论产权会计观与产权会计变革

本文根据党的十六届三中全会关于建立现代产权制度的精神,结合对产权经济学中相关基本理论问题的研究,首先阐明了市场经济是产权经济这一本质问题,并较系统地研究了产权经济与产权经济学的发展对会计理论、会计法制与会计方法所产生的重要影响及会计的发展在对产权经济进行管理控制方面的重要历史贡献。在此基础上,本文把研究的重点放在确立产权会计观和全方位进行会计变革方面,其内容包括:(1)关于建立产权会计的主体理论——产权价值运动论问题;(2)关于产权会计对象研究问题;(3)关于会计从企业契约联结方位对产权价值运动过程与结果的控制问题;(4)关于从产权控制方面建立企业内部控制制度的问题;(5)关于产权会计法律制度体系建设问题等。上述问题的研究对于今后会计学的改革、会计实务的改革,以及对于我国今后建立以产权规范为核心的会计法律制度体系均具有一定意义。     

Financialisation and the Conceptual Framework

The ongoing neoliberalisation of global economies has been well documented. Neoliberalism requires a commitment to a broad set of ideas about how political economies should operate, and these ideas underpin the transformations of practice in the process of neoliberalisation—both at a technical and conceptual level. Transactions within a neoliberal economy need to be accounted for in a way that accords with this broader set of ideas. Specifically, the growth of accumulation through financial markets has seen a concurrent growth in accounts that both reflects and reproduces finance at its centre. These accounts are more than just reports; they condition our expectations and support the production of further accounts, which in turn reinforce the dominant political economy. Despite the connection between neoliberalism, financialisation and the practice of accounting, the role of accounting in the process of neoliberalisation has received only limited attention. In order to contribute to a deeper understanding of these processes and to the role that accounting plays within them, this paper re-examines the Conceptual Framework (CF) to show how it forms an important part of the architecture of neoliberalism, providing coherence and legitimacy to its key ideas. The current CF project was jointly conducted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and is positioned within the broader literature on neoliberalism and financialisation. This paper shows how changes in terminology, shifts in notions of income and the popularity of market valuations (fair value accounting) work to normalise the speculative characteristics of financial markets. Through this newly configured globalised CF, the regulatory architecture of accounting may work to sustain the centrality of finance in a post-GFC economy, despite its many deficiencies.     

Investment-Based Cost Accounting as a Fundamental Basis of Decision-Oriented Management Accounting

Decision making concerns over cost allocations, especially common cost allocations, have a long history. They are well canvassed in Thomas (1969 ) and Wells (1978 ). This article revisits the cost allocation debate, albeit in a new setting, and rehearses arguments relevant to long- and short-term decision contexts. Here a means is proposed to address those problems, namely to adopt the investment-based approach to cost accounting. This approach draws on ideas of Hotelling (1925 ), Preinreich (1938 ) and Schneider (1961 ), and applies the notion of net present value in another setting, namely to cost accounting theory. Research has revealed no discussion of this in the Anglo-American literature. This article shows analytically that the investment-based approach offers a general basis for decision-oriented cost accounting, as it combines investment theory with cost accounting and thereby connects long-term with short-term decisions. While reviewing primarily European literature, it also examines several Anglo-American works. The analysis reveals how for three classical decision problems—production program planning, purchase order lot sizes, and break-even price limits—two different types of costs, namely depreciation and material costs, have to be based on cash flows and net present value. The proposed investment-based approach permits an examination of the extent to which cost accounting concepts and cost information are relevant to those decisions. This theoretical concept is used to derive pertinent cost dimensions and to solve traditional problems of cost allocation. A caution is that the investment approach is limited to decision facilitating cost accounting. Whether it may be possible to couple it with agency theory and its focus on decision influencing has not been explored and is an issue for further research.     

