Purpose – The aim of this study is to investigate factors considered to impact on the research productivity of accounting academics, and identify how the factors were related. The study aims to set itself within an international context of increased workloads, and revenue-driven research and teaching. Design/methodology/approach – A meta-analysis was conducted of international studies f…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the recent accounting regulations designed to facilitate international harmonization in Vietnam and to show how Vietnam developed an accounting system that harmonizes with international standards while preserving macroeconomic control. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is developed using the theoretical framework on globalisation.…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transition of the accounting systems from cash based to accrual based, in Thai public universities. The focus is on the factors both influencing and affecting the accounting change. Design/methodology/approach – This study takes a quantitative approach with data collected through a mail survey to the Chief Financial Officer of ea…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of an Integrated Financial System implementation on accountant profiles in a Swiss public administration. The authors observe the following variables: accountants’ skills, accountants’ functions, and accountants’ educational backgrounds. Each variable was studied before and after the implementation. Design/methodology/approa…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose an institutional entrepreneurship approach to examining management accounting change triggered by social and environmental concerns. Design/methodology/approach – The study begins with a literature review concerning the role that old institutional economics and new institutional sociology have played in the study of management accounting…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the institutionalization of an accrual accounting system in the Indonesian public sector. Design/methodology/approach – The authors undertake a case study to gain insights relating to the critical features of the institutionalization process of the accrual accounting system (AAS) in one Indonesian public sector municipality. The data ar…
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to present a snapshot review of the papers accepted for publication in this special issue of the 2010 Global Accounting and Organizational Change (GAOC) conference which was held in July, 2010 at Babson College, USA. Design/methodology/approach – A critical review approach was adopted to identify the lessons learned. Findings – The review reve…
Purpose – The paper examines how accounting practice changes, which forces generate change, and the role of a best practice benchmark within this. It examines this process of change within service charge accounting in commercial property. The purpose of this paper is to establish that “best” practice is of a low standard and poorly implemented, and then explain this. Design/methodolog…
Purpose – Managers generally have discretion in determining how components of earnings are presented in financial statements in distinguishing between “normal” earnings and items classified as unusual, special, significant, exceptional or abnormal. Prior research has found that such intra-period classificatory choice is used as a form of earnings management. Prior to 2001, Australian a…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how a parent company ensures reliable accounting information from its subsidiaries located in a significantly different environment, analyzing the process and its outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs the conceptualization of management control as a loosely-coupled system to explore the integration of accounting-relat…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the company-related benefits expected by executives of public accounting companies consolidating accounting practices and the implications of these expectations for company performance. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a case study approach involving the review of publicly available information and interviews with executives…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify middle managers’ strategies during changed accounting conditions. Design/methodology/approach – Middle managers from hospitals, primary care and community care were interviewed about their strategies during change processes. Each middle manager selected changes that had played the greatest part in a ten-year period. Findings – Each…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of strategic management accounting (SMA) in an English university. It is in search of and investigates SMA practices and processes, and their meaning to participants in an English university context. The higher education (HE) institution under research had gone through a major change a couple of years prior to this study, includ…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to enhance the eminent work of Burns and Scapens (B&S) by introducing broader conceptualisations on organisational routines and rules into management accounting. Design/methodology/approach – The paper sets out with the B&S framework. The paper is primarily conceptual in nature and with the addition of some more recent literature on organisational …
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the practice of IT-enabled management control change, in particular how IT-driven change is made possible from a practical perspective in a global context. It does so by investigating the redesign of the telecommunications company Ericsson’s global finance and accounting function from an independent structure o…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the process of the accounting system change as a part of a larger reform initiative taking place in Norway. The research context is the national network of hospital enterprises. