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Article
Publication date: 8 August 2019

Nihel Chabrak, Jim Haslam and Helen Oakes

The purpose of this paper is to reflect a critical perspective drawing from phenomenology, especially informed by a reading of Heidegger, to enhance and extend appreciation of the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reflect a critical perspective drawing from phenomenology, especially informed by a reading of Heidegger, to enhance and extend appreciation of the need to question accounting’s meaning or delineation and how research might be undertaken into the accounting phenomenon and related areas.

Design/methodology/approach

To illustrate and clarify argumentation in terms of accounting mobilization and the domain of accounting research, the mainstream and strongly positivistic accounting perspective adopted in the USA is critically assessed. At the same time, the authors elaborate how much of interpretive research (including much of that labeled critical) is also lacking in terms of the perspective articulated here.

Findings

The paper stresses the case for questioning the taken-for-granted and conventional. It promotes reflexivity, cautious pragmatism, attentiveness to the value of the existing, responsibility to difference and otherness and openness to new possibilities as part of a deeper critical orientation.

Originality/value

The paper draws from phenomenology, especially in Heideggerian terms to open-up new conversational domain to debate accounting.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 32 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 June 2023

Xia Shu, Stewart Smyth and Jim Haslam

The authors explore the under-researched area of post-decision evaluation in PPPs (public–private partnerships), focusing upon how and whether Post-decision Project Evaluation…

Abstract

Purpose

The authors explore the under-researched area of post-decision evaluation in PPPs (public–private partnerships), focusing upon how and whether Post-decision Project Evaluation (PdPE) is considered and provided for in United Kingdom (UK) public infrastructure projects.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors’ research design sought insights from overviewing UK PPP planning and more focused exploration of PPP operational practice. The authors combine the extensive analysis of planning documents for operational UK PPP projects with interviews of different stakeholders in PPP projects in one city. Mobilising an open critical perspective, documents were analysed using ethnographic content analysis (ECA) and interviews were analysed using thematic analysis consistent therewith. The authors theorise the absence and ambiguities of PdPE drawing on the sociology of ignorance.

Findings

The authors find a long-standing absence and lack of PdPE in PPP projects throughout planning and operational practice, reflecting a dynamic, multi-faceted ignorance. Concerning planning practice, the authors’ documentary analysis evidences a trend in PdPE from its absence in the early years (which may indicate some natural or genuine ignorance) to different levels or forms of weak inclusion later. Regarding this inclusion, the authors find strategic ignorance played a substantive role, involving “deliberate engineering” by both public sector and private partners. Interview findings indicate lack of clarity over PdPE and its under-development in PPP practice, deficiencies again suggestive of natural and strategic ignorance.

Originality/value

The authors draw from the sociology of ignorance vis-à-vis accounting's absence and ambiguity in the context of PPP, contributing to an under-researched area.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 37 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 June 2018

Jim Haslam, Jiao Ji and Hanwen Sun

The purpose of this paper is to summarise and reflect upon key issues at the interface of prices, information and regulation with a focus upon the stock market in context…

10810

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to summarise and reflect upon key issues at the interface of prices, information and regulation with a focus upon the stock market in context. Reflecting upon academic research in the area of efficient markets, and regulatory policy, the concern is to discern issues in terms of policy and support for policy. What does the research imply for policy? Is it possible that the research, perhaps given its rhetoric, can be misinterpreted in relation to policy? The study is also concerned to develop avenues for future research based on these considerations.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is an analytical and critical review and writing.

Findings

The reading of the research suggests a pragmatic regulatory policy that should be concerned to improve stock market functioning, including with respect to information, as well as the context of which this is part. At the same time, the literature may be read as promoting anti-regulatory policy.

Practical implications

On the one hand, these are consistent with the pragmatic policy referred to above. On the other hand, further research is suggested to explore substantively the rhetoric of the research and its interpretation and to explore understandings of the research and its implications amongst key constituencies in practice.

Originality/value

The concern is to bring key insights from the academic literature together with a view to promoting a pragmatic policy orientation, while cautioning in a critical perspective about how this academic literature and research might be interpreted from a policy perspective.

Details

Journal of Capital Markets Studies, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-4774

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 January 2020

Monika Łada, Alina Kozarkiewicz and Jim Haslam

This article explores the influence of duality in institutional logics on internal accounting, with a focus on a Polish public university. More particularly, we answer the…

Abstract

Purpose

This article explores the influence of duality in institutional logics on internal accounting, with a focus on a Polish public university. More particularly, we answer the research question: how does illegitimacy risk arising from the divergent pressures of the institutional environment impact management accountings in this institution?

