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Purpose – This chapter examines developments in public sector accounting practices using evidence from a developing country (Ghana), and explores the motivations for such developments from post-independence to date. This stems from the limited research in public sector accounting particularly on developing countries despite the rich empirical context that they provide for the global research community.

Design/methodology/approach – Advocating for institutional theory, data was gathered from multiple sources including interviews, discussions and documents to achieve the above objectives.

Findings – Evidence gathered shows gradual shift from cash accounting to accrual accounting practices (modified), including computerization of the entire public sector accounting and reporting processes. Indeed, the World Bank and IMF sponsored reform (PUFMARP) instigated many of the major developments in the public sector accounting practices, including the adoption of accrual accounting and deployment of integrated financial management information system.

Research limitations/implications – Findings on developments during the post-colonial period were only based on the analysis of few documentary sources.

Originality/value – The study contributes to the limited studies in public sector accounting from developing countries and Africa in particular. It also extends the application of institutional theory in public sector accounting research.

Implications – Findings inform practitioners and policy-makers on the context-specific factors worth considering in the adoption of public sector accounting practices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of the ethical discourse of the US public accounting profession over the last century in relation to Foucault's concept of “codified discourse”. The ethical discourse of the US public accounting profession has evolved from its first code of ethics promulgated in 1917, which focused primarily on protecting the economic interests of the profession, to a position in the most recent promulgation of the code of professional conduct, which contains aspirational elements regarding ethical behavior, but which incorporates few enforceable provisions. It is therefore necessary to look elsewhere for the ethical discourse of the profession, which appears to be located more in the behaviors of accountants practicing in large international public accounting firms, in which the professional accountant becomes molded into an “ethical being” in the Foucaultian sense, as one who is self-regulated and self-formed into an ideal member of the profession.

Using Foucault's concept of “codified discourse”, the author examines changes to the code of ethics of the US public accounting profession of over a period of 100 years. The code of ethics of the US public accounting profession has been one of the primary means through which the ethical discourse of the profession has been communicated to its members. The author addresses the question whether the code of ethics has been principally directed towards protecting the public interest or serving the private interests of the profession. Extending Preston et al. and Beets, the author argues that the changes to the code of ethics have been prompted primarily by market forces and the accounting profession's desire to expand its scope of its services, thus protecting its private economic interests.

The author demonstrates that the ethical discourse of the profession can be found more in the self-forming practices of the profession rather than its code of ethics. These self-forming practices commence early in the career of a prospective accountant and shape the accountant into an idealized “ethical being” in the Foucaultian sense; not an ethical being who complies with a code of ethics, but rather an ethical being who is self-regulated and self-formed into an ideal member of the profession, one who seeks to serve clients while at the same time giving the appearance of acting with integrity and conforming to professional ideals.

The limitations of this paper are similar to those of all qualitative studies in that there is a lack of generalizability.

Most academics are unaware of the informal ethical discourse that is effectively communicated to entry level and junior accountants. Making accounting students cognizant of the actual ethical discourse that they will face in their careers may help them to better deal with the ethical challenges that they will face.

No previous research has dealt with codes of ethics in the public accounting profession as a self-forming practice, using Foucaultian terminology.

This study examines the association between the use of a package of contemporary and a package of traditional management accounting practices with organizational change and organizational performance.

Data were collected based on a mail survey distributed to a sample of 740 public sector organizations.

The findings indicate that while the prevalence of traditional practices is still dominant, such practices were not associated with organizational change or performance. Rather, those organizations that use contemporary management accounting practices to a greater extent experienced greater change and stronger performance.

The findings suggest that contemporary management accounting practices can assist public sector practitioners in improving performance and promoting organizational change.

The study provides an empirical insight into the use and effectiveness of management accounting practices in the public sector. The study provides the first empirical analysis of the effect of using a package of management accounting practices in the public sector.

