Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

Richard Laughlin

2014 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-04-2014-1672

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the life of Tony Lowe, Emeritus Professor of Accounting and Financial Management at the University of Sheffield, who died on 5 March 2014. It celebrates Tony Lowe’s considerable direct contributions to accounting knowledge and, possibly more significantly, his indirect contribution through his enabling of a range of those associated with him at Sheffield to become scholars of distinction in their own right. Design/methodology/approach – Publication review, personal reflections and argument. Findings – Apart from providing insight into Tony Lowe's direct contribution to accounting knowledge through an analysis of a range of significant sole authored and joint authored publications, the paper gives rather more attention to his more indirect enabling contribution. In this regard it traces the development of initially the Management Control Association and subsequently the “Sheffield School” to Tony Lowe, clarifying the values that underlie these groups. It also clarifies how some of the key elements that have allowed the now global Interdisciplinary and Critical Perspectives on Accounting (ICPA) Project to exist and flourish are traceable to Tony Lowe and the “Sheffield School” he created. Research limitations/implications – This paper provides an important historical analysis of the direct and indirect influence of a unique scholar on the beginnings and development of particularly the now global ICPA Project. This history is personal and maybe selective and possibly limited because of this but hopefully will encourage others to investigate the claims further. Originality/value – The history of the ICPA Project has only partially been told before. This is another part of this history that has not been analysed before on which further work can build.

Ingrid Jeacle

2014 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-03-2013-1252

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the Official Scrutineer in the annual film awards ceremony of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), a role currently occupied by the audit firm Deloitte. The case of BAFTA provides an illustrative example of the increasing demand for discretionary assurance services from audit firms (Free et al. , 2009), which in turn is reflective of Power's (1997) “audit society”. It showcases the power of audit as a legitimating tool. The paper seeks to understand the role of the auditor as assurance provider by drawing upon Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical framework. Viewing the auditor as “performer” and a range of interested stakeholders (BAFTA voting members, sponsors, award winners and industry commentators) as the “audience”, this theoretical lens facilitates insights into the nature of assurance provision. Design/methodology/approach – The paper gathers interview data from within the case organization (BAFTA), it's Official Scrutineers (Deloitte), BAFTA voting members, sponsors, award winners and film industry commentators. Findings – Drawing on Goffman's (1959) work on impression management to inform its theoretical argumentation, the analysis of results from 36 interviews indicates that Deloitte are highly effective in delivering a successful performance to their audience; they convey a very convincing impression of trust and assurance. The paper therefore suggests the importance of performance ritual in the auditor's role as assurance provider. Additionally, it argues that such a performance may be particularly effective, in the eyes of the audience, when played by a well known audit firm. Originality/value – The paper highlights the expanding territorial scope of assurance provision by audit firms. By focusing on a glamorous media event, it also furthers an understanding of the role of accounting within the domain of popular culture.

Matthew Egan

2014 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-05-2013-1353

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how a heterogeneous range of water efficiency responses were driven across a field of seven water consuming organisations in Australia at a time of acute drought conditions into the late 2000s. Design/methodology/approach – Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a range of individuals from 2008 to 2010. Findings – A loosely coordinated range of drivers motivated pervasive water efficiency responses in two of the seven case organisations. Would‐be leaders sought to invoke a water efficiency field, and champion nascent logics and theorisation in order to gain some competitive advantage. There was little sense among others of any normative, mimetic or coercive pressure to adopt homogeneous practices. While the field lacked effective champions for change, an institutionalisation of novel water efficiency practices continued across the field into 2010. Research limitations/implications – Further research could investigate how water efficiency responses continued to develop or decline into the 2010s, and how such practices integrate with the management of other sustainability issues (including carbon). Practical implications – Global water resources are subject to increasing supply constraints. This paper responds by exploring how the institutionalisation of water efficiency change can be driven across a field of organisations. Originality/value – Relatively little is understood about “institutionalization” as an unfinished process. This paper responds by contributing an understanding of how institutional logics developed, and how theorisation for water efficiency progressed in the context of water scarcity in Australia in the late 2000s.

Warren Maroun; Jill Atkins

2014 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-11-2012-1154

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how notions of disciplinary power manifest themselves in audit regulatory developments. When it comes to research on the relationship between audit quality and regulation, much of the prior scholarly work has kept to the positivist tradition of quantitative analysis under the guise of “economic rationality”. In contrast, this research takes an interpretive approach to provide an alternate and unique perspective, using motifs of Foucauldian power and control to illuminate the operation of external regulation in a South African setting. The paper examines what may be loosely described as a mandatory whistle‐blowing duty imposed on external auditors. Design/methodology/approach – Detailed interviews with some of South Africa's leading corporate governance experts are used to highlight the disciplinary effect of an auditor's duty to bring reportable irregularities to the attention of an independent regulator. Findings – Blowing the whistle on irregularities contributes, not only to increasing the information made available to stakeholders, but to creating a valid expectation of auditors serving the public interest by enhancing a sense of transparency and accountability. Elements of resistance to panoptic‐like control are, however, also present suggesting that, in part, the regulation may simply be creating the illusion of active reporting. Research limitations/implications – The research relies on a relatively small sample of subject experts and does not provide a complete account of regulatory developments taking place in South Africa and abroad. Additional research on the role of whistle‐blowing in an external audit setting is needed focusing particularly on similarities and variations in interpretations of reporting by auditors from the perspective of more diverse stakeholder groups. Practical/implications – Mandatory reporting of irregularities by auditors can provided additional useful information for stakeholders and may contribute to demands for more effective reporting by auditors. Social implications – Arms‐length regulation of the audit profession should not be seen only as a means of improving audit quality and the utility of audit reports. Powerful social forces are also. This research demonstrates how laws and regulations have a potential disciplinary effect on the audit profession that contributes to a restoration of confidence in the audit process after it is best by scandals, even if motifs of power and control are somewhat illusionary. Originality/value – This research addresses the need for more detailed analysis of precisely how mechanisms of accountability and transparency operate in the broader corporate governance arena. The paper also contributes to the calls for more detailed, context‐specific studies of audit. Finally, this paper is one of the first to employ a critical theoretical perspective on audit in an African setting, responding to the need for contextual, methodological and theoretical eclecticism in the area of corporate governance research.

Renfred Wong; Andrew Millington

2014 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-06-2013-1389

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate corporate social disclosure (CSD) assurance from a stakeholder perspective within a study which encompasses both stakeholder preferences and demand drivers of CSD assurance. Design/methodology/approach – Stakeholder perceptions of and their demand for CSD assurance are examined through a questionnaire survey. The analysis is based on responses in an empirical study from 147 organisations which are investing, procuring and third‐sector stakeholders. Findings – Overall, stakeholder comments suggest an emphasis on the importance of specialist environmental assurors and the role of trust. The demand for assurance is positively related to stakeholders’ assessment of the value of CSD and the use of information from information intermediaries such as responsible investment indices, and negatively related to stakeholder perceptions of CSD representational faithfulness. Research limitations/implications – This paper only draws on data from the UK. Similar research can be explored in a context outside the UK. Practical implications – Better understanding of stakeholder defined determinants of the demand for CSD assurance as well as their perceptions of CSD assurance will inform regulators and enable companies to better discharge accountability towards stakeholders. Originality/value – This is one of the few empirical studies that investigate CSD assurance and one of the first to focus on stakeholder perceptions of, and demand for, CSD assurance within a multiple stakeholder perspective, rather than practitioner or corporate perceptions of CSD assurance.