, and ‘democratic reflexivity,’ which is a strategy intended for environmental accounting researchers. In taking this linguistic focus, the paper challenges common sense constructions of the environment and the potentially elitist and anti-democratic nature of environmental accounting research. By offering these two strategies, the paper provides a means of environmental accounting praxis, or means of resisting global ‘environmental’ domination.     

论环境会计核算中的环境资产确认问题

环境资产是环境会计的一个重要会计要素,对环境资产的确认是研究其计量、记录与报告的基础。本文在依照会计确认标准对环境资产和环境成本的内涵进行研究的基础之上,提出只有符合资产确认标准而被资本化的环境成本才构成环境资产的主张,并围绕其相关问题进行了讨论。     

上市公司会计舞弊:国外相关研究综述与启示

国外关于上市公司会计舞弊的研究已积累了丰富的研究成果,其研究内容涉及会计舞弊的动因、识别、防范与治理等多方面,这些研究成果无疑为我国研究上市公司会计舞弊问题提供了一定的理论基础和研究方法。然而,由于中外国情和体制不同,国外研究成果对解决我国上市公司会计舞弊问题仍有一定的局限性。本文对国外关于上市公司会计舞弊的研究成果进行了回顾与评述,并提出了许多我国未来上市公司会计舞弊研究应当关注的问题。     

环境会计:理论与实务的发展与创新

随着人类社会可持续发展观念的形成,环境会计于20世纪70年代开始成为会计科学一个新的分支,西方发达国家的会计界积极开展这一领域的研究并逐渐形成了具有特色的理论和方法,有关国际经济组织和会计职业组织也采取了多种措施以推动其研究与实践。十多年来中国环境会计研究与实践也取得了长足进步,但在新的经济环境下其信息披露的模式需要创新。     

Does external assurance contribute to higher quality integrated reports?

This paper contributes to the literature on internal benefits and positive capital market effects of integrated reporting by examining whether or not external assurance acts as a driver of high quality integrated reports. It answers calls for additional research on integrated reporting practice and is also timely, given the current discussions by standard-setters, regulators and other stakeholders on the need for integrated reports to be subject to some form of external verification. The research shows that an increase in the number of elements of an integrated report being subject to external assurance is associated with higher quality reporting. This is especially true when the assurance services are provided by one of the Big 4. The assurance engagements which contribute most significantly to report quality are those covering disclosures dealing broadly with social and environmental sustainability and compliance with the AccountAbility principles of materiality, inclusivity and responsiveness. In turn, if the assurance of only these aspects of an integrated report already improves report quality, there is a clear need for guidance on how the assurance process can be expanded to ensure that all material disclosures are subject to, at least, some form of verification.     

Communication instruction: What is being done to develop the communication skills of accounting students?

A survey was conducted to determine what colleges and universities are doing to improve accounting students' communication skills and how they are doing it. Results indicate that much is already being done to improve the communication skills of accounting students, and that more programs are being planned. The survey revealed that accounting students at most of the responding colleges and universities have access to formal instruction in business communication, and that some communication programs are tailored for accounting majors. In addition to communication programs already in effect at the time of the survey, several schools were planning to add either an accounting communication course or an integrated skills program.     

OF MESSINESS, SYSTEMS AND SUSTAINABILITY: TOWARDS A MORE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING

This essay is a personal attempt at a re-visitation and re-consideration of a number of the fundamental questions which underlie accounting and finance but which only rarely receive explicit consideration. Social and environmental accounting has been the principal focus of my research interests since I became an academic and the subject was, indeed, the primary reason I became an academic in the first place. A concern with social and environmental accounting automatically forces one to raise basic questions about (what is conventionally thought of as) accounting and finance—its foundations, its purposes, its assumptions. In trying to answer those questions one comes to see all of accounting and finance in different ways—both in terms of what it assumes about the world and what it can potentially do for the world. This paper seeks to clarify some of the ways in which conventional accounting and finance and social and environmental accounting (and finance) can be in harmony. However, the principle purpose of the paper is to suggest that many of our ghettos, our internecine squabbles and our misunderstandings are trivial when compared with the essential question of what we place at the centre of our teaching and scholarship. At the core of accounting and finance is a truly fundamental conflict between sustainability and modern international financial capitalism. Our choices between these are likely to be a great deal more than matters of methodological nicety or intellectual convenience. Social and environmental accounting (and finance) offer a way to recover a moral and productive accounting and finance that places survival of the species at its very heart.     

