Exploring accounting history and accounting in history

Accounting history, as the history of accounting and the consideration of accounting in history, provides insight into an understanding of accounting in the past, for the present, and into the future. Whilst often viewed as a routine, rule driven practice, the accounting history discipline recognises accounting as having a much wider pervasiveness as social practice and even moral practice. As social practice, accounting affects individual, organisational and societal behaviour. This collection of articles demonstrates the importance of looking at history to provide context and illustrates that understandings of the past lead to comprehension of the present and foresight for the future. The articles in this special issue, international in essence, epitomise the diversity of the accounting history field in exploring accounting in diverse organisations, in investigating accounting in its wider context and in employing different theoretical approaches. In considering the accounting phenomenon that occurred, there is additionally the insight of that which did not occur, the relevance of past events and non-events as an ingredient to better understanding the present and to potentially reshaping the future.The articles explore of the role of actors/agents around accounting and organisational change, how key individuals and networks of individuals, can influence others, both within and external to the organisation, to enact change or prevent change in areas where accounting contributes. It is suggested that these studies could be extended, to consider more widely the influence of the interaction of individuals via prosopographical or similar studies. This collection of articles has global reach, and we make an additional call for more international, interactional or comparative approaches to studies in accounting history. Accounting history studies can further investigate organisational contexts and situations, exploring reporting internally and externally to the organisation and informing current and future accounting and related practices.     

Qualitative accounting research: dispelling myths and developing a new research agenda

This article deals with some common misconceptions about qualitative research. Qualitative studies are well suited to studying complex interconnections and relationships without reducing the complexity to simple numbers or variables. Rather than excluding outliers from a dataset, qualitative researchers are interested in these exceptions and often examine them in‐depth in order to develop better understandings and generate new theories on how accounting develops, functions and influences behaviour. New understandings and theory allow qualitative research to advance recommendations, extend the boundaries of accounting research, and make important contributions to both accounting theory and practice.     

Irish accounting, business and financial history: a bibliographical essay

Historians have engaged with accounting and business archives primarily in the areas of social and economic history. While much economic and social history draws on macro-economic data, micro-level sources have cast new light on old historical problems such as the Great Famine (1845-51) and the development of trade in Ireland and between Ireland and abroad. This paper traces the contributions of historians of Ireland to our understanding of accounting, business and financial history and maps out potential areas of research for accounting and business historians in the light of earlier and current trends in historical research. Adopting a historians' perspective, the paper will also provide a historical background and suggest potential bibliographical and archival sources to present and future accounting and business historians with a view to enhancing and enriching our understanding of the context in which accounting and business is situated in Ireland.     

Oral history, accounting history and an interview with Sir John Grenside

This article arises out of a programme of oral history funded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). It discusses the issues involved in setting up and carrying through the programme and the advantages and disadvantages of the technique particularly with regard to accounting history. It uses as an example an interview with one of the leaders of the accountancy profession in the period since the Second World War - Sir John Grenside. Grenside discusses his training and the changes he saw and helped bring about as senior partner in his firm, Peat Marwick Mitchell. Grenside was also one of the leading lights in the ICAEW in the 1970s and early 1980s and was the architect of the Joint Disciplinary Scheme on which he gives his views as well as on the recent troubles of the profession.     

Linking international business theory to accounting history: implications of the international evolution of the state and the firm for accounting history research

Accounting is an interdisciplinary subject. We routinely draw insights and models from the base disciplines (e.g. economics, psychology etc.) as a starting point for research on accounting issues. As accounting researchers, and accounting historians in particular, explore the international dimensions of accounting it is appropriate, therefore, to look to the literature on international relations for insights. This paper provides examples of how we could use the literature on the nation-state and international enterprises to frame questions about international accounting history.     

In pursuit of legitimacy: A history behind fair value accounting

An examination of the history of attempts by regulators, practitioners and scholars from the mid nineteenth century to 2005 to establish an appropriate accounting measurement basis for financial reporting here leads to an evaluation of the likelihood of fair value accounting (FVA) practices becoming fully institutionalised. Using concepts drawn from theories of legitimation, it is shown here that historic cost accounting (HCA) only enjoyed an episodic legitimacy in the 1940s–70s and that prior and after this period mixed measurement incorporating market values is routinised. Although principles of FVA have been legitimised to an extent, it is argued here that this has resulted in the practice of mixed measurement bases being taken for granted.     

