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This study aims to examine whether accounting knowledge is associated with a decision maker's tendency to ignore value added information in wealth measurement and distribution decisions.

A between‐subjects laboratory experiment was employed. Subjects prepared accounting reports that measured and distributed an entity's wealth based upon given accounting data. Accounting knowledge was measured as: a discrete variable by classifying subjects into high‐, low‐ and no‐accounting knowledge groups, and a continuous variable by classifying subjects on the number of accounting courses completed.

Findings provide empirical evidence that high levels of accounting knowledge interferes with a decision maker's ability to incorporate value added information (versus accounting profit) in wealth measurement and distribution decisions.

This experiment used subjects from the USA where the production and disclosure of a value added report is not mandated. The results should be tested in a country where the statement of value added is routinely produced, disclosed and audited.

This study shows the dysfunctional effect of accounting knowledge which appears to hinder performance in wealth measurement and distribution decisions.

This is the first attempt to explain why decision makers may ignore value added information in wealth measurement tasks and distribution decisions by focusing on the role of knowledge structures.

The purpose of this study is to analyse historical events to argue the improbable prospect of radical accounting reform in corporate financial reporting (CFR) due to the absence of abstract accounting knowledge as part of accountancy professionalisation (AP).

A historical database of CFR and AP events in the UK is categorised and analysed to observe the evolution of accounting in CFR from the perspective of the sociology of professions relating to abstract knowledge in professionalisation.

CFR has always been a statutory function in the UK dependent on arbitrary accounting rules rather than expert measurements based on abstract accounting knowledge. Accounting rules have evolved as part of AP and currently form part of the statutory regulation of CFR. The accountancy profession has eschewed abstract accounting knowledge in a mutually beneficial and uncompetitive relationship with the law profession in CFR.

The study is limited to the history of CFR and AP in the UK and its findings are contrary to the sociology of professions regarding abstract knowledge, consistent with the accountancy profession’s 19th-century experience of court-related services, and indicative of normative accounting research’s redundancy.

Regarding CFR and AP in the UK, the accountancy profession is an expert subordinate branch of the law profession and has no incentive to alter the status quo of statutory accounting rule compliance prevailing over abstract accounting knowledge-based expertise in CFR.

The study questions the optimism of prior research of accounting in CFR that suggests the possibility of radical reform using abstract knowledge.

This paper aims to better understand how an accounting information system (AIS), working as a multidimensional knowledge object, engages users in a new round of knowledge development which allows them to explore new managerial directions. Drawing on the concept of the knowledge object and the knowing in practice perspective, this study considers the relationships between subjects and objects in the explication of accounting practice, underlining how AIS could become a knowledge object that can assume a variety of forms, starting from such contradictions emerging from practice.

Theoretical argumentations are applied to a case study at a global logistics provider in the South of Italy, which manages the supply chain from origin to destination, offering a multitude of services in the transport and distribution sector.

The case study shows that the process of knowledge accumulation promotes the mutation of AIS into a knowledge object that, in its variety of forms, allows managers to explore new managerial directions such as the reorganization of warehouse activities.

The paper seeks to enrich the interpretation of AIS as a multidimensional knowledge object becoming a catalyst of new managerial directions through knowing. That helps to understand the role of accounting tools as a social practice supporting decision-making and how accounting systems’ openness and questioning nature makes them objects of enquiry able to support the identification of new managerial directions and lead the AIS to continually explode and mutate into something else.

The purpose of this study is to describe the multiplicity of the role of the Accounting academic as a knowledge agent: in terms of the discovery of new knowledge and its recontextualisation into pedagogy, as well as effective teaching and learning in the field of Accounting.

Through a literature review and the collection of qualitative data (using purposive sampling), this study describes the Accounting academic’s role as a knowledge agent, as viewed by Accounting academics and professional accountants, with the aim of providing insight into the tensions that exist in the education of professionals.

The data collected in this study indicate that Accounting academics find themselves torn between their different roles: those of researcher and teacher. Accounting academics do not feel valued in their role as teachers, as at the university, more emphasis is placed and promotion is based on research, yet the Accounting profession places more value on their teaching and scholarship role.

There is an urgent need in professional Accounting education (trapped within a multiple principal paradigm) for some fundamental re-thinking of the focal point of research, and the knowledge agency of academe, particularly within a developing economy, such as South Africa.

The value of this paper is in its identification and description of the tensions experienced in the education of professional accountants. The university and profession are urged to value, acknowledge and reward the multiple roles of Accounting academics.

This study looks at an annual report project that simulates a real‐life situation to encourage students to integrate knowledge, develop skills and values appropriate to self‐directed enquiry and research, use technology, work in groups and be active participants in the learning process, question, seek answers and learn independently. Students selected the annual report of a Top 150 JSE‐listed company and answered questions on aspects of financial and managerial accounting, auditing and finance. A questionnaire investigated whether project participation enhances skills (such as judgment, interpretative, listening and problem‐solving skills) and abilities (such as thinking critically, asking pertinent questions, organising). There were significant differences in students’ perceptions, including gender and language differences. The results show accounting educators using such projects which skills and knowledge areas need to be addressed elsewhere in the curriculum and whether to include such a project in their programmes.

