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We document the relationship between size, the presence of a full-time accountant, strategy, and the adoption of management control systems (MCSs) in small- and medium-sized Canadian manufacturing enterprises (SMEs).

Using survey results from 247 Canadian SMEs, we use partial least squares to holistically test our model and also present data for each MCS.

We find that the presence of a professional accountant is strongly associated with the adoption of MCSs and is a significant explanatory variable more often than either size or strategy.

While the impact of organization and strategy has been extensively studied within large organizations, we investigate these relationships within SMEs. Additionally, we investigate the impact of having a full-time accountant, a constraint unique to SMEs due to their limited resources.

Limitations include the fact that we likely have a significant survivor bias as the average age of our sample firms was 30 years. Our analysis of nonresponse bias does not allow us to conclude that such a bias did not exist. Also, it is possible that some respondents believed they had a certain MCS when others might think they did not.

This study will be of interest to owners/managers of manufacturing SMEs, their advisors, and economic development agencies. Our study also has implications for accounting education as most students will work for SMEs.

Few studies have documented the MCSs adopted by North American SMEs, and none have considered the impact of the presence of a full-time accountant.

The paper explores the creation in Australia of the Register of Accountants for National Service. Established at the outset of the Second World War, the Register operated for four years from June 1940 providing voluntary, non-remunerated, part-time and after-hours services to a highly stressed and seriously stretched federal government bureaucracy by members of the main Australian professional accounting bodies. Departments of the Navy, Army, Air Force, Supply and Development and Munitions were the largest consumers of the services offered.

The study of the Register relies mainly on an extensive archive of war-time documentation from the Federal Government and various accounting professional institutes which has survived, predominantly in the National Archives of Australia. The resource is particularly rich in material covering the complex negotiation processes that brought the Register into operation together with documentation recording and reporting the work of the Register. The themes of professionalization, institutional legitimacy, volunteerism and patriotism are all invoked to explain the presence of the Register in the machinery of government that was assembled to deliver the ultimately successful war effort. Created by the principal professional accounting institutes, the Register attests to the commitment of their members to the war effort and, thereby, the importance of the profession to Australian society.

The perilous situation of Australia at a time of war provided a compelling incentive for the accounting profession to organise itself in an efficient and highly effective manner to assist with the war effort. The disparate and somewhat fractured accounting profession at the time was able to work together in a structured, cohesive and disciplined manner to provide voluntary services when called upon. To deliver the voluntary services promised, a purpose-built set of institutional arrangements was put in place. An extensive inventory of the potential services that could be provided by members of the main professional accounting bodies was conducted to facilitate the smooth matching of government needs with services available.

Discussion focusses only on Australia where the Register was unique. No other examples have been discovered where a profession has self-mobilised to serve a nation in a time of war. A further limitation is that the activities reported are restricted to self-reporting by the Register and a small loose collection of documents prepared by the Department of the Navy.

The uniqueness of the Register is the core of the originality and value of this study. How and why it came into being and the method by which it completed the “task” assigned to it stand as testament to a profession strategically placed to contribute in a substantive manner to the war effort at minimal cost to the nation.

This study examines the moderating role of female directors on the relationship between the firms’ characteristics and tax avoidance in an emerging economy.

This study employs the second-generation unit root test and the generalised method of moments (GMM) techniques. The Kao residual cointegration test corroborates a long-run cointegration among variables.

Female directors demonstrate mixed and unusual findings. No significant impact of female directors on tax avoidance is found. In addition, the presence of female directors does not show any negative or significant moderating impacts on the relationship between leverage, firm age, board size and tax avoidance. However, having more female directors can negatively and significantly moderate the relationship between more profitable firms, larger firms and tax avoidance. These findings show that the board of directors could use the presence of female directors to maximise their opportunistic behaviour, such as to avoid tax.

Research limitations – The study is limited by considering only 62 listed firms. The scope could be extended to include non-listed firms.

Research implications – There is increasing pressure for female directors on boards from diverse stakeholders, such as the European Commission, national governments, politicians, employer lobby groups, shareholders, and Fortune and Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) rankings. This study provides input to decision-makers putting gender quota laws into practice. Our findings can help policy-makers adopt regulatory reforms to control tax avoidance practices and enhance organisational legitimacy. Policymakers can change their policy to include female directors up to the threshold suggested by the critical mass theory.

This is the first attempt in Bangladesh to explore the role of female directors in the relationship between the firms' characteristics and tax avoidance. The current study has significant ramifications for bringing gender diversity into practice as a component of good corporate governance.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the strategies that New Zealand chartered accountants use to combine work and family responsibilities, and to relate these strategies to chartered accountants' career success.

The study analysed qualitative career history data obtained from interviews with 69 male and female experienced chartered accountants.

A comprehensive work/family strategy typology for New Zealand chartered accountants was developed. The five types identified were Traditional Men, Traditional Women, Work First Women, Family Balancers, and Stepping Stone Men. In general, those who followed a male linear career model (Traditional Men and Work First Women) demonstrated higher levels of career success. Some notable exceptions showed that career success could be achieved by those with higher levels of family responsibilities, if the employing organisation does not demand rigid conformance with the linear career model.

The purposeful bias in the sample selection and the diversity in the interviewees' workplaces decrease the study's generalisability. But those factors contributed to the ability to identify a wide range of current work/family strategies.