Further critical reflections on a contribution to the methodological issues debate in accounting

Laughlin's (1995) contribution to the methodological issues debate in accounting (Laughlin R. Empirical research in accounting: alternative approaches and a case for “middle-range” thinking. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 1995;8(1):53–87.) is often cited. Here, we assess and clarify the contribution, including in reflecting upon some critical reception. We initially provide an overview of Laughlin (1995), enhancing appreciation of this by relating it to prior work. We then appraise some previous critical assessments of Laughlin (1995) and take into consideration Laughlin's interaction therewith. We go on to elaborate our own critical appreciation. We conclude that Laughlin (1995) substantively provides for a number of insights that continue to be positive for the development of research into accounting and related practices. Developing our analysis, we indicate the continuing strengths of a German critical theoretical orientation in researching and developing theoretical appreciation of accounting and related practices today.     

Disability and accounting firms: Evidence from the UK

An accumulation of interpretative studies in a range of international contexts has considered gender, race and social class in accounting employment. However, no work has considered accounting firms’ attitudes towards employing disabled people. This omission is surprising given the passing of successive disability rights legislation in the United States since 1918 and the United Kingdom (UK) since 1944 and consequent changes in public expectations regarding equal employment opportunities for disabled people. This paper examines the UK accounting profession's response to changes in disability legislation. Using a survey administered to UK firms and an analysis of the Big Four firms’ 2003 UK annual reviews, we report that firms’ have a minimal understanding of disability, that disability is not a significant component of firms’ personnel policies, that firms lag behind other organizations in their attitudes to disability, and images of disability are wholly absent from firms’ annual reviews. We discuss these findings in the context of prior accounting research which considers gender, race and social class, which is used to develop a research agenda.     

The relevance of history in accounting education: Some observations

This paper was commissioned by the Journal of Accounting Education in order to provide our readers with an assessment of the relevance of history in accounting education. Based on over 40 years of accounting experience, the author contends that accounting curricula should be broadened to include the teaching of accounting history. It is suggested that valuable insights can be gained from the study of how accounting has developed and changed in response to environmental changes (economic, political, social). Without such a historical perspective, accounting graduates will not have the necessary background to critically evaluate current accounting practices or be in a position to contribute significantly to our constantly changing profession.     

Social and environmental accounting,organisational change and management accounting: A processual view

Consistent with calls for in-depth studies of social and environmental accounting and reporting (SEAR) intervention (Bebbington, 2007, Fraser, 2012, Contrafatto, 2012), our paper focuses on the interrelationship between organisational change and SEAR practices, as well as the involvement of management accounting in such organisational dynamics. Drawing insight from both Laughlin (1991) and Burns and Scapens’ (2000) theoretical frameworks, we explore the processes of change through which SEAR practices become elevated to strategising status, in the context of broader organisational and extra-organisational developments, but we also illuminate how institutionalised assumptions of profit-seeking limit the extent to which broader sustainability concerns become infused into day-to-day business practice. Our paper highlights the importance of management accounting in facilitating and shaping the cumulative path of SEAR practices (and sustainability more generally); however, we also heed caution against uncritical reliance upon conventional management accounting tools. The following paper extends our understanding of SEAR practices as cumulative process over time, an awareness of the potential limits to such developments in profit-seeking organisations, and stresses a need to be circumspect when involving management accounting.     

The influences of Confucianism, Feng Shui and Buddhism in Chinese accounting history

This paper attempts to examine the influences of Confucianism, Feng Shui and Buddhism on the evolution of Chinese accounting before recent accounting reforms commencing in the 1980s. Chinese cultural variables (e.g. Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, etc.) have been widely utilized in studying Chinese accounting systems, the accounting profession and the evolution of Chinese accounting techniques. However, the literature has not taken into account the traditional Chinese Feng Shui belief, which was broadly considered as the most important part of Chinese traditional culture. There is much evidence to show that Chinese accounting development was not only influenced by Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, but also by the prevalence of Feng Shui belief in ancient China over thousands of years. This paper first discusses the concepts of culture and describes Confucianism, Feng Shui and Buddhism in China, and then examines the influences of Confucianism, Feng Shui and Buddhism on the evolution of Chinese accounting. The influences discussed are those on bookkeeping methods, accounting information, accounting profession/accountants, regulating and standardizing accounting practice, government accounting and private-sector accounting respectively. This paper also identifies some areas for future research in Chinese accounting history and culture.     

Using student response systems in the accounting classroom: Strengths,strategies and limitations

A Student Response System (SRS), often referred to as a “clicker,” enables students to individually answer instructor questions on a real-time basis using individual mobile devices, and have the aggregate responses displayed as feedback to the class at the instructor’s discretion. A mobile device can be a proprietary, vendor-specific remote, or a multi-purpose item such as a smartphone or computer. While SRSs have been used in education for some time, we perceive the adoption rate in accounting classes as still being quite low. This paper is a “how to” and “why” guide for accounting faculty who are considering using SRSs, and for experienced users who seek to refine or expand their SRS use.     