This paper speculates about the potential of the constructivism of Piaget and Morin to offer a framework which might go beyond dualisms and fragmentation in accounting research. These, it is argued, are because inter‐disciplinary research is still embedded in a hierarchical organization of human knowledge (“Encyclopaedia”). In pursuing this aim, this paper seeks to reformulate the subject‐matter of accounting in the trans‐disciplinary terms of the “knowledge of knowledge”. Such a theoretical framework will introduce the issues of trans‐disciplinarity, evolution and reflexivity into accounting research. Such issues have already been the concern of other disciplines within and outside the field of managerial studies, providing new insights for understanding organizational problems. However, they have not yet been given enough attention within accounting research.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how critical realism can be mobilised as a meta-theory, or philosophical under-labourer, for research on space accounting and how this may further inquiries into the known as well as the unknown implications of space exploration and commercialisation.

This is a conceptual paper that applies critical realism to the field of space accounting using cost management in space contracts as an illustrative example.

Adopting a naturalised version of critical realism that recognises the complex interplay between natural and social realities, the author nuances the distinction between intransitive and transitive objects of knowledge and advances a framework that may be used as a starting point for a transfactual mode of reasoning. The author then applies this mode of reasoning to the topic of cost management in the space sector and illustrates how it may enhance our insights into what causes cost overruns in space contracts.

By adopting a naturalised version of critical realism, the author establishes a philosophical framework that can support the broadly based, inter-disciplinary research agenda that has been envisaged for research on space accounting and possibly inform policy development.

This paper is the first to apply a critical realist perspective to space accounting and lays a philosophical foundation for future research on the topic.

This paper offers a way of revivifying classical accounting research in the form of a pragmatist neoclassical programme with a sound epistemological underpinning.

The paper draws on a pragmatist perspective on financial accounting and accounting research springing from John Dewey's theory of inquiry.

Although a pragmatist underpinning does not entail specific methodological prescriptions, it can provide fruitful insights in research design. The paper discusses the structure and content of a research programme drawing on a pragmatist underpinning and sets out proposals for a practical research agenda. Although the agenda is shaped around the topic of identifiable intangibles, much of the paper has substantially wider relevance.

The approach justifies a revival in scholarly research employing classical methods and directed at improving accounting methods and standards.

The approach would promote closer engagement between scholarly accounting and practitioners such as standard-setters, making some contribution to closing the widely acknowledged gap between research and practice.

The paper offers a neoclassical programme of research drawing considerably more extensively on pragmatist philosophy than did theorisation in the classical period.

This study aims to analyse the level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting among accounting students in the Nigerian universities. Furthermore, the study also compares the students’ understanding of Islamic and conventional accounting.

The study used survey research design through the administration of questionnaire on a sample of university undergraduate and post-graduate accounting students across the north-west region in Nigeria. The data generated for the study was analysed using Cronbach’s alpha, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics.

The study found that the accounting students have an adequate awareness and basic knowledge of Islamic accounting as they were able to contrast Islamic accounting from conventional accounting. Also, in their aspiration towards learning Islamic accounting, they agreed that Islamic accounting should be made a compulsory course in accounting curriculum.

This study focusses on north-west region of Nigeria. Hence, data and more in-depth analysis can be further improved by considering a whole country as diverse as Nigeria. Also, only a questionnaire was used by the study. Hence, further studies can use face-to-face interviews to fully extract the awareness and knowledge of the target respondents. Lastly, majority of the respondents are Muslims given the area where the study was conducted, hence, non-Muslims are not properly represented.

Despite its limitations, this study is still of importance in providing insights on both undergraduate and post-graduate students’ level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting. This course is unique as it is different in orientation compared with other existing courses on offer. This paper also provides an invaluable insight, therefore, National University Commission of Nigeria, Islamic institutions and professional bodies like Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and Association of National Accountants of Nigeria should make continues effort towards promoting the awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting by properly integrating same into academic and professional curricula and other training and sensitisation programs. In doing so, Islamic accounting subjects could be introduced as independent courses for selection by the student. Courses like Islamic Accounting and Finance, Accounting for Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs), Accounting for Waqf, Accounting for Zakat, Shariah auditing, Corporate Shariah Governance, Education and Ethics could be introduced across levels to enable students learn more of Islamic accounting.

Proper integration of Islamic accounting into academic and professional courses would greatly contribute to the production of experts most importantly ethical and God-fearing accountants for the growth and development of IFIs in Nigeria.

This paper examines Nigerian university undergraduate and post-graduate students’ level of awareness and knowledge of Islamic accounting in the north-west region of Nigeria.

Changes in business environments have challenged the competencies (technical knowledge, skills and attitudes) of professional accountants. Accounting professions have responded by developing competency frameworks. In 2008, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) issued a draft competency framework encapsulating a broad range of knowledge, skills and attributes. The objective of the study reported on here was to determine training officers’ perceptions of the knowledge and skills requirements of entry‐level trainee accountants. SAICA could consider the findings of this study in the finalisation of its competency framework. The study reveals that nearly three‐quarters of all the topics in the current prescribed SAICA syllabus are considered to make at least an important contribution to the knowledge requirements of entry‐level trainee accountants. Although more than half the management accounting topics prescribed in the SAICA syllabus are perceived as being only reasonably important, further statistical analysis revealed that TOPP (training outside public practice) training officers disagreed significantly with their TIPP (training inside public practice) counterparts on the importance of management accounting topics and perceived them to be at least important. Except for specialised topics, all other topics covering the remaining core subjects (Financial Accounting, Financial Management, Taxation and Auditing) were perceived to be important or even more than important by the respondents. The study demonstrates that there is a movement towards an expanded set of competencies beyond the technical knowledge typically taught to prospective CAs, and that there is evidence of a need for today’s entry‐level trainee accountants to receive training in communication, analytical, interpersonal and computer skills.