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Based on the institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine institutional factors that affect the development of accounting practices in Jordan.

The current study surveys the perceptions of 306 participants and 20 interviewees.

First, the early formation of accounting practices in Jordan has been affected by the legacy of Ottoman Empire’s and the British Colony’s accounting systems. Second, the results indicate that government of Jordan (regulatory frameworks), pressures from international donors and large economic organizations (politico-economic factors), education and training/development (cultural inputs), and the efforts to attract foreign investments and getting access into the international fund and trade (economic factors) have been influential influences in the development of accounting practices and the adoption of International Accounting Standards/International Financial Reporting Standards (IAS/IFRS) in Jordan. Finally, the findings reveal that “Secrecy” construct (a culture input) has been a problematic in the implementation of IAS/IFRS.

The current study provides policy implications for the Jordanian policy makers and for other developing countries that are working hard to improve the quality of financial reporting of their business entities. Finally, the authors suggest some great opportunities for future research.

First, this paper contributes to Jordan’s policy developments including fundamental strategies in terms of attracting foreign investments to expand the economy and the international and regional trade. Second, it fills a gap in the international accounting research by empirically assessing how institutional factors affect the development of accounting practices in emerging country such as Jordan.

This paper aims to elaborate the concepts of boundary subjects and boundary objects in constructing and communicating relevant accounting facts for managing product development (PD). Boundary subjects as reflective actors benefit effective accounting enactment, by building a shared understanding about different actors’ roles and information needs, and by helping to respond to these needs with new boundary objects.

The paper uses a longitudinal interventionist case study of a machinery manufacturer. The focus of this case study was the production ramp-up phase at the end of a PD program. Different actors’ needs were first collected and elaborated by interventionist researchers (boundary subjects). Then accounting prototypes (boundary objects) provided new means of communication.

The findings show that dealing with boundaries is crucial in accounting development. The role of boundary subjects was fundamental in the process of choosing, constructing, elaborating and communicating accounting facts. During this process, accounting prototypes integrated new accounting facts, the boundary subjects mitigated the boundaries and the boundary objects focused and restricted communication about accounting facts.

The paper tests the pragmatic constructivism approach by examining accounting enactment under uncertainty and ambiguity. The study refines pragmatic constructivism in terms of boundaries, boundary subjects as actors and boundary objects.

The intentional use of boundary subjects and objects as communication platform could push a more active inclusion of business controllers as active business partners.

The paper contributes to the literature on accounting development by highlighting the use of boundary subjects and boundary objects as fundamental mechanisms in constructing and communicating accounting facts.

This paper provides, first, a historical perspective of accounting research relating to Asian/Pacific countries as seen from the vantage of the leading international journal in the United States and, second, a bibliographical data base and index of twenty‐six years of articles on this region of the world. It accomplishes the first objective by presenting a tabular profile of research in international accounting as it pertains to countries in the Asian/Pacific Rim region as shown in articles published in the International Journal of Accounting (formerly, the International Journal of Accounting, Education and Research) and related publications which appeared from 1965 to 1990. The articles are classified according to country, research methodology, subject, and five‐year time periods. The paper accomplishes the second objective by providing an annotated bibliography of 125 articles on Asian/Pacific Rim countries and indices by country and methodology, and subject.

This research seeks to explain how a national government becomes capable of constructing an account of its biodiversity performance that is aimed at enabling formulation of policy in pursuit of SDG 15: Life on Land.

The research examines a case study of the construction of the UK government's annual biodiversity report. The case is analysed to explain the process of framing a space in which the SDG-15 challenge of halting biodiversity loss is rendered calculable, such that the government can see and understand its own performance in relation to this challenge.

The construction of UK government's annual biodiversity report relies upon data collected through non-governmental conservation efforts, statistical expertise of a small project group within the government and a governmental structure that drives ongoing evolution of the indicators as actors strive to make these useful for policy formulation.

The analysis problematises the SDG approach to accounting for sustainable development, whereby performance indicators have been centrally agreed and universally imposed upon all signatory governments. The analysis suggests that capacity-building efforts for national governments may need to be broader than that envisaged by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The purpose of this study is to explore undergraduate accounting students' perceptions and understanding of the concept of sustainable development. Moreover, this study aims to explore students' perceptions of the integration of sustainable development issues in accounting education in Saudi Arabia as an emerging country.

A questionnaire survey was administered to a sample of accounting students from four Saudi universities. The questionnaire contained five groups of questions aimed at exploring the extent of students' awareness and understanding of the concept of sustainable development, their perceptions of the importance of sustainable development for society, their perceptions of the important role of accounting in sustainable development, their satisfaction with the level of integrating sustainable development issues in accounting education at the present time and their opinions about the appropriate approach to integrate sustainable development issues in accounting education.

The findings of the study revealed that although most of the students have heard about the concept of sustainable development from the media and perceive the importance of sustainable development for society, they have a low level of understanding of this concept due to the apparent weakness in integrating sustainable development issues in accounting education in Saudi universities. Students were unsatisfied with the sustainable development learning offered by Saudi universities. They also showed a positive attitude toward integrating sustainable development issues in their accounting education. They suggested that the appropriate approach to integrate sustainable development issues in accounting education is to treat these issues in the relevant courses included in their current accounting curricula.

The results of this study provide indications to the administrators of Saudi universities to start developing accounting curriculum to integrate sustainable development issues into accounting education. This will result in an increase in the effectiveness of the role of these universities in achieving the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030.

This study contributes to the existing literature concerning how students perceive sustainable development education by focusing on the accounting students in Saudi Arabia as context that has not previously examined.

