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In Japanese corporations, the backgrounds of corporate accountants do not necessarily match their university majors. Under the lifetime employment system, accountants are rotated to other departments every five to ten years. Those who are rotated to the accounting department do not necessarily arrive with sufficient accounting knowledge. In addition to receiving on‐the‐job training, corporate accountants generally attend training courses offered by outside Institutions and get new knowledge to be used in practice. Some corporations belong to specific study groups, which meet periodically. The latter groups provide opportunities for establishing informal human relations with government officials and accountants of other corporations. Training is offered to newcomers, candidates for promotion, salespersons and management staff in the fields of financial analysis, cost management and accounting in general. Sometimes, the training lasts for several days in a training facility of the corporation. It is thought useful not only for utilizing the knowledge required, but for furthering relationships within the organization, as well as for the evaluation of employees through their attitudes about participation. It reflects the policy of long‐range performance evaluation. Employees are evaluated not only by sales volume, but also by their loyalty to the corporation and their contribution to the team effort.

This paper aims to analyse two competing approaches to accounting for a firm's investment in staff‐training activities: the accounting and labour economics approach (which argues that no asset should be recognized from training activity); and the human resources management approach (which advocates recognition of an asset).

A case study analysis was conducted in two large Portuguese companies where human capital is said to be a critical factor of firm success. The authors used document analysis and interviews to help understand the training phenomenon from a company's point of view. This meant knowing of motivations, training programme curricula, training practices and expected benefits of training.

The paper identifies and defines two situations concerning a firm's investment in human capital training: one, where no asset (value) is generated; and the other, where the accounting definition of an asset, requiring value generation, is satisfied.

Case studies possess the strength of specific instance detail and interpretation, and the ostensible weakness of interpretation of a small sample. But such research can provide for a reframing of conceptual perspectives. They can stimulate additional efforts to improve accounting and financial reporting.

A guideline system for firm investment in training was developed. This system allows different accounting treatments of a firm's investment in training activity. It proceeds on the basis of perceptions of whether training activity undertaken by a firm generates, or does not generate, value.

This paper provides a much‐needed case‐based empirical analysis of accounting and human capital arguments, and asset recognition arguments. It clarifies the situations in which an asset should be regarded as being generated by training expenditure.

The purpose of this study is to identify the professional skills and competencies of accountants that support a successful implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The authors further investigate the extent to which professional accountants have developed these skills through professional training.

In the survey, Indonesian accountants were provided with a list of 47 skill items under nine categories of professional skills and were asked to rate the importance of each skill item and to indicate the level of priority given to the development of the skill items in the professional training they have undertaken. Their responses provide insights into the skills needed for applying IFRS and the adequacy of professional training in providing these skills.

The authors find that accounting judgement is considered to be the most necessary skill for applying IFRS. Likewise, the findings show that ethical skills and certain generic skills are also perceived to be necessary for adequate application of IFRS, while skills relating to cultural sensitivity are viewed as least important. The findings further demonstrate that professional training programmes need to emphasise the development of judgement and other relevant skills that are important skill categories for applying IFRS.

This study extends the literature on IFRS implementation through a specific focus on the professional skills required by accountants.

These findings have important policy implications for the standard-setters, regulators, auditors and to professional training providers across the world, such as professional accounting associations, accounting firms and educational institutions, for evaluating the content of the training and education programmes being delivered to accountants to prepare them with the relevant skills for applying IFRS.

This study is one of the first to examine the importance of various types of skills necessary for accountants in applying IFRS and the extent to which these skills have been developed through the professional accounting training provided.

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the impact of human capital development in organizations. It is based on some conceptual aspects of human resource accounting and considers how investments in the development of human capital can be measured in order to investigate the financial returns for organizations.

The study is exploratory in nature as this is the first of its kind in the Pakistani manufacturing sector. The technique of convenience sampling was used to collect the data due to time and resource limitations. The sample comprises of 30 leading companies in the Pakistani textile sector. A self‐administered postal questionnaire was designed for the research survey. The results focus on the benefits derived by using the capital investment appraisal techniques of human resource accounting including: return on investment, benefit to cost ratio, weighted average cost of capital, and bottom line evaluations.

The results provide evidence of an association between investment in the development of human capital and the benefits, which organizations can reap from such investments. It further finds that the organizations investing in training and development programs provide high employee productivity that ultimately contributes towards high‐organizational performance.

Owing to the research design, the results may exhibit a lack of generalizability to other sectors. As the results cannot be applied to other organizations, further research can be done by using the same techniques.

This paper is a groundbreaking work in Pakistan and thereby an addition to the existing global literature on human resource accounting. This research provides new directions for the literature in this area, by encouraging a debate about the importance of investing in the development of human capital.

Within the emergent professional field of carbon accounting, we analyse the institutional work that gives birth to a nascent profession in a multi-actor arena. We therefore contribute to enhancing our understanding of the birth of professions – in their very first steps and infancy.

This study employs a qualitative approach. We collected data from 1999 to 2015 and conducted 15 semi-structured interviews. One of the researchers was active in the field for two years and participated in carbon accounting events in France as a “participant observer”.

Our research contributes to an understanding of the dynamic professionalization process in which the different actors mobilize both creative work and sabotage work. We further theorize how nascent professions structure their project around knowledge, identity and boundary work. At the same time, we develop the notion of sabotage work, which is comprised of two sub-categories of institutional work: counter-work and the absence of work.

To our knowledge, this is one of the first attempts to analyse the birth of an environmental accounting profession. We emphasize both creative work and sabotage work in the professionalization project. We conclude on further research that could be performed on environmental accounting professions.

