The Progression from Voluntary to Mandatory Derivative Instrument Disclosures – Look Who's Talking

The growth of derivative markets over the past decade suggests that many entities are using these instruments. The transparency of firms' exposures and their accounting treatment have become critical issues, particularly given the media attention to derivative-related losses by some high-profile corporations. This paper focuses on derivative instrument disclosures during a three-phase disclosure regime — pure voluntary disclosure (1992–94), coercive voluntary disclosure (1995–97) and mandatory disclosure (1998). The time frame provides an insight into firms' and regulators' responses to information demands by stakeholders. Increases in disclosure of information, even if incomplete, are particularly noticeable in 1995, the beginning of the coercive regime, and in 1998 when the disclosures became mandatory.     

政治问责视角下的政府财务信息供求机制研究

资本市场中的会计改革已经证实,宏观制度因素能够影响资本市场中的财务信息供求。在公共领域,学者们发现宏观层面的制度变化也对政府会计信息的供求机制产生影响。政治问责形式根据制度环境变迁,从而改变政府会计信息供求关系,引起政府会计改革,但将政治问责与财务信息供求联系起来的研究却屈指可数。论文从政治问责视角切入研究我国政府财务信息供求问题,从理论上探讨了政治问责与信息供求机制的内在关系;较为全面、系统地梳理了我国政治问责与政府财务信息供求的历史与现状;从我国目前的实际情况出发,结合具体案例进行论证,提出了相关的政府会计信息披露的政策建议。。     

The Development of Accounting Regulation in Iraq and the IFRS Adoption Decision: An Institutional Perspective

This paper reviews the historical development of accounting regulation in Iraq and analyzes, from an institutional perspective, both the decision to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and the factors likely to impact the expansion of IFRS application beyond listed companies. We find that all three forms of institutional isomorphism (coercive, mimetic, and normative) explain the initial decision to adopt IFRS. The most significant force in the decision to adopt IFRS is coercive pressure, from western forces following the fall of the Ba'ath regime, and from international aid organizations. Further, we find that the accounting system in Iraq is likely to be further advanced due to mimetic and normative pressures from Iraq's trade partners, multinational corporations, and the accounting profession. The paper concludes with a discussion of lessons that can assist other developing nations, and in particular countries in the Middle East in their decision to adopt IFRS. It is important that IFRS adoption is accompanied by reform to governance and investor protection regimes, together with investment in education and training to support ongoing implementation. Otherwise, IFRS adoption may be perceived as merely symbolic.     

The production of normativity: A comparison of reporting regimes in Spain and the UK

This paper contributes to understandings of the production of normativity, i.e. the ways in which actors come to see rules as binding, in the context of corporate reporting regimes. Although the accounting literature recognises that a range of actors participate in the regulatory process, it continues to embrace dichotomous explanations of regulatory success based in the distinction between law and non-law, with law emanating from a binding system of rules, codified through state legislation and enforced by a coercive Westphalian state. Following this understanding there are calls for further regulation of reporting regimes in the literature. This paper demonstrates how a constructivist perspective can provide new insights to existing debates over regulation. More specifically, this theoretical perspective is applied to explore the production of normativity in two reporting regimes addressing environmental issues. One (the Spanish case study) was characterised by formal law enacted by the state which nonetheless lacked normativity. The other (the UK case study) was characterised by informal law induced by non-governmental organisations which appeared to acquire normativity. The problematisation of regulatory authority and legality offered by regime theory, constructivism and understandings of the processes by which norm cascades are generated reveals that, the internal legitimacy of the law is crucial in the construction of normativity and that while this was found in the UK case study, it was lacking in the Spanish case. These findings provide a more subtle set of considerations for understanding the role of regulation in reporting.     

The role of market devices in addressing labour exploitation: An analysis of the Australian cleaning industry

This study examines how the risk of labour standards noncompliance can be rendered calculable and commensurable through a market device. We present a case study of the Cleaning Accountability Framework (CAF), an industry certification scheme, which seeks to address labour exploitation in the Australian contract cleaning industry. We pay particular attention to the central device of the certification scheme – the pricing schedule. We examine how the pricing schedule shaped the calculative space informing contracting parties during the procurement process. In doing so, the pricing schedule increased transparency around the potential risk of labour standards noncompliance. The nature of this transparency and the perceived objectivity of the pricing schedule acted to reshape the market for contract cleaning, resulting in a redistribution of accountability for labour exploitation. We also examine how the pricing schedule formed part of a wider framework of accountability, and how these mechanisms enabled strategic co-enforcement of labour standards compliance by supply chain stakeholders. Overall, our study indicates the potential for accounting practices to play a more active role in shaping how markets address modern slavery risks.     