Accounting’s contribution to a conscious cultural evolution: an end to sustainable development

Influential institutions are acknowledging the need for more change to reverse practices that seriously damage social and ecological systems. The depth and extent of these changes are indicated by the call for a conscious cultural evolution. This paper considers a possible contribution from accounting to comply with such an evolution.A theoretical basis for accounting’s contribution to a conscious cultural evolution is outlined by means of a truth classification scheme developed in this paper as well as the works of Foucault, Giddens, evolutionary biologists and life-world theorists. This theoretical basis is then used to interpret the results of an EU funded research project that was to identify the criteria and specifications for a sustainable development management and accounting tool. The strengths and weaknesses of traditional, social and environmental accounting are evaluated against the needs of sustainable development as identified during the course of this project as well as a proposed balanced accounting. The theoretical basis identified in this paper is further employed to re-evaluate the concept of accounting equity in the context of equitable communities and face-to-face relationships. Finally, the potential resistance to changes of this kind that may exist within contemporary mainstream accounting is considered. The end of sustainable development is considered within the conclusion.     

Accounting and sustainable development: An exploration

As the social and environmental impacts of human activity have become more evident, the role of sustainable development as an organising principle in a variety of policy contexts and over multiple scales has become central. There are, at least, two implications that emerge from this observation. First, morally infused problems that need to be addressed have become more intractable, requiring innovation in our modes of thinking. Second, new spaces have emerged where the academy might explore how knowledge is created, validated and translated (or not) alongside policy and practice settings. One outcome of these trends has been the emergence of a stream of work (sustainability science) which investigates how disciplines might develop knowledge that progresses sustainable development. The aim of this paper, in line with the focus of the special issue, is to explore what possibilities emerge for accounting in light of a sustainability science approach. To achieve this end the paper starts with an exploration of the frustrations expressed in the literature over the perceived lack of progress made by social and environmental accounting towards addressing sustainable development. The paper then introduces sustainability science with the aim of imagining how an accounting for sustainable development might emerge. The paper closes with two illustrations of how a sustainability science approach to accounting could develop.     

The accountant will have a central role in saving the planet … really? A reflection on ‘green accounting and green eyeshades twenty years later’

There is widespread but not universal acceptance that organisations should provide ‘accounts’ of not only their financial performance, but also of their social and environmental performance. There have also been various suggestions across time that traditional financial reporting frameworks, albeit with some modification, have relevance to calls for greater corporate accountability. This paper seeks to dismiss such suggestions. For the accounting profession to be able to meaningfully contribute to extending accountability beyond investors, lenders, and creditors (and it undoubtedly serves these interests well) it will need to abandon many core accounting conventions and principles – something that is deemed unlikely to occur – at least in the readers’ lifetime. This paper also highlights the apparent absurdity of using market-based mechanisms (such as cap-and-trade systems for pollutants) to solve social and environmental problems that were effectively caused by ‘the market’. Having questioned the role of the accounting profession in contributing to broad-based corporate accountability, the paper concludes by questioning the role of accounting and business educators in instilling some form of personal social responsibility in the minds of students.     

Measuring corporate environmental performance

As shareholders, government regulators, consumers, employees, and the general public pay more attention to companies' environmental performance, measurement issues are becoming increasingly important and demand is growing for relevant information to assist stakeholders in making key decisions. Despite the enhanced interest in and attention to companies' environmental activities, the accounting profession has been slow to take on the role of defining, measuring, and controlling this broad corporate domain. Thus, measures of environmental performance have proliferated in the absence of clear, generally accepted guidelines as to what constitutes good and bad environmental performance. As a result, the public is becoming increasingly confused and cynical about interpretation of such data. In this paper, we use theoretical and empirical approaches to define corporate environmental performance and consider how well existing measures operationalize the construct. Interestingly, some popular environmental rating schemes seem to rely more heavily on public reaction to environmental events than on more precise and measurable outcome or process dimensions. Our findings suggest a need for explicit environmental performance metrics in order to provide stakeholders with more reliable, consistent, and accurate information for comparing companies and making key strategic decisions. We argue that the accounting profession is an obvious candidate for establishing such metrics since the domain of accounting typically includes measuring, communicating, and regulating information about company performance. Expanding accountants' domain to include environmental performance can greatly contribute to the usefulness of environmental performance metrics.     

