Search results

The purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge claim of management accounting research using qualitative research methods, in particular, the interpretive case study, and its evaluation using “convincingness” criteria demonstrating the textual authenticity, plausibility and criticality of case study findings.

Qualitative research in the management accounting field considers both context and function (Burchell et al., 1980). This study sets out the rationale for adopting qualitative methodologies such as interpretive case studies in which rich, contextual and detailed data were collected and analyzed (Miles and Huberman, 1994; Mason, 2002). Methodological issues related to research design, analysis and evaluation are discussed by drawing on frameworks of social science research design. The paper sets out the procedures of an interpretive case study essential to ensuring the procedural validity of research which can be evaluated more accurately using the criteria of “convincingness” rather than positivist measures of the reliability, validity of data and the generalization of results. Textual authenticity, plausibility and critical interpretation, and how these hallmarks of “convincingness” can reflect the procedural validity of accounting research are described.

Qualitative research strategies such as the interpretive case study, which consider the complex settings of accounting change and practice, are found to offer deep understandings and convincing explanations of accounting change. Affirming that accounting is firmly established as a social science, the paper finds that the authenticity, plausibility and criticality of research in this field.

The relevance of qualitative research to contemporary accounting research is considered as an effective method to explicate theory and inform practice, which suggests that new measures to evaluate related research are required to develop the potential of selected qualitative research methodologies in accounting domains.

Qualitative research in management accounting focuses on the interpretation of meanings found in people and organizations that are subject to the influence of contextual variables. Human attributes underpin accounting conventions and change resulting from continuous technological and regulatory advances. This paper’s comprehensive account of interpretive case study research emphasizes the significance of evaluative criteria that relate, beyond reliability, to the richness of the text. This, thus, encourages and supports new and emerging researchers to seek qualitatively coherent and critical interpretations in management accounting research.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the emergence processes of accounting change in the Jordanian Ministry of Finance as well as the Jordanian public sector within its socio-economic contexts, as brought about by public and fiscal reforms. The study explains the ways in which accounting change dynamics can emerge on the basis of interaction between “external” origins and “internal” accounts; which identifies that accounting is both shaped by, and shaping, wider socio-economic and political processes.

The paper uses an interpretive case study approach. The study adopts institutional and structuration theory as a theoretical lens and uses triangulation in data collection, including interviews, observations and documents and archival records.

The paper concludes that the new budgeting systems together with the Results-Based Management emerged as a result of interaction between “external” origins and “internal” accounts. It also highlights the interaction between these levels from one side, and the accounting and organizational change from the other side. The study confirms that factors other than economic may also play an influential role in the emergence of accounting change. It also concludes that there is a radical change of accounting systems in the case study (Ministry of Finance), which is not only a cosmetic change in accounting but is also represented in the actual working practices. The study also confirms that accounting is not a static phenomenon, but one that changes over time to reflect new systems and practices.

The paper has important implications for institutional research on accounting change and public sector reforms in responding to recent calls to bridge the gap between the extra- and intra-organizational levels of analysis. Hence, it has essential implications for the way in which successful change can be defined in accounting and organizational change literature. It also identifies that management accounting is both shaped by, and shapes, wider socio-economic and political processes, which has important implications for the methods of studying management accounting change.

The paper is one of the few case studies in the accounting literature to analyze the practical issues organizations face when changing their method of budgeting as influenced by public sector and fiscal reforms. The study contributes to both accounting literature and institutional theory by providing further understanding and “thick explanation” of the dynamics of accounting change in the public sector.

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into how well past reforms have performed against revenue, equity and efficiency benchmarks of tax policymaking, so that the direction of future reform of tax system might be determined. It also presents a comparative analysis of taxation and revenue trends in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region over the data set period 1990-2012.

By overviewing the development and relative significance of resource revenues, allocating non-resource taxes and examining the tax policies of constituent countries, this paper presents a comparative review of taxation and revenue trends in the MENA region.

