The development of accounting calculations as chronological network effects: Growth rings of accounting calculations
Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change
ISSN: 1832-5912
Article publication date: 28 October 2013
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the processes through which accounting calculations are formed and developed in a Japanese manufacturing company.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an in-depth longitudinal case study. Actor network theory is used to analyze the empirics and to trace the historical translation process where the calculations were formed and developed as inscriptions.
Findings
The empirics show that an accounting calculation (called PPH) was formed and developed as a flag to rally around to involve different interests at different times. It translated changing external social and economic contexts as well as internal managerial and shop-floor interests into its calculations at different stages of the company's development. The processes were inscribed in the form of an accounting calculation and these inscriptions were accumulated, rather than replaced or abandoned, to create growth rings of accounting calculations as chronological network effects.
Originality/value
The case in this paper demonstrates that keiei-rinen (management philosophy) control can be more bottom-up than implied in the extant literature. Shop-floor workers and non-accounting experts participate in (re)shaping processes of accounting calculations. In these processes, “stability” is the key for the calculations to remain at the centre of translation attracting various interests and linking different demands over time.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists B, No. 22730370). The authors wish to thank Christopher Chapman, Hirofumi Asada, Hiroshi Adachi, Koji Yoshikawa, Kosuma Shinohara, and Yan Li for giving them valuable comments. The authors also thank Chris Akroyd (the guest editor of this issue) and anonymous reviewers for their outstanding support and insightful comments.
Citation
Ushio, S. and Kazusa, Y. (2013), "The development of accounting calculations as chronological network effects: Growth rings of accounting calculations", Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 380-407. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAOC-05-2010-0009
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited