Georges Perrin and the GP cost calculation method: the story of a failure

After the Second World War, a number of costing methods were developed in France in response to the perceived limitations of Rimailho's 'homogeneous sections' method. The common feature of all these methods was the provision of a more thorough analysis of operations through the adoption of techniques which were simple to use. The GP method, developed by Georges Perrin, was the most successful but, despite its many advantages, its success was limited, due to deficiencies in Perrin's communication policy and his network of contacts.     

Chambers as Educator and Mentor

Adopting a personal tone, this article explores Ray Chambers' impact on accounting and management education and through that his impact on accounting thought and practice. As mentor and colleague for over a quarter of a century, Chambers left many wonderful impressions, some of which are described here. The article describes some of the influences on the innovations and approaches of a great teacher. Familial and early working life experiences are shown to have greatly influenced his views on accounting, finance and management, and hence his innovations in accounting and management education at both the Sydney Technical College and the University of Sydney. His research, writings and teachings continually stressed the need to apply common sense to common experience. The article concludes by noting Chambers' perennial pursuit of seeking evidence to test his ideal solution to eradicate the follies and infelicities that plagued then (and still plague today) accounting thought and practice. Chambers regarded having such an ideal as the essence of being a researcher.     

Capitalized customer acquisition costs and earnings quality: A case study of PhotoWorks,Inc

This case examines issues related to accounting method choice, earnings management, and earnings quality. Specifically, the case examines a company (PhotoWorks, Inc.) that chose the less conservative approach of capitalizing and then amortizing a certain type of advertising expenditure rather than expensing the costs as incurred. The primary purpose of this case is to illustrate the role of judgment in accounting method choice and how it provides potential opportunities for earnings management. The case also allows students to explore the multi-dimensional nature of financial reporting decisions and to develop a greater appreciation for how their accounting coursework relates to important “real-world” issues. After completing this case, students should be able to do the following: (1) describe factors that are involved in accounting method choice and support the appropriateness of an accounting method choice based on a search of the accounting standards; (2) understand and evaluate the effects of accounting method choice on the financial statements; (3) describe the conflicting motivations managers face when deciding on financial accounting methods versus tax accounting methods; (4) explain what is meant by earnings management, factors that motivate managers to manage earnings, methods they can use to manage earnings, and how earnings management affects earnings quality; and (5) describe the role of auditors in analyzing a company’s accounting method choices and in assessing the quality of a company’s earnings.     

关于人力资源会计有关问题的探讨

人力资源会计是会计学的一个新兴的重要分支学科。它是市场经济的产物。本文首先论述了在我国建立人力资源会计的必要性。提出了在我国建立人力资源会计的设想,包括建立人力资源会计的原则,账户的设置,人力资源会计的报告。最后论述了人力资源会计在我国企业管理中的运用,在关于员工流动、关于工资、关于人力资源部门的性质和地位方面提出了自己的见解。     

TIME SERIES ANALYSIS OF ACCOUNTING POLICY CHOICE: REPLY

Taylor (1992) argues that accounting policy choices in any year are not assessed independently of policy choices adopted in previous years. This independence assumption is a maintained hypothesis of Anderson and Zimmer (1992). Although Taylor acknowledges that our results remain robust to his suggested adjustments for non-independence, we argue in this reply that such adjustments are unnecessary because temporal independence of accounting policy choices is consistent with the implications of costly contracting between the firm and its claimholders. We develop the arguments that (1) accounting choices are temporally independent and our research design is therefore, appropriate (2) to the extent that there is an independence problem of the type proposed by Taylor (1992) it also applies to cross-sectional studies of accounting policy choice.     

The evolution of management accounting routines in small businesses: a social construction perspective

This paper explores the development of management accounting in small firms through a social construction perspective. Taking Dirsmith’s (1998) (Dirsmith, M. W. 1998. Accounting and control as a solution to technical problems, political exchanges and forms of social discourse: the importance of substantive domain, Behavioural Research in Accounting, 10 (Supplement), 65–77) lead we examine the evolution of control and decision-making processes within four growth-orientated service sector businesses. Key to the perspective is the notion of the owner–manager and his/her employees as creators of management accounting routines that form through a cycle of action, externalization and habitualization. These routines still remain in the control of the originator and are flexible in nature. As the business grows these routines may become objectified into localized management accounting ‘facts’ and they may also be challenged by externally imported accounting conventions. This paper explores the creation of idiosyncratic accounting knowledge and the effects of its transmission over the history of the businesses.     