A colonial “social experiment”: Accounting and a communal system in British-ruled Fiji

There is now an emerging literature that focuses on accounting practices in colonial processes of imperialism. This historical study theorises accounting's involvement in collectivistic social arrangements within a colonial regime. It analyses the colonial functions of accounting in British-ruled Fiji. We define colonialism by an official emphasis on the customary in 19th century utopian community-type ideas. The paper focuses on the moments and processes including that of accounting that produced such an expression of cultural difference. Rather than taking the communal division as given, this paper analyses the construction of such an identity and the role played by accounting from a political economy perspective. It examines the complex negotiations that sought to define a utopian communal arrangement that exploited, inter alia, the generation of much needed revenue for the state coffers.Archival documents highlight the emphasis on revenue that led to exploitative colonial labour policy for indigenous taxation and its attendant requirement for exacting unremunerated labour from the indigenous population. The paper also shows how accounting calculations were indiscernible from exploitative and oppressive acts of organising indigenous labour for colonial taxes as well as for the collaborating Chiefs’ personal services.     

The Reason Why: The English Constitution and the Latent Promise of Liberty in the History of Accounting

In 1215 Magna Carta determined freedom from executive oppression, or liberty, as the essential principle of the English Constitution and parliament as the bulwark against executive attempts to diminish the liberty of individuals. This constitutional precedence of liberty was confirmed after the Revolution in 1688 by the constitutional settlement which strengthened the financial accountability of the executive to parliament. Regular accounting for military expenditures especially became a critical component of the new accountability measures. Despite the overwhelming significance of liberty for the English Constitution and the contributions of accounting to preserving liberty, public sector accounting continues to attract few accounting historians. As a consequence, the vast historical resources contained in British Parliamentary Papers and the records of parliamentary debates continue to go largely unnoticed by all but a few accounting historians.     

Institutional theory and accounting rule choice: an analysis of four US state governments' decisions to adopt generally accepted accounting principles

In this study, we use institutional theory to explore how institutional pressures exerted on four state governments (New York, Michigan, Ohio, Delaware) influenced the decision of these governments to adopt or resist the use of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for external financial reporting. We identify resource dependence as a potent form of coercive institutional pressure that was associated with early GAAP adoption. We identify three factors that may lead to initial resistance to institutional pressures for change. First, if accounting bureaucrats are not active in professional associations that promote GAAP adoption, they may miss the educational process that we believe is important to early adoption of GAAP. Second, organizational printing may impede GAAP adoption. Third, powerful interests may impede GAAP if the proposed GAAP legislation is expected to alter the existing power relationships. We found that key accounting bureaucrats in New York and Michigan used “compromise” as an initial strategic response to institutional pressures to adopt GAAP, Ohio's key accounting bureaucrat adopted a “defy” strategy, although the political leadership endorsed an “acquiesce” strategy. While Delaware initially employed a “manipulate”strategy with some success. Delaware did not adopt GAAP for external reporting until a political entrepreneur for GAAP emerged in the early 1990s. Our study suggests that all strategic responses to resist institutional pressures for GAAP adoption will ultimately fail because of the potency of the institutional pressures that result from the well organized professional accounting and governmental institutional fields.     

The impact of an independent inspectorate on penal governance,performance and accountability: Pressure points and conflict “in the pursuit of an ideal of perfection”

