Fearful asymmetry: The consumption of accounting signs in the Algoma Steel pension bailout

This paper examines the role of accounting in society by looking at the consumption of accounting signs during the financial restructuring of a corporation. The paper builds upon insights from prior research on accounting as simulacrum and hyperreality. It examines how accounting numbers serve as reconfigurable signs that construct appropriate “crises”, motivate government intervention, and marshal stakeholders towards solutions. The incident at the heart of this study is the 2001 bailout of the Algoma Steel pension plan by the Ontario government. The incident demonstrates how accounting technologies are required both for the production of accounting signs and for their consumption. The paper asks how the production and consumption of accounting signs is different from that of other communication signs, what role consumers of accounting signs play in determining their meaning, and what difference this makes in how corporate pension plans are protected by government. It concludes that the structures and mechanisms surrounding the consumption of accounting signs enable different stakeholders to influence the production of meaning at the moment when accounting signs are consumed, changing the way that risk and wealth are redistributed, and shaping government intervention.     

会计信息不实的行政法律规制研究

1929年-1933年席卷欧美的经济危机和2008年世界金融危机本质上是会计信息不实孕育的“恶果”,证明会计信息不实具有严重的社会危害性。为把不实会计信息的状况限制在低水平,保护相关利益主体的权益,防止信息障碍累积,构建有效经济社会信用体系,避免经济发生重大病变,需要实施全过程一般会计信息问题的有效行政法律监管。如何实施会计信息不实的行政监管,关键是从操作层面完善现有行政法律规制内容.     

Repoliticalization of accounting standard setting—The IASB,the EU and the global financial crisis

Since its inception, the IASB has been able to set standards with relatively little political influence in its governance or standard setting process. But this changed with the outbreak of the global financial crisis. Political bodies began to view accounting standards as a contributing factor that amplified the consequences of the crisis on banks, financial markets and the overall economy. Regaining control over accounting standard setting was seen as imperative. In this article, we investigate how the EU sought to gain control over the IASB and how the global standard setter responded to limit political influence. Our findings show that a re-balancing of power in favor of political interests has occurred between the stakeholders of international accounting standard setting. Further research in this area looks promising. We suspect that the heightened influence of political actors may lead to further power struggles and efforts to cope with on-going changes in the institutional environment.     

Accounting for self interest in the credit crisis

Taking as its starting point Alan Greenspan’s ‘shocked disbelief’ in the failure of institutional self interest to prevent the credit crisis, this paper sets out to explore two related questions. How was self interest constructed in financial markets? And how might we account for its failure? Conceptually the paper draws upon Callon’s (1998) analysis of ‘agent–networks’, the importance this gives to the agency of non-humans, and his complementary notions of ‘framing’/‘disentanglement’ and ‘overflowing’ as these allow and subvert the calculation of self interest. Empirically, the paper then presents a sketch of these processes in the rise and then fall of the market for collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) that was central to the credit crisis. The final substantive section of the paper reflects on the role and ‘hyperreal’ interaction of accounting and models as ‘mediators’ in these processes.     

Accounting practices and professional power dynamics during a crisis

This paper examines how changes in accounting practices during a crisis can affect organisational dynamics between hospital managers and clinicians. Our theoretical framework applies a multi-dimensional concept of power (Hardy, 1996) – which distinguishes power over resources, processes and meaning – to a longitudinal case study of a public university hospital during a budgetary crisis. Based on interviews with managers and clinicians, three successive time intervals with distinct power constellations are identified. Initially, we identify a pre-crisis phase where management formally controls resources, which seems to have limited effects on clinician dominance because managers lack ‘processual power’ and ‘power of meaning’. Next, an implantation phase emerges whereby the introduction of mandated budget cuts triggers shifts in the distribution of power, such that managers acquire power by securing the collaboration of clinicians – a phenomenon which has tangible benefits in terms of enabling budget compliance and increased service provision. Finally, the third phase may be conceptualized as a fiscal pressure regimen whereby, when budgetary pressures intensify further, management's newly gained ‘power of meaning’ is eroded because management are now seen to pursue unrealistic demands. Drawing on research insights gleaned during each phase, our analysis contributes to extant literature in at least three ways. First, we present novel findings regarding the impact of crises-related applications of accounting practices on intra-organisational power constellations. Second, our work highlights how accounting practices help shape the understanding of crisis, which, in turn, impacts the distribution of organizational power and influences intra-organizational patterns of collaboration. Third, we find that awareness of the meaning power of accounting practices can help shape strategic action in crisis situations.     

