Automatic classification of accounting literature

This paper explores the possibility of using semantic parsing, information retrieval and data mining techniques to automatically classify accounting research. Literature taxonomization plays a critical role in understanding a discipline's knowledge attributes and structure. The traditional research classification is a manual process which is considerably time consuming and may introduce inconsistent classifications by different experts. Aiming at aiding this classification issue, this study conducted three studies to seek the most effective and accurate method to classify accounting publications' attributes. We found results in the third study most rewarding in which the classification accuracy reached 87.27% with decision trees and rule-based algorithms applied. Findings in the first and second studies also provided valuable implications on automatic literature classifications, e.g. abstracts are better measures to use than keywords and balancing under-represented subclasses does not contribute to more accurate classifications. All three studies' results also suggest that expanding article sample size is a key to strengthen automatic classification accuracy. Overall, the potential path of this line of research seems to be very promising and would have several collateral benefits and applications.     

Accounting case search: A web-based search tool for finding published accounting cases

The creation of the Accounting Case Search website was motivated by the Pathways Commission Report and inspired by the frustration felt in trying to find cases for courses we have had to develop over the past 17 years. The site updates and extends previously published case search resources such as Weinstein (2005), Lipe (2006), and Miller et al. (2014), as well as resources available at the Management Accounting Section (MAS) and ATA Section sites on the American Accounting Association (AAA) website. The site currently includes all cases published to date in the Journal of Accounting Education, Issues in Accounting Education and the IMA Educational Case Journal (492 cases). Searching for cases at the site is based primarily on courses (course title), which can then be narrowed by keywords (Accounting Topics). This website will be updated by the authors as new cases are published. The authors will also expand the set of source journals. The website address is http://www.cases.ndacct.com/.     

Student ratings of accounting instructors a search for important determinants

Student ratings of accounting instructors are commonly used in determining promotion, tenure, salary, and merit increases. This paper reports the results of a study conducted to determine which attributes (factors) of teaching behavior are especially important in explaining the overall rating of accounting instructors. Two factors, teacher presentation and grading system, had a significant influence on, and were highly correlated to, the overall instructor evaluation. Instructors interested in improving student satisfaction should, therefore, ascribe higher priority to those two factors of teaching behavior. As a result, student satisfaction of the course and the instructor should increase.     

国有股份制银行的无形资产及其投资活动分析

无形资产投资是企业长期投资活动的重要组成部分,具有"双刃剑"效应.本文全面分析国有股份制银行的无形资产及其投资活动.研究发现:从表内无形资产来看,无形资产占总资产的比重偏低,且呈下降趋势;土地使用权仍是最主要的表内无形资产.从投资活动来看,国有股份制银行在人力资本投资、组织结构资本投资和关系资本投资方面已有初步发展,但总体呈现出投资不足的特征,更缺乏系统性的无形资产投资战略与投资效率评价体系.本文最后提出了若干建议.     

The very idea of classification in international accounting

The paper discusses some issues and problems associated with attempts to classify national systems of accounting. Attention is given to classification experiences in other disciplines. The analysis aims to show the incoherence of taxonomies which rely upon appeals to objectivity and tries to present a case for the development of classifications which explicitly focus on the concept of an “accounting system”.     

The case for strategic management accounting: The role of accounting information for strategy in competitive markets

A review of two economic theories is utilized to provide theoretical support for the greater possible involvement by accountants in what has been called strategic management accounting. One of these theories is concerned with the underlying characteristics of enterprise products. It suggests that there is a need for accountants to consider the cost structure of not only their own firm but of all enterprises in the relevant market and of potential entrants. It also suggests that costs can not be considered in isolation from demand factors. The second theory to be reviewed is concerned with whether a firm's cost structure permits its market strategy to be sustainable in the face of potential entry. This theory again emphasizes the intertwining of demand and cost factors and the need to consider these factors simultaneously. The use of this theory allows a new perspective to be taken to cost behaviour which is especially suited to high technology manufacturing.     

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.     

On accounting classification and the international harmonisation debate

In an earlier issue of this journal, d'Arcy presents a classification of accounting systems that shows the UK and the US in separate groups and Australia as an outlier. It is suggested here that the classification is unsound because the data were unsuitable in nature and contained errors.     