Toward a different debate in environmental accounting: The cases of carbon and cost–benefit

Many champions of environmental accounting suggest that calculating and internalizing ‘externalities’ is the solution to environmental problems. Many critics of neoliberalism counter that the spread of market-like calculations into ‘non-market’ spheres, is, on the contrary, itself at the root of such problems. This article proposes setting aside this debate and instead closely examining the concrete conflicts, contradictions and resistances engendered by environmental accounting techniques and the perpetually incomplete efforts of accountants and their allies to overcome them. In particular, it explores how cost–benefit analysis and the carbon accounting techniques required by the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and other carbon trading mechanisms ‘frame’ new agents, spaces, relations and objects, and what the consequences have been and are likely to be.     

The limits of postmodernism in accounting history: The Decatur experience

This paper presents a response to Miller and O'Leary's (1994) study of the factory modernization at Caterpillar's Decatur plant and the role of accounting and other expertises in constituting subjectivities. The research draws extensively from interviews with workers in Caterpillar's Decatur plant to develop a defense of historical materialism against postmodern interpretations of managerial accounting practices that abandon the concepts of class, ideology, and social structure.     

Auditing standards,increased accounting disclosure,and information asymmetry: Evidence from an emerging market

The interest in accounting disclosure and audit quality by academics, practitioners, and regulators heightened following the various financial reporting scandals, and subsequent legislative and professional response to these scandals. An important question is whether the implementation of stricter auditing standards such as those mandated by the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act would improve the information environment of firms whose shares are publicly traded. In this paper, I investigate the link between information asymmetry, measured by bid-ask spread, and increased accounting disclosures following the adoption of new auditing standards in China—an environment in which disclosure hitherto was relatively low. I report the following primary results of the statistical analyses. First, information asymmetry cost is substantial in the Chinese order-driven emerging markets. Second, the firms in the sample experienced significant reductions in their bid-ask spreads subsequent to the adoption of the new auditing standards. Third, the reductions in the bid-ask spreads were abrupt and permanent. However, no significant result is found for firms in the control group with foreign ownership, whose financial statements were prepared in accordance with international accounting standards and were audited with international auditing standards. The results have implications for policy makers and regulators in general, and those in emerging markets in particular.     

Knowledge base and skill development in accounting education: Evidence from China

This paper presents the result of a survey on the required knowledge, skills, and pedagogy for accounting education as perceived by accounting practitioners, educators, and students in China. Respondents generally agreed to a series of knowledge and skills that are important to the training of accounting students, although some variance exists among the respondent groups regarding the perceived importance of those knowledge and skills. The findings also reveal that the respondents were dissatisfied with the present delivery of the needed knowledge and skills. Thus it is contended that accounting education reform in China is not only necessary, but imperative. This study also makes a comparative analysis with similar studies in the US, in terms of commonalities and differences in respondents’ perceptions between the varied economic, technological and cultural environments in China and the US.     

Corporate governance,accounting and finance: A review

We review accounting and finance research on corporate governance (CG). In the course of our review, we focus on a particularly vexing issue, namely endogeneity in the relationships between CG and other matters of concern to accounting and finance scholars, and suggest ways to deal with it. Given the advent of large commercial CG databases, we also stress the importance of how CG is measured and in particular, the construction of CG indices, which should be sensitive to local institutional arrangements, and the need to capture both internal and external aspects of governance. The ‘stickiness’ of CG characteristics provides an additional challenge to CG scholars. Better theory is required, for example, to explain whether various CG practices substitute for each other or are complements. While a multidisciplinary approach to developing better theory is never without its difficulties, it could enrich the current body of knowledge in CG. Despite the vastness of the existing CG literature, these issues do suggest a number of avenues for future research.     

Evaluating the Nordea experiment: Evidence from market and accounting data

This paper discusses results and difficulties of comparing banks’ performance based on publicly available data for the case of Nordea, a pan-Nordic bank created through mergers of important national banks. The objective is to determine whether Nordea’s unique strategy of functional integration across four countries can be advantageous. For stock-market data, however, Nordea does not have stable betas on risk factors, and thus the comparables method must be used with great care. The Nordea holding company performed about as well as the comparables, both in terms of stock-market and accounting data. Nordea banks in individual countries outperformed comparable holding companies; by arithmetic, Nordea non-bank operations are not as profitable as its bank operations. In event studies, the data lend only the weakest support to the hypothesis that the market viewed Nordea’s acquisitions as adding value.