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Drawing insights from finance and non-finance managers in Sri Lanka, this study unveils complexities and conflicts surrounding the roles of management accountants and the nature of role construction stemming from differing expectations of non-finance managers and external influences.

This paper adopts the qualitative methodology and leans on role theory and new institutional sociology (NIS), as these dual theories complement each other and enable a holistic understanding of management accountants' roles, complexities and conflicts.

The findings reveal that in fulfilling their roles on par with divisional goals, amid expectations of non-finance managers and external influences, management accountants face various complexities and conflicts. Furthermore, in navigating through their roles, understanding the operational realities of work organizations and business sectors and negotiating with non-finance managers is vital.

This research draws evidence from a selection of finance and non-finance managers. Thus the findings are not expected to be generalized to business firms in Sri Lanka.

This paper offers practitioner insights into how management accountants could construct their roles in different organizational settings, balancing the expectations of non-finance managers and external influences.

Despite its importance, complexities and conflicts surrounding management accountants' roles amid multiple influences have attracted scant research attention. Hence this paper is a noteworthy addition to the literature. Besides, using role theory and NIS in tandem although apt, has not been the focus of prior researchers in delving into this phenomenon.

States that if organisations are to more effectively identify, measure and manage their intellectual capital, the responsibilities for initiating and executing these tasks will fall upon the managers of organisations. Addresses the question “To what extent does organisational type and managerial role define managers’ perception of intellectual capital?”. Two hypotheses were tested using a cross‐sectional design. Specifically, the research was directed at five types of senior managers (general manager, finance, human resources, information technology and marketing) in three broad types of Australian organisations: business, government and non‐profit organisations. Demonstrates tentatively that the perceptions that different types of Australian managers hold of intellectual capital lack uniformity and that different types of Australian organisations have yet to develop suitable policies and strategies that would facilitate its management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how non‐finance departmental involvement in the management of exchange rate risks impacts the extent of foreign exchange speculation in non‐financial firms.

Non‐financial firms in a small open economy (Denmark) are surveyed to investigate the extent of foreign exchange speculation and how it is related to the degree of nonfinance departmental involvement in the management of exchange rate risks. The authors employ binary and ordered probit regression analysis.

A positive link is found between the extent to which departments other than the finance department are involved in the management of exchange rate risks; and second, the extent to which the firm is likely to speculate – whether in the form of selective hedging or active speculation – on the foreign exchange market.

The findings indicate that the trend towards a more integrated risk management approach in which the finance department is not the only department responsible for risk management may have the (unforeseen) consequence that foreign exchange speculation increases.

The paper's findings are important because the link between the extent of foreign exchange speculation and a more integrated risk management approach has not been addressed previously.

Drawn on social psychology theory of impression management (IM), the purpose of this paper is to assess the way Portuguese managers build their narratives in chairman’s statement (CS) to manage stakeholders’ perceptions on corporate image, in a period of time of scarce resources.

The paper’s theoretical framework draws on elements of social psychology theory of IM developed by Leary and Kowalski (1990). Through the use of the two-component model of IM (impression motivation and impression construction) the 45 CSs of Portuguese non-finance companies were content analysed to understand how managers build their voluntary communication strategies.

Results indicate that organisational outcome does not influence the adoption of IM strategies. But public visibility and consumer proximity are crucial factors in explaining them. Larger companies with high consumer proximity present themselves in a favourable way, but consistent with an overall reading of the annual report. These companies show a higher level of verbosity, consistent to the argument of retrospective rationality.

The present study goes beyond Merkl-Davies et al. (2011) work and obtains insightful knowledge on the influence of goal relevance of impression in three different perspectives: company’s public visibility, company’s dependency from debtholders, and consumer proximity. Moreover, the analysis uses a period of scarce resources and a European Latin country, with no tradition in publishing CSs, but that recently has changed its financial reporting practices from an institutional code-law logic to an institutional common-law logic. A research setting like this has not been studied hitherto.

This paper illustrates a story of “rise and fall” of a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) project in a Sri Lankan firm. The “rise” was due to a series of attempts made by CIMA (SL) for popularising BSC practice among business leaders and local consultants, and the “fall” was due to professional rivalry between engineering managers and accounting personnel and the decline of interest on the part of the owner-manager. In relation to these two opposing phenomena, the paper shows how and why the firm first receives the BSC project as a useful management system device, and later, how and why the management tends to undermine the use of BSC. The argument advanced is that the popularisation of BSC is part of a project of accounting knowledge diffusion which comes through the broader globalisation process, but the failure in sustaining BSC is due to the upsurge of professional rivalry and the rise of alternative management fads and the owner-manager's inclination to look at financial matters, rather than a BSC, as a basis for the appropriation of surplus. The underlying public interest implication is that even though globalisation project seems to be functional and positive, it provokes contradictions and resistance when new accounting knowledge is diffused from the centre to the periphery.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a program at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics UK to encourage internal promotions and to award talented employees with deserved recognition.

The paper explains how TalentPool puts ten specially selected employees through a number of key development modules, providing them with the skills to climb the company's career ladder.

The paper lists the seven development modules, in areas including management training, presentation skills, health and safety, finance for non‐finance managers and general product training. Reveals that the final test is a presentation before members of the UK board. Coursework is set after each module and marked to help to determine a TalentPool “top achiever”.

The paper reveals TalentPool to be part of the company's overall quest to create and sustain a stimulating and empowering environment that attracts, retains and nurtures high‐performing employees.