This paper examines the impact of an independent Inspectorate on the enactment, of and accountability for, penal reform in the Australian State of Western Australia. Intended to improve system wide custodial outcomes through the introduction of a privately managed operator acting as standard bearer and innovator, the reform agenda was predicated on an overhaul of governance, performance, systems and reporting practices in the sponsoring department and the state's public prison network. Insights from three credos of imprisonment, theorizations of ‘hierarchical’ and ‘intelligent’ governance and accountability, the interplay of values in changing practice, and the ways in which inspectors establish particular inspection regimes, frame analysis of reform implementation and the inspection regime in action over a ten year period. Using archival material, this research examines how the Inspectorate, in making things auditable, altered perceptions and organizational realities of a network of actors. It is contended that the governance and accountability tensions inherent in managerialism, exemplified in its reliance on ‘neutral’ accounting technologies to incentivise, manage and monitor custodial outcomes, privilege instrumental hierarchical governance and accountability regimes that ignore the rehabilitative aspects of imprisonment. Further, conflicting publicly espoused and privately held values play vital roles in moulding performance in a penal setting, and are fundamental to changing outcomes in networks. The Inspectorate's public values and intelligent accountability regime resonate with the Department's policy objectives and public values, but are shown to have been initially inconsistent with network actors’ hidden private values. The research concludes that the appointment of an independent Inspectorate has facilitated the accountability of those responsible for prison quality and positively influenced the treatment of prisoners. A secondary concern is investigating conflicting propositions about the relative governance, performance and accountability of privately and publicly operated prisons.     

Early cost management practices, state ownership and market competition: the case of the Royal Textile Mill of Guadalajara, 1717-44

Existing literature on the deployment of cost techniques in early public sector organizations largely relies on archival evidence gathered from late eighteenth and nineteenth-century settings. Arguably, these contexts are characterized by a number of idiosyncratic characteristics that advise caution in generalizing conclusions beyond the institutional elements that forged those settings. Our investigation examines the case of the Royal Textile Mill of Guadalajara (RTM), a setting characterized by state ownership, competitive markets, organization of production around medieval guilds, and recruitment of foreign experts to conduct productive operations. Our findings show that the management of RTM deployed cost accounting techniques that comprised aspects such as control of raw materials and waste, control of labour and management, and allocations of overhead to product costing. We also find evidence which departs from predictions that standards relating to the control of raw materials should have preceded the implementation of labour cost standards.     

Risk management under wraps: self-regulation and the case of food contact plastics

This paper examines the reasons for the development and survival of self-regulatory regimes that manage risks to human health, using the self-regulation of food contact plastics in the UK from the 1950s to 1980s as a case-study. The self-regulatory arrangements are analysed from a control systems perspective and compared with the minimum arrangements that would be expected to correct for the market-failure characteristics of the risk. The paper finds that the self-regulatory regime failed to provide an adequate public interest response to potential market-failure. The regime, nevertheless, was sustained by three main factors: the political and interest group environment; transparency and accountability deficits; and, blame-avoidance behaviour on the part of central government. The paper concludes by considering the wider implications of this study for the self-regulation of health risks.     

Earnings quality and the heterogeneous relation between earnings and stock returns

We adopt a heterogeneous regime switching method to examine the informativeness of accounting earnings for stock returns. We identify two distinct time-series regimes in terms of the relation between earnings and returns. In the low volatility regime (typical of bull markets), earnings are moderately informative for stock returns. But in high volatility market conditions (typical of financial crisis), earnings are strongly related to returns. Our evidence suggests that earnings are more informative to investors when uncertainty and risk is high which is consistent with the idea that during market downturns investors rely more on fundamental information about the firm. Next, we identify groups of firms that follow similar regime dynamics. We find that the importance of accounting earnings for returns in each of the market regimes varies across firms: certain firms spend more time in a regime where their earnings are highly relevant to returns, and other firms spend more time in a regime where earnings are moderately relevant to returns. We also show that firms with poorer accrual quality have a greater probability of belonging to the high volatility regime.     

Market failure fallacies and accounting information

Proponents of increased regulation of accounting maintain that there are failures in the private market for accounting information. In this paper, it is argued that market failure theories contain a logical fallacy. The optima identified in those theories are not optima because they are defined independently of institutional arrangements necessary to attain them. Existing institutional arrangements, such as markets, should not be condemned until it can be shown that there is an alternative regime which can produce socially superior output.The paper examines theories which explicitly allege that there are failures in the private market for accounting information. In addition, early criticisms of accounting information are restated in economic terms, and it is revealed that those criticisms implicitly assume that private production of accounting information suffers from market failures. The paper concludes by suggesting that, if accounting research is to contribute to public policy formulation, researchers should focus on evaluating the type of information that can be produced by feasible regimes such as markets or government agencies.     