新会计准则下寿险公司资产负债管理研究

资产负债管理是影响寿险公司经营成败的重要因素,其长期目标是经济价值最大化.在信息不对称的情况下,会计报表成为寿险公司实施资产负债管理的重要依据和管理内容.我国保险业实施新会计准则后,寿险公司资产与负债的计量方式发生重大变化,会计报表的波动性显著增加,对资产负债管理提出了严峻的挑战.本文研究了新会计准则对传统险、分红险和...     

完善公司治理与管理会计创新

本文认为 ,会计信息系统在公司治理中的作用还有待进一步全面认识。财务会计信息由于受多种因素的限制 ,不能完全满足公司治理的要求 ;而管理会计也需要重新构造其目标和方法体系 ,才能有助于公司治理。管理会计与财务会计都是为公司的内外部服务 ,两者的差异从根本上说源自信息披露是否具有强制性。为推进管理会计的改革和发展 ,应重视会计系统的环境因素、管理制度创新与规范的结合和会计信息的内在性质。     

Alexander Hamilton Church: His Family and Early Life

The contribution of Alexander Hamilton Church (1866–1936) to accounting and management science is well known. Yet his biographers (Urwick and Wolf, 1984; Vangermeersch, 1988) found that his family and early life were enigmas. This paper opens the curtains drawn by Church and reveals details of his notable ancestry and his early life, including his first six months in the United States and Canada.     

FINANCIAL STATEMENT USERS‘ PERCEPTIONS OF FACTORS AFFECTING THE ABILITY OF AUDITORS TO RESIST CLIENT PRESSURE IN A CONFLICT SITUATION

This study investigates the perceived effects of four factors on the likelihood that an auditor will acquiesce to the demands of a client when a dispute arises over a significant financial reporting issue. A repeated measures experiment was conducted using 49 security analysts and 69 bankers as subjects. Analysis of Variance results indicate that an auditor is perceived as being more likely to acquiesce to his client's demands when the accounting issue in dispute is not dealt with clearly by an accounting standard. Auditors also are viewed as being more likely to acquiesce when: (1) competition in the audit environment is aggressive; (2) the audit firm is small; and (3) the audit firm provides management consulting services to its audit client.     

On the intellectual roots of critical accounting: A personal appreciation of Tony Lowe (1928–2014)

Tony Lowe's publications are important contributions to the intellectual beginnings of critical accounting and a fitting memorial to his recent death. This, perhaps idiosyncratic, appreciation of these publications starts by discussing Tony's conceptualization of management control as a system, his experience in conducting empirical research in management control, his commitment to the practice of being an engaged and progressive academic, and finally his work with others on regulation.     

An analysis of the adoption, perceived benefits, and expected future emphasis of western management accounting practices in Chinese SOEs and JVs

This paper considers the adoption, perceived benefits, and expected future emphasis of western management accounting practices in the Chinese emerging market economy based on a sample of 64 joint ventures (JVs) and 115 State Owned Enterprises (SOE) gathered from a questionnaire survey. The study finds that the level of adoption of management accounting practices is most influenced by ownership type of the enterprise (JV or SOE) and to a lesser extent by the nature of the management accounting techniques to be adopted. A further significant finding is that management accounting practices such as budgeting for controlling costs, profit and sales budgeting, and target costing are perceived to be more beneficial for SOEs compared to JVs. However, responsibility accounting which is traditionally associated with SOEs and accounting for decision making is perceived to be less beneficial to SOEs compared with JVs.     

T. Coleman Andrews: crusader for accountability in government

T. Coleman Andrews was an exceptional accountant whose career during the second quarter of this century spanned professional accounting practice, public service, military service and business management. This paper documents his contributions to accounting and administrative reform through the public-service positions he held in government at local, state and national levels. Earlier work by Flesher and Flesher (1989) focused on his contributions to operational auditing during his years at the General Accounting Office, and these contributions are reviewed here. In addition, this paper describes his later work with the Hoover Commission and as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.     