Findings showed, on average, a slight decline in non-resource revenues against the significant rise in income from resources. The analysis of government revenues and current taxation structures provide insight into how prior reforms have performed against the standard measures of tax policy-making (i.e. revenue, equity and efficiency) and directions for change leading to the establishment of simple tax systems. The study observes regional differences, such as the higher tax and revenues of the Maghreb sub-region over the Mashreq, except for value-added tax, where low rates were associated with equal or greater revenue. Similarities were also found, including the partial compensation by income taxes (not indirect taxes) for revenue lost through trade liberalization. The challenges of tax reform are found to vary across countries and opportunities for improving equity and reducing the complexity of tax systems across the region are identified.

Reforms in all tax systems could have major implications for the country, employment, earnings and tax revenues; but recommendations would require political value judgments and government decisions. The study suggests eliminating the current tax system, thereby replacing one of the more distortionary taxes in the current system with a neutral and efficient tax.

The paper signals the need, even of the oil-rich states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, for governments to build tax systems capable of capturing and spending revenues effectively into the future.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the literary authority of qualitative management accounting field research (QMAFR) and its interconnectedness with the scientific authority of this form of research.

The paper adopts a non‐positivist perspective on the writing/authoring of QMAFR. The paper illustrates its arguments by analysing how the field is written/authored in two well‐known examples of qualitative management accounting research, using Golden‐Biddle and Locke's framework as a way of initiating an understanding of how field research attains its “convincingness”.

The paper finds that these two examples of QMAFR attain their convincingness by authoring a strong sense of authenticity and plausibility, adopting writing strategies that signal the authority of the researcher and their figuration of the “facts”.

The paper argues for a more aesthetically informed consideration of the “goodness” of non‐positivist QMAFR, arguing that its scientific and aesthetic forms of authority are ultimately intertwined.

This paper has practical implications for informing the ways in which QMAFR is read and written, arguing for greater experimentation in terms of its narration.

The value of this paper lies in its recognition of the authorial and aesthetic nature of QMAFR, as well as it potential to encourage debate, reflection and changed practices within the community of scholars interested in this form of research.

This paper aims to explain the implementation process of risk management (RM) practices as a trade facilitation initiative in a public organization undergoing public sector reform and modernization processes in Jordan.

The paper draws on the institutional theory and presents a qualitative case study of Jordan Customs (JC). It synthesizes an institutional isomorphism framework to interpret the interplay between the JC institutional environment and the JC RM practices. The data were collected and analyzed by using the triangulation of interviews, observations and documents.

The study findings reveal that JC has experienced institutional pressures that mobilize the emerging of RM as a managerial tool that contributes to facilitating international trade, improving state revenues and reducing the public budget deficit. To be internationally recognized, JC benchmark its RM practices with international practices recommended by International Agencies such as World Customs Organizations (WCO). The study concludes that RM practices have been tailored and aligned with the JC’s external and internal context and role and RM has been embedded as an integral part of all organizational processes including strategic and business planning, as well as all accounting change and management activities. The study finds that coercive, normative and mimetic pressures are the driving forces with coercive mechanisms being the most influential.

This paper has important implications for practitioners, academics and students, as well as international donors especially U.S. Agency for International Development. It mainly depends on the analysis of documents and records to elucidate the development of RM, yet corroborated by interviews. It also uses a retrospective approach with interviewees being asked to describe, explain and reflect upon the events they had experienced during the JC change processes.

This paper significantly contributes to the scarce of knowledge that currently exists about RM in the public sector of developing countries and in particular “customs administrations.” It recognizes how the public sector in Jordan responded to the international community and WCO’s recommendation in implementing RM.

This study shows that JC’s experience of institutional pressures mobilized by the enactment of RM as a managerial tool that enabled a higher quality of custom services, trade facilitation, improvement of state revenues and a reduction of the state’s budget deficit.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the internationalization market of higher education (HE) globally and HE field. It examines the internationalization status of HE in Jordan as influenced by institutional perspectives as an example from developing countries.

