Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

Agyemang, Gloria; O’Dwyer, Brendan; Unerman, Jeffrey; Awumbila, Mariama

2017 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-02-2015-1969

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to ascertain how upward accountability processes can be enabling in, or constraining to, the effective deployment of development aid funding.Design/methodology/approachThe paper derives its primary insights from in-depth interviews and focus groups with non-governmental organization (NGO) fieldworkers working and delivering development aid in Northern Ghana. It analyses inductively the perspectives of fieldworkers to explain their experiences of upward accountability.FindingsThe fieldworkers’ perception of upward accountability was mainly one of external control, in response to which they enacted a skilful form of compliance accountability. This perception of control failed to stifle their initiative and intrinsic commitment to beneficiaries. The fieldworkers craved “conversations for accountability”, in which they had a voice in the development of upward accountability metrics, thereby enabling them to fulfil their sense of felt responsibility to beneficiaries. While aspects of “conversations for accountability” were emerging in fieldworker-funder interactions, it was unclear to what extent funders were committed to further advancing them. Overall, the analysis unveils how felt responsibility mediates for, and partly diminishes, the perceived negative impacts on aid effectiveness of upward accountability processes informed by a focus on control.Originality/valueThe authors examine the potential of upward accountability processes using in-depth analyses of the actual experiences of those involved in delivering NGO services at the grassroots level. The authors contribute to emerging work in this vein by enriching the authors’ understanding of local constituencies’ experiences of accountability processes more generally, especially the impact these mechanisms have on NGO operational activities. The authors also unveil the mediating role fieldworkers’ “felt responsibility” to beneficiaries’ plays in moderating the perceived negative impacts on aid effectiveness of upward accountability processes.

Dhanani, Alpa; Jones, Michael John

2017 Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-08-2014-1785

PurposeEditorial boards of academic journals represent a key institutional mechanism in the governance and functioning of the academic community. Board members play an important role in knowledge production and development of the discipline. The purpose of this paper is to enquire into the diversity characteristics of boards of accounting journals.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on a diversity framework that distinguishes between societal diversity and value of diversity, the paper examines two board characteristics: gender diversity and internationalisation. Moreover, it examines the influence of three journal and two editor characteristics on board diversity and analyses trends over time.FindingsOn gender, overall board trends are consistent with societal diversity and value of diversity: boards reflect the gender profile of senior academics. Further, female representation on boards is broadly consistent across the different journal nationalities; has improved over time; has experienced a convergence in “gender sensitive” sub-disciplines; and is influenced by female editorship. However, inequities appear to be present at the highest level: women appear to be less well represented than men as editors and women also have a lower representation on boards of higher ranked journals than on those of lower ranked journals. On internationalisation, once again, overall trends broadly reflect societal diversity and value at diversity. However, international scholars are less well represented on 4* boards than on 2* and 3* boards and on US boards than on Australian and UK boards. Further, there are signs of weakening US dominance in non-US journals.Originality/valueDrawing on the diversity framework, this is the first study to comprehensively examine gender diversity and internationalisation of accounting boards.

Cadez, Simon; Guilding, Chris

2017 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-03-2015-2009

PurposeA management accounting perspective that underscores a quest for reducing conventionally appraised costs, negative output costs as well as heightened eco-efficiency has been used in pursuit of the study’s two main study objectives. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, the study seeks to further understanding of the relationship between product output volume, carbon costs, and CO2 emission volume in carbon-intensive firms. Second, it identifies factors affecting climate change abatement strategies pursued by these firms. Heightening appreciation of the climate change challenge, combined with minimal CO2 emission research undertaken from a cost management perspective, underscores the significance of the study.Design/methodology/approachA triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data collected from Slovenian firms that operate in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme has been deployed.FindingsCO2 polluting firms exhibit differing carbon cost structures that result from distinctive drivers of carbon consumption (product output vs capacity level). Climate change abatement strategies also differ across carbon-intensive sectors (energy, manufacturing firms transforming non-fossil carbon-based materials, and other manufacturing firms) but are relatively homogeneous within them.Practical implicationsFrom a managerial perspective, the study demonstrates that carbon efficiency improvements are generally not effective in triggering corporate CO2 emission reduction when firms pursue a growth strategy.Social implicationsGlobal warming signifies that CO2 emissions constitute a social problem. The study has the potential to raise societal awareness that the causality of the manufacturing sector’s CO2 emissions is complex. Further, the study highlights that while more efficient use of environmental resources is a prerequisite of enhanced ecological sustainability, in isolation it fails to signify improved ecological sustainability in manufacturing operations.Originality/valueThe paper has high originality as it reports one of the first management accounting studies to explore the distinction between combustion- and process-related CO2 emissions. In addition, it provides distinctive support for the view that eco-efficiency is more consistent with the economic than the environmental pillar of sustainability.

Georg, Susse; Justesen, Lise

2017 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-04-2013-1320

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how a particular form of environmental accounting, energy accounting, is negotiated in practice and how energy accounting may act as a productive organizing device in organizational contexts. Energy accounting is considered as performative in organizational practices rather than as a representation of resource use.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on a longitudinal case study of the design phase in a construction project. Data collection entailed observational and document studies as well as interviews with those involved in the design processes. This paper draws on actor-network theory, notably the notions of framing and overflowing, in analyzing the role of energy accounting in design processes and in affecting organizational practice.FindingsThe paper provides several insights regarding energy accounting in the making, energy accounting’s performative role in enacting possible futures, the narrative importance of numbers, and the entangled nature of designing, accounting and organizing practices. The findings demonstrate the strong links between accounting and organizing.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the extant literature on environmental accounting by directing attention to how such accounting practices contribute to forming rather than just informing management decisions. By focusing on how the calculative practices of making such accounts mediate ideas and help assemble new entities, this paper provides useful insights into the performative role of environmental accounting.

Duff, Angus

2017 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-10-2012-1133

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to consider how Big Four and mid-tier accountancy firms in the UK are responding to political concerns about social mobility and Fair Access to the accountancy profession.Design/methodology/approachInterviews were undertaken with 18 public accountancy firms, ranked in the Top 30 by fee income, operating in the UK to identify how they are recruiting staff in the light of the Fair Access to the Professions’ agenda. Bourdieusian sociology is used to inform the findings.FindingsThe Big Four firms employ a discourse of hiring “the brightest and the best” to satisfy perceived client demand, where symbolic capital is instantiated by reputational capital, reflecting prestige and specialisation, supported by a workforce with elite credentials. For mid-tier firms, reputational capital is interpreted as the need for individuals to service a diverse client portfolio. In general, most interviewees demonstrated relatively limited awareness of the issues surrounding the Fair Access agenda.Research limitations/implicationsThe interviews with accountancy firms are both exploratory and cross-sectional. Furthermore, the study was undertaken at an embryonic point (2010) in the emerging Fair Access discourse. Future work considering the accountancy profession could usefully examine if, and how, matters have progressed.Social implicationsThe investigation finds that accountancy firms remain relatively socially exclusive, largely due to the requirement for high educational entry standards, and interviewees’ responses generally indicate only limited attempts at engagement with political agendas of promoting Fair Access to the profession.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to empirically evaluate how the accountancy profession is responding to the Fair Access agenda; documents changing patterns of recruitment in accountancy employment, including the hiring of non-graduates to undertake professional work; and augments the literature considering social class and accounting.