The paper highlights how employee recruitment at management level in an industry such as freight forwarding is tough, especially when it is not particularly recognized as a higher‐education subject or vocational path in the UK. It shows how one company came to the conclusion that it would therefore have to produce high‐caliber staff internally.

The purpose of this paper is to report on two institutional change scenarios of performance measurement (PM) systems, namely, subversion and integration. Subversion represents insiders' use of existing institutional logic whereas integration represents insiders' use of imported institutional logic.

The scenarios are drawn from two case studies: BAE Systems (a large UK manufacturing company) and Alpha (a medium‐sized Sri Lankan manufacturing company). The data were collected through in‐depth interviews and documentary sources.

An internal “culture change programme” led to a business value scorecard (BVS) in BAE Systems, and an external knowledge diffusion programme gave rise to a balanced scorecard (BSC) in Alpha. The culture change programme was facilitated by a particular institutional logic resulting in a successful BVS practice. In contrast, at Alpha, the BSC project was externally imposed, although it was designed with the blessing of the owner‐manager. This triggered internal controversies and the workforce became unreceptive. Consequently, attention was diverted to other management fads such as total quality management, Six Sigma, and enterprise resource planning but these were also short lived.

While this paper provides evidence on practice variation and adds to neoinstitutional‐based management accounting research, the empirical materials, however, did not allow the authors to trace all four scenarios in the typology.

PM systems, such as the BSC, seem to be malleable and adaptable to local requirements subject to organisational and managerial flexibility and democratic possibilities.

This research highlights how the institutional environment is fragmented and contested, in different organisational and political conditions and spaces, resulting in variation in practices.

This paper aims to trace the hybridising of financial and service expertise in English local authority budget control to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the contexts that gave rise to hybridisation than do previous accountability research frameworks.

Using practice theory, this paper interprets the findings from a field study of Newcastle City Council and a review of relevant local authority regulation for England, stretching back to the 1980s.

The hybridisation of financial and service expertise has entailed major changes to the practices on which local authority management depends, fuelled by a changing societal role of local authorities. Frequently, local authorities are no longer providers of public services but enablers who purchase services and manage arms-length contracts. This paper identifies some of the ways in which three structural elements that underpin local authority management practices have evolved to give rise to novel practices.

Even though this paper’s research into changing regulatory frameworks, rules and evolving local authority financial practices is based on institutional changes in England since the 1980s, the fieldwork element which fleshes out certain implications for local authority practices has focused on Newcastle City Council. Future research could fruitfully examine these issues in other local authorities.

The hybridisation of financial and service expertise has contributed to reshaping local government beyond the rules that are put in place for regulating the sector by giving rise to new practices. Recent key developments include new service delivery arrangements, for example, through council-owned subsidiaries or third-sector organisations. It is important that, in an austerity context, new risks to “off the books” service quality is matched by new control and audit arrangements. Moreover, the professional bodies that service local government should recognise the new forms of hybridisation of finance and service expertise and ensure arrangements for the changing skill sets of those involved in service provision.

This is the first paper to analyse the emergence of hybrid financial expertise in the public sector with reference to distinct structural elements of the relevant practices.

This paper aims to examine the capital budgeting practices used by firms in Barbados using contingency theory.

The study involves the use of a self-administered questionnaire sent to the individual responsible for capital budgeting decisions (either the accountant, financial controller or senior manager) in each of the firms selected. In total, 41 completed questionnaires are received; 12 follow-up interviews are conducted with respondents to indicate the reasons for use and non-use of capital budgeting practices.

Capital budgeting practices are not widely used by firms in Barbados. The payback method (PBM) is determined to be the preferred method of choice because of its simplicity, agility and cultural practices. Based on contingency theory, organisations in Barbados believe that the PBM is a better fit for them. Top management drives the capital budgeting process with crude and non-traditional methods for the acceptance of capital projects. While there are no statistically significant differences in the capital budgeting practices used in different sectors, professional accountants are more likely to use net present value and sensitivity analysis than non-professional accountants.

The sample is small, and consequently, findings may not be generalisable to the population.

This study makes a significant contribution to the body of literature in emerging countries such as Barbados on the usage of capital budgeting practices and factors that may influence their usage. It further contributes to policymakers, practitioners, organisations and stakeholders of organisations.

Academic research has made remarkable contributions to our knowledge as to how capital markets behave. This research has in turn stimulated changes in the practise of finance. From the seminal contributions of Markowitz (1952) and subsequently Sharpe (1964) we have learnt how diversification affects the risk of holding securities. This has stimulated practical innovations in index funds, risk and style based bench‐marking of portfolio performance as well as more precise methods for estimating capital costs. From the contributions of Black and Scholes (1973) we have also learnt how financial and real options can be valued. This in turn provided the necessary condition for the development of the huge market in derivative securities. Who could have issued LYONS, Nikkei puts, bull floaters and caps and collars if Black and Scholes had not first made the key insight that you could value these securities indirectly by creating a risk free portfolio? Finally, from Jensen and Meckling (1976) we have rediscovered the problems of incentive structures, and the importance of “agency” problems. This in turn has stimulated significant changes in the design of financial securities, such as event risk clauses in bonds, to protect against corporate opportunism, as well as providing the intellectual motivation behind the dramatic developments in management and leveraged buyouts. The above developments have been recognised in two Nobel prizes with most probably more to come.