Overcoming the subjective–objective divide in interpretive management accounting research

Methodological debates in accounting frequently emphasise the distinction between objective and subjective research. A growing body of interpretive management accounting studies, often based on fieldwork, is continuing to develop approaches that seek to overcome that distinction by exploring the various ways in which accounting can become part of the contexts in which it operates.     

In defence of triangulation: A critical realist approach to mixed methods research in management accounting

The notion of triangulation constitutes a key component of mixed methods research but has been contested on ontological and epistemological grounds, especially where this entails integration of theories and/or methods rooted in different philosophical assumptions (or paradigms). Drawing on critical realism, this paper addresses two criticisms of the use of triangulation in mixed methods research straddling between the functionalist and interpretive paradigms, namely (1) its propensity to suppress variations in situated meanings and (2) its treatment of empirical observations as objectively verifiable rather than inherently theory-related. The modified notion of triangulation advanced in this paper counters these criticisms by re-conceptualizing it as firmly grounded in abductive reasoning. This provides a foundation for maintaining researchers’ sensitivity to context-specific variations in meanings in efforts to derive theory-related explanations. The possibilities of using such a modified notion of triangulation in management accounting research are illustrated through a review of two empirical studies straddling between the functionalist and interpretive paradigms.     

The appropriateness of statistical methods for testing contingency hypotheses in management accounting research

In recent years, the contingency-based management accounting literature has been criticized for being fragmentary and contradictory as a result of methodological limitations. This study adds to this picture by showing that the theoretical meaning of some commonly used statistical techniques is unclear, i.e. the functional forms are not precise enough to be able to discriminate between several sometimes even conflicting theories of contingency fit. The study also shows that the techniques differ significantly in terms of how interaction effects between context and management accounting are modeled. This implies that some methods are only appropriate when theory predicts interaction effects in general while others are only appropriate in cases where theory specifies a more precise functional form of interaction such as symmetrical or crossover interactions. Based on these observations, several recommendations for future research are proposed.     

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.     

The role of accounting conservatism in management forecast bias

We investigate whether management earnings forecasts fully incorporate information in historical accounting conservatism. We find that management earnings forecasts are more optimistic for firms with greater accounting conservatism in the previous year. We further examine whether this conservatism-related optimistic bias in management earnings forecasts varies with managers’ difficulty predicting earnings accurately, managers’ opportunistic incentives, and the firms’ litigation risk. We find that the negative association between management forecast errors and conservatism increases, to various extent, with the firms’ operating cycles, earnings volatility, and the width of forecast range but does not change with proxies for opportunistic incentives or litigation risk. These results suggest that forecast difficulty is the primary reason for managers’ failure to incorporate conservatism fully in their earnings forecasts.     

Critical reflections on research approaches, accounting regulation and the regulation of accounting

The design and choice of research approaches, the nature of accounting regulation and the reactions to these regulations in organisations, involving, in effect, the regulation of accounting, are three themes of considerable importance in accounting research. They are the three themes that have dominated the research agenda of the author throughout his academic career. This paper explores the nature of these three key research themes developing some critical reflections on what has been discovered about each of these themes using the author's sole and joint research and publications as a vehicle for this analysis.     

Bridging the divide: The rise of the Indian Accountant from 1900 to 1932

The Accountancy and Empire literature is replete with studies in which the salient recurring theme has been that of “otherness”. An alternative interpretation of the colonial encounter is offered in this study of the rise of professional accountancy in India whilst under British rule. The study draws on Cannadine’s theorisation of Ornamentalism (2001), which suggests that class was equally as important as race when it came to contemplating the extra-metropolitan world. We draw on this concept as an aid to understanding why the professionalization trajectory in India was different from other racially-diverse colonies and how high-caste Indians were able to bridge the racial divide and enter professional accountancy during the colonial period. The study draws on archival data to examine the processes put in place to enable the rise of the Indian Accountant and professional organisation under a pervasive British presence. We forward the notion that British perceptions of Indians and Indian accountants were framed by the recognition of caste-class affinities that were not prevalent in other colonies and, in India, accountancy was considered to be a profession suitable for Indians from the higher castes.     