‘Above the fray’: Interests,discourse and legitimacy in the audit field

Legitimacy is a crucial concern for the institutional field of auditing, given its reliance on perceived legitimacy for its political mandate and license to practice, in addition to its wider credibility and trust amongst stakeholders such as clients, investors and the public. In this paper, we explore the role of interest-discourse in the discursive strategies of legitimization in the audit field. We develop an Ethnomethodologically informed Discourse Analysis (EDA) perspective that enables us to theorise how institutional actors account for interests as a means for de-legitimization and re-legitimization. We ask: how do institutional actors in the audit field establish who or what is ‘above the fray’ and who or what is ‘interested’? We illustrate our argument by examining how the ‘Big Four’ audit firms handled a ‘crisis of legitimacy’ in the accountancy profession following the recent financial crisis, focussing in particular on a Parliamentary inquiry into market concentration in the audit industry in the UK. First, we show how de-legitimization is achieved through the discursive strategies of stake attribution, stake interrogation and stake mis-alignment. Second, we show how re-legitimization is achieved through the discursive strategies of stake inoculation, stake confession, stake alignment and stake transcendence. We conclude by examining the implications of the discursive processes we have studied for the future of the audit field in the UK.     

Est in aqua dulci non invidiosa voluptas In pure water there is a pleasure begrudged by none: on ownership,accountability and control in a privatized utility

We explore the proposition that the unitary board structure is defective, as a mechanism of effective corporate governance, in its application in the post-privatization British water industry. Specifically we explore the case of Yorkshire Water plc and a serious crisis that it faced as a result of a severe drought in the summer of 1995. Our contention is that whilst the water company continued to meet its commitment to raising shareholder value, it failed to meet the needs of other stakeholders, and not least its customers. Our analysis of this case is grounded in a discussion of the political-economy and critical accounting literatures relating to private versus public provision and privatization. Following this we outline the nature of governance by unitary board and then turn to Yorkshire Water’s crisis, its failure in service provision and its performance. Based upon this we then lay out the precursors to the crisis and review the role that the unitary board model played in its development. We conclude by proposing that the dual board model may be better suited to the management of the production of essential “public" goods, in order to protect the interests of all stakeholders.     

Capital and income financialization: Accounting for the 2008 financial crisis

Financialization is recognised as a key feature of the 2008 financial crisis. We argue that a lesson is the need for an accounting framework which focuses upon financialization allowing it to be monitored and controlled by stakeholders. We argue that financialization has been permitted through the failure of accounting to distinguish distributable income from capital gains/transfers and to distinguish productive from speculative capital. We introduce an accounting presentation (4S accounting) which effectively makes these distinctions. We use a stylized example to illustrate how it should be applied to the financial reporting of banks.     

Risk communication and social media during food safety crises: a study of stakeholders’ opinions in Ireland

Social media is a particular communication platform which has witnessed an exponential growth in use and influence in recent years, democratising the communication process, and offering risk communicators a way of putting into practice those principles which are advocated to be at the core of risk management and communication. However, little is known about stakeholders’ willingness to embrace this new form of communication in a food crisis. The current study presented an exploratory investigation of the opinions of Irish stakeholders on the position of risk communication in a crisis, with a particular focus on understanding what application social media may have. In-depth one-to-one interviews were carried out with key stakeholders holding frontline positions in managing and communicating about risk in the food sector in Ireland. The stakeholders identified risk communication as a central activity in a food safety crisis, driven by an obligation to protect both consumer health and the reputation of the Irish food sector. Stakeholders relied primarily on risk communication to disseminate information in a crisis so to educate and inform the public on a risk and to prevent confusion and alarmism; most did not explicitly value two-way risk communication in a crisis. The ability to effectively manage future crises may depend on stakeholders’ willingness to adapt to the changing communication landscape, namely – their willingness to adopt social media and use it effectively. The findings indicate that the stakeholders interviewed are appreciative of the need to engage with social media in times of a food safety crisis. However, most valued social media as a one-way channel to help spread a message and there was little reference to the interactive nature of this medium. Implications for integrating social media into crisis risk communication strategies are discussed.     

‘Agents-in-focus’ and ‘Agents-in-context’: The strong structuration analysis of central government accounting practices and reforms in Nepal

Drawing on Stones’ (2005) strong structuration theory, the paper unfolds why and how the key stakeholders of central government accounting in Nepal are involved in the reproduction of routinised accounting practices, resisting the externally-propagated changes. Government accountants (the agents-in-focus) through their capability to control the budget routines have enjoyed a powerful social position in their position–practice relations with the agents-in-context, i.e. professional accountants and international consultants, higher-level officers and administrators, auditors, and politicians. Social position along with historically-imbued dispositions and their conduct and context analysis have enabled government accountants to strategically exercise their agency. Government accountants have articulated duality and a dialectic relation with the agents-in-context, which have resulted in the reproduction of everyday accounting practice and the resistance to the World Bank-led reforms, such as accrual accounting and, more recently, the Cash-Basis IPSAS.     