This paper adopts a quantitative research design that includes a statistical and SWOT analysis of HE in Jordan. Data were collected from different courses: documents and archival records, websites analysis, surveys, interviews with professors and administrators, and an SWOT analysis as well as TOWS matrix. The latter has been constructed as a picture of internationalized education in the Jordan that can be used as a basis for decision making and strategies for higher education institutions (HEIs).

The study findings reveal that it is important for Jordan to endorse itself as an “education hub” in the Middle East and to educate its community to the level of skills required by globalization. The challenges of internationalizing HE are revealed by the SWOT analysis and TOWS matrix that highlight a wide range of opportunities and strengths that encourages the Jordan HE system to accelerate internationalization. The opportunities include overall improvement in the quality of education, the diffusion of technology and creating a globally competent workforce. The internationalization status in Jordan HE is still in its embryonic stage. The HE should take serious steps toward the internationalization including admission of international students, foreign postgraduate students, international accreditation, global ranking, online education and smart education. These steps will help the universities leaders to improve their universities position internationally and financially.

The findings reveal implications for HE policy and strategy in the development of internationalized HE in the Jordan. The study shows how SWOT analysis and TOWS matrix can provide a solid platform against which particular case studies can be measured in terms of opportunities for and challenges of development. It also provides institutional perspectives with practical implications, focusing on some of the critical issues in this developing field for HE policy and strategy alike. A major threat to the Jordan progress in developing its HE sector identified in this study is external accreditation being seen as a signal of high quality, when more realistic standards are perhaps more relevant to the local population.

The paper is one of the very few studies in the area of the internationalization of HE in the Jordan that can contribute to the sustainability of the international dimension of HEIs. The opportunities and threats recognized in this paper can inform strategy for more balanced development of the Jordan’s internationalized HE, and for raising the quality of education overall.

This study aims to explain the mutual interaction between digital accounting systems and information technology in public sector transformation, Jordan Customs.

This paper adopts an interpretive case study approach. This study uses the triangulation method of data collection, including interviews, observations, documents and archival records. It responds to the recent call by Myers and Newman (2007, p. 1) as “The qualitative interview is one of the most important data gathering tools in qualitative research, yet it has remained an unexamined craft in IS research.”

This paper concludes that the digital accounting systems and information technology are inextricably linked; each leads to the other. The interaction process between digital accounting systems and information technology helps identify and recognize the dynamics that have been manifested between them. The relationships between the information technology and digital accounting dynamics at the inherent organizational and accounting levels are both recursive and have two-way, with the two concepts inextricably interwoven.

The specificity of location and organization type in the case study impede the generalization of the findings. Digital accounting systems bind organizations to fundamental choices about how their accounting activities should be organized as unquestioned choices. This paper thus has important implications for academics and practitioners on accounting systems and information technology in responding to recent calls to bridge the gap between the extra- and intraorganizational levels of analysis.

The originality of this research is that dealing with digital government development and accounting systems and rules does not limit one to tackling only technical issues. These two pivotal digitalization and accounting reforms can lead to accounting changes and new organizational approaches, thus affecting public organizations’ economic and political lives. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the few case studies in the information technology and accounting literature to analyze organizations’ digitalization issues when changing their way of doing as influenced by information technology.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the process of accounting changes and beyond budgeting principles (BBP) in the public sector as influenced by the institutional framework. It also looks beyond the outcomes of implementing budgeting changes to take into account the complexities of the factors that drive and shape the cumulative processes of accounting change.

The study presents the results of an interpretive case study in the Jordan Customs (JC) as good evidence from developing countries. It uses the triangulation of data collection methods including interviews, observations, and documents and archival records.

