scholarly journals The performativity of accounting: advancing a Posthumanist understanding

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ed Vosselman
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Relational Agency ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it seeks to articulate a framework for different conceptions of accounting’s performativity. Second, it aims to advance a Baradian posthumanist understanding of accounting’s performativity. Design/methodology/approach The paper traces different foundational conceptions of performativity and then articulates and substantiates different conceptions of accounting’s performativity. It advances one of these conceptions by producing a Baradian posthumanist understanding of accounting’s performativity. Findings Seven conceptions of performative accountings are articulated: accounting as a (counter)performative illocution; accounting as a performative perlocution; accounting as a self-fulfilling prophecy; accounting as an overflowing frame; accounting as a controlled relational agency; accounting as a mediator; and accounting as an exclusionary practice. It is argued how a posthumanist understanding of accounting as an exclusionary practice turns accounting from a world-knowing practice into a world-making practice. As such, it should be called to account. Research limitations/implications Posthumanist qualitative accounting research that conceives of accounting as an exclusionary practice focuses on how accounting is a material-discursive practice that intra-acts with other practices, and on how there is a power-performativity in the intra-actions that locally and temporarily (re)produces meaningful positions for subjects and objects and the boundaries between them. Practical implications A posthumanist understanding teaches practitioners to be attentive to and accountable for the exclusions that come with accounting or, more generally, with measurement. Accounting raises ethical concerns. Originality/value This paper articulates different conceptions of accounting’s performativity and makes the case for empirical non-anthropocentric examinations of accounting as an exclusionary practice.

Ethical consumers' brand avoidance

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Rindell ◽  
Tore Strandvik ◽  
Kristoffer Wilén
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Ethical Consumers ◽  
Consumer Values ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore ethical consumers' brand avoidance. The study contributes to brand-avoidance research by exploring what role consumers' ethical concerns play in their brand avoidance. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach is adopted by interviewing 15 active members of organizations that represent ethical concerns for the well-being of animals, the environment and humans. Findings – The study indicates that consumers with a strong value-based perspective on consumption (such as ethical consumers) may reject brands in two different but interrelated ways. In essence, the study reveals characteristics of brand avoidance that have not been discussed in earlier research, in terms of two dimensions: persistency (persistent vs temporary) and explicitness (explicit vs latent). Practical implications – The study shows the importance of considering the phenomenon of brand avoidance, as it may reveal fundamental challenges in the market. These challenges may relate to consumer values that have not been regarded as important or that have been thought of as relating only to a specific group of consumers. Originality/value – The ethical consumers' views represent new insights into understanding brand avoidance.

The soul of resilience

Kybernetes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 672-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pille Bunnell
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Ecological Context ◽  
Dynamic Flow ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Effective Care ◽  
Relational Embeddedness ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Selection Of

Purpose Rather than an attempt to define or clarify resilience in terms of its characteristics, or its correspondence to reality, this paper is a series of reflections that leads to the notion of resilience as a way of being in the world. What is presented is not intended to be conclusive in any way. The paper aims to trigger thoughtful reflections that will lead to further conversations about the entailments and ethical concerns implicit in the concept of resilience. Design/methodology/approach The paper comprises reflections based on a selection of published ideas, as well as on personal engagement in the domains of ecology and the biology of cognition. In postulating that resilience may have a central, ineffable quality, the phrase “soul of” has been used as an approach to considering what such a quality may be. This formulation leads to a consideration about the nature of our relationships with the other such that the notion of resilience has become meaningful. Findings Language parses or chunks named ideas in a way that reveals some regularities and obscures others. The word resilience is one such chunk that historically has changed its meaning. Furthermore in the present the word refers to variable aspects or elements depending on the context of its usage. In the ecological context, resilience entails an ambiguous balance between persistence and change, and indeed this ambiguity may be necessary to accommodate the complexities. In all cases the author has considered, we are only concerned with resilience where there is an ethical dimension and this, inherently, must be multidimensional given the complexities of the systems being regarded. The author claims that the soul of resilience arises through an ethically oriented reflexive awareness of our dynamic flow in a relational embeddedness. Practical implications The practical implications of this paper are elusive, yet meaningful, as the paper attempts to open space for operating in an ethical and useful manner with ambiguous concepts and for avoiding the hubris of certainty. The paper is an explication of one of the ways of thinking inspired by second order science. Originality/value As the reflections in this paper are largely those original to the author, the ideas are original. Whether they have value depends on what ideas, attitudes, orientations and further reflections are triggered and whether these in turn implicitly or explicitly alter actions toward more effective care of our world. If reflection on resilience increases resilience, then this paper will have value.

