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Accounting conventions, norms, and standards play an important role in modern society in various areas related to the measurement of economic performance, allocation of capital, regulation of commercial activity, and taxation. From a historical perspective, the emergence of accounting standards-setting bodies at national and international levels is a recent phenomenon, dating perhaps only to the early years of the twentieth century. Accounting standards setting as a whole has been influenced by several key factors, including the practices of commercial enterprises and professional accountants, rules and regulations created by law, and academic theories regarding the nature of assets and the measurement of business income. The purpose of this chapter is to trace the historical development of accounting standards setting in the United States during the first part of the twentieth century, until approximately 1939, which marked the creation of the Committee on Accounting Procedure of the American Institute of Accountants, which was most likely the first accounting standards-setting body in the industrial world. From 1900 to 1939, there were significant debates about the advisability and feasibility of uniform accounting standards and the manner in which such standards ought to be implemented. These debates formed the basis for subsequent national and international accounting standards-setting bodies and are worthy of detailed examination.

In this chapter, we study the evolution of the auditor’s report from its emergence more than 150 years ago to the present. During this period, the standard auditor’s report has evolved from a rudimentary form to its current and more sophisticated structure with a clearly defined title, addressed to specific entities, and systematically divided into sections that are meant to highlight certain aspects of the audit examination. We describe the major events that have affected the financial reporting environment in the United States and, in turn, how these events have transformed the auditor’s report over the last century. As will be demonstrated in the chapter, the progression of the presentation of the auditor’s report, from being a certification to the standard report of the present day, has been guided primarily by the kind of information that investors and creditors wanted to know in relation to their investments in public companies. However, the desire for that information was often influenced by periodic incidents of corporate scandals. These scandals made it imperative that a monitoring mechanism was established to maintain the confidence of investors and creditors in the reporting of financial information about companies and the overall functioning of the capital markets.

This purpose of this paper is to investigate the introduction of French theory into English language accounting research and to assess the impact of the work of French social theorists on the accounting research domain.

The paper presents a citation analysis of articles appearing in selected English language accounting research journals for a sample of French authors, during the periods from the inception of the journals to mid‐2009. In performing this citation analysis, 39 French authors who are well known as social theorists, philosophers, economists or sociologists were included. The accounting research journals chosen for analysis included the top four journals listed in many league tables for accounting research along with several journals that regularly publish research in accounting history or that focus on alternative research paradigms.

The citation analysis identified the following French authors as being the most frequently cited: Michel Foucault, followed by Bruno Latour and Pierre Bourdieu. The citation analysis also identified the English language accounting research journals in which French social theorists have been most often cited. The two most significant journals have been Critical Perspectives on Accounting and Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, followed by Accounting Organizations and Society, Management Accounting Research and European Accounting Review. The analysis also shows the effects of mimeticism, which seems to have produced a sort of isomorphism in the styles of publication. Accounting, Organizations and Society, appears to be the standard‐setter of the critical‐interpretive field of accounting research.

This paper is the first known to provide a comprehensive analysis of the introduction of French theory into English language accounting research.;

Both American and International Accounting Standards lead to the invisibility of most brand values in financial statements, as these standards recognize only those brands acquired externally either through a purchase or a merger. Nonetheless, over the last several decades, it has become increasingly evident that company value is primarily driven by intangible assets such as brands and other intellectual property. As such, in a knowledge-based economy, it is increasingly important for companies to develop these assets. Empirical evidence produced by prior research also demonstrates that brand values are market value relevant, that is, knowledge about their existence and value is important to investors. Consequently, and in tangent with the increased use of fair value measurements based on projected future cash flows, we argue in this chapter that it might be time to end the invisibility of brands.

The purpose of this chapter is to trace the evolution of the concept of measurement in financial reporting and to address the question of whether measurement in financial reporting is a process of “measurement” or whether it constitutes something else, which should not be called measurement, but rather characterized a practice which assigns numbers to elements in financial statements as opposed to the process of measuring. The chapter begins with an examination of the concepts of measurement put forth in recent years by the United States Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board, followed by a summary of the general theory of measurement in the natural sciences, and finally a review of the arguments raised by accounting theorists such as Edwards and Bell (1961), Chambers (1966), and Sterling (1970) with respect to the measurement of business income. We agree with Sterling’s argument that business income should be “measured” by the difference between net equity (i.e., assets − liabilities) at two points in time, adjusted for investments and disinvestments by owners, and also the argument that the difference in equity should be determined by the change in exit prices of net assets at the beginning and the end of the accounting period. However, we are less convinced by his argument that the determination of exit prices constitutes a “measurement” process. This leads to the principle argument of this chapter, which is that “measurement” in financial accounting may not constitute a measurement process at all.