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.

The theoretical insights of Bourdieu and Foucault are mobilized so as to tease out the nature of power relations between the various fields associated with the CDF in Kenya. The study analyses newspaper commentaries as text for identifying the main themes associated with the management of the CDF in Kenya.

The paper finds that the CDF's systems of accounting and accountability are skewed towards the needs of centralized national planning and development, contrary to its expressed aim of bringing about citizens' participation in development.

Use of newspaper commentaries and reports does not necessarily represent the views of the majority of the people of Kenya.

A new framework is suggested which places the goals and aspirations of public discourse at the centre of accounting with the various capitals suggested by these goals and aspirations forming the dimensions on which the CDF can be accounted for. Novel forms of accounting and accountability are suggested which include presentation of CDF implementation and results at public forums where the managers of CDF can be interrogated on the basis of the goals and aspirations expressed in public discourse.

Study of the CDF systems of accounting and accountability is a unique contribution to accounting for development in developing countries.

This paper explores the relationship between foreign direct investments and financial reporting changes via financial development in 12 Latin American countries during the period from 1997 to 2010.

In order to control the possible endogeneity problem, the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation technique has been conducted using country-level panel data obtained from the World Development Indicators website.

The empirical analyses provide evidence that international accounting standards have a significant effect on foreign direct investments. However, financial development associated with such standards reduces this positive effect. This is an important finding, suggesting that investors are likely to prefer portfolio to direct investments in Latin American financial markets that require or permit the use of international accounting standards.

The conclusions that have been drawn from this study are important for investors, creditors, and regulators. Although international accounting standards appear to affect foreign investments, there could be a lack of adaptation of these standards to specific economic environments due to cultural, educational, and economic factors. Therefore, firms, regulators, professional organizations, and accounting firms should make necessary arrangements so that the benefits of using these standards increase their costs.

The study contributes to the international accounting literature by examining the effects of international accounting standards and financial development on foreign direct investments in Latin America.

The purpose of this paper is to document the integration of sustainability into the accounting curriculum. Compared to many disciplines in the social and administrative sciences, the greening of the curriculum in accounting is a recent phenomenon. Nevertheless, there has been a remarkable growth in both the content and the coverage of sustainability topics integrated into the accounting curriculum.

The approach to the paper is multidisciplinary. It has combined organizational sociology and ecological anthropology approaches in the integration of sustainability into the accounting curriculum. In accounting, there is an increasing emphasis on the application of social science perspectives, particularly sociology and anthropology in curriculum development and pedagogical issues. This paper demonstrates that the influence of these two disciplines in accounting education is substantial.

Sustainability in accounting has both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, sustainability has integrated social and environmental dimensions into accounting education and research. Sustainability reporting contains information on the economic, social, and environmental activities of business organizations. In practice, sustainability has influenced the accounting standard-setting organizations in developing guidelines on how to integrate sustainability into corporate reports so that the information can be verified and certified by public accounting and regulatory organizations.

The paper is among the first to demonstrate the importance of organizational sociology and ecological anthropology for the integration of sustainability into the accounting curriculum. Both sociology and anthropology have been in the forefront of the study of ecology and natural resources management and conservation in sustainability development. The paper approaches have important implications for sustainability education and framework in accounting theory and research.

The purpose of this paper is to inquire into the history of government accounting, using a well-grounded periodisation, in order to provide a chronology of government accounting development (GAD) in Indonesia from 1845 to 2015 focusing on development on accounting regulations and systems and practices in local government in Indonesia.

It collects archival data and then uses a descriptive tradition of research to capture mainly regulatory changes affecting GAD from colonial to post-colonial period.

The paper reports major regulatory changes, evolution in local government accounting practice, development of government accounting standards (GASt) and converging GASs with international standards.

This study is important to accounting historians and other academics because it provides a detailed chronicle of accounting regulatory changes in Indonesia which can be used for future research. The limitation(s) of this study is that is data collection which was not easily accessible and as results have to rely on various sources.

The study has an important practical implication. It has produced a time series register of regulatory changes affecting GAD in Indonesia. It can be used as a reference document in the National Library of Indonesia and also by academics for future research.

A times series register, for the first time, is produced which provides a comprehensive chronology of accounting development in Indonesia.

This paper aims to examine the development of Islamic accounting education and discuss the main challenges facing this specific type of accounting education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The paper uses institutional theory to analyze the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE. The collection of information in this study is based on secondary data available from published sources and websites.

This study identifies three types of institutional pressures. First, coercive pressures that were directed by the government, the UAE's Central Bank and other professional bodies [e.g. Accounting and Auditing Organization of Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI)] involved in the Islamic banking industry have contributed to the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE. Second, mimetic pressures exerted by other countries that have already established Islamic accounting training and programs (e.g. Indonesia, Iran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) have incentivized the UAE business schools to implement Islamic accounting training and programs to meet Emirati Islamic banking industry expectations. Third, normative pressures are exerted by Big 4 auditors who have an active position as faculty members, influencing status in AAOIFI and a dominant position in the Islamic banking industry’s audit market. The paper also discusses the main challenges facing Islamic accounting education in this country.

This paper contributes to accounting literature in general and accounting education literature in particular in the following two ways. First, this study applies an institutional analysis to Islamic accounting education in the UAE to gain more understanding about the current status of the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE. Second, by identifying the factors that may constrain the development of Islamic accounting education in the UAE, this study provides recommendations to financial and higher education authorities to undertake proactive actions to position the UAE as a leading center in Islamic accounting education and training.