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Article
Publication date: 25 March 2024

Morten Jakobsen

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into how management accountants can become relevant business partners out of respect for existing locally developed accounts of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into how management accountants can become relevant business partners out of respect for existing locally developed accounts of economic performance for decision-making.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with local business actors, in this case, families from seven financially successful Danish dairy farms. The casework and the analysis have been informed by pragmatic constructivism.

Findings

The local business actors do not use the official accounting system for ongoing cost-management-related decision-making. Instead, they use several epistemic methods that include locally developed decision models, experiences, rules of thumb and intuition. The farmers use these vernacular accountings to compensate for the cost management illusion that the formal accounting system tends to create. What the study suggests is that when management accountants engage as business partners, they are likely to enter a space where accounting is already present.

Originality/value

This paper argues that local business actors practice epistemic methods where they develop and use vernacular accountings to support their managerial practice, also in the absence of a professional management accountant. These vernacular accountings may lead the local actors into an illusion because the vernacular accountings do not necessarily have an inherent economic logic and theoretical reliability. The role of the management accountant in such a setting is hence to understand, support and advance local epistemic methods. Becoming a business partner requires a combination of management accounting analytical skills and a sense of empathy and sensitivity regarding what is already at play and how this can become an object of discussion without violating the values of the other.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 August 2023

John J. Wild and Jonathan M. Wild

This study aims to investigate the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and disclosure transparency by examining over 12,000 disclosures of financial statements…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and disclosure transparency by examining over 12,000 disclosures of financial statements extending over 20 years. The purpose is to understand how CSR ratings relate to the level of disaggregation in financial statement line items. The study considers additional factors, such as firm size and governance, that can accentuate or moderate this relation.

Design/methodology/approach

This study applies regression analysis, including interactions, to test the magnitude of the relation between CSR ratings and disclosure transparency. CSR is measured as a composite score that ranks firms on their reputation over numerous indicators compiled by Morgan Stanley Capital International. Disclosure transparency is measured as the level of disaggregation in financial statement line items.

Findings

The study reveals evidence consistent with the notion that firms which are more CSR conscious are also more transparent with financial statements. Evidence shows that the level of transparency is more sensitive to changes in CSR for firms less CSR conscious. Firm size is found to moderate this relation, whereas enhanced governance accentuates it.

Originality/value

There is limited research on the relation between CSR ratings and disclosure transparency. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical evidence on the relation between CSR ratings and the disaggregation of financial statement line items. Results from this study help us understand the drivers of disclosure transparency, which can aid regulators, investors and other stakeholders in knowing how such drivers impact managerial decisions on the disaggregation of financial statements. Accountants play a central role in producing transparent and disaggregated accounting disclosures, and their role is pivotal in effectively integrating CSR into accounting and reporting models.

Details

Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1985-2517

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 December 2023

Jason Porter and Teresa Stephenson

This classroom activity helps students tie together the concepts of absorption costing for inventory, selling and administrative (SA) cost calculations, and sales price decisions…

Abstract

This classroom activity helps students tie together the concepts of absorption costing for inventory, selling and administrative (SA) cost calculations, and sales price decisions. It shows students how all costs fit together and are used to make business and pricing decisions, synthesizing discrete sections of most managerial or cost accounting books into a complete process. The activity is designed to be run in one 75-minute class session using an Excel template that allows students to focus on business decisions and less on the mechanics of completing calculations. The seven segments of the activity have students calculate target cost, allocate items of overhead into production and service departments, calculate absorption product cost, allocate SA to the production departments, determine the full cost, evaluate product viability, and calculate target price. At the end of the activity, students better understand how all these cost items fit together in a manufacturing setting.

Details

Advances in Accounting Education: Teaching and Curriculum Innovations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-172-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 August 2023

Fabiano Siqueira de Oliveira, Octávio Ribeiro de Mendonça Neto, Jose Carlos Tiomatsu Oyadomari and Claudio de Araújo Wanderley

This study aims to explore how management accounting practices act as drivers of organizational change in situations of institutional complexity.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore how management accounting practices act as drivers of organizational change in situations of institutional complexity.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study was carried out in a small company with a strongly rooted social culture, which was acquired by a large conglomerate and underwent a process of strategic change as part of a new control logic. Based on this, the study analyzes the evolution of this change, with a particular focus on the efforts to construct the meaning of the performance through the inscription of objects from the cultural system to which it is attached and the “situated rationality” of the managers who are involved in its production.

Findings

The authors show how managers link their own concepts of performance to accounting practices. At the same time, the authors show how accounting practices unfold through representational gaps that their production generates.

Research limitations/implications

This study acknowledges that bias may arise from reliance on retrospective views of past processes and events, gathered primarily through interviews, documentation and observations.