An institutional analysis of accounting growth and regulation in the United States

The accounting profession in the United States has experienced rapid growth in the past two decades, and growth is likely to continue in the foreseeable future. Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission possesses explicit statutory authority to regulate accounting and financial reporting, the profession is largely self-regulated, an arrangement widely supported by the corporate business community. Yet no single current accounting theory provides a full understanding of these two very basic phenomena. This paper examines organizational models based on contractualism (agency theory and transaction cost analysis), hierarchy (radical) and Fligstein's “organizational fields” conception, and evaluates their application to the accounting process. It is proposed that institutions are central to an understanding of accounting growth and regulation. The essay then offers a theoretical critique based on the internal and external aspects of economic organizations.     

Chambers on Methods of Inquiry

Some of Chambers' earliest works concerned the need for intellectual rigour in accounting research. Drawing from his reading in philosophy, science, organizational behaviour and economics, he determined the principles of scientific theory, enunciated these and consciously followed these precepts in developing his own theory. His 1950s and 1960s theoretical works were seminal contributions to methodological inquiry in accounting. They sought to rectify the lack of theoretical foundation in accounting thought and the observed ad hoc rules of accounting practice. While annoying many, including the doyen of U.S. accounting academe, A. C. Littleton, he practised what he preached and the theory he later developed followed closely precepts that were set out in those early methodological inquiries. He was attacked by a new wave of positive researchers in the 1970s, but a closer examination reveals they share the same ontology and epistemological proclivities. Differences arise from the different assumptions and aims of their theorizing. Their methodology is hypothetico-deductivism derived from logical empiricism. This has been shown to be a defective and moribund method for developing acceptable reliable knowledge. Despite the claims of its adherents it ignores the ideological, political and social elements that make objective, value-free theorizing impossible.     

Reclaiming the public sphere: problems and prospects for corporate social and environmental accounting

This article encourages accountants to consider their role in the debates concerning social and environmental accounting. It outlines a placement ethic which provides a framework to explore various schools of thought on social and environmental accounting. A placement ethic uses ideas central to Habermas and Rawls to provide a continuum model to explore whether an arbitrated political consensus concerning social and environmental accounting is a possibility. It also advances some ideas to overcome the procedural limitations of the Rawls–Habermas debate that have been used by accounting reformers. In this context, it is possible to move beyond the usual deadlock between procedure and critique to combine insights from different traditions to construct new critical and democratic social and environmental pathways.     

Making Sense of Social Practice: Theoretical Pluralism in Public Sector Accounting Research

Abstract: This paper explores the use of theory in public sector accounting research. The aim of this paper is to offer a critical review of the various approaches adopted and a way forward for researchers in this area. The paper also explores the debate between theoretical purity and theoretical pluralism. It presents an analysis of the different theoretical approaches used over the last sixteen years in public sector accounting research. While around a third of the papers did not adopt an explicit theoretical framework, nearly half of the papers did. The two most popular theoretical approaches were neo‐institutional and economic theory. Theoretical insights have been drawn from organisational and political theory while sociological approaches from Habermas, Foucault, Latour, Giddens and Bourdieu are all evident. In conclusion many of the papers blend theoretical insights from different authors in an attempt to better make sense of the complexity of public sector activity and support an argument for theoretical pluralism.     

The political economy of financial harmonization: The East Asian financial crisis and the rise of international accounting standards

In the aftermath of the East Asian financial crisis, western nations established a new international financial architecture that relied upon enhanced financial transparency and international financial standards, including international financial reporting and auditing standards, to govern an expanding and crisis-prone international financial system. This paper examines the West’s response to financial crisis in the late 1990s and its implications for the rise and diffusion of international accounting standards from a theoretical perspective that blends institutional analysis and political economy. The aim is to understand how the history of accounting has both shaped and been shaped by transformations in the late 20th century international political economy where financial capital and the power of the financial sector play an increasingly central role in the process of accumulation.     