Design/methodology/approach

This paper seeks to uncover intricacies of notions of internal legitimacy façade, decoupling and counter-coupling in practice. It explores details of organizational responses involving management accounting aimed at reducing illegitimacy risk. Achieving good organizational access, the authors adopt a qualitative case study approach involving contextual appreciation/document analysis/participant observation/discussion with key actors: facilitating building upon theoretical argumentation through finding things out from the field.

Findings

The authors uncover and discuss organizational solutions and legitimizing manoeuvres applied, identifying four adaptation tactics in the struggle to support legitimacy that they term ‘ceremonial calculations’, ‘legitimacy labelling’, ‘blackboxing’ and ‘shadow management accounting’. These can be seen in relation to decoupling and counter-coupling. Ceremonial calculations supported the internal façade. Shadow management accounting supported pro-effectiveness. Legitimacy labelling and blackboxing helped bind these two organizational layers, further supporting legitimacy. In interaction the four tactics engendered what can be seen as a ‘counter-coupling’ of management accounting. The authors clarify impacts for management accounting.

Research limits/implications

The usual limitations of case research apply for generalizability. Theorizing of management accounting in relation to contradictory logics is advanced.

Practical implications

The article illuminates how management accounting can be understood vis-à-vis contradictory logics.

Originality value

Elaboration of the tactics and their interaction is a theoretical and empirical contribution. Focus on a Polish university constitutes an empirical contribution.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 33 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 January 2022

Monika Łada, Alina Kozarkiewicz, Bartlomiej Bartnik and Jim Haslam

The impact of market liberalization on management accounting in a post-socialist context is explored by focusing upon a key regional trade unit of the Polish Gas Company, a former…

Abstract

Purpose

The impact of market liberalization on management accounting in a post-socialist context is explored by focusing upon a key regional trade unit of the Polish Gas Company, a former state monopoly undergoing transformation.

Design/methodology/approach

Insights are provided through a contingency theory framework, as modified through a configuration-sequential lens that considers management accounting as an expression of adaptation to a specific configuration of external and internal contingencies.

Findings

In the transitional context, the authors found that the direction, pace and manner of management accounting change were characteristic of a late adopter defending against market liberalization. There was a need here to overcome more barriers than in the case of a more established market economy, including through achieving a sufficient level of technological and institutional maturity.

Originality/value

The study focuses on an early phase of liberalization illuminating impacts through a case study of a regional trade unit in the key gas sector company in Poland. Little research has been done in this area following this approach and scarcely anything to the best of our knowledge on the empirical focus.

Details

Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, vol. 12 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-1168

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 June 2021

Rabih Nehme, Amir Michael and Jim Haslam

A survey is here systematically conducted to analyse auditors’ perceptions of dysfunctional auditing behaviour (DAB). As a result of many accounting scandals and litigations faced…

Abstract

Purpose

A survey is here systematically conducted to analyse auditors’ perceptions of dysfunctional auditing behaviour (DAB). As a result of many accounting scandals and litigations faced by audit firms, this paper aims to assess whether factors leading to DAB are embedded in audit firms’ practices.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample used in this study comprises auditors at all levels of employment with the big four audit firms in the United Kingdom (UK). DAB is analysed using two signals/indicators: premature sign-off and under-reporting of chargeable time. Time budget pressure and time deadline pressure are the factors considered here as potentially pushing auditors to exhibit DAB. A careful and considered analysis and interpretation is here articulated. Additionally, the sample individuals are divided into audit trainees and experienced auditors to assess any potential differences in the perception of DAB that reflect the experience factor.

Findings

Coordination with internal auditors, different perceptions between audit trainees and experienced auditors of dysfunctional behaviour, working during their personal time and the box-ticking exercise are amongst the findings that may help practitioners to understand the reasons behind dysfunctional behaviour and identify measures to mitigate it.

Originality/value

The study can aid concerned executives and audit partners to minimise DAB related to different time pressures by casting light on the key ethical issues. The study is conducted on a sample of the big four firms in the UK covering all organisational structure. It assesses if experience plays a role in the perception of DAB.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 30 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 August 2018

Alhashmi Aboubaker Lasyoud, Jim Haslam and Robin Roslender

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the change in management accounting and control systems (MACSs) within two large public manufacturing companies in Libya so-called…

1158

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the change in management accounting and control systems (MACSs) within two large public manufacturing companies in Libya so-called Trucks and Buses Company (TBC) and National Trailers Company (NTC).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on semi-structured interviews, an analysis of documents and observations. It draws on New Institutional Sociology (NIS) perspective (DiMaggio and Powell’s 1983) as theoretical framework to provide explanations regarding how the MACS in the two companies were shaped by various factors.