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an archival-based case approach of official documents (between 2000 and 2009) to study the formal laye…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to draw out the accounting implications of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act in Australia. Design/methodology/approach –An analytical approach is undertaken to ascertain the (accounting) practice and research implications of the NGER Act. Findings – Accounting researchers, especially those with interests in social and enviro…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of different reorganization actions on long-term financial performance of reorganizing small entrepreneurial firms in Finland. Design/methodology/approach – An structural equation model estimated by partial least squares is applied to survey data from 98 reorganizing very small firms to analyze the effect of organizational cha…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of context specific issues and challenges facing small accounting practices (SAPs) in Australian regional and rural centres. It is argued that these firms face a dynamic and continuously changing environment which requires strategic responses on the part of SAP owners. The paper explores how SAPs accommodate and respond to their…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of organizational change undergone by a large Portuguese business group within the context of the environmental agenda and the role of accounting as a mechanism for change. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports the results of a case study conducted between 2006 and 2009. Information was obtained from semi-structured…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study designed to understand the extent of compliance with the goodwill accounting and reporting disclosure requirements under AASB 136 among a sample of goodwill intensive Australian firms over the first two years of their IFRS adoption. Design/methodology/approach – Examining the goodwill reporting practices adopted by…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether business strategy influences strategic management accounting (SMA) usage. Business strategy has been operationalized through strategic pattern, mission and positioning. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an internet questionnaire survey of Italian companies. Multiple regression analysis is used to test the im…
Purpose – Although many of the problems currently being faced in accounting education have also been expressed in educational debates within other professions such as medicine, law and architecture, changes in accounting education policy and practice have not been greatly influenced by comparative study of other professions. This paper aims to examine the potentiality of the comparative re…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of a study designed to understand how management accounting changes when an organization evolves in a more network-oriented direction, informed by an experiential or integrated approach to learning. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on a longitudinal case study initiated by the findings from a previous action …
Purpose – The literature on managing inter-organisational relationships typically suggests managing these relationships based on the formalised exchange of information across the organisational boundary with due respect to trust build-up through successive interactions. The purpose of this paper is to argue that a focus on trust reduces the flexibility and accessibility of resources and h…
Purpose – The paper seeks to explore the extent of involvement of management accounting in strategic inter-organizational decisions and control in the context of offshoring of services. Design/methodology/approach – For the present study, a multiple case study field research design was selected. A data-bank media search identified companies actually offshoring their services. In total, …
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to knowledge about Russian public sector accounting in times of change by exploring the emergence of a new way of accounting for Russian central government. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, accounting is viewed as a social and institutional practice. A frame of reference guided by three theoretical perspectives is elaborat…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to theorize the institutional pillars of management accounting function. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a comparative case study approach. Findings – Institutional pillars of management accounting are explored on the basis of two longitudinal case studies. Competitive/economic forces and three analytical elements of institutional …
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is: to detail the importance of corporate governance to institutional investors; to describe the tension created by their desire to earn extra revenue from stock lending; and to outline the challenges to corporate governance presented by the subsequent lack of accounting for voting rights. Design/methodology/approach – Descriptive analysis, including …
Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to put forward a framework grounded in new institutional sociology (NIS) theory that examines the impact of national competition policy on the design and implementation of a balanced scorecard (BSC) in a government-owned electricity corporation in Australia. It examines the importance of the rational analytical deliberation of legitimacy as a …
Purpose – Two reasons are identified for studying the impact of capacity measurements on organizations. First, firms which make the best use of their resources can be expected to outperform their competitors. The second arises from the potential structuration effect of capacity metrics. Such an investigation makes capacity a visible, and hence an actionable, construct. This paper aims to …
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine an effort by management of a private higher education institution in Indonesia to replace its informal, relationship-based performance system which relied on physical discourse – overseeing operational details that focus on physical accomplishment of tasks – and personal control by the school head, with a tight budgetary control system…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and critically evaluate the systems of accounting and accountability for the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in Kenya. It suggests a new framework of accounting and accountability that places the goals and aspirations expressed in public discourse at the centre of accountability. Design/methodology/approach – The theoretical insight…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to document the types of and any changes in the budgeting and performance management practices of New Zealand primary educational organisations and explain why they occurred using an institutional theory framework. In doing so, it will provide an understanding of past budgeting and performance measurement and reporting practice, as well as consider t…
Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to merge two traditions in management accounting change – design theory and action research – to explain findings from a case study of introducing a cost leadership initiative. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is an example of action research in which design theory explains events related to the implementation of a strategic cos…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce and review papers incorporated into this special issue of the first biennial conference of the Global Accounting and Organisational Change. Design/methodology/approach – A textual analytical approach is adopted to review the selected papers. Findings – A variety of themes emerge from the subject papers, including institutionalisation…
Purpose – Relatively little research exists about the information used by owner/managers (O/Ms) in micro enterprises (less than 10 employees). The purpose of this paper is to explore the management accounting information (MAI) generated and used by O/Ms for planning, decision making and control in micro manufacturing enterprises in the Gaza Strip (GS). Design/methodology/approach – A gr…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce and review the papers contained in this special issue on accounting and organizational change in the public sector and reflects on their key themes and findings. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on general desk research and the papers in this special edition. Findings – This paper finds that there is a variety of valid …
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to trace the changes in accounting practice in UK hospitals, focussing on costing, funding and budgetary control, and to place more recent accounting changes in their historic context. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is largely chronological and draws from previous research by the author and other secondary sources, both of which are supple…
Purpose – This paper seeks to understand the role of financial accounting regulations in a less developed country in transition, Egypt. It explores the social, political as well as economic contexts that underlie the processes of setting the Egyptian Financial Accounting Regulations (EFAR) in a harmony with International Accounting Standards (IASs). Design/methodology/approach – The pap…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the accounting performance measurement (PM) change process in a Finnish city. Design/methodology/approach – Interpretive case study. Data consisted of 16 semi-structured interviews. Analysis was based on institutional theory, particularly on “new institutional sociology” (NIS) studies. Findings – Budgeting and accounting PM became…
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the workings of the internal specifier/provider arrangement, a new organizational form that is not required by government mandate but has become common place in the Australian public sector. Design/methodology/approach – The case study empirics take place in a large local government water authority. Data were collected from…
Purpose – The paper’s aim is to research and discuss the issue of the lack of transparency in financial reporting and how companies take advantage of accounting rules in ways that inhibit transparency. Design/methodology/approach – A literature review was carried out to see what had been written and discussed. Various legal cases were studied as well as Securities and Exchange Commiss…
Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the use of costing information in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was carried out of 40 Egyptian privately held firms in four sectors (pharmaceutical, foodstuff, chemical, and packing and wrapping industries). Findings – The paper finds that the use and sophistication of costing information in Egypt is limited. No advanced account…
Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the impacts of the new public management (NPM)-oriented management accounting on political control at the Malawian local government level. The objective is to investigate the extent to which NPM-based management accounting practices have increased managerial autonomy and reduced political control. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on …
Purpose – The paper aims to examine a detailed case study of enterprise resource planning (ERP) customization failure in an Egyptian state-owned company (AML) by drawing on new institutional sociology (NIS) and its extensions. It explains how ERP customization failure is shaped by the interplay between institutionalised accounting practices, conflicting institutions, power relations and ma…
Purpose – The objective of this case study is to evaluate the change process, under the old institutional economics (OIE) approach, that had occurred within the management-accounting system of Brazilian bank. The present study examines the efficacy of the change process in management accounting, from the perspective of system users, seven years after its beginning. Design/methodology/appr…
Purpose – This paper seeks to concern itself with the determination of the effect that external factors have on the design and implementation of management accounting systems in a developing economy which has in the last decade experienced fluctuating levels of environmental uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach – This is explained through the use of a case study involving interviews…
Purpose – This paper seeks to introduce, summarise, and reflect on the key themes and findings raised by the seven papers selected for this special issue devoted to management accounting in less developed countries (LDCs). Design/methodology/approach – The conclusions are drawn from desk research generally and the articles contained in this collection. Findings – This paper finds tha…
Purpose – To benchmark the degree to which companies in Slovenia, a country that has experienced success in its transition to a market economy, apply strategic management accounting (SMA) techniques. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data collected in Slovenia has been benchmarked to survey data collected in similarly sized Australian companies. Findings – For the Slovenian sample…