公允价值会计的多角度研究

本文从本次危机的形成和发展过程开始,详细描述了市价变动会计加剧金融危机发展和深化的机制,揭示了它成为市场波动加速器的内在机理。文章进一步从更广泛的视角研究市价变动会计的缺陷,包括从理论和实践两个方面来分析市价变动会计信息的失真性,从会计准则经济后果研究的角度来探讨它对企业价值的不正确估值,对企业管理层的反向激励机制,以及与现有会计准则体系的不一致性。文章还用中国上市公司2006年和2007年年报公布时间的统计数据证明了市价变动会计并不具备人们想象中的时效性。在探讨了市价变动会计存在的重大缺陷之后,文章进而深入地探究了市价变动会计产生的经济背景。最后,文章在对市价变动会计提出一些初步的修改建议后,呼吁对经济增长模式、实体经济与虚拟经济的关系等进行认真反思,中国不应再走西方发达国家经济发展的原有模式。     

Covid-19, corporate survival and public policy: The role of accounting information and regulation in the wake of a systemic crisis

The economic crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic prompted governments to issue several relief mechanisms to hold up companies and workers. This study analyzes how accounting information and regulation can support policymakers in the wake of a systemic crisis. Based on an accounting-based framework and readily available data from financial statements, it forecasts the impact of the crisis in terms of losses, equity depletion, and corporate defaults, absent government intervention. Next, it quantifies the costs and effects of five relief mechanisms in alleviating the risk of generalized corporate bankruptcies. The effects of the health pandemic and relief mechanisms on profitability and equity shortfalls are estimated for a sample of 586,076 privately held Italian firms. The findings indicate that the number of companies facing bankruptcy risk would increase from 65,463 (11% of the population) in 2019 to 153,681 (26%) in 2020, absent any government intervention. Altogether, these firms employ 1.4 million employees and have a total exposure to the financial industry equal to €68 billion in loans. Next, we assess the effects of relief mechanisms introduced by the Italian government to support corporations, whose aggregate costs reach €49.33 billion in 2020, and find that the interventions ‘rescue’ about 43,000 firms otherwise in default. Finally, the study adds to the debate on the role of accounting regulation in the wake of a systemic crisis by (a) discussing the effects of temporary changes to accounting rules on the informativeness and transparency of financial statements, and (b) suggesting alternative ways to modify accounting rules to safeguard corporate survival without compromising the informativeness of financial statements once the crisis reaches a halt.     

Does greater user representation lead to more user focused standards? An empirical investigation of IASB’s approach to standard setting

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has faced calls to act in the interest of users of financial statements given the perception of the greater influence exerted by preparers and professional accounting firm stakeholders. In response, the IASB has, over more than a decade, sought to increase user centricity, adapting its people and processes to more fully engage the views of users. We report on our empirical analysis from the standard setter’s perspective of user engagement which is a research objective not documented in the prior literature. Our results draw on interviews conducted with 31 IASB representatives, comprised of 26 staff and 5 Board members representing approximately 60% of IASB’s non-support staff as well as publically available archival data. We deploy the Griffiths (1960) citizenship participation framework in reporting on the procedural rigor directed at user utility, to assess IASB’s attempt to enhance its perceived relevance (existential enhancement) as a standard setting body. We explain how a “clash” between new user centric practices and the extant practices led to challenges for the IASB in factoring the views of, and acting in the interest of users, as demanded by regulatory authorities. We discuss some of the tensions this has made evident in IASB’s objective to function as an effective standard setter. Conceptually, our paper clarifies how more embedded representation modes per Griffith (1960) elicited greater user feedback, but that tensions arose in relation to the IASB’s broader objectives to more directly serve users’ interests. Functionally, we offer a more nuanced appreciation for why the IASB might not unilaterally seek to be “user-focused” in the interests of both users and other stakeholders, and in doing so, serve the longer term objectives of accounting standard setting.     

The evolution of a graduate capstone accounting course

This paper discusses how the design of a graduate capstone accounting course evolved over 3 years, taking into consideration input from various stakeholders. The course has three, 5-week modules: accounting ethics, earnings management, and business strategy. The accounting ethics module emphasizes codified principles of ethics and professional behavior in accounting. The integrating theme of the last two modules is how accounting professionals can detect earnings management being used as a short-term solution to a longer-term strategic problem. Materials are included that may assist other schools contemplating a capstone accounting course in their 150-hour program.     