The paper provides a basis for the accountancy profession to adapt to the feminisation of the profession and the increasing demands for work/life balance by developing policies and practices targeted at enhancing career progression for a more diverse range of work/family strategic types than is currently recognised.

There are no prior data describing the diversity in New Zealand chartered accountants' work/family strategies.

With the increasing prevalence of awards for reporting fraudulent activity, it is important to learn if there are unintended consequences associated with the language offering such awards. Aside from issues regarding submitting unsubstantiated claims of fraud to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Section 922 of the Dodd–Frank Act may inadvertently encourage would-be whistleblowers to delay reporting fraud. Potential whistleblowers may choose to delay reporting due to the consideration of alternatives to external reporting, in a misguided attempt to increase the size of an award, or due to their ethical stance on the issues. Using a three-stage mixed methods (experiment, open-ended interviews, and experiment) approach, this study provides evidence that increased knowledge of statutes involving external whistleblowing may result in reporting delays. The data suggest that despite statements from the SEC forbidding this, managers may choose to delay reporting when under the threshold necessary to receive an award. In such a manner, managers may be allowing the fraud to grow to a necessary perceived level over time. As might be expected, the accountants in this study were more cautious, checking to see if internal reporting worked first. Of particular note, 16 individuals indicated that they would never report, with the motivation apparently driven by fear of job loss and/or retaliation. Lastly, the intention to delay or speed up reporting may be very different based on the perception of ethics involved in the decision.

Drawing upon the resource-based view and the contingency theory, the purpose of this paper is to build and test a framework of: the interaction between market orientation (MO) and accountants’ participation in strategic decision making; and its subsequent effect on the use of management accounting systems (MASs), which, in turn, enhances firm performance.

The hypotheses were empirically tested using partial least square-structural equation modeling with survey data from 171 large business firms in Vietnam. The standardized root mean squared residual value of the composite model was also examined using SmartPLS3 to test the model fit. The marker-variable technique was employed to test common method bias.

This study has two key findings: first, the use of MAS (in terms of broad scope, timeliness, aggregation, and integration) mediates the effect of MO on firm performance. Second, the degree of accountants’ participation in strategic decision making elevates the positive relationship between MO and the use of MAS.

This study is one of the first empirical attempts to test the contingent roles of accountants’ participation in strategic decision making and the use of MAS information in driving performance of market-oriented firms in the context of a transition market.

The purpose of this paper is to explore perceptions and lived experiences of Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants, vis-à-vis their professional identity with a particular focus on two elements of postcolonial theory, hybridity and diaspora.

A qualitative methodological framework was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants about their perceptions of their professional identity and their professional experiences both within and outside Sierra Leone.

The current professionalisation process is conceptualised as a postcolonial third space where hybrid professional accountants are constructed. Professional hybridity blurs the local/global praxis being positioned as both local and global accountants. Participants experience difficulty “fitting into” the local accountancy context as a consequence of their hybridisation. As such, a diaspora effect is induced which often culminates in emigration to advanced countries. The paper concludes that although the current model engenders emancipatory social movements for individuals through hybridity and diaspora, it is nonetheless counterproductive for Sierra Leone’s economic development and the local profession in particular.

This study has significant implications for understanding how the intervention of global professional bodies in developing countries shapes the professionalisation process as well as perceptions and lived experiences of chartered and aspiring accountants in these countries.

While extant literature implicates the legacies of colonialism/imperialism on the institutional development of accountancy (represented by recognised professional bodies), this paper employs the critical lens of postcolonial theory to conceptualise the lived experiences of individuals who are directly impacted by such institutional arrangements.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

Investigates the impact of locus of control and gender on the experiences and practices of accounting professionals. Also considers the impact of role overload, inter‐role conflict, and coping behaviour on these attitudes. Suggests that a complex set of forces creates differences in the extent to which an individual encounters, and is successfully able to contend with, both role overload and inter‐role conflict. Gender differences were observed in the accountants′ expressions of housekeeper role overload, volunteer role overload, and inter‐role conflict between work and spouse. Locus of control differences were present in the perceived conflict between work and self. Locus of control and gender interacted to produce differences in accountants′ expressions of overload and leisurite role overload expressed less satisfaction with their current positions and greater intentions to search for alternative opportunities. Suggests that the accounting environment may still be inhospitable for certain women attempting to realize multiple work and family obligations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons for the apparent “under‐achievement” of mothers working in accountancy, even when at similar levels of qualification to those of fathers.

Analysis of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales membership dataset was carried out, as well as semi‐structured work‐life interviews with ten male and ten female chartered accountants with children.

The paper finds that women do not progress in accountancy to the same extent as men, and earn considerably less. The qualitative evidence suggests that some residual gender discrimination is still present, but more important are the difficulties in combining paid employment with family responsibilities, particularly for those in higher‐level positions. Part‐time and flexible working carries with it a penalty in relation to both earnings and organisational status. The interviews do provide some evidence of change, however.

While men (and women) continue to work very long hours in the UK, while the gender pay gap persists, and while women continue to take on the majority of childcare and housework, women are also likely to “choose” to work below their abilities, especially when economic pressures are not a primary issue.

By adopting a mixed‐methods approach, the paper highlights that, while workplace‐related barriers still hinder mothers' career progression in accountancy, the division of domestic labour is at least, if not more, important.