The paper found that JC changes to their accounting systems were influenced by the BBP, with the new budgeting systems implemented based on reconsideration and re-enacting of theoretical accounting bases and procedures. As a result, the accounting changes were managed by modifying the laws and regulations. Among the accounting changes included in the Beyond Budgeting (BB) approach in JC was relative performance evaluation, as an alternative to fixed budget targets. Rolling forecasts were prepared the BB and were employed in JC’s revenues section and the technical aspects of preparing those relied on E-views software. Most BBP were successfully implemented as values, controls, teams, goals, rewards, resources, coordination and governance. Other BBP have faced some resistance in areas of transparency, trust and accountability.

The paper uses the case study approach that yielded insightful lessons. It reveals the organizational interaction with the external environment and how BBP is influenced and shaped by isomorphic pressures. It also shows the successful and unsuccessful BBP with-(out) resistance in the public sector. This paper has important implications for change dynamics that can emerge from a BBP approach at the institutional level. It also explains the interaction between the “external” origins and “internal” accounts, which identified that accounting is both shaped by and shaping socio-economic and political processes. This broad sensitivity to the nature of accounting has important implications for how accounting change along with BBP is studied.

The paper is one of the few case studies in the accounting literature on organizations that change budgeting practice by adopting BBP. The study provides a detailed explanation of the dynamics of accounting changes through BBP in the public sector. It also provides pieces of evidence about the IPSAS and public accounting reforms in developing countries.

This study aims to explain the implementation of Cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and underlying factors and challenges that might be practiced by the users. It also provides a comparison between traditional and Cloud ERP systems.

The study uses qualitative case study and analyzes the primary evidences from in-depth interviews. It conducts a thematic analysis of the interviews' findings. Furthermore, the current study uses three groups of factors (technological, management and environmental) that are expected to be best determinants of the Cloud ERP implementation.

The findings provide an evidence that using the Cloud EPR system, as alternative to on premise traditional ERP system, is constructive to the success of organizations and improve the quality of their decision-making process. The findings also reveal that effectiveness of implementing Cloud ERP is reliable on the provider's professionalism; hence resulting in issues related to minimize organizational independence.

This paper is subjected to case studies limitations, as it lacks rigor and generalization. The paper has important implications for practitioners and decision-makers alike as it presents real-life example about Cloud ERP implementation. It thus enhances decision-makers' ability to make a relevant reporting process in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

This study can be considered as a one of very few case studies that discusses Cloud ERP implementation in UAE organizations particularly SMEs. It also provides three groups of factors (technological, management and environmental) that are influenced by the Cloud ERP implementation.

This study aims to explain the transformation process from using regular enterprise resource planning (ERP) system into implementing Cloud ERP system in the UAE public sector.

The study uses a qualitative case study and analyzes the primary evidences from in-depth interviews with the case organization’s personnel. It conducts a thematic analysis of the interviews’ findings. Furthermore, the study uses secondary and tertiary resources from published sources comprising the case organization’s website and previous studies.

The findings demonstrated that the transformation process to Cloud ERP could result in different practical benefits in an organization’s controlling system, cost reduction and profitability. Conversely, results revealed that the effectiveness of implementing cloud ERP is dependable on the provider’s professionalism; hence resulting in issues related to minimized organizational independence. In addition, the paper’s findings provide evidenced clarifications about the controversial misconceptions of Cloud ERP’s privacy issues.

The paper is exposed to the regular case studies limitations, as the study is a qualitative research studying one case company. Thus, the study findings should be strengthened by future quantitative researches on more companies with implying more statistical analysis.

The paper has important implications for practitioners and decision-makers, as it presents significant and reality-based information about Cloud ERP implementation’s benefits and drawbacks. It thus enhances decision-makers’ ability to make an appropriate and suitable decision about adopting the Cloud ERP in the public sector.

As Cloud ERP is still emerging, this study is one of the very few case studies that discuss and present some experienced benefits and issues related to Cloud ERP implementation in UAE Government. This study also uses transformation theory to analyze the data.