Critical Accounting Research: A View from England

This paper seeks to provide a review of the state of critical accounting in England. The paper first seeks to define the role and nature of critical accounting, demonstrating the breadth of the area of concern yet arguing for the importance of theory. The interested nature of accounting is demonstrated. Following this, an argument is made as to why accounting is important. This argues that accounting information can be used as a steering device to impose and control the interests of particular groups. It suggests accounting is both a tool and a creator of modernity. Accounting information is argued to be malleable. The paper differentiates the programmatic use of accounting and its technologies, providing some examples of their usage in the public services, particularly the Private Finance Initiative in the UK. Finally, the paper reviews the state of critical accounting in England, arguing for the need to ensure that a new generation of critical accounting researchers is supported. The need for research into the impacts of funding and regulative regimes in the higher education sector is highlighted.     

On theory as a ‘deliverable’ and its relevance in ‘policy’ arenas

This paper comments on Lee Parker's paper on “Qualitative management accounting research: deliverables and relevance”. Using it as a starting point, it highlights the need for more informed modes of theorizing as opposed to ‘more theories’ and the performative effects of theorising. Theories and theorising already matter although what they ‘deliver’ and influence will be contingent on their instantiation in specific action nets. Further, in order that such social practices might continue to generate desirable consequences, stronger forms of research training should be developed.     

Big Data Opportunities for Accounting and Finance Practice and Research

We examine the research opportunities for the use of ‘big data’ in accounting and finance. The purpose of the study is to present a snapshot of big data academic research in information systems, accounting and finance, and to highlight areas for further research in accounting and finance. The research question addressed in this work is: What are the major themes in existing research in big data and where are the resulting gaps in the accounting and finance literature? An analysis is presented of 47 accounting, finance and information systems journals from 2007–2016. We identify and sample the relevant literature to derive a taxonomy of themes. These themes are presented as a conceptual matrix in which the themes from the taxonomy are used as concepts, and the matrix identifies where they appear, and where there are potential areas for further research. Prior research in big data in accounting, finance and information systems falls into six themes. The six under‐researched areas of big data in accounting and finance are risk and security, data visualisation and predictive analytics, data management and data quality. Increased research in these areas will lead to improvements in industry practices, and opportunities for cross‐disciplinary research.     

The Many Challenges of Pension Accounting

Accounting for defined benefit pension plans has long been a major issue in accounting. Standard‐setters are grappling with revisions to pension accounting standards, and much change has already occurred in the United Kingdom. This paper identifies and discusses most of the major issues that standard‐setters must confront in developing new approaches to financial reporting for pensions. Key issues concern how to report the impact of changes in assumptions, how to recognize pension costs on the balance sheet and income statement, and how to reconcile the differences between accountants' and actuaries' approaches to pensions. Current standards assume that accounting estimates are independent of actuarial assumptions, and yet require a direct comparison of the accounting liability with the pension plan assets, when in fact they are incompatible measures based on differing assumptions and differing methodologies. As well, accounting has been complicit in managers' wishes to hide the volatility inherent in a pension plan investment strategy that focuses on higher‐risk equities to fund estimated monetary liabilities that have been discounted at low‐risk interest rates. Drawing on studies and research done largely in Europe, this paper attempts to consolidate some of the current thinking on the topic and to propose some preferred approaches to dealing with the problems of pension accounting.     

Green accounting: A primer

This article, intended as a collateral reading assignment for a principles or intermediate accounting course, explores the current state and future issues of environmental accounting and reporting. The primer is divided into two parts: (1) a brief rationale directed to accounting professors for allocating precious class time to environmental reporting, and (2) a much fuller exposition for students of the associated issues past, present, and future that will serve to generate classroom discussion. Accounting faculty can use the student portion of the primer to incorporate environmental accounting and reporting into their courses without the need for extensive advance preparation.     

An international comparison of ethical reasoning abilities: Accounting students from Ireland and the United States

Accountants are often confronted with ethical decisions. Yet, some prior research indicates that both public accountants and accounting students in the U.S. may not have as high a level of moral reasoning as other professionals. One measure of moral reasoning ability is the Principled score, or P score, as determined by the Defining Issues Test. Prior research on accounting professionals and students using this measure has largely been confined to the U.S. This study compares the ethical reasoning abilities of American and Irish accounting students. We find that the mean P scores of American and Irish students are similar. However, gender and liberal/conservative attitudes are significant explanatory variables for moral reasoning ability across countries. In addition, our results show that students do correctly self-assess their moral reasoning abilities. We also find that those students with the lowest levels of moral reasoning abilities are the least likely to favor required ethics training in accounting programs. This may imply that students most in need of ethical training are less likely to seek this training.