The paper is intended as an extension of the literature dealing with the Islamic accounting standards issued by the Accounting Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and still not adopted in Tunisia. Its major aim is to investigate the Tunisian accountants’ basic knowledge and perceptions of Islamic accounting. The study has been designed for the sake of the Tunisian accountants’ predisposition to adhere to the AAOIFI standards, as a population directly concerned by an eventual adoption of such standards.

The paper opted for an exploratory study using a questionnaire survey based on the relevant literature. The questionnaire has included items pertaining to demographic areas, information sources, basic knowledge, key differences, valuation concepts, obstacles and advantages, educational and training needs regarding Islamic accounting. The conducted study has involved data collected from the part of 200 practitioners across a number of organizations and audit firms, sited at different regions and locations of the country, employing accounting graduates.

The reached findings suggest that even though Tunisian practitioners are not well aware of most of the AAOIFI standards’ pertaining topics, proponents of stand-alone AAOIFI standards, apart from IFRS, appear to outnumber its opponents. In this context, lack of training programs arranged by professional bodies is considered as the most serious impediment facing the implementation of the standards.

In addition to the usual limitations associated with any survey research (particularly non-response bias and desirability bias), there, also, lies a sample related limitation, as the sample turns out to involve, essentially the private/corporate sector. Pertinent organizations, as the IFI’s, appear to be not well represented in the sample.

The results reached through this study would have some implications on the regulatory bodies, academicians and professionals. Thus, for the AAOIFI standards to be successfully implemented in Tunisia, entirety of concerned parties should take part in improving and consolidating the situation.

Ultimately, studying differences in the views of jurisdictions, either those who have adopted the AAOIFI standards or those who have not, might provide certain guidelines to standard setters for potential revisions.

Few short articles have previously exanimate the perceptions and knowledge of accounting professionals on Islamic accounting issues, there is a scarcity of research regarding the subject. To the author’s knowledge, this paper is one of the rare studies of Islamic accounting in Tunisia.

This paper aims to explore accountants’ views on mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. It focuses on three main factors underpinning their understanding and attitude towards non-financial disclosures: general understanding of the concept, gender and work experience.

The study uses social identity theory as the theoretical framework. The findings are based on a survey conducted among 73 accountants in 2018. The questionnaire consisted of 86 questions divided into 9 main areas. The Mann–Whitney U test was used to determine if there are any significant differences between the accountants’ attitudes towards non-financial disclosures.

Study results suggest that the general knowledge of CSR reporting among accounting specialists is insufficient. The attitude towards mandatory CSR disclosures significantly differs between accountants who participated in training related to non-financial reporting and those who did not. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant differences in responses either between female and male accountants or between accountants at the beginning of their career path (with experience shorter than five years) and the more experienced ones. The paper contributes to social theory studies as it refers to the problem of the influence of professional associations, governments and big accounting firms on the transformation of accountants’ social identity. It also discusses the relations between the characteristics influencing personal identity and social identity of accountants in shaping their attitude towards mandatory non-financial disclosures.

The findings could be of interest to the higher education and professional certification institutions which should consider bringing accounting curricula more closely to the realities of the current business environment.

The study contributes to the body of literature mainly because it investigates a diversified sample of accountants in a relatively unexplored institutional setting. It may also serve as a starting point for research that more broadly explores accountants’ engagement in non-financial disclosures on CSR.

Opportunity exists to enhance organisational productivity in the UK financial services sector by upgrading the task role of accounting technicians. This can be achieved only if appropriate Continuing Professional Development (CPD) provision is in place. The Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) supported a Plymouth Business School national survey to determine CPD priority areas and preferred modes of training delivery. The study revealed that technician CPD provision on a national scale is inadequate and proposals are made on how this situation might be remedied in the future.

This study aims to further the development of an informed understanding of current Chinese accounting education and research as an aid to focusing the efforts of accounting scholars from both within China and abroad. Survey responses were obtained from 21 overseas Chinese accounting professors with recent involvement in China. These involved (and presumably interested) academics shared their assessment that the strengths of Chinese accounting education are the quality and motivation of its students, and the practical and local/domestic orientation of its curriculum. They considered the practice and local/domestic orientation of current Chinese accounting research to be its particular strength. The respondents also identified numerous areas in need of improvement. Foremost among these are the training and qualifications of the faculty, the procedural (as opposed to conceptual) nature of the curriculum and research, and the lack of infrastructure and support. These findings can be useful in prompting a re‐examination of programmes and processes by Chinese accounting educators. They also can be used by accounting academics from outside of China as a starting point for exploring how they may best contribute to the development of Chinese accounting education and research, and in the development and separation of duties in joint projects with their Chinese colleagues.

In this paper, the authors examine the association between the amount of continuing professional education (CPE) hours per staff and audit quality in terms of discretionary accruals and audit opinion.

Several methodologies are adopted to test the hypotheses, including the ordinary least square (OLS) and logistic regression (Logistic). The authors also employ instrument variables regression with two least square (IVREG with 2SLS) and instrument variables probit model (IVProbit) to address the possible endogeneity and strengthen the validity of the main estimation results.

The main results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between CPE hours per staff and audit quality. As the authors grouped CPE into four areas (finance, auditing and accounting, tax, law and regulations and others) the results are more robust for the sub-sample “accounting and audit” and “others”. Moreover, the findings of this study suggest that CPE hours per staff do not affect audit quality significantly for Big4 audit firms compared to non-Big4 firms.

The sample size of the present study is quite small because the transparency reports of the audit firms in Turkey have been available since 2013 and the authors could not reach some auditor demographics at the individual level and some attributes at the audit firm level. Besides, some alternative audit quality measures, such as audit effort, audit fees are not employed because they are not disclosed.

This study contributes to the audit literature using Turkish audit firms. The authors believe that the setting of Turkey may yield interesting results because of the data it provides.