Practical implications

This study highlights that the way in which the performance concept is presented by accounting practices can have a constructive effect on the organization through the aspirations that its representations entail, thus having the potential to stimulate change in organizations.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the organizational literature by clarifying that accounting practices drive change by providing spaces for debates and questions that affect the way organizations understand and report their performance.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 May 2024

Paul J. Thambar, Aldónio Ferreira and Prabanga Thoradeniya

This study aims to examine the role of performance management systems (PMSs) in enabling logic blending to manage institutional complexity and tensions arising from coexisting…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the role of performance management systems (PMSs) in enabling logic blending to manage institutional complexity and tensions arising from coexisting institutional logics.

Design/methodology/approach

This research uses a case study of an Australian non-government organisation (NGO) operating in an institutional field dominated by the state government, in which policy reform jolted the balance between institutional logics. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, archival documents and observations.

Findings

We find the policy reform required the NGO to transform from a wholly care focus to accommodate a more balanced approach with a focus on care coupled with efficiency, outcome delivery and performance measurement. The NGO responded by revising its purpose, strategy and operational model and by seeking to address the imperatives of two dominant and often competing care and managerial logics. We find this was achieved through logic blending, in which PMSs played a pivotal role, with the formalisation and collaboration processes mobilising different elements of PMSs, mobilising some elements differently or not mobilising some elements at all.

Originality/value

This study highlights the central role of PMSs in managing tensions between and the complexity arising from coexisting institutional logics through logic blending, a form of enduring compromise. This study extends the accounting logics and performance management literature by developing the understanding of what constitutes logic blending and how it is distinct from other forms of compromise.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 July 2023

Ewa Wanda Maruszewska, Małgorzata Niesiobędzka and Sabina Kołodziej

The study aims to investigate the impact of indirectly evoked incentives, in the form of supervisor’s preferences, on the decision about accounting policy regarding depreciation…

Abstract

Purpose

The study aims to investigate the impact of indirectly evoked incentives, in the form of supervisor’s preferences, on the decision about accounting policy regarding depreciation method selection and to examine subsequent post-decision distortion by evaluating the depreciation method.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted two experiments with control and treatment groups, manipulating the supervisor’s indirectly evoked preferences. In Study 2, the authors also measured the evaluation of both depreciation methods to investigate post-decisional distortion regarding the assessment of the depreciation method chosen in a decision task. Study 1 was conducted among 85 accounting students, while Study 2 consisted of 200 accountants.

Findings

Both studies revealed the significant impact of supervisor’s indirectly evoked preferences on accounting policy decisions. Participants who were aware of supervisors’ preferences were more likely to choose the depreciation method that was consistent with those preferences. The authors also found that those participants attached a higher value to the depreciation method, providing evidence that adherence to the supervisor’s preferences results in a distorted assessment of the depreciation methods.

Originality/value

First, this study shows that indirectly evoked supervisors’ preferences may lead to a departure from substantive criteria resulting in low-quality accounting outcomes. Second, the assessment of the depreciation method is inseparable from the situational context, as the evaluation of the depreciation method is interdependent upon the preferences of the choice of a depreciation method and the fulfillment of those preferences.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 32 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 October 2023

Malik Abu Afifa, Isam Saleh and Hien Vo Van

Based on the technology acceptance model theory, this study aims to explore whether perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PE) and the availability to embrace…

1244

Abstract

Purpose

Based on the technology acceptance model theory, this study aims to explore whether perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PE) and the availability to embrace technology (AET) influence the intention to accept an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in Jordanian companies. It also analyses the influence of the intention to accept ERP system on ERP system adoption. More crucially, the current research fills a gap in earlier investigations by exploring the influence of adopting an ERP system on accounting information quality moderated by a company size.

Design/methodology/approach

This research seeks to provide evidence about the study context from Jordanian companies, as the research population and sample consist of all companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange in 2022 (totally 170 companies). This signifies that the research method is a complete survey of the study population. The core data were collected using an online survey via Google Forms. It was emailed to the selected companies’ chief financial officers. Because each company received one online survey questionnaire, this unit of analysis is a company. Finally, 141 questionnaires were returned, reflecting an 82.94% response rate.

Findings

Empirically, the findings reveal that PU, PE and AET influence the intention to accept an ERP system, and that there is a positive relation between the intention to accept an ERP system and ERP system adoption. Furthermore, ERP system adoption positively influences relevance and faithful representation of accounting information moderated by company size.

Originality/value

This research adds to the accounting information quality literature by investigating the direct influence of ERP system adoption. Furthermore, the findings show the effectiveness of ERP system adoption and its regulatory roles in companies. Finally, this research was conducted to provide empirical knowledge on ERP system adoption in developing countries, notably Jordan.

Details

Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9342

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 May 2023

Valter Luís Barbieri Colombo and Ilse Maria Beuren

This study aims to examine the effects of the culture for innovation, work engagement and the use of interactive performance measurement systems (PMSs) in the interorganizational…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effects of the culture for innovation, work engagement and the use of interactive performance measurement systems (PMSs) in the interorganizational accounting processes automation at a shared services center (SSC).

