Review of a collective work entitled Accounting in the economic, financial and management stream edited by Anna Karmańska

In 2020, a comprehensive publication (612 pages) was published by the Publishing House of the Warsaw School of Economics, entitled Accounting in the economic, financial, and management trend with the subtitle Golden Book for Dr. Zdzisław Fedak on the occasion of the renewal of the Ph.D. degree in economics. It is a particularly important and valuable collective work, prepared on the initiative and under the scientific supervision of Prof. Dr. hab. Anna Karmańska, director of the Accounting Institute at the Warsaw School of Eco-nomics (SGH), dedicated to Mr. Fedak, the Nestor of accounting science and practice in Poland. This text is a review of this publication.

Review of scientific achievements in the field of management accounting and controlling presented at the “Accounting and controlling” conference

Purpose: The aim of the article is to verify and assess the current state of scientific publi-cations in the field of management accounting and controlling presented at the conference “Accounting and controlling”. Metodology/approach: An analysis of the papers submitted to the conference was carried out in terms of the number of publications based on university affiliation, degree of partici-pant interest in the conference, and issues raised in the area of management accounting and controlling. Findings: The issues raised in the articles submitted to the “Accounting and controlling” conference demonstrate that interest in the issues of management accounting and control-ling is significant. However, despite the 25 years of scientific discourse, there is still a wide variety of opinions on the concept of controlling, its mission and specifications, as well as the place of controlling as a discipline in enterprises. Accounting tools that support man-agement are presented in many publications. However, there are also publications that discuss original concepts in the field of the methodology of controlling. Originality/value: The article summarises national scientific achievements in the field of management and controlling presented in the series of 25 editions of the conference “Account-ing and controlling. Keywords: controlling, management accounting, controlling tools, “Accounting and control-ling” conference.

Voluntary coercion? Conditions for sustainable reporting by small and medium-sized enterprises

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants and possibilities of dis-seminating sustainability reporting among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the basis of the accounting theory, legal regulations, and the opinions of SME representa-tives. Methodology/approach: A review of the literature and other sources. Cluster analysis, the k-means method, and the one-way ANOVA test were used to prepare the results of the survey conducted through AAP. Findings: Only stakeholder theory provides explanations that are useful for identifying the determinants of the dissemination of sustainability reporting among SMEs. The major-ity of SMEs are indirectly obliged to report, as a result of maintaining relationships with entities that are required to report non-financial information on the entire value chain. In our survey, we identified two groups. The first represents skeptics. They do not report non-financial information and do not support the introduction of a single, simplified, EU sus-tainability reporting standard for SMEs. The second group believes that SMEs should report non-financial data. They are usually entities that already report such information. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of the study are due to sample se-lection and size. In the implications, we emphasized the advantages of indirectly obliging SMEs to report non-financial information by requiring that their key stakeholders collect such information. Originality/value: The article fills a gap in the literature by providing empirical research on non-financial reporting in SMEs. Keywords: non-financial reporting, corporate sustainability reporting, small and medium enterprises.

XXV Conference on Accounting and Controlling. Conceptions of the Cost and Performance Management held in Polanica-Zdrój, October 11–13, 2021

The text contains a report of the scientific conference organized by the Chair of Cost Account-ing, Tax Management, and Controlling at the University of Economics and Business in Wroclaw, from 11 to 13 October 2021, in Polanica- Zdrój. The conference in the Accounting and Controlling cycle, under the motto, The Conceptions of Cost and Performance Man-agement, addressed today's problems and challenges in managing costs and performance. That conference was very special because it was the 25th jubilee conference. At this year's conference, Professor Edward Nowak was thanked for his many years of professional work and for organizing all editions of the conference.

The impact of the IASB project ‘Better communication in financial reporting’ on financial statements – selected issues

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to indicate the possible impact of the IASB project ‘Better communication in financial reporting’ on the presentation and disclosure of infor-mation in financial statements. Methodology/approach: On the one hand, the current state is presented (the basis was the project ‘Better communication in financial reporting’); on the other hand, value judg-ments were formulated regarding the proposed changes. The empirical study, which was based on content analysis, covered entities included in the WIG30. Findings: ‘