Funnell, Warwick; Antonelli, Valerio; D’Alessio, Raffaele; Rossi, Roberto

2017 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-05-2015-2047

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the role played by accounting in managing an early nineteenth century lunatic asylum in Palermo, Italy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is informed by Foucault’s studies of lunatic asylums and his work on governmentality which gave prominence to the role of statistics, the “science of the State”.FindingsThis paper identifies a number of roles played by accounting in the management of the lunatic asylum studied. Most importantly, information which formed the basis of accounting reports was used to describe, classify and give visibility and measurability to the “deviance” of the insane. It also legitimated the role played by lunatic asylums, as entrusted to them in post-Napoleonic early nineteenth century society, and was a tool to mediate with the public authorities to provide adequate resources for the institution to operate.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper encourages accounting scholars to engage more widely with socio-historical research that will encompass organisations such as lunatic asylums.Originality/valueThis paper provides, for the first time, a case of accounting applied to a lunatic asylum from a socio-historical perspective.

Svanberg, Jan; Öhman, Peter; Neidermeyer, Presha E.

2017 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-07-2015-2119

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether transformational leadership affects auditor objectivity.Design/methodology/approachThe investigation is based on a field survey of 198 practicing auditors employed by audit firms operating in Sweden.FindingsThis study finds that transformational client leadership negatively affects auditor objectivity and that the effect is only partially mediated by client identification. Given these results, suggesting that auditors are susceptible to influence by their clients’ perceived exercise of transformational leadership, leadership theory appears relevant to the discussion of auditor objectivity in the accounting literature.Originality/valuePrevious accounting research has applied the social identity theory framework and found that client identification impairs auditor objectivity. However, the effect of transformational client leadership on auditor objectivity, which reflects an intense auditor-client relationship, has been neglected before this study.

Inkinen, Henri; Kianto, Aino; Vanhala, Mika; Ritala, Paavo

2017 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-11-2015-2291

PurposeAcademics and practitioners around the world have shown interest in what constitutes the relevant intellectual capital (IC) in firms. However, studies have largely neglected to examine whether IC has identical or different structural elements in various parts of the world. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that country-specific institutional structures may impact the perception of IC, and empirically analyse whether differences exist between five countries drawing on the institutional theory.Design/methodology/approachThis study tests for the differences in the underlying categorizations of IC in a sample consisting of 708 firms across five countries. Confirmatory factor analysis and comparison of different possible IC models are conducted to empirically examine the IC structure.FindingsThe results demonstrate that IC has predominantly the same underlying elements across the examined countries. However, trust capital in Finland and renewal capital in Serbia are structurally different compared to other countries.Research limitations/implicationsInstitutional theory and multinational corporate superculture can explain the similarity in the IC structures across countries. Specifically, globalized markets carry institutionalized rules, norms, and expectations for the participating firms; under the influence of this superculture, the firms begin to assimilate. Conversely, the differences suggest that some country- and culture-specific differences remain even during the transition to global markets.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to question the assumption that IC has identical structural elements across the world, and merges theories of IC and institutions to explain the possible origins of these differences.

Pupovac, Sanja; Moerman, Lee

2017 Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-05-2015-2068

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to use a hybrid account of oil spills in Nigeria to explore the recursive relationship between a multinational company, specific shareholders and the public. A response to Mr and Mrs Shareholders’ concerns is considered an exercise in corporate discursive hegemony and enacts rhetorical accountability.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopt Debord’s (1967, 1988) concept of the spectacle with Boje’s (2001) antenarrative approach as a critical postmodern framing of Shell’s narrative of oil spills in both local and global contexts. An antenarrative approach considers how stories are woven to produce a unified and omnipotent narrative or image.FindingsMNCs face considerable uncertainties arising from the operational conditions in developing countries and produce a range of accounts for spectators. As theatrical events, they contribute to the spectacle of power that rationalises controversy and suppresses resistance.Research limitations/implicationsTo overcome the limitations of using a single document as empirical material the authors consider the response letter as an example of an institutional framing of oil spill phenomena in general.Social implicationsBy understanding the construction of the spectacle the authors open avenues for resistance to corporate discursive hegemony in the form of carnivalesque.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the understanding of hybrid forms of resistance in an era of increasing MNC power and reach. It demonstrates how the actual production and distribution has persuasive power as a form of rhetorical accountability.

Evans, Steve

2017 Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-04-2017-2914