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The Japanisation of British industry has been much debated. This paper speculates on the role of the UK management accountant as a barrier to the adoption of Japanese management accounting techniques, highlighting professional and cultural differences which could make UK management accountants reluctant converts to Japanisation. Such a reluctance in a key functional area might, in turn, hinder the importation of closely related Japanese production techniques, adversely affecting the competitiveness of UK manufacturing.

Contextualizes some of the issues raised by an article by Courtis in AAAJ 1995. Readability, which measures syntactical difficulty, should be distinguished from understandability, which measures comprehensibility. Courtis’s results, which are suggestive (but not conclusive) of a link between readability and profitability are consistent with several other recent readability studies. In addition, his results are consistent with several content analytic studies suggestive of a lack of neutrality in managements’ presentation of accounting narratives. Prior readability studies are shown to provide new information about inter‐country readability differences and the differential readability of differing sections of the annual report. Courtis’s research on English versions of Hong Kong corporate reports raises interesting questions on the use of such texts in countries where English is not the native language.

The readability of annual reports has been the focus of extensive prior research. However, the extent of readability variability has only recently received specific attention. In response to a perceived need for further research into this area, an analysis of 60 UK chairman’s statements was conducted in order to test for possible determinants of readability variability. Results show the introduction to the chairman’s statement is systematically easier to read than other parts of the chairman’s statement. No evidence was found to support prior research that, rather than present accounting narratives objectively, managers use readability variability to emphasise good news and obfuscate bad news. The thematic structures within the chairman’s statement were investigated to explore whether they were responsible for systematic patterns in the variability of annual report readability. Findings indicate that thematic structure of the chairman’s statement is indeed a key driver of the variability of annual report readability.

The aim of this paper is to compare modern internal control systems with those in medieval England.

This paper uses a modern referential framework (control environment, risk assessment, information and communication, monitoring and control activities) as a lens to investigate medieval internal controls used in the twelfth century royal exchequer and other medieval institutions. It draws upon an extensive range of primary materials.

The paper demonstrates that most of the internal controls found today are present in medieval England. Stewardship and personal accountability are found to be the core elements of medieval internal control. The recent recognition of the need for the enhanced personal accountability of individuals is reminiscent of medieval thinking.

It investigates internal controls in medieval England for the first time and draws comparisons to today.

This study seeks to operationalise the reporting of corporate natural assets (i.e. habitats, flora and fauna). A natural inventory model is used, building on existing methodology. This study significantly extends the prior research by considering environmental accounting in the context of a large site and by using a UK publicly listed company, Hyder plc. The research finds that the methodology is generally applicable. Data were available to identify and value ten important habitats. Moreover, data were present for critical species (especially birds and mammals), and for flora and fauna on critical habitats. However, for some non‐critical species, data, particularly population data, was problematic. The potential benefits of the natural inventory model are substantial, the costs are modest.

The cloze procedure has been seen by accounting researchers as a useful tool for investigating the communicative effectiveness of accounting narratives. Compared with text‐based readability measures, such as the Flesch test, the cloze procedure has often been viewed as an alternative and superior method of measuring understandability. Provides a critical review of the accounting and educational cloze‐based literature. In particular, questions the validity of the cloze procedure, the cloze procedure’s measurement of understandability, and the correctness of the criterion reference scores traditionally used to interpret cloze scores. Concludes that these legitimate concerns about the cloze procedure must be taken into account when the results of cloze‐based accounting research studies are evaluated. Repeats calls for further research to establish the validity of the cloze procedure in the accounting domain and to support the results of existing studies.

The purpose of this research is to examine the composition of the editorial boards of 60 academic accounting journals with a particular focus on the university affiliations of editorial board members. The role of ad hoc reviewers is then analysed.

A detailed content analysis of the members of the 60 editorial boards was conducted. The authors concentrated on UK universities and journals, but also provide some data on non‐UK schools and journals.

There were six main findings. First, editorial appointments were normally held by nationals of the country where the journal was published. Second, US academics had a significant presence on all boards. Third, there was a lack of penetration of UK academics, particularly on US or high quality boards. Fourth, overseas academics were present in significant numbers on UK boards. Fifth, editorial board appointments tended to be concentrated in a limited number of institutions and individuals. Sixth, journals, particularly generalist journals, used reviewers extensively.