The main objective of this paper is to examine the development of public accounting in China. While a brief review of the historical evolution of Chinese public accounting is presented in the first section, the paper focuses on the major progress of internationalization of public accounting in China in the most recent years, that is, improving qualification standards for professional accountants; unifying the professional associations of public practitioners; establishing Chinese Independent Auditing Standards; enforcing professional ethics and continuous education programs; reforming the administration of CPA firms; and opening the domestic accounting market up to foreign professionals. Both the motivation and impedance to those developments are analyzed. It is concluded that, to date, the gap between Chinese public accounting and the practices in the rest of the world has been narrowed down remarkably, which will benefit both Chinese and international business communities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between the interactive and diagnostic use of MCSs with the extent of adoption of contemporary management accounting practices, and the subsequent impact on the success of such practices in the public sector.

Data were collected through the distribution of a mail survey of 740 questionnaires to public sector organisations in Australia, and analysed using structural equation modelling.

The study found that both the interactive and diagnostic approaches to using MCSs exhibit a positive association with the adoption of contemporary management accounting practices, both as a package and individually. In addition, while the level of success of contemporary management accounting practices was moderate, it was found that the extent of adoption of the practices enhanced their success.

The findings suggest that by intensifying the use of MCSs in a more interactive and diagnostic manner, public sector organisations are more likely to adopt contemporary management to a greater extent, with the subsequent increase in the extent of adoption of such practices to exacerbate their success.

The study contributes to the MCS contingency-based research by highlighting the interrelationship between two aspects of MCSs, the use of controls and the adoption and success of management accounting practices.

The purpose of this polyphonic paper is to report on interdisciplinary discussions on the state-of-the-art and future of public sector accounting research (PSAR). The authors hope to enliven the debates of the past and future developments in terms of context, themes, theories, methods and impacts in the field of PSAR by the exchanges they include here.

This polyphonic paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach. It brings into conversation ideas, views and approaches of several scholars on the actual and future developments of PSAR in various contexts, and explores potential implications.

This paper has brought together scholars from a plurality of disciplines, research methods and geographical areas, showing at the same time several points of convergence on important future themes (such as accounting as a mean for public, accounting, hybridity and value pluralism) and enabling conditions (accounting capabilities, profession and digitalisation) for PSA scholarship and practice, and the richness of looking at them from a plurality of perspectives.

Exploring these past and future developments opens up the potential for interesting theoretical insights. A much greater theoretical and practical reconsideration of PSAR will be fostered by the exchanges included here.

In setting out a future research agenda, this paper fosters theoretical and methodological pluralism in the interdisciplinary research community interested in PSAR in various contexts. The discussion perspectives presented in this paper constitute not only a basis for further research in this relevant accounting area on the role, status and developments of PSAR but also creative potential for practitioners to be more reflective on their practices and also intended and united outcomes of such practices.

This paper uses Gramsci’s theory of hegemony to analyse the development of the public sector accounting profession and accounting practices in the UK since the nineteenth‐century. Three periods of hegemony and accounting development are identified and the relationship between the two phenomena is discussed. The analysis emphasises the non‐teleological development of the public sector accounting profession and accounting techniques and clearly places them within an ideological framework which is itself the outcome of a complex interrelation between economic crises, class interests and the state. The paper concludes that the public sector accounting professional body in the UK has played an important hegemonic role in constituting and reflecting ideologies and in reflecting the coercive and consensual approaches adopted by the state. The paper also sets an agenda for a research programme which looks at specific crises and hegemonies in more depth.

The aim of this paper is to explore the causes of variations in financial accounting and disclosure practices in a municipal setting highly influenced by governance reforms – the Swedish municipal waste management sector. This focus is motivated by the claim that recent governance reforms have made the organization of public services delivery more diversified and fragmented, which may have had a negative effect on transparency and accountability.

To document the accounting and disclosure practices of the Swedish solid waste management organizations, a questionnaire approach was selected. The study uses a conceptual theoretical framework that complements the basic variables considered to influence public sector financial accounting and disclosure practices with factors such as competition and municipal governance forms.