The development of the public accountancy profession in the last 200 years has increased the demand for the labor of professional accountants and enhanced the role and status of the professional public account. This increase in both the demand for the labor of professional accountants and for the professional services, which professional accountants provide, has resulted from the growth of capitalist enterprises, as well as institutional work on the part of members of the organized public accountancy profession. The objective of this chapter is to trace the historical development of the public accountancy professions in the United Kingdom and in France in response to contrasting institutional logics in these two countries. While legal requirements for external audits of company financial statements provided the basis for the development of the public accountancy profession as early as the end of the eighteenth century, differences in institutional logics, including differing conceptions of the relationship between individuals and the state, led to differences in the development of the public accountancy professions in the two countries. The primary argument of this chapter is that contrasting institutional logics have influenced the history of the public accountancy profession, which has evolved into one of the key regulatory structures of modern capitalism.

At a congress of the European Accounting Association, held more than 20 years ago, the President of the Belgian Institute of Registered Auditors, Paul Behets (1998), delivered a plenary speech with the title: Are Financial Statements an Obsolete Product? Behets’ answer was “no,” that financial statements are an essential component of the financial reporting system that is necessary for the proper functioning of capital markets. In this chapter, we reach a similar conclusion, but for somewhat different reasons. A central argument of this chapter is that an effective system of corporate governance requires an effective financial reporting system, and that an effective financial reporting system requires a well-ordered system of financial accounting. Behet’s speech provides evidence that financial reporting, and the role of traditional audited financial statements within financial reporting, have undergone a period of change. The future of financial reporting is difficult to predict with any degree of certainty, but it is likely to be a future marked by change. One possible path for change was suggested by Elliot (1994), who indicated that the accepted model of financial reporting might be replaced by electronic information systems providing financial and other forms of information about companies, not necessarily in the form of audited financial statements, which would be widely available via the Internet. Under this scenario, a decision-maker could decide on the types of information that were important to them, and then arrange the information in the ways they see fit. Financial reports in their present form (i.e., audited financial statements) might become obsolete as users decide individually on the types of information that are important to them. If this scenario came to pass, the question arises whether there would be a continuing need for financial reports as presently constituted. It is the argument of this chapter that, even if it is technologically feasible for financial reports to be changed from their present form, there would still be a need for financial reports as an important component of corporate governance.

It has been said that standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are more congruent with a principles-based approach to standards setting than those of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). Revelations concerning accounting manipulations at Enron Corp., and the ensuing scandal resulting from these revelations, have prompted the FASB to reassess its approach to accounting standards setting with the possible intent of moving FASB standards-setting processes closer to a principles-based approach. One area that IASB standards tend to emphasize more than FASB standards is the concept of substance over form. The bankruptcy of Enron Corp. provides a vivid illustration of how companies may use the legal form of transactions to obscure their economic substance. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the concept of substance over form by investigating Enron’s use of misleading accounting practices in the following areas: (1) off-balance sheet financing; (2) revenue recognition; and (3) financial statements disclosures. In these three areas of accounting concern, the chapter sets forth the relevant US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) requirements, along with the ways in which Enron manipulated GAAP while concealing the economic substance underlying the transactions. It is the argument of this chapter that had the concept of substance over form been properly applied at Enron, investors and creditors would have been provided with a more realistic view of the company’s financial position and its results of operations, perhaps avoiding what became the one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in US history. The conclusion is that the FASB should focus on the concept of substance over form as it contemplates moving toward a principles-based approach to accounting standards setting.

Compares auditors’ legal liability to third parties in several major countries, with principal emphasis on comparisons between the USA and the UK. Public accountants claim that they are being adversely affected by lawsuits brought by shareholders, creditors and other third parties. It has been asserted, without any specific evidence, that increased exposure to legal liability has caused public accounting firms to cease the practice of auditing or go out of business entirely. Details auditors’ legal liability to third parties in the USA and Europe and, in particular, the UK. Concludes by reviewing certain positions taken by the Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens with respect to auditors’ legal liability in the face of European economic and political union.

This chapter explores the concept of prudence in accounting from several different perspectives. In particular, we discuss the elimination of prudence from the conceptual framework of the International Accounting Standards Board in 2010 and its reinstatement in 2018. We also explore the tension between a cautious view of prudence and an asymmetric view of prudence. Finally, we discuss historical debates concerning the concept of prudence in philosophy, legal theory, and economics. In specific terms, we address whether prudence constitutes a moral virtue or whether it is merely a technique for deciding between alternative courses of action. The primary argument of the chapter is that prudence has been an important moral virtue and a component of commercial and accounting practice throughout history, even though accounting standards setters have now relegated it to secondary importance.