This research will inform the debate about the degree of influence which UK academics have on journal research agendas and on the international stage. The findings show that journal editorial boards do not capture all high ranking institutions and individuals. Editors could consider widening the scope of their editorial board opportunities.

This is the first comprehensive study into the editorial boards of accounting journals. It shows the presence of an editorial board elite.

The purpose of the research was to discover the process of social and environmental report assurance (SERA) and thereby evaluate the benefits, extent of stakeholder inclusivity and/or managerial capture of SERA processes and the dynamics of SERA as it matures.

This paper used semi‐structured interviews with 20 accountant and consultant assurors to derive data, which were then coded and analysed, resulting in the identification of four themes.

This paper provides interview evidence on the process of SERA, suggesting that, although there is still managerial capture of SERA, stakeholders are being increasingly included in the process as it matures. SERA is beginning to provide dual‐pronged benefits, adding value to management and stakeholders simultaneously. Through the lens of Freirian dialogic theory, it is found that SERA is starting to display some characteristics of a dialogical process, being stakeholder inclusive, demythologising and transformative, with assurors perceiving themselves as a “voice” for stakeholders. Consequently, SERA is becoming an important mechanism for driving forward more stakeholder‐inclusive SER, with the SERA process beginning to transform attitudes of management towards their stakeholders through more stakeholder‐led SER. However, there remain significant obstacles to dialogic SERA. The paper suggests these could be removed through educative and transformative processes driven by assurors.

Previous work on SERA has involved predominantly content‐based analysis on assurance statements. However, this paper investigates the details of the SERA process, for the first time using qualitative interview data.

This paper extends the nature and relevance of exploring the historical roots of social and environmental accounting by investigating an account that recorded and made visible pollution in 17th century London. John Evelyn's Fumifugium (1661) is characterised as an external social account that bears resemblance to contemporary external accounting particularly given its problematising intentionality.

An interpretive content analysis of the text draws out the themes and features of social accounting. Emancipatory accounting theory is the theoretical lens through which Evelyn's social account is interpreted, applying a microhistory research approach. We interpret Fumifugium as a social account with reference to the context of the reporting accountant.

In this early example of a stakeholder “giving an account” rather than an “account rendered” by an entity, Evelyn problematises industrial pollution and its impacts with the stated intention of changing industrial practices. We find that Fumifugium was used in challenging, resisting and seeking to solve an environmental problem by highlighting the adverse consequences to those in power and rendering new solutions thinkable.

This is the first research paper to extend investigations of the historical roots of social and environmental accounting into the 17th century. It also extends research investigating alternative forms of account by focusing on a report produced by an interested party and includes a novel use of the emancipatory accounting theoretical lens to investigate this historic report. Fumifugium challenged the lack of accountability of businesses in ways similar to present-day campaigns to address the overwhelming challenge of climate change.

This paper aims to explore the nature of the emerging discourse of private climate change reporting, which takes place in one‐on‐one meetings between institutional investors and their investee companies.

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with representatives from 20 UK investment institutions to derive data which was then coded and analysed, in order to derive a picture of the emerging discourse of private climate change reporting, using an interpretive methodological approach, in addition to explorative analysis using NVivo software.

The authors find that private climate change reporting is dominated by a discourse of risk and risk management. This emerging risk discourse derives from institutional investors' belief that climate change represents a material risk, that it is the most salient sustainability issue, and that their clients require them to manage climate change‐related risk within their portfolio investment. It is found that institutional investors are using the private reporting process to compensate for the acknowledged inadequacies of public climate change reporting. Contrary to evidence indicating corporate capture of public sustainability reporting, these findings suggest that the emerging private climate change reporting discourse is being captured by the institutional investment community. There is also evidence of an emerging discourse of opportunity in private climate change reporting as the institutional investors are increasingly aware of a range of ways in which climate change presents material opportunities for their investee companies to exploit. Lastly, the authors find an absence of any ethical discourse, such that private climate change reporting reinforces rather than challenges the “business case” status quo.

Although there is a wealth of sustainability reporting research, there is no academic research on private climate change reporting. This paper attempts to fill this gap by providing rich interview evidence regarding the nature of the emerging private climate change reporting discourse.