Lessons we never wanted to learn: pandemic as pedagogy

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-627
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Fogarty
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
The World ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Level Analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is a reflective account in which one person who has been around long enough to see a good bit considers how COVID-19 might change the general contours of the world. Design/methodology/approach This paper follows a broadly based and relatively unstructured approach, based on personal understandings and whatever rigor might have been gained by a life spent thinking about research design and the limits of methodology. Findings The opposite of what many others believe will happen is argued for. Things will change more than we wish. Most will change for the worse. Research limitations/implications Accounting research will have a role to play, but to have impact, this study will require that researchers adopt a much more critical perspective about capitalism and its consequences than before. Practical implications Everyone must do the best they can. Everyone must learn to accept the new and not rage to restore that which existed in before times. Social implications Harsher climate of interpersonal relations will be realized. Originality/value This paper is more about change than about accounting. A 30,000-foot level analysis that does not try to provide many examples. An effort to rise above the specifics that vary across the world.

Paper development in qualitative accounting research: bringing social contexts to life

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Ahrens
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Research Group ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Expanding on an invited talk at the 1st Paper Development Workshop of the Qualitative Management Accounting Research Group, the purpose of this study is to offer some suggestions for developing qualitative accounting papers. Emphasis is put on the potential of qualitative research to situate evocative accounts of the organisational functionings of accounting in their wider social contexts. Design/methodology/approach To think about paper development as an exercise in communicating worthwhile findings to the readership by interweaving the researcher’s impressions of the field, recorded field material and different social theories to create qualitative accounting scholarship. Findings Qualitative accounting papers can, through the use of different theories, show the embedding of the organisational in the social. Development of qualitative accounting papers is an achievement that emerges in the process of writing. Practical implications Outlines five summary recommendations for paper development. Originality/value Reflects on paper development designed to create qualitative accounting research.

Topics and methods in forensic accounting research

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. DiGabriele ◽  
Wm. Dennis Huber
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Forensic Accounting ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purposes of this paper are to highlight those topics of forensic accounting that have received little or no attention in the forensic accounting research that has been published in forensic accounting research journals; discover what research methods have been most commonly used; and identify research methods that have been infrequently used. Design/methodology/approach – This is a descriptive research study that explores the topics and methods used in forensic accounting research published in forensic accounting journals. Findings – Fraud and quantitative methods make up the largest percentage of topics and research methods published in forensic accounting journals. Research limitations/implications – Limited to forensic accounting journals. Results suggest forensic accounting researchers are using mimetic topics and methods of accounting research. The absence of diversity in forensic accounting research topics and methods has the potential to compromise the overall contribution of forensic accounting research. Practical implications – This paper identifies gaps in topics and research methods in forensic accounting research to encourage research in diverse topics using diverse methods that will be valuable to forensic accountants. Originality/value – This original research is the first to survey and classify research published in forensic accounting journals according to topic and method.

Enhancing the transparency of accounting research: the case of narrative analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivo De Loo ◽  
Stuart Cooper ◽  
Melina Manochin
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Interpretive Approach ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
The Way

Purpose – This paper aims to clarify what ‘narrative analysis’ may entail when it is assumed that interview accounts can be treated as (collections of) narratives. What is considered a narrative and how these may be analyzed is open to debate. After suggesting an approach of how to deal with narrative analysis, the authors critically discuss how far it might offer insights into a particular accounting case. Design/methodology/approach – After having explained what the authors’ view on narrative analysis is, and how this is linked with the extant literature, the authors examine the socialisation processes of two early career accountants that have been articulated in an interview context. Findings – The approach to narrative analysis set out in this paper could help to clarify how and why certain interpretations from an interview are generated by a researcher. The authors emphasise the importance of discussing a researcher’s process of discovery when an interpretive approach to research is adopted. Research limitations/implications – The application of any method, and what a researcher thinks can be distilled from this, depends on the research outlook he/she has. As the authors adopt an interpretive approach to research in this paper, they acknowledge that the interpretations of narratives, and what they deem to be narratives, will be infused by their own perceptions. Practical implications – The authors believe that the writing-up of qualitative research from an interpretive stance would benefit from an explicit acceptance of the equivocal nature of interpretation. The way in which they present and discuss the narrative analyses in this paper intends to bring this to the fore. Originality/value – Whenever someone says he/she engages in narrative analysis, both the “narrative” and “analysis” part of “narrative analysis” need to be explicated. The authors believe that this only happens every so often. This paper puts forward an approach of how more clarity on this might be achieved by combining two frameworks in the extant literature, so that the transparency of the research is enhanced.

“[T]here are known knowns … things we know that we know”

