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The purpose of the paper is to reflect upon applicability of different intellectual capital (IC) accounting techniques with considerations of accounting motives. This has been achieved by comparing major foci and measurement issues related to two generic accounting motives, namely internal management and external reporting.

This paper is based on the taxonomy of accounting approaches reported by Fincham and Roslender and is an appreciation of the importance of this taxonomy in the field of IC accounting, as well as an illustration of how the organization decides on applicable accounting approaches.

The paper concludes that there is no universally applicable accounting technique or approach. For internal management, the scorecard and narrative approaches help generate actionable plans, whereas the hard valuation and scorecard approaches help generate comparable and methodologically reliable reports for external reporting.

The paper contributes to IC management literature by offering an alignment perspective and a critical evaluation of the generic accounting motives and existent accounting approaches. Implications for the practitioner, the policy maker, and the academic are provided.

The great majority of the studies conducted on the problem of creative accounting concerns large countries with developed capital markets. Their results are not necessarily applicable to small countries that have a different setting. Thus, this opinion study investigates why, how, to what extent, and in what direction earnings management is practised in Greece. The results obtained indicate that, despite the detailed accounting regulation, creative accounting is practised in Greece frequently, especially the legitimate one, and to a considerable extent (i.e. around 25 per cent of pre‐managed earnings). The schemes employed and several of the motives for earnings management are pertinent to the Greek setting. As for the direction of earnings management, the large companies overstate profit, the overriding motive being the demand for external financing, while the small companies understate profit in order to reduce income taxes. These findings have important implications for the users of Greek accounts, especially for investors, auditors and regulators.

Sociologists of crime and deviance have devoted considerable time and effort, in recent years, to the study of deviants' accounts of their activities. There are good reasons why students of deviance in particular should be interested in what can be learned from their subjects' explanations of their social practices. Actors are normally called to account for or to explain their activities precisely when these actions are seen by significant others to be in some sense “unreasonable”. Moreover, accounts are central to the processes of law. The purpose of legal judgements is to attribute or withold responsibility. In order to assess an individual's guilt, where criminal activities are concerned, lawyers, judges, and juries pose such questions as: “Did the defendant perform an illegal act?”; “if so, can he or she explain his or her actions in reasonable terms?”; “Was the act in question pre‐meditated?” (that is, “motivated”); and, perhaps most important of all “What is the relationship between the accused's account of his or her involvement in an act, and their real involvement?”

This study aims to present a model for detecting and predicting creative accounting in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE).

The authors conduct this research in three stages. First, the authors review the literature to determine the dimensions, components, indicators and techniques of creative accounting. Second, the authors conduct semi-structured interviews with experts using the fuzzy Delphi technique to obtain screening and reach a consensus. Finally, the authors develop a model to predict creative accounting by classifying the financial statements of the sample companies into two groups based on the use or non-use of creative accounting techniques, measuring the indicators determined in the previous stage, running various machine learning algorithms and choosing the superior algorithm.

The results indicate the usefulness of accounting information for detecting and predicting creative accounting and the relevance of several financial attributes as important predictors. The results also indicate the superiority of extremely randomized trees over other algorithms in predicting creative accounting and suggest that the primary purpose of creative accounting in Iran is earnings management. Contrary to the political cost hypothesis, large Iranian companies use creative accounting to inflate profits.

The present research also has several limitations that must be considered, and caution must be exercised in interpreting and generalizing the findings as specified in the revised manuscript.

This study’s implications are significant for policymakers, standard-setters and practitioners. By recognizing the detrimental effects of creative accounting on financial transparency within companies, policymakers can address existing gaps in accounting standards to minimize the potential for earnings manipulation. Consequently, strengthening internal and external mechanisms related to a firm’s financial performance becomes achievable. The study provides evidence of the need for audit firms to recognize the importance of creative accounting and consider creative accounting in their audit plans to prevent insufficient or even misleading disclosure by companies that extensively use creative accounting practices in their financial reporting. Moreover, knowledge of creative accounting techniques can help auditors assess audit and detection risks and serve as a valuable guide for reducing audit costs and improving audit quality.

Given that creative accounting practices distort the true or real accounting results, curbing creative accounting practices reduces corporate failures and could lead to the reduction of job losses and other social consequences.

This study uses a unique database in Iran to determine a model for predicting creative accounting using a mixed-method methodology, qualitative and quantitative, to identify creative accounting techniques and run various machine learning algorithms.

This paper aims to examine undergraduate students' attitudes towards the accounting profession, including accounting as a career, as a discipline, as a profession and perceptions of the work activities of accountants.

The data set used in this paper was collected via questionnaires. The present study compares several aspects of a prior study of Marriott and Marriott using the Accounting Attitude Scale developed by Nelson.

Overall, the paper supports the view that exposure to accounting at university does not enhance positive attitudes about accounting as a discipline, but reinforces rule‐memorisation, and lack of involvement with conceptual skills or judgement.

The paper only examines students' attitudes at one point in time and does not attempt to identify whether students' attitudes change over the period of their study. The paper can only speculate as to why there is a difference between local and international students' attitude towards the accounting profession. Third, the questionnaire is only administered at one institution. There is a scope to extend this study across institutions as well as conduct a longitudinal study. In order to validate the findings, further research via in‐depth interviews with students may help determine the factors that influence students' attitudes.

The results from this paper are expected to contribute to the body of research by providing accounting educators with insights into how the curriculum may influence students' attitudes towards the profession, together with implications as to how the profession should be promoted to undergraduate students.