Validation in interpretive management accounting research

This paper extends and contributes to emerging debates on the validation of interpretive research (IR) in management accounting. We argue that IR has the potential to produce not only subjectivist, emic understandings of actors’ meanings, but also explanations, characterised by a certain degree of “thickness”. Mobilising the key tenets of the modern philosophical theory of explanation and the notion of abduction, grounded in pragmatist epistemology, we explicate how explanations may be developed and validated, yet remaining true to the core premises of IR. We focus on the intricate relationship between two arguably central aspects of validation in IR, namely authenticity and plausibility. Working on the assumption that validation is an important, but potentially problematic concern in all serious scholarly research, we explore whether and how validation efforts are manifest in IR using two case studies as illustrative examples. Validation is seen as an issue of convincing readers of the authenticity of research findings whilst simultaneously ensuring that explanations are deemed plausible. Whilst the former is largely a matter of preserving the emic qualities of research accounts, the latter is intimately linked to the process of abductive reasoning, whereby different theories are applied to advance thick explanations. This underscores the view of validation as a process, not easily separated from the ongoing efforts of researchers to develop explanations as research projects unfold and far from reducible to mere technicalities of following pre-specified criteria presumably minimising various biases. These properties detract from a view of validation as conforming to pre-specified, stable, and uniform criteria and allow IR to move beyond the “crisis of validity” arguably prevailing in the social sciences.     

The diffusion of management accounting innovations in the public sector: a research agenda

There have been numerous studies of the transformation of the public sector. This paper has a different focus: the dissemination and adoption of management accounting practices within the new public sector. The aim of the paper is explore the manner and means of diffusion, the obstacles to adoption and to establish a research agenda. The paper discusses findings of a survey on diffusion sent to public sector financial managers. The results of the survey indicate, inter alia, that adoption of accounting innovations by public sector organisations is largely affected by government influence. This study has interesting findings, but also points to the need for a new research agenda on the diffusion of management accounting practices in the public sector.     

The scope of application of management accounting methods in Polish enterprises

The transformation of Poland’s economic system in the 1990s as a result of transition from a centrally planned economy to a market-based system involves significant changes in the regulatory context and in accounting practice and education.This paper presents the scope of application of management accounting concepts and methods in 60 Polish enterprises covered by a questionnaire survey carried out by the author between November 1998 and December 1999 in enterprises located in central and southern Poland. The selected companies were interviewed by means of a postal survey, with inquiry forms delivered in person in some cases.The detailed analyses carried out in this paper and the conclusions presented are also based on information obtained from documentary evidence kept by the enterprises and from direct interviews conducted in the course of work in teams engaged in analysis and assessment of cost accounting practices and in management accounting system design in a number of large and medium Polish enterprises.The empirical research carried out is aimed at verification of a number of hypotheses including the following: • modification of cost accounting systems and implementation of management accounting tools in Polish enterprises is brought about by many different factors, the most important being growth of competition and ownership changes in business entities, • Polish enterprises mostly implement the methods and techniques of operational management accounting, • short-term budgeting for cost centres is the most widely used method of management accounting.     

Real-time crisis management: Testing the role of accounting in local governments

At a time of a global crisis with unprecedented depth and breath, this paper explores the role of accounting in real-time crisis management at local level by investigating how national stakeholders assessed the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy, one of the most affected countries. The paper aims at augmenting knowledge on the intersection between weathering crisis and accounting. Calculative practices play an important role to help manage crises since they may foster or undermine relief and recovery efforts. Results show how decision makers used cash accounting disregarding more complete information with a wider and longer-term perspective, against some stakeholders’ and scholars’ advice.     

Exploiting comparative advantage: A paradigm for value added research in accounting information systems

Following the lead of recent papers by Demski [Demski J. Is Accounting an Academic Discipline? Account Horiz 2007;21(2): 153–157], Fellingham [Fellingham J. Is Accounting an Academic Discipline? Account Horiz 2007;21(2): 159–163] and Hopwood [Hopwood A. Whither Accounting Research? Account Rev 2007;82(5): 1365–1374] which questioned the direction and value added of non-AIS accounting research, we discuss the state of research in Accounting Information Systems. AIS researchers face a significant hurdle in undertaking value added research given that the financial and human resources that industry devotes to research and development of AIS technology dwarf the capabilities of academic researchers. In these circumstances, we put forward a paradigm for AIS research based on the principle of comparative advantage, which is the powerful economic force that ensures that trade can take place even between parties where one has an absolute superiority over the other. It is our contention that if AIS academics are to succeed in creating value added research then they have to identify what they can do that the AIS industry, despite all its financial and human resource advantages, cannot or will not do. And what economic theory indicates is that such opportunities to add value always exist — if only academics are willing to seek them out. We illustrate our paradigm by analyzing three potential sources of comparative advantage for AIS researchers and discussing illustrative examples of research in each of these areas.     