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (8) ◽  
pp. 1796-1819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivo de Loo ◽  
Alan Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Interpretive Research ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Accounting Practice ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Interpretive Sociology ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The starting point for this paper is that the researcher is intimately bound up in all aspects of the research process. This idea of what is a critical aspect of much interpretive methodology has been challenged by some proponents of the interpretive accounting research (IAR) project. The authors suggest that adopting some of the views expounded in the IAR project may lead to the accounting research community becoming isolated from other interpretive methodology inspired disciplines. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Currently popular views on IAR are informed by selective theoretical insights from interpretive sociology. The authors argue that these insights cannot provide a general frame with which to encapsulate accounting research that may be reasonably termed “interpretive.” Findings The authors’ reading of the literature suggests that the some of the IAR literature exhibits: a tendency to routinely make overly specific claims for what it is possible for interpretive research to achieve; the promotion of a somewhat reductionist view of what the bounds of interpretive research are. The authors suggest that these tendencies detract from the strengths of (adopting a broad view of) IAR. Research limitations/implications In expressing the authors’ concerns, the authors do not wish to make an exclusive argument for what IAR is and is not. This would not be in line with writing an interpretive paper. While the authors do not eschew the possibility of a limited building of knowledge by applying interpretive methodological stances neither do the authors see such activity as a central plank of interpretive research. Practical implications The authors believe that positivistic commentaries on qualitative enquiry should not be taken as exemplary of interpretive research (in accounting – or elsewhere). The authors feel that IAR needs to be more open to an array of subjectivist motivations, if it is to provide useful critique of the nature of day-to-day accounting practice. Originality/value The authors seek to go beyond the rather unhelpful debate about whether IAR should be seen to possess both objective and subjective elements. The authors argue that IAR suffers more from a lack of engagement and debate than it faces dangers from areas of interpretive methodology that adopt positions considered to be too subjectivist.

Hospitality finance and managerial accounting research

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 751-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwangmin Park ◽  
SooCheong (Shawn) Jang
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Finance ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Hospitality Industry ◽  
Managerial Accounting ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Research Concept ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to present a brief overview of hospitality finance/accounting (HFA) research and to propose the utility of interdisciplinary research in the HFA field. Design/methodology/approach – This study outlines HFA research and adds a brief summary of mainstream finance and accounting research topics. To further improve HFA research, this study suggests the need for interdisciplinary research that could effectively integrate finance/accounting with other management subjects in the hospitality field. Findings – Despite its importance, interdisciplinary research has not been given enough attention in the field of HFA. This study sheds light on the need for interdisciplinary research and proposes paths for conducting interdisciplinary HFA research, such as behavioral finance, marketing-finance interface, human resource management finance/accounting, etc. Practical implications – This study suggests that the results of interdisciplinary HFA research can provide useful practical implications from shareholder and organizational perspectives in the hospitality industry. Originality/value – Although the interdisciplinary research concept is not really new, it has not been extensively addressed in hospitality academia. In this respect, this study suggests expanding the horizon for HFA researchers.

Constructions of credibility in decisions concerning unaccompanied minors

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Hedlund
Keyword(s):  
Text Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Unaccompanied Minors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Constructionist Approach ◽  
Knowledge Claims ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the key credibility principles used by Migration Agency case-officers in Sweden. More specifically it analyses how they construct arguments about asylum-seeking unaccompanied minors’ credibility in first-decisions. Design/methodology/approach The study is inspired by a social constructionist approach to discourse and explores how case-officers construct legally legitimate arguments about credibility. The qualitative text analysis is focused on discursive practice. The data selected for analysis consists of 827 excerpts containing case-officers’ credibility reasoning deducted from a sample of 916 decisions. Findings The main finding is that case-officers question unaccompanied minors by using argumentative techniques in which children appear to be expected to deliver detailed and coherent accounts. In addition, unaccompanied minors’ knowledge-claims can be questioned regardless of decision outcome (rejection or approval). As unaccompanied minors’ claims for asylum appear to be questioned in such an extensive manner, their humanitarian claims also seem to be reduced. The findings of this study suggest that there is a risk that the possibility to be understood as a legitimate asylum seeker, worthy of residency, can be restricted for unaccompanied minors. Practical implications The findings indicate that when case-officers base their understanding of credibility on unaccompanied children’s individual life experiences they make use of a limited repertoire of arguments. Originality/value This study contributes to insights about how case-officers fulfil legal expectations when assessing unaccompanied minors’ credibility. The findings can be of interest to both legal and social science as well policy planners and immigration practitioners.

scholarly journals Reassessing and refining theory in qualitative accounting research

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 510-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynda C. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Traditional Sense ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThis paper focuses on the role of theory in the process of doing qualitative accounting research. It discusses the role of theory in qualitative accounting studies, and provides and example of how theory can be reflected upon, reassessed and refined during a research process.Design/methodology/approachThis paper provides an illustrative account of theorizing during the process of qualitative accounting research. The paper places specific emphasis on an abductive approach to theorizing. An abductive theoretical framework is used to reflect on the theorizing process.FindingsThe “findings” reflect on the use of theory and the process of theorizing during a research process. The paper finds that abduction may be a useful way of theorizing in qualitative accounting research because it encourages the researcher to remain open to alternative explanations of data, which may promote theoretical development. This paper does not report the accounting practices of an organization in the traditional sense, but illustrates how the empirical findings led to an initial theoretical framework being developed.Practical implicationsThe paper is intended to be informative in showing how theory can be used and developed during research. It may be of value and interest to new and emerging researchers. It may also interest established researchers seeking to reflect on their use of theory in research.Originality/valueThere are few contributions that focus exclusively and explicitly on how theory is used and developed during the process of qualitative accounting research. Moreover, the abductive approach has received limited attention in accounting. This paper aims to address these gaps.

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