Making imaginary worlds real: The case of expensing employee stock options

West [West, B. (2003). Professionalism and accounting rules. London: Routledge] and Chambers [Chambers, R. J. (1966). Accounting evaluation and economic behavior. Houston: Scholars Book Company] have provocatively argued that financial reporting has reached a state of near-total incoherence. In this paper, we argue that a source of this incoherence is the transformation of the US accounting academy into a sub-discipline of financial economics, a transformation in which accounting became a servant of the imaginary world of neoclassical economics. After noting the unusually prominent role of rules within the accounting profession, we describe the displacement of accounting’s centuries-old root metaphor of accountability by the metaphor of information usefulness, and situate that displacement within neoliberalism, a broader political movement that arose after World War II. Finally, we use SFAS 123R, the recently issued stock option standard, as a case study of the incoherence that West and Chambers assert. Through various issues – such as reflexivity, theory paradox, and unexplained questions of responsibility – we demonstrate the logical inconsistencies involved in SFAS 123F. The incoherence of stock option reporting rules raises serious questions about the information metaphor as a foundation for either individual rules or the standard setting process. The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) attempts to make the imaginary world of neoclassical economics real have resulted in rules which are not defensible.     

Internal labour markets in the Australian banking industry: their nature prior to the Second World War and their recent decline

This paper uses evidence from late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century personnel records of two Australian banks to examine the nature of internal labour markets prior to the Second World War. It is argued that the industry possessed all the classic features of internal labour markets: limited ports of entry, internal promotion, long careers, and assignment of wages by well-defined rules. The paper then examines the reasons why banks adopted internal labour markets. Finally, the paper examines the recent decline of internal labour markets and examines the role of technological and social changes in this decline.     

Financial control, managerial control and accountability: evidence from the British Cotton Industry, 1700–2000

The paper seeks to identify the underlying and long run historical determinants of accounting practices. These practices include the nature and relative importance of management and financial accounting techniques, together with the mediating roles of corporate finance and especially financial markets. To explain historical variation in the application of these techniques the paper introduces an analytical model. The model is based on the principles of historical materialism and hence comprises objective and subjective elements. Definitional categories are borrowed from Marx’s analysis of the workings of capitalism, and extended to include contexts where there is extensive socialization of capital, as manifested by the pooling of investments in liquid financial markets. To examine the detailed implications for accounting change, the model is then applied to a longitudinal case study of the British cotton textile industry. The paper shows that techniques of financial and managerial control and mechanisms of accountability can be explained by the dynamic interaction of capital centralization and capital socialization.     

Government Accounting: An Assessment of Theory, Purposes and Standards

Government accounting and financial reporting aims to protect and manage public money and discharge accountability. These purposes, and the nature of public goods and tax financing, give rise to differences with commercial accounting. This is not yet reflected either in government accounting standards in English–speaking developed nations or in international public sector accounting standards. All of these are heavily influenced by private sector practices, which favour the accrual basis and consolidated reporting. This article argues for a gradual symmetric approach to accruals and a combination of government–wide and fund reporting. The author also proposes some broad accounting principles to promote political and economic accountability.     

Loan officers and loan ‘delinquency’ in Microfinance: A Zambian case

The paper seeks to promote greater understanding of the importance of loan officers in group-based microfinance by explaining their actual roles, dilemmas and tensions when working with poor clients. Few existing studies have used data outside Bangladesh and most focus upon relatively well-performing institutions. Using data from Zambia this study focuses on the recent crisis of Christian Enterprise Trust of Zambia (CETZAM) and the effects of its practices for accounting for and dealing with defaulters. The findings firstly show that loan officers faced powerful hierarchical accountability pressures and pursued inappropriate methods to compel further repayments to resolve this crisis. Its approach to borrower default was found to be stressful for loan officers and potentially detrimental for CETZAM's own short and long-term survival by reducing client loyalty and trust.     

Snakes and career ladders in the investment banking industry: the making of Barclays De Zoete Wedd (BZW) - an international perspective, 1982-96

This paper emphasises the importance of business history for analysing labour market structures and practices in financial markets in the United Kingdom and more particularly at Barclays De Zoete Wedd (BZW), the international investment banking arm of the British bank Barclays plc. By adopting an historical perspective, this study departs from existing literature and presents new explanations concerning the importance of the relationship between business history and the origins and functions of internal labour markets. The theoretical framework elaborated involves a model and a timeline in its analysis, which highlights significant emerging patterns in internal labour markets that become evident over time. The study reveals evidence that, contrary to the arguments raised by scholars which suggest a decline in internal labour market practices in favour of a return to a more market-based system, internal labour market arrangements continue to apply to an organisation such as BZW at all stages in its organisational development.