Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of strategic management accounting (SMA) in an English university. It is in search of and investigates SMA practices and processes, and their meaning to participants in an English university context. The higher education (HE) institution under research had gone through a major change a couple of years prior to this study, including implementation of new strategic management and management accounting practices.

The approach taken is an interpretive one and the adopted methodology is grounded theory according to Glaser's evolved approach. Data collection took place largely through interviews and, where possible, participant observation.

The main findings of the research concern the core concept of the strategising mindset, which encapsulates the institutional, divisional and individual stance towards strategy and SMA. The strategising mindset is understood as the belief system that is adopted with regard to SMA, which is divided into a bureaucratic and an entrepreneurial mindset. According to the respective mindset, accounting for strategic management is dealt with and institutional members' perceptions of SMA are shaped. The particular mindset adopted depends on the context members were and are functioning, which reflects Bourdieu's theory of practice.

The main contributions are the emergent theoretical framework on SMA in HE, the concept of the strategising mindset and resulting views and conclusions on what SMA actually means in practice. To the authors' knowledge, no such theoretical framework has been published to date.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of Web 2.0-based social media for investor relations (IR), in the Middle Eastern (ME) context. IR is one of the under-researched topics of the corporate reporting subject area. This study seeks to contribute by investigating social media for IR in a ME context. It researches the perceptions of corporations, and individual and institutional investors regarding the phenomenon of social media for IR, given the particular cultural context. A conceptual model guiding future research is developed out of the analyzed data.

The research approach is qualitative and exploratory in nature, as the aim is to analyze perceptions and opinions of participants, in order to develop a theoretical argument based on these. To this end, the study employs a qualitative methodology and interview data collection. Data are analyzed using qualitative research coding styles.

Primary findings are encompassed in the theoretical framework, which theorises the adoption of social media for investor relation in particular but addresses voluntary corporate reporting in general. The study determines that there are various factors that support and hinder adoption, such as willingness to adopt social media for IR and potential risks and benefit, and that there are anticipated outcomes, such as improved communications between investors and corporations and a related power adjustment. The new element regarding IR that transpired out of the current study is the notion of investor empowerment and the directly related fear of lack, or essentially loss, of control.

The ME societies are very interested in social media applications, and utilize these in a broad range of their daily work and private activities. IR, as part of voluntary reporting, have been subject of recent debate, as little guidance is available and corporations’ practices vary. The current study highlights these factors in a largely under-researched market, the ME, and focuses a broader knowledge contribution based on the current findings. Finally, the concept of power is investigated in both its conventional and postmodern sense.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a personal, reflective account of applying grounded theory, in particular Glaser's approach, in accounting research. It seeks to reduce barriers to adopting the grounded theory approach.

The approach taken is providing an overview of Glaser's grounded theory and discussing the authors' application of it, thus discussing their personal experiences.

The paper seeks to provide a greater insight into using the grounded theory approach, through illustrating the authors' personal experiences with its application. It seeks to highlight the merits and pitfalls, including any attempts to overcome these, as these are perceived from a subjective viewpoint.

The paper provides an individual account of how a grounded theory study was undertaken. The subjectivity of such undertaking has to be taken into consideration.

The application of the grounded theory approach is discussed retrospectively, in a bid to provide an insight to interpretive research projects in general and grounded theory in particular. It is still rarely used in accounting research, but has potential to contribute at all levels of accounting research. The paper provides an individual account of using this approach.

The purpose of this paper is to map corporate disclosure theories as a step towards filling a gap in the theoretical background for corporate disclosure research. The purpose of the map is to encompass a range of particular theories relating to corporate disclosure and to demonstrate the complex relationships between different notions of the financial disclosure phenomenon. This will help new researchers to understand how particular corporate disclosure theories are related, as well as help with teaching accounting theories at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

A deductive and inductive approach to theory building was applied. The deductive approach suggests identifying the gap in the literature, the inductive approach then prescribes theory building in three stages: phenomenon observation, categorisation and relationship building. This approach serves to develop a theoretical map integrating the corporate disclosure theories.

The paper discusses theories that recognise actual features of financial markets – market failure, information asymmetry and adverse selection – to provide an explanation for the existence of corporate reporting regulations and managerial incentives, which control and determine the maximum level of corporate information under these conditions. It then integrates these theories in a map seeking to explain corporate disclosure levels, mandatory and voluntary, financial and narrative. A combination of theoretical supplements – codification theory, Dye's theory of mandatory and voluntary disclosure, and disclosure transformation theory – are proposed in this framework as theories to explain processes of change in mandatory and voluntary corporate disclosure in practice.

Another benefit mapping these theories is to provide useful insights into existing disclosure theories, which may help to explain why some empirical results have been inconsistent with the predictions of these theories. No similar attempts have been published in the accounting literature.

This paper aims to trace subsequent steps of the sustainability reporting evolution in terms of changes in the organisation fields and professional jurisdictions involved. As such, it highlights the (interrelated) organisational and professional challenges associated with the progressive incorporation of “sustainability” within corporate reporting.

The paper draws on Suddaby and Viale’s (2011) theorisation of how professionals reshape organisational fields to highlight how organisational spaces, actors, rules and professional capital evolve alongside the incorporation of sustainability within corporate reporting.

The paper shows organisational spaces, actors, rules and professional capital mobilised during the recent evolution of sustainability reporting, starting from a period in which there was no space for sustainability, to more recent periods in which sustainability gained increasing momentum beyond initial niches, and culminating in more integrated forms of sustainability reporting.

Although the analysis is limited to empirical evidence collected by prior research and practice on sustainability reporting, the paper offers a view to imagine how the incorporation of sustainability within corporate reporting relies on and affects organisational fields and professional jurisdictions.

The paper offers a lens to interpret corporate and professional challenges associated with the more recent evolutions of sustainability reporting practice and standard setting. It also allows framing the papers accepted in the special issue on “new challenges in sustainability reporting” and concludes by suggesting an agenda for future research.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of web - based disclosure on the cost of debt for the MENA region setting.

The sample of this paper consists of 237 MENA listed non-financial companies for the year 2017. Multiple regression models were used to examine the impact of online disclosure on the cost of debt. Content analysis is used to measure the extent of web-based disclosure.

The results reveal that there is a negative and significant association between the web-based disclosure and the company’s cost of debt. These results support the hypothesis of the economic utility of the information disclosed on the website for creditors in this region.

The results of the study have important implications for managers in the MENA region. It is necessary for managers to improve the company’s transparency through web-based disclosure. The companies must benefit from the different technologies offered by the Internet in order to offer to the creditors unlimited access to up to date information. In fact, web-based disclosure may mitigate the information asymmetry, the uncertainty of creditors and, consequently, reduces the cost of debt. 10; 10;Moreover, the results of the study provide empirical evidence for the advantages of voluntary web-based disclosure. The results highlight the importance to companies and regulators of understanding the benefits of using the website as a means of information disclosure. The regulators in MENA countries can rely on these results to establish suitable policies to improve the quality of web-based disclosure. The regulators need also to put in rules in relation to the online disclosure. In fact, an understanding of web-based disclosure is important for regulators and companies. Given the positive effect of online disclosure (the reduction of the cost of debt), knowledge about the economic consequences of web-based disclosure would enable companies in the MENA region to optimize their online disclosure policies.

This study, added to the existing literature by examining the consequences of online disclosure practices in MENA countries. Most previous studies conducted in this region were limited to analyzing the determinants of the company’s web-based disclosure. This paper would extend the literature on the online disclosure practices by investigating the association between these practices and the cost of debt in a developing economics: the MENA region. Previous studies were limited to testing this association only in developed countries.