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.

The hidden history of Benjamin Montgomery: Slave, manager, and accountant

Little is known about the contributions of African-American slaves in the histories of various business domains, including accounting. Some authors attribute this scholarly silence to ideological motives due to race-ethnicity and bigotry. Others note that this paucity reflects not only a lack of data but also an inability to adequately approach the contributions of minorities to the accounting profession. Consequently, there are hidden voices in accounting history that should be explored. One of those voices belongs to Benjamin Thornton Montgomery, a Southern slave who became a plantation manager and owner. Observing Montgomery’s practices through the unique historical lens of the ante-bellum period of the United States, we argue that he should also be acknowledged for his responsibilities as an accountant. Accordingly, we use an analytically structured narrative process to examine the compelling case of Ben Montgomery to inform a more accurate and balanced historical foundation of accounting practice in America.

Accounting for and Accounts of death: Past, present and future possibilities

Despite being an inevitable consequence of living, accounting for and accounts of death are under-researched in the accounting history literature. In this article, we review this literature and find that only a few studies engage beyond a mere reference to death; and even fewer that attempt to account for or provide accounts of death. Those studies that attempt to provide an account fall into two broad categories. First, those that treat death as a transactional phenomenon; and second, those that call for some form of accountability for death, a phenomenon we term necroaccountability. Further, we highlight a third space where accounting and death coalesce in the business of death. Through this process, we identify opportunities to increase our knowledge of accounting and death by understanding the ways in which it has been conceptualised and mobilised in the past.

The business needs that drove the emergence of double entry In defense of Pacioli, again… it is time to remove those dark glasses

Being able to understand how double entry works is a critically important skill of an accountant but, few accounting graduates either understand or perform double entry at the level desired. It has always been taught using rules, never by principles. This paper responds to and rejects criticisms published in this journal by Richard Macve. They concern a paper I published in 2018 presenting Luca Pacioli’s approach to teaching double entry using a principles-based approach. My response also uses grounded theory to reject Professor Macve’s theory concerning the development of double entry by generating an opposing new theory to explain what motivated its emergence. Furthermore, it highlights problems in the use of literature in accounting history; and uses theories of pedagogy and studies on teaching DEB to reject his insistence that it should be taught using a balance sheet equation approach. Several other comments/suggestions in his wide-ranging article are addressed.

Dissolving the value-price transformation Rubik's cube: A response to Steve Toms’ review of Accounting for Value

Toms disputes the Temporal Single-System Interpretation's claim to have refuted Bortkiewicz’s influential charge that Marx's transformation from values to prices is ‘inconsistent’. This is a claim that Bryer supports with a replacement cost accounting interpretation, which Toms asserts leaves the ‘problem’ an ‘unsolved’ Rubik's cube. This conclusion is seriously misleading, the note argues, which illustrates the dangers from failing to always take the ‘social turn’ in accounting history research.

Accounting, greed, and beliefs in a nineteenth century communal religious society

The availability of the accounting and other records of a religious communal society (the Harmony Society) provides for a study that adds to the literature on accounting in religious organizations, a need highlighted in Carmona and Ezzamel’s article in Accounting History that discusses: (1) the unique spiritual dimension of religious institutions and its impact on accounting, and (2) the ‘sacred/profane divide’ (p. 122). The Harmonists’ communal beliefs were derived from Biblical interpretations and were necessitated by the need for shared labor and resources. Harmonists’ accounting records were sophisticated but did not account for labor costs provided by members. The interplay of these beliefs and the greed of the leaders impacted the group’s accounting system and created a spiritual/profane divide. The study explores the interplay between the role of accounting and the community’s beliefs and goals.

An Accounting History of Credit Money

This article seeks to demonstrate that the invention of double-entry accounting, during the 13th and 14th centuries in the cities of northern Italy, was at the origin of the emergence of our monetary system: the credit money system. By showing the limits of the monetary histories that currently exist, this article shows that these limits are the consequence of a theoretical unthought: that of the different dimensions of money. It then shows that this problem is particularly well defined by double-entry accounting, which explains its decisive historical importance for the history of money.