This research‐based paper considers the application of market orientation in the context of the mortgage division of a large Dutch bank. Various definitions from the literature are considered in relation to market orientation. Antecedents to market orientation are highlighted as being senior management influences, interdepartmental dynamics and the organizational system. Customer, competitor and inter‐functional issues in particular are emphasised as being useful areas for investigation in relation to how market orientation affects an organization. Implications of market orientation are examined in relation to business performance, the micro‐market environment, leadership styles and employees. At an internal company level, inter‐departmental dynamics are considered in terms of conflict and connectedness. Research is then considered in the light of the above, and action‐based research is argued as being the most appropriate vehicle for data collection. The research base is drawn from members of the account management department, the sales support department and the acceptance department, as well as the autonomous marketing department within the mortgage division of the Dutch bank. It became quickly apparent that intelligence generation and its dissemination were virtually non‐existent and that the bank did not consider market orientation as a priority. A total of 22 members took part in the research project that involved four separate meetings over a period of six months as well as meetings during intervening periods. A consultant (the second named author) led group meetings in this action‐based research project and acted as the facilitator. Results of the research and subsequent application of its findings are reported. A significant observation was that the personal benefits of market orientation might not be the result of its application, but rather the result of interventions leading to market orientation.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to contribute to the theoretical discussion on shared service centres (SSCs) for public sector accounting by putting forth a novel typology of different SSCs and their creation modes, and outlining the challenges these specific models are likely to face. Second, it uses the Estonian case study to test the theoretical conjectures.

Since in the Estonian central government different reform models for creating SSCs for public sector accounting have been tried out, the Estonian case offers an opportunity for exploring what the motives behind the creation of different forms of SSCs can be and what kind of challenges reform actors can face when opting for different reform models. The sources of data for the qualitative case study included official documents, media articles and interviews.

The Estonian case study demonstrates that the distinct reform models for creating SSCs in public sector accounting can indeed have different motives and also face various challenges to different degrees. Some challenges, however, are present in all reform models (e.g. difficulties in achieving customer orientation and reduced input to managerial decision making).

This paper puts forth a novel typology of public sector SSC reform models and analyses the challenges these different reform models are likely to face. The theoretical contribution and the Estonian case study are valuable for both academics and practitioners analysing or considering the creation of SSCs.

This paper aims to examine the frequency and the nature of International Financial Reporting Standards/International Accounting Standards (IFRS/IAS) violations that resulted in modified audit opinions (MAOs); determinants of MAO decision; and underlying motives, targets and techniques of accounting manipulations.

Descriptive statistics and in-depth investigation on archival data collected from the published audit reports are used to analyse the frequency and the nature of IFRS violations that resulted in MAOs, while the logistic regression is applied to identify the possible determinants of MAO decisions. A survey instrument is used to identify the relative importance of different manipulation motives, targets and techniques from the perspective of an external auditor.

Results from the archival research show that MAOs are expressed in 29% of audit reports of listed companies in Croatia. A majority of the qualifications refer to noncompliance with provisions of IAS 39, IAS 16, IAS 1, IAS 2 and IAS 36. The survey results show that manipulations are principally oriented towards creditors, tax authorities and suppliers with the intention to hide bad performance, get better terms of crediting and minimize fiscal and political costs. Results from the field study complement and confirm the archival research results in respect to the accounting areas and techniques used for manipulation purposes.

The analysis provides a rather robust estimation of the extent of accounting manipulations, compared to commonly used earnings management metrics. Application of multi-method research that integrates archival research and field study offers significant contribution to the existing earnings management literature in methodological approach. The results directly address particular provisions of the IFRS that are frequently violated and provide better understanding of the features of accounting manipulations in a specific institutional setting.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the company‐related benefits expected by executives of public accounting companies consolidating accounting practices and the implications of these expectations for company performance.

This paper uses a case study approach involving the review of publicly available information and interviews with executives and senior professionals of two Australian, publicly‐owned accounting companies. Analysis of the financial performance of the two companies was performed using data from annual reports.

Executives predominantly expected to achieve revenue growth and efficiency benefits through consolidation and change in ownership form. In one of the cases these benefit expectations emerged over the course of the acquisition program. The paper highlights the difficulty in estimating and realising the magnitude, timing and associated costs of consolidation benefits and the consequences of failure to achieve expected benefits; also it suggests advantages in a more conservative consolidation approach.

Care is required generalising findings to other professions and other geographic jurisdictions.

This paper has implications for entrepreneurs and executives consolidating professional service firms, partners considering selling their firms and investors in publicly‐owned professional service firms.

This is the first study to consider the benefits expected by executives of the recently emerged, publicly‐owned accounting companies and the associated costs of implementation. The paper highlights opportunities for researchers provided by the availability of data for publicly‐owned accounting and other professional service firms.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether some motives for the choice of an accounting career, disproportionately stronger among women than among men, explain disproportionately more women (60 percent) than men (40 percent) in the accounting profession.

The ordered probit model is used to analyze online survey data of approximately 580 responses collected from members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

This study finds three reasons why more women (than men) enter the accounting profession: locational freedom, social status, and income stability. Women who choose accounting as a career value these three offered by accounting more than do men who choose accounting as a career. These findings represent mainly those of older CPAs (who are older than 50). The finding related to social status is reversed in the case of younger CPAs.

The paper's findings may be limited to some extent because the authors investigate only three motives for the choice of an accounting career. Also, the online survey data may not be generalized to the entire CPA population.

The hypothesis that relates motives for the choice of an accounting career to more women in the accounting profession is carefully derived using Bayes’ theorem. This hypothesis is tested by the ordered probit method.