Governmental budgeting as ex ante financial accounting: The United Kingdom case

For many years now the academic governmental-budgeting literature has concentrated almost exclusively on the politics and economics of the budgetary process at the expense of the mechanical foundations. Consequently, we see an interesting but insulated discussion about political involvement and about the strengths and weaknesses of planning models. What we do not see is a discussion of the accounting perspective. This paper offers such a discussion. It explains local government budgeting as “ex ante financial accounting” and offers some important implications of this re-interpretation.     

中国的会计环境和会计的中国特色——兼论邓小平理论对中国会计改革与发展的指导意义

针对我国的会计改革与发展这一主题和近年来会计研究中出现的一些值得注意的倾向 ,本文根据邓小平理论 ,通过系统的环境分析提出社会主义市场经济会计模式的基本特征或中国会计应当具有的特色。本文阐述的主要观点是 :(1)邓小平理论是构建社会主义市场经济会计模式的理论基础 ;(2 )社会主义是我国会计改革与发展的政治方向 ;(3)为国家宏观经济调控服务是我国会计的首要目标 ;(4 )实行国家统一的会计制度要求强制性的会计规范 ;(5 )社会主义精神文明中的思想道德体系应成为维护国家会计统一性的文化条件。本文还指出西方经济学各流派以及实证研究在我国的局限性 ,认为它们只能作为某种参考和补充。     

A CRITIQUE ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING: TOWARDS A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CLASSIFICATION—THE SEARCH FOR OWNERSHIP

This paper is a critique on contemporary accounting¹classification studies. It suggests that such studies have thus far provided an inadequate assessment of and explanation for extant international contemporary accounting diversity. This paper locates the discussion within a neo Marxian political economy, and explores how notions of structure and hierarchy central to the institutional traditions of economic liberalism and the social priorities of capital have increasingly invaded the classification and understanding of contemporary accounting diversity. It contends that such classification studies are a product of capitalist desires to import and assimilate increasingly distant realms of business life into the capital@8alabour value relation/contemporary accounting@8icapital relation. Furthermore, this paper suggests that such classification studies fail to recognise the impact of such social, political and economic arrangements as they are increasingly reupholstered and redistributed by the changing priorities of capital, resulting in a limited appreciation of the constitutive power of capital and its influence on contemporary accounting.     

MARX AND ACCOUNTING

Does Marx's political economy provide a theoretical foundation for understanding accounting in modern capitalism? The commentators dispute my Marxism, and contest whether my accounting is more objective than the FASB's. I show they have misunderstood Marx and the purpose of my accounting. Underlying their views is a failure to take seriously Marx's social relations of production and traditional accountability. I conclude the commentators have not challenged my claim that Marx's analysis of the circuits of industrial capital could provide a general theory of accounting.     

Stuck in the middle with who? (Belatedly) engaging with Laughlin while becoming re-acquainted with Merton and middle range theorising

The paper engages with Laughlin's 1995 and 2004 contributions to the literature on accounting research methodology, seeking to critique and thereby extend his insights. It does so at a time when the discussion of methodological issues appears less important to many empirical accounting researchers than demonstrating a familiarity with the growing range of theoretical perspectives available to pursue such enquiries. The paper initially outlines Laughlin's original and revised frameworks, following which a number of the resultant attributions of specific schools of thought are questioned. The original categorisation exercise is concluded still to offer an insightful basis on which to compare and contrast empirical research approaches. For this reason, the same exercise is extended to locate three further, currently popular ways of seeing: institutional theory, actor network theory and practice theory. The focus then shifts to a more detailed exploration of the relationship that exists between Laughlin's idea of middle range thinking and Merton's characterisation of middle range theory and theorisation. Informed by the resultant insights, the middle range or substantive theory credentials of a range of schools of thought currently widely subscribed in interdisciplinary accounting research are then examined.     