Findings

The main factors identified in shaping the operations of the MACS were the need to comply with the political pressures, the Libyan Government’s laws and regulations, the instructions imposed by the management committee in both companies, leading organizations’ pressures (ISO), customer satisfaction (coercive isomorphism), the influence of professional associations (normative isomorphism) and the need to imitate efficient organizations in order to be more legitimate and successful (mimetic isomorphism).

Research limitations/implications

The findings of the study have implications for understanding the operations of MACS in developing countries. Future research could focus on alternative theoretical perspectives for the investigation of the process of change in MACS such as structuration theory, agency theory and actor-network theory.

Originality/value

The proposed theoretical framework provides insights into the process of change by focusing on the interplay between the institutional forces, market forces and intra – organizational power relationships to overcome the criticism of NIS that it downplays the role of market forces and intra – organizational power relations.

Details

Asian Review of Accounting, vol. 26 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1321-7348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1997

Sonja Gallhofer, Jim Haslam and Steven Cahan

This paper reviews Pacific Accounting Review, 1988–96. Against the background of an historical overview of the journal's development, the paper includes analyses of publications…

Abstract

This paper reviews Pacific Accounting Review, 1988–96. Against the background of an historical overview of the journal's development, the paper includes analyses of publications and citations in the journal. The paper looks forward to the future progress of Pacific Accounting Review.

Details

Pacific Accounting Review, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0114-0582

Article
Publication date: 15 June 2015

Sonja Gallhofer, Jim Haslam and Akira Yonekura

The purpose of this paper is to add to efforts to treat the relationship between accounting, democracy and emancipation more seriously, giving recognition to difference in this…

7416

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to add to efforts to treat the relationship between accounting, democracy and emancipation more seriously, giving recognition to difference in this context. To open up space for emancipatory praxis vis-à-vis accounting, the authors articulate a delineation of accounting as a differentiated universal and emphasise the significance of an appreciation of accounting as contextually situated. The authors outline implications of a reading of new pragmatism for emancipatory praxis in relation to accounting that takes democracy and difference seriously.

Design/methodology/approach

Critical and analytical argument reflecting upon previous literature in the humanities and social sciences (e.g. Laclau and Mouffe, 2001) and in accounting (e.g. Gallhofer and Haslam, 2003; Bebbington et al., 2007; Brown, 2009, 2010; Blackburn et al., 2014; Brown and Dillard, 2013a, b; Dillard and Yuthas, 2013) to consider further accounting’s alignment to an emancipatory praxis taking democracy and difference seriously.

Findings

A vision and framing of emancipatory praxis vis-à-vis accounting is put forward as a contribution that the authors hope stimulates further discussion.

Originality/value

The authors extend and bolster previous literature seeking to align accounting and emancipation through further reflection upon new pragmatist perspectives on democracy and difference. In the articulations and emphases here, the authors make some particular contributions including notably the following. The accounting delineation, which includes appreciation of accounting as a differentiated universal, and a considered approach to appreciation of accounting as contextually situated help to open up further space for praxis vis-à-vis accounting. The authors offer a general outline of accounting’s positioning vis-à-vis a reading of a new pragmatist perspective on emancipatory praxis. The authors articulate the perspective in terms of key principles of design for emancipatory praxis vis-à-vis accounting: take seriously an accounting delineation freeing accounting from unnecessary constraints; engage with all accountings in accord with a principle of prioritisation; engage with accounting in a way appreciative of its properties, dimensions and contextual situatedness; engage more generally in a new pragmatist praxis. This adds support to and extends prior literature. The authors elaborate in this context how appreciation of a new pragmatist continuum thinking that helps to highlight and bring out emancipatory and repressive dimensions of accounting can properly inform interaction with existing as well as new envisaged accountings, including what the authors term here “official” accountings.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 28 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1999

Sonja Gallhofer, Jim Haslam, STEPHEN MORROW and Robin Sydserff

Accounting is problematically shaped by a culture of spin. In the practice of accounting, presentational management risks assuming greater importance than an open and clear…

Abstract

Accounting is problematically shaped by a culture of spin. In the practice of accounting, presentational management risks assuming greater importance than an open and clear communication motivated by a concern to serve the public interest. We elaborate upon this problematic feature of contemporary practice and suggest pointers towards responding to the challenge it poses in terms of a better way for accounting in the new millennium.

Details

Pacific Accounting Review, vol. 11 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0114-0582

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