The role of accounting devices in performing corporate strategy

The paper’s aim is to examine the role of accounting in shaping corporate strategy. Our inquiry is built on a case-based ethnography. Drawing on Michel Callon’s generic notion of performativity, we show how accounting shapes the strategic options and the external economic conditions of the corporation. The analysis reveals how accounting devices rejects, defends, and changes corporate strategy by mobilizing lay people and concerned groups. We summarize our findings by emphasizing the active role of accounting in relation to strategy formulation, the configuration of the identity of the key strategic actor, and in constituting strategy and strategic change.     

In search of consensus: The role of accounting in the definition and reproduction of dominant interests

This article examines the role of accounting in the manufacture of consensus. Consensus building is often considered a central value for rational decision-making and management. However, more than a democratic confrontation of vantage points, the quest for consensus is a way to discourage conflict and resistance. Our main argument is that accounting and consensus play central roles in processes of definition and the social reproduction of dominant interests. Accounting acts to promote some stakes and strategies (and silence others), as if they were collective and disinterested, which makes them more powerful in debates that deny struggles and asymmetries in positions of power, as well as increases legitimacy by creating an illusion of participation. We illustrate these processes through a case study in which we document the intersection between two fields of knowledge, marketing and accounting, that compete for a monopoly on the definition of value and the ability to speak for the organisation. This analysis draws on Bourdieu's conceptualisation of symbolic domination to highlight how powerful actors secure influence while avoiding contestation. Accounting produces symbolic violence that consolidates asymmetries in positions of power by shaping what is consensual and what is not so that dominant interests are reproduced with the consent of those who have most to lose in the process.     

新市场动向:无形资产、动产与企业价值评估

商誉、品牌、商标、网址和客户名单等无形资产的价值在本性上是难以捉摸的,评估起来也比较困难.这类资产的产权缺乏明确界定,带有具体企业的个性.因此,它们通常具有较高的风险和不确定性,缺乏有序的交易市场.此外,对这类资产我们很难进行量化和跟踪.     

注册会计师行业国际化发展战略的几点思考

实现注册会计师行业的国际化,是注册会计师行业贯彻落实国务院关于加快发展服务业若干意见的一项战略举措,是更好服务中国经济社会发展和助推中国企业走出去战略的重大行动,也是一项重大而艰巨的使命,需要协会、事务所、注册会计师做大量细致扎实的准备工作。笔者认为,应着重从以下几个方面着手准备。     

Principles- versus rules-based accounting standards: the FASB's standard setting strategy

In response to criticism of rules-based accounting standards and Section 108(d) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the SEC proposed principles-based (or 'objectives-oriented') standards. We identify several shortcomings with this approach and focus on two of them. First, the format (type) of a standard is dependent on the contents of what the standard regulates. Given the asset/liability approach combined with fair values, we argue that the combination of this measurement concept with principles-based standards is inconsistent because it requires significant guidance for management judgment. Second, we propose the inclusion of a true-and-fair override as a necessary requirement for any format that is more than 'principles-only' to deal with inconsistencies between principles and guidance. We discuss the benefits of this override and present evidence from the United Kingdom's experience.     

Management accounting,performance measurement and strategy in English local authorities

This paper analyses the results of an extensive survey of UK local government which explored the relationship between strategy, management accounting practices (MAPs), and performance measurement techniques (PMTs). The research investigated a resource-based view of strategic capabilities and Porter’s strategic typologies. PMTs and MAPs were shown to be associated with strategic capabilities. Strategic typologies, however, were found to be only weakly associated with the use of PMTs and MAPs.     

Professional Research,Lobbying and Intangibles: A Review Essay

The publication in January 1992 of The Valuation of Intangible Assets, a report by Arthur Andersen & Co., has again stimulated the ‘brands’ debate. The Report claims to present a range of valuation methods for intangibles that command a ‘consensus’ among preparers, and that overcome the problems of subjectivity, consistency, separability and relevance identified in earlier research into brand accounting. This paper argues that the concept of separability, upon which these claims depend, is far from clear. The Andersen Report also raises questions as to the nature of its appeal to consensus, the role of codification in determining accounting policy, and the status of professional ‘research’.