The performativity of accounting: advancing a Posthumanist understanding

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.

How to de-bias investment judgements–unpacking bias and possible remedies in a capital investment context

PurposeResearch on biases in investment decision-making is indubitably important; however, studies in this context are relatively scarce. Unpacking bias has received attention in the psychological literature yet very little attention from management accounting research. This bias suggests that the perceived probability that an event will occur generally increases when the event's description is unpacked into a disjunction of subevents. The authors hypothesize that for a capital investment decision context, managers' judgement of the probability of a future event depends on whether the event is described as one packed event or is unpacked into several disjoint subevents. Additionally, the authors propose that altering the format of the description of an event's occurrence from percentage values to relative frequencies reduces unpacking bias.Design/methodology/approachTo test the study’s hypotheses, the authors conducted two experiments based on a 3 × 2 mixed experimental design in which manager participants were asked to estimate the failure probabilities of technical systems in the context of an investment decision.FindingsThe authors provide evidence that unpacking bias occurs in an investment scenario, which can be characterized as a high-stakes decision context. Changing the format in which probabilities are presented from percentage values to relative frequencies significantly reduces the bias.Research limitations/implicationsAdditional instructions did not further reduce unpacking bias.Practical implicationsFor investment decisions under uncertainty, performance indicators in management templates should be presented in relative frequencies to improve managerial decision-making. The fact that the authors could not show an additional effect of instructions in management accounting reports indicates that it is challenging for management accountants to reduce the biased decision-making of managers by “teaching” them through the provision of instructions.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to accounting research by illustrating unpacking bias and by deriving a debiasing mechanism in a capital investment decision context.

Understanding Data Collection Methods in Qualitative Research: The Perspective Of Interpretive Accounting Research

In general, in qualitative research there are several methods of data collection, namely documentation, interviews, surveys, focus group discussions, observation, participatory arrangements and qualitative audio-visual material. The aim of this paper discusses about the method of data collection in qualitative research, especially in accounting research interpretive. After going through the literature review process, it can be seen that the quality of data in interpretive accounting research is strongly influenced by the ability of the researcher to carry out its role as a research instrument. Researchers should be able to ' merge' with the object of research so as to choose or combine the data collection method that is appropriate to be able to understand and interpret the research object corresponding subject's perspective or the communities studied in depth according interpretive characteristics.

Research Methods and Methodologies Used in Studies on Social Accounting

Accounting as a social science considers an objective and subjective reality that must be seen and understood under the institutional context where it is developed. Thus, this chapter discusses the roles and effects of the paradigms in accounting research, in general, and social accounting research, in particular, aiming to know and understand the research lines that better define a theoretical scope of analysis for the social accounting practice. This research tries to better fit the answers to some questions about social accounting. The results argue for the importance of keeping a theoretical paradigm alive in order to foster multidimensional openness and true scholarship in accounting research and application. A multi-disciplinary appreciation with different perspectives will enrich the research in social accounting.

The impact of the European Accounting Review on accounting research (1992-2019)

This paper analyzes the contribution that the European Accounting Review has made to accounting research since it was launched in 1992. Among the many motives for writing this paper, we believe that the most important ones are to identify the evolution of the main areas of research and to predict future trends in the field of accounting. Via a bibliometric approach, we have analyzed a total of 952 European Accounting Review publications indexed in the Scopus database since its inception, as well as 22,605 publications from 18 other journals indexed in the first quartile in the subject category 'accounting' of the Scopus database. We have identified the most influential documents and authors based on their publications and citations, the most productive institutions and their co-citation patterns, and the most prolific countries over three sub periods: 1992-2000, 2001-2010 and 2011-2019. We have also examined past and current research topics giving special attention to ‘accounting history’ to study the significance of this field of research in the journal. Some of our findings show that the most productive authors in EAR are Christopher Humphrey, David Alexander, Christopher W. Nobes, Pat Sucher and Begoña Giner. Regarding institutions and countries, the British, Spanish, and Dutch excelled in productivity. The topic ‘disclosure’ was the most addressed from 1992 to 2010, whereas ‘audit’ and ‘IFRS’ took the lead in the last decade. We have also studied the journal’s patterns of publication on ‘accounting history’. Our findings reveal that, although the publications in that field have been decreasing over the years, 9% of all documents published in the EAR are in that field of research.

Space for accounting and accountability: realising potential management accounting research contributions to the space sector

PurposeThe contribution of accounting research to the space sector has arguably been less discernible, less visible and less appreciated than that made by STEM disciplines. This paper aims to ascertain the nature and extent to which management accounting can contribute to interdisciplinary advancements of the space sector. This is accomplished by investigating possible contributions realised by management accounting research to the space sector and identifying the opportunities and challenges facing interdisciplinary accounting researchers in making a contribution.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative empirical study draws on interviews with 25 academic researchers and practitioners from Australia, the USA, the UK, Canada, Europe, India and China, with research or practitioner experience on accounting issues germane to the space sector. The purpose is to seek their perceptions of how interdisciplinary management accounting research can solve contemporaneous problems in the space sector.FindingsThe potential contribution that management accounting research can make in the space sector is grounded in the inherent interdisciplinary of the discipline. The propensity to draw on other disciplines, theories, methodologies and methods is a strength of management accounting, as it is arguably by such interdisciplinarity that “wicked problems’ such as those presented by space exploration, policy and research can be solved.Originality/valueThis is one of the first papers to explore the role and contribution management accounting research can offer to what has traditionally been a STEM-dominated field. In so doing, it underscores the central importance and value-added by an interdisciplinary approach to management accounting research.