Patrick Colquhoun

Patrick Colquhoun, ‘the father of Glasgow’, established his reputation as an able accountant, businessman and manager in the 1780s. This reputation was overshadowed by his contributions to penal reform which he made in the 1790s when he resided in London. Radzinowicz (1956) and Foucault (1977) showed that Colquhoun, in conjunction with his friend Jeremy Bentham, the famous utilitarian economist, made a significant impact on penal reform. Their contribution was encouraged by the British government in the period of turmoil which followed the French Revolution. Bentham understood the role of accounting in the management of businesses (Goldberg, 1956; Hume, 1970; Gallhofer and Haslam, 1993). He alone recognized the importance of Colquhoun's accounting knowledge and business experience and how his pragmatism enhanced his powerful cases for the adoption of new socioeconomic systems. Until now this view of Bentham has been ignored. Other historians, driven by their special interests, concentrated on one phase of Colquhoun's diverse life. None attempted to analyse the relationship between his ideas for the reform of punishment, police and poor systems and his prior experience as an accountant, businessman and manager. That relationship is the subject of this article and the objective of my research is to answer two questions. First, where did Patrick Colquhoun acquire his knowledge of business and accounting techniques? Second, how did he use his knowledge in the 1790s to build cases which influenced those in power to adopt new socioeconomic systems?     

Chambers on Price and Price-Level Variations: Exiting Intellectual Grooves

From early in his enquiry, Chambers perceived the price variation problem in accounting to not be a separate phenomenon related to inflation or deflation, but to be the failure in conventional accounting to incorporate the full financial effects of the medium, money, in which its calculations were made and its output expressed. He absented himself from the inflation accounting focus early in the 1950s and set about an enquiry into the nature and meaning of monetary calculation and measurement, within a framework of accounting functioning to provide indications of the wealth and progress of firms. Accordingly, when the substantial literature on the topic and the report of governmental enquiry into accounting and inflation emerged during the early 1970s he addressed the various proposals by drawing upon his theory of Continuously Contemporary Accounting (CoCoA) with devastating effect.     

资源流成本会计控制决策模式研究——以日本田边公司为例

资源流转成本会计是会计学界为解决资源约束和环境污染问题提出的一种新的成本管理会计核算方法。它通过对企业各个环节的资源流转进行追踪核算,可以促进企业减少资源消耗,降低成本,实现经济效益和环境效益的协调发展。本文在总结其核算基本原理和方法的基础上,比较分析了资源流转成本核算的优势,以日本田边公司为例重点剖析了资源流成本会计的控制决策模式,旨在为企业实施经济、环境和社会协同共生的三赢管理模式提供方法借鉴,促进我国低碳经济的发展。     

Alternative management accounting research—whence and whither

This paper reviews alternative management accounting research in AOS from 1976 until 1999. We highlight seven different research perspectives that have flourished under this label: a non-rational design school; naturalistic research; the radical alternative; institutional theory; structuration theory; a Foucauldian approach; and a Latourian approach. It is contended that these different approaches have assumed an important role in raising a number of significant and interesting disciplinary insights. As a form of collective non-positivist enterprise, alternative management accounting research has demonstrated: the many different rationalities of management accounting practice; the variety of ways in which management accounting practice is enacted and given meaning; the potency of management accounting technologies; the unpredictable, non-linear and socially-embedded nature of management accounting change; and the ways in which management accounting practice is both constrained and enabled by the bodily habitudes of its exponents. In conclusion, we consider how alternative management accounting research may sustain its distinct contributions in the future.     

Assessing the quality of evidence in empirical management accounting research: The case of survey studies

This study addresses the quality of survey research in management accounting. Specifically, we use a framework containing the five key elements of a well-designed survey to assess the quality of all mail surveys in management accounting published in eight accounting journals over a 20-year period (1982–2001). Our analysis shows that over time survey research in management accounting has improved. However, more attention to improving the ways in which the survey method is deployed is essential if credibility of the data is desired.     

基于行为因素的军队会计信息质量探析

军队会计信息质量是当前军队后勤经济管理中需要着力研究解决的一个重大问题。本文首先分析了人的“有限性”与军队会计信息质量两者之间的关系；然后从军队会计信息质量与军队会计行为关系角度深入分析军队会计信息质量缺陷的具体原因；通过以上的分析，最后给出了解决军队会计信息质量缺陷的治理思路。     

Liability Valuation and Debt Defeasance: A Cash-Flow Exit-Price (CaFE) Approach

This paper reviews the arguments of Chambers with respect to liability measurement in his continuously contemporary accounting (CoCoA) system and the views of his critics are summarized and discussed. The paper then examines the issue of laibility valuation and in-substance debt defeasance in the context of historic-cost accounting. A specific illustration is provided showing how an in-substance debt-defeasance arrangement would be reported under a CaFE system. It is concluded that stating debt at its exit price would provide useful information and could reduce the incentives for firms to enter into in-substance debt-defeasance arrangements.