The role of accounting disaggregation in detecting and mitigating earnings management

Though ample empirical evidence alludes to the importance of disaggregated accounting data in the context of earnings management, extant theory considers biases in reporting mostly at the aggregated level of the accounting report. By introducing accounting disaggregation into the conventional theoretical framework of earnings management, this study highlights the essential role that disaggregated accounting data play in detecting and mitigating reporting manipulations. Disaggregated reports are shown to be especially effective when they consist of accounting items that are tightly interrelated by their fundamental economic nature, differ considerably in their sensitivity to reporting manipulations, and vary in their signs.     

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.     

Qualitative management accounting research: Assessing deliverables and relevance

This paper examines the positioning of qualitative research to date in the field of management accounting. It offers a critical reflection and an appraisal of its profile relative to the dominant positivist quantitative accounting research literature. In the accounting literature, management accounting research is arguably a leader in applying qualitative research methodologies. Drawing on both the management accounting and qualitative research methodology literatures, the paper critically evaluates key features of the qualitative tradition and the future trajectory of the qualitative contribution to management accounting research. The qualitative tradition emerges as contributing to the understanding and critiquing of management and accounting processes, as well as having the ability to address the concerns of practitioners and policymakers. Close researcher engagement with the field, a concern with process, embracing situational complexity, as well as critical and reflective understandings of organisational phenomena remain as hallmarks of the tradition.     

The effect of owner versus management control on the choice of accounting methods

This paper examines the relationship between the ownership control status of firms and the accounting methods they adopt. The arguments of Watts and Zimmerman's positive theory are integrated with those of managerial economists to generate the prediction that management controlled firms are more likely than owner controlled firms to adopt accounting methods which increase reported earnings. This prediction is inconsistent with Fama's hypothesis that the market for managerial talent will prevent management controlled firms from acting differently than owner controlled firms. This paper compares the depreciation methods used by a sample of management and owner controlled firms for financial reporting purposes. The comparison considers and controls for the factors of firm size, leverage, and the depreciation method used for tax reporting purposes. The comparison reveals that there is a significant difference in the depreciation methods adopted by management controlled and owner controlled firms for financial reporting purposes.     

Experimental research method in a management accounting context

In management accounting the experimental method has been under-utilised compared to other disciplines such as auditing. This paper examines considerations necessary in experimental design to ensure both internal validity and experimental realism with the aim to increase utilisation of this methodology in management accounting. Task design, experimental design, experimental procedures and post-test questionnaire design are addressed specifically as they form the basic building blocks of most experiments. This paper also examines 'lessons' learned both in the design and administration of the experiment to help researchers in the use of the experimental method. Potential changes to the experiment are discussed, as part of an opportunity to improve future research work using the existing or a similar experiment     

The role of internet-related technologies in shaping the work of accountants: New directions for accounting research

This paper reviews the accounting literature that focuses on four Internet-related technologies that have the potential to dramatically change and disrupt the work of accountants and accounting researchers in the near future. These include cloud, big data, blockchain, and artificial intelligence (AI). For instance, access to distributed ledgers (blockchain) and big data supported by cloud-based analytics tools and AI will automate decision making to a large extent. These technologies may significantly improve financial visibility and allow more timely intervention due to the perpetual nature of accounting. However, given the number of tasks technology has relieved of accountants, these technologies may also lead to concerns about the profession's legitimacy. The findings suggest that scholars have not given sufficient attention to these technologies and how these technologies affect the everyday work of accountants. Research is urgently needed to understand the new kinds of accounting required to manage firms in the changing digital economy and to determine the new skills and competencies accountants may need to master to remain relevant and add value. The paper outlines a set of questions to guide future research.