Theory Testing and Process Evidence in Accounting Experiments

This paper discusses the role of process evidence in accounting research. We define process evidence broadly as data providing insight into how and why cause-effect relationships occur, and we provide a framework to guide the provision and evaluation of process evidence in accounting studies. Our definition allows for an expanded understanding of techniques for gathering process evidence. The framework highlights the importance of the study’s goals and theory in choosing how to provide process evidence as well as how much process evidence to provide. The paper also outlines the strengths and limitations of three approaches to providing process evidence: mediation, moderation, and multiple-study based designs. We provide recommendations for best practices for each approach to minimize threats to validity and maximize the value of process evidence.

A Review of the Agriculture Literature in Malaysian and Indonesian Accounting Journals

This article discusses the scope related to Malaysian and Indonesian accounting research in agricultural literature. This discussion was based on two well-known Malaysian accounting journals and many were referred from 2008 to 2016, recognized as Accounting Overview Malaysia (MAR) and Asian Business and Accounting Journal (AJBA), and three Indonesian accounting journals namely Economic & Financial Studies (SEZ) , Gadjah Mada International Business Journal (GamaIJB) and Indonesian Accounting and Finance Journal (JAKI). In MAR and AJBA, Corporate Governance, Auditing, Financial Accounting Reporting, and Management Accounting are the most widely published topics. In SEZ, Economy, Finance, Public Sector Accounting and Taxation; GamaIJ, Management / Managerial Accounting and Finance; and JAKI, Management / Managerial Accounting, Financial Accounting, and Reporting Audit are the most widely published topics. This article proposes peculiarities, non-company and non-professional attributes as opportunity-researched variable fields for future agricultural studies. This article concludes with a reminder of the direction that leads to Malaysian and Indonesian accounting research, including the ontological difference between agricultural studies and accounting minutes while the latter seeks to fulfill generalizations, company attributes and stereotyped-research-variable professionals. It was concluded there is no difference in the average number of journals published in Malaysia and Indonesia with the t test.

The pervasive role of accounting and accountability during the COVID-19 emergency

PurposeThis paper introduces the second part of a AAAJ special issue on accounting, accountability and management during the COVID-19 emergency. The authors analyse the themes that emerge from the second part of the special issue, which allows us to identify the diverse accounting and accountability practices across different geographical and organisational contexts. The authors also provide an overall picture of the contributions of the special issue, with insights into avenues of future research.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on the first part of the AAAJ special issue, the paper draws together and identifies additional emerging themes related to research into the COVID-19 pandemic and how it impacts accounting, accountability and management practices. The authors reflect on the contributions of the special issue to the interdisciplinary accounting research project.FindingsThe authors identify two macro-themes and outline their contributions to the accounting literature. The first deals with the changes and dangers of accounting and accountability practices during the pandemic. The second considers accountability practices in a broader sense, including reporting, disclosure and rhetorical practices in the management of COVID-19.Practical implicationsThe paper shows the pervasive role of accounting and accountability in the unprecedented and indiscriminate health crisis of COVID-19. It highlights the important role of special issues in producing timely research that responds to unfolding events.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to current debates on the roles of accounting and accountability during COVID-19 by drawing together the themes of the special issue and identifying future interdisciplinary accounting research on the pandemic's aftermath.

Properly identified imaginary needs, an inaccurately proposed methodology: The case of Rochester school of accountancy’s positive accounting methodology

Research Question: Whether accounting research has been in a better status after the domination of Rochester School of Accountancy’s Positive Accounting Methodology. Motivation: This study revisits the debate of the validity of Rochester school of accountancy's positive methodology. Rochester school of accountancy's positive accounting research has properly identified the assumed imaginary need of the US market. While positive accounting methodology may not be scientific under various accounts for science, it has contributed to accounting methodologically. Idea: Restricting financial accounting on issues related to decision-usefulness and perceiving corporate reporting as a product of accounting choices from an agency theory perspective constrains other dimensions of reality. Any restrictions to definitions of the role of accounting and its function (Glauter & Underdowen, 1974) blocks profoundly deep-rooted in contextual factors such as a country's social, political, and economic environment that all make up accounting which supposedly needs to be considered (Hellmann et al., 2010) in properly theorizing comprehensively practiced accounting. Data: Extensive writings have that documented internationally throughout time have been looked over. Tools: An analytical and critical examination has been conducted upon internationally accounting literature in a wide-ranging manner to provide an evaluation regarding Rochester school of accountancy's positive accounting research. Findings: The positive accounting methodology of the Rochester school of accountancy has been criticized by several accounting researchers for decades and even deem it disappointment and probably shame. Yet, Watts and Zimmerman declared themselves prime candidates. Its prevalence is the rhetoric of scientific inquiry. A measure of the failure of the so-called positive accounting methodology has achieved lays in its inability to become universal because differences in institutional environments persevere in the world. Contribution: Revisiting the debate of the validity of Rochester school of accountancy's positive methodology potentially contributes to our knowledge in assessing its legitimate prevalence in academic accounting research. New accounting researchers and scholars need to be aware of the predominant theoretical structure that governs the empirical financial paradigm and its limitation. This is especially significant to accounting researcher who has been intellectually trained under the positivistic tradition of economics.