The results show that compliance accounting and disclosure transparency to some extent have different antecedents and that the external environment, including market competition, size and economic input, influences both. The governance forms, on the other hand, only influenced compliance accounting (negatively and positively) and not the willingness to disclose information in general. The overall conclusion is that changes to the economic and institutional context mixed with different municipal governance forms introduces a multiplicity of forces that makes the accounting practices themselves diversified and fragmented and not necessarily only in a “negative” direction.

From a policy perspective the results indicate that the changing institutional and organizational environment has not been matched by attention to, and regulation of, reporting structures that secure external vertical accountability processes. The general implication for future regulations should therefore be to recognize the influence of different economic and institutional forces and develop accountability models that enable and preserve the benefits of governance reform initiatives without losing accountability and transparency.

Few prior quantitative studies have theoretically related municipal accounting and disclosure practices to factors such as market competition and popular municipal governance forms (municipal corporation, regional cooperation, outsourcing, etc.). Knowledge of how reforms might influence municipal accounting practices might benefit future policy decisions on accountability models with aim of enable and preserve the benefits of governance reform initiatives without losing accountability and transparency.

The present work aimed to enhance the understanding of professional turnover intentions of accounting professionals by exploring their attitudes towards this phenomenon in an emerging economy (Tunisia).

An exploratory research was conducted using a narrative approach (episodic interviewing) after having interviewed accounting professionals. Data were analysed with the thematic coding method using NVivo software based on the push-pull-mooring (PPM) framework. Based on this analysis, four types of professionals were identified.

The interconnections among PPM factors, which are different from one type of professionals to another, play a vital role in whether a professional intends to leave the accounting profession or not. All four types of professionals perceived unpleasant facets of the public practice environment (push factors) and manifested a tendency to switch to available job opportunities (pull factors). Nevertheless, the latitude for profession change, for the third and the fourth types who perceived the professional experience differently, is restricted by mooring factors. That is not the case for the first type of professionals who have already left public accounting and the second type who intend to quit the profession, as we did not find any mooring factors.

This study explored the attitudes of accounting professionals towards professional turnover intention. A deeper insight into the views of the academics and the Ordre des Experts Comptables de Tunisie (OECT) might help understand this phenomenon.

Understanding the relative impact of push, pull and mooring allows the accounting professionals to determine their attitudes towards the intention to leave the profession. This enables firms to develop more effective programmes to retain valued accounting human resources. The findings highlight that the professional associations should promote the values the profession brings to the community through nationwide public awareness campaigns and enhance career opportunities by providing more branches of activity within the profession.

The paper responds to calls for further examination of factors behind professional turnover intention at a time when high rates of turnover were observed among accounting professionals. Also, the cultural context of Tunisia helps explain our findings.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges and influential factors experienced in the development of public sector accounting reforms in the emerging economy of Sri Lanka. The reforms aim to improve public governance and transparency while reducing corruption and dishonesty.

Qualitative (thematic) analysis has been employed by using both primary and secondary data. Primary data was obtained by interviewing selected respondents from public sector organisations in Sri Lanka. The respondents were selected by using an expert purposive sampling technique. Apart from the primary data, secondary data such as government reports, relevant literature and paper articles was also analysed in order to produce more robust findings.

The findings indicate that technological and cultural factors have influenced accounting reforms in the public sector in Sri Lanka. In addition, the politicisation and bureaucracy of the public sector as well as sluggish attitudes towards costs have served as prominent barriers to efficient implementation of the reforms.

This study was limited in terms of generalisation because of relatively small sample sizes. A larger sample with more diversity could have enhanced the generalisation of the results which could serve as direction for further research.

This paper is intended to fill a gap in the existing literature on public sector accounting reforms in the context of less developed or emerging countries. It is hopefully valuable for both policy makers and practitioners by allowing them to view the development, challenges and influential aspects of the implementation of New Public Management (NPM) in Sri Lanka in order that they will be able to make informed decisions about adopting more efficient NPM practices to enhance the country’s competitive advantages.