Accounting colonization: Three case studies in further education

The colonizing power of accounting in the public domain was linked to coercive institutional processes [Broadbent J, Laughlin R. Developing empirical research: an example informed by a Habermasian approach. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal 1997;10(5):622–48]. To further explore processes of accounting change in the public domain, three linked case studies were undertaken, from a Habermasian standpoint, at a local Learning and Skills Council and two Further Education Colleges in England. Adopting a critical constructionist methodology, three interpretations of the data were developed suggesting that aspects of accounting were colonizing, implicated in legitimation and rationality crises and implicated in ambivalent managerial roles. A double hermeneutic, based in phenomenology, was then undertaken to critique the theory which underpinned these interpretations, leading to the development of an extended theory of colonization to include coercive (mock obedience; real obedience), instrumental (devious compliance; dialogic compliance) and discursive processes (discursively pathological; discursively benign). The way accounting colonization is theorised has implications for the critical theme of how desired accounting changes might be identified and initiated.     

宏观经济波动的实体性成因——真实经济周期(RBC)理论评析

真实经济周期理论属于西方经济学中的经济自由流派。它突破了货币周期理论,把来自供给方面的技术冲击等意外真实冲击看作是经济波动的根源;认为经济波动不是对长期经济增长趋势的偏离,否定把宏观经济分为长期和短期的观点;坚持货币中性主张;反对政府的干预政策。它以正统的微观经济理论来说明宏观经济波动,改变了人们对经济周期性波动原因的理解,超越了货币主义和新古典宏观经济学,是20世纪80年代以来自由主义经济学的重大发展。     

The appropriateness of RAPM: toward the further development of theory

One of the few areas in management accounting and control research that has attained critical mass concerns the organizational and behavioral effects of budgeting. Many studies in this area focus on the use of budgets for managerial performance evaluation, and revolve around the construct Reliance on Accounting Performance Measures (RAPM). Despite the volume of the RAPM literature, concern has been expressed about its current state in terms of both theoretical progress and methodological practice. This paper provides an overview of the RAPM literature, and explains some important points of critique. In response to this critique, the last part of the paper explores the possibility for a further development of RAPM theory that is based on the concept of uncertainty. ©     

From certainty to uncertainty: Thought, theory and action in a postmodern world

The progress of human thought in recent centuries has brought not only new knowledge but also new (and sometimes disturbing) questions that tug at the foundations of knowledge itself. The opening years of the twentieth century were marked by optimistic expectations of ever-increasing certainty and scientific and technological progress. Yet the century turned out to be an age of growing cracks in the facade of classical certainty, as relativity, quantum physics and chaos theory each deepened our understanding of the universe yet raised fundamental challenges to ideas about knowledge. Today, although reductionist and mechanistic ways of thinking still prevail in much contemporary thinking about economics, global security and environmental problems, we can nevertheless contemplate an “end of objectivity” in which we realize that we do not stand outside of the systems we study.     

必须重视马克思运用科学技术对资本主义经济运行的分析

马克思在《资本论》中运用科学技术的理论,从深层次上揭示了资本主义生产关系的实质,论证了剩余价值理论,并创立了资本有机构成的学说,解决了资产阶级古典政治经济学无法解决的理论难题。因此,深入研究马克思关于科学技术的理论,对于运用科技促进我国经济的发展具有极其重要的现实意义。     

SOCIAL ANALYSES OF ACCOUNTING INSTITUTIONS: ECONOMIC VALUE,ACCOUNTING REPRESENTATION AND THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The paper is a commentary on Bryer's article “A Marxist Critique of the FASB's Conceptual Framework”; the commentary is divided into three main sections. The first section begins by addressing the changing relationships between accounting and economics and, more specifically, the ideas of economic value and accounting representation (often called “representational faithfulness”, see Bryer, p. 582) that underlie Bryer's concerns with the FASB project. The second section considers the role of the FASB conceptual framework project in order to address the different ways that the “impact” of the FASB's Conceptual Framework project upon accounting practices can be considered. Several of the existing studies of this project that consider its purpose in social and political terms are reviewed. This is not to suggest that the FASB's work has had @9pno@2p effects, but rather that its consequences might be thought of in institutional and political terms. In the final section some of the specifics of Bryer's Marxist analysis are addressed. In particular the relationship between Marxian analysis and accounting change is considered.