Design/methodology/approach

A single-entity survey was carried out at an SSC provider of B2B accounting services of a multinational company in the electrical sector, and structural equation modeling was applied for data analysis.

Findings

The results show that the culture for innovation, the work engagement and the use of interactive PMS positively and significantly influence the accounting process automation in the investigated SSC. Moreover, the use of interactive PMS presents a mediating effect on the relationship between culture for innovation and work engagement.

Research limitations/implications

The research findings contribute by revealing that the culture of innovation, work engagement and the interactive PMS support the use of robotic process automation and artificial intelligence in the interorganizational automation of accounting processes in an SSC-type service ecosystem. This highlights the importance of the culture of innovation and the positive feeling toward work being reinforced by the organization and the role of the interactive PMS as a formal instrument to transmit the organizational objectives and provide a common vision.

Originality/value

The study reveals that the use of interactive PMS seems to be an important conductor of the behavior of employees toward the accounting process automation strategy at the SSC, reinforced, in this case, by the culture of innovation and work engagement.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 38 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 April 2023

Malik Abu Afifa and Nha Minh Nguyen

This research aims to determine the impact of the CEO's risk-taking tendencies and the transformational leadership style on the use of the management accounting system…

Abstract

Purpose

This research aims to determine the impact of the CEO's risk-taking tendencies and the transformational leadership style on the use of the management accounting system information, as well as the mediating impact of product creativeness and organizational citizenship behavior in this context. It also provides empirical evidence from Vietnamese enterprises.

Design/methodology/approach

The current research was conducted using quantitative methods. It was conducted during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam. The study population is represented by all of the Vietnamese enterprises listed on stock exchanges. Therefore, an online email questionnaire was used for data collection. Specifically, 670 emails were sent to CEOs and 146 complete responses were collected (21.79% rate).

Findings

By using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), the study results show that the CEO's risk-taking tendencies and transformational leadership style have a significant positive effect on the use of the management accounting system information. Additionally, product creativeness mediates the relationship between the CEO's risk-taking tendency, and the use of the management accounting system information. Also, organizational citizenship behavior mediates the relationship between transformational leadership style and the use of the management accounting system information.

Research limitations/implications

Despite attempts to overcome by GDP contribution ratio, convenience sampling tends to cause common method bias. Furthermore, small sample sizes can lead to heterogeneity and unstable estimates of the parameter. Causality issues may also arise because the model has no control variables. Therefore, later studies should take the necessary additional steps when sampling to stay consistent with the study population, possibly conducting surveys in several batches to determine the correlation between changes in variables, and allowing the ability to discover and add any necessary control variables.

Originality/value

This research acts as a bridge between management and management accounting, confirming the importance of this combination when efficiently using the management accounting system.

Article
Publication date: 27 April 2023

Nizar Mohammad Alsharari

This paper aims to discuss the interplay between strategic management accounting (SMA) and three organizational change configurations: strategy, structure and restructuring. This…

1088

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discuss the interplay between strategic management accounting (SMA) and three organizational change configurations: strategy, structure and restructuring. This explication occurs within a context that is characterized by organization restructuring and corporate strategy changes within Jordan Customs Organization (JCO).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a qualitative research approach and presents an interpretive case study of the JCO public sector organization. To collect data, it uses methodological triangulation, which includes interviews, historical and statistical analyses, documents and archival records. It is informed by the theoretical lens of configurational theory and strategic typologies to interpret the influences of organizational change configurations on SMA as it relates to the interplay of strategy, structure and restructuring.

Findings

The study findings agree with the related literature that SMA practices have developed management accounting from important operational transactions to gain a more strategic orientation through integrating customers, human resources, processes and financial departments. This paper concludes that specific SMA techniques have been used for strategizing by organizations in the public sector, providing a valuable counterpoint to the private sector adaptation that has dominated SMA research. This study finds that organizational restructuring has also contributed to decentralization and delegation, which has led to the distribution of tasks and specialization in accounting departments. It also concludes that SMA may facilitate or delay organizational change configurations in JCO. SMA can play a significant role in ensuring that the institution learns in response to organizational changes. On the contrary, this paper also concludes that organizational practices led to changes in SMA rules and routines.

Research limitations/implications

A general criticism of case-study methods is that they lack rigor and provide little basis for generalization. First, case studies tend to be specific and individual, posing significant issues regarding generalization. Therefore, several comparative case studies involving various organizations should be conducted to ascertain if these practices have become more commonplace, especially in the public sector. Second, considering the nature of a government entity and the sensitivity of the information that required confidentiality, certain strategizing imperatives could not be directly examined, such as meetings between top management to make important decisions of strategic significance. This paper has important implications because it highlights the shortcomings of a supercilious singular relationship between strategic choices and the design of SMA practices.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the growing literature by focusing on the relationship between SMA and three organizational change configurations: strategy, structure and restructuring. This paper is informed by the configuration theory perspective commonly used in accounting research. The empirical evidence in this study is provided in an SMA field, where empirical research is needed to be comparable with traditional accounting practices.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

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