Determinants and consequences of timely asset impairments during the financial crisis

U.S. firms recorded an unprecedented number of asset impairments during the recent financial crisis. We investigate the timing of these losses in the context of two competing views on how firms use discretion over asset impairments. The first view posits that firms record impairments to convey private information as part of their commitment to a conditionally conservative reporting strategy. The second view argues that firms use their discretion to report opportunistically by delaying the recording of bad news. Consistent with the first view, we find that firms recorded timelier asset impairments during the financial crisis if they reported more conservatively in the five years preceding the crisis. Further tests show this relation is greater for firms with strong corporate governance, industry‐specialist auditors, and high leverage, indicating the importance of monitoring mechanisms in determining how firms handle the discretion involved in impairment decisions. We also test for the consequences of timely asset impairments during the financial crisis and find that firms reporting conservatively both before and during the crisis were able to acquire more debt financing, and their publicly traded bonds suffered smaller increases in illiquidity. Collectively, our study highlights the role of asset impairments in firms’ accounting choices over time.     

会计人才能力需求与本科会计教育改革:利益相关者的调查分析

本研究利用焦点团体访谈和问卷调查方法,探讨中国本科会计教育改革的问题。通过对会计师、会计学生和会计教师三类会计教育利益相关者的结构化访谈和问卷调查,研究不同利益相关者在会计毕业生能力项目和会计教学方法两个方面的期望认知。研究结果表明,不同利益相关者之间对部分能力项目和教学方法存在认知差异,教师是否接受海外教育背景对这两类项目的认知差异不显著。根据研究结果,我们分析了其产生的原因以及对中国会计教育改革的启示。     

Governance and compliance in accounting education in Vietnam – case of a public university

Prior research suggests that despite the mass development of higher education in Vietnam recently, the quality of higher education is declining. This study aims to understand the impact of the education reform on the quality of university accounting education by investigating the involvement of different stakeholders in accounting education within one leading university in Vietnam. The findings from the interviews of key stakeholders suggest that accounting education in Vietnam is driven by reduced state control, growing institutional autonomy and increasing external guidance. This has come at the expense of reduced academic self-governance as lecturers have discretion in curriculum delivery at the individual course level, but little input into the decision-making at the school or university level and minimal participation in the curriculum development process. The findings enable regulators and decision-makers to better understand the dynamics between stakeholders in accounting education to enhance accounting graduates’ competencies and outcomes.     

The reflective accountant: towards a new model for professional development

The accounting profession in recent times has been under intense scrutiny. Questions have been raised about, among other things, the right of the profession to regulate its activities, the behaviour of accounting firms and the usefulness of accounting information, a situation that would seem to indicate the existence of a crisis. This paper argues that the present crisis facing the accounting profession can be attributed to the inability of the tradional (technical rationality) model for professional development to cope with the new demands placed on the modern accounting profession which is characterized by professional pluralism. The paper proposes an alternative model for professional development based on the concept of the ‘reflective practitioner’. It is argued that the proposed model would equip accounting professionals with a degree of flexibility which is considered essential in carrying out their functions in a changing environment.     

Accounting for Extractive Industries: Has IFRS 6 Harmonised Accounting Practices by Extractive Industries?

Accounting for extractive industries has historically been practiced by one of a number of methods: successful efforts, full costing, area of interest, appropriation and reserve recognition accounting. The choice of method adopted leads to different accounting figures. The difference in the treatment of the costs leads to different accounting figures being reported in the financial statements of extractive companies. This means that the ‘tell it like it is’ criteria of accounting functions differently, so that stakeholders find like‐with‐like comparisons for decision‐making purposes difficult. These difficulties have culminated in the release of IFRS 6 Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources, to help harmonise accounting practice. This paper, through content analysis of annual reports of 122 upstream oil and gas companies from around the world, investigates the role of IFRS 6 in harmonising extractive industries’ accounting practices. Our analysis identifies seven types of company, which differ in their compliance with IFRS 6. Hence, we conclude that IFRS 6 has had some success in harmonising accounting treatments of exploration and evaluation expense but that this success is limited and more needs to be done to achieve wider harmonisation for the extractive industries.     

Communicating the Impact of the Global Financial Crisis in Annual Reports: A Study of Australian NGOs

This paper analyses the extent and nature of communication by Australian non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) about the impact of the global financial crisis (GFC). NGOs need to balance their communications about financial need against news that could potentially reflect negatively on stakeholders’ impressions of their worthiness to receive funding. Recognising this, we content analyse the annual report narratives of 10 Australian NGOs for information about the impact of the GFC and their use of impression management (IM) techniques. All NGOs in the study experienced some financial impact from the GFC, with nine referring to it in their annual report narratives. However, the information was very limited, indicating a missed opportunity to communicate meaningfully with stakeholders. Further, of the nine NGOs providing disclosures about the GFC's impact, eight used at least one IM technique, indicating a lack of transparency that has potentially negative implications for trust‐building with their stakeholders. This study focuses on a limited number of NGOs, but further research could broaden this approach to examine organisations in the broader not‐for‐profit (NFP) sector, other modes of communication or communication patterns at other times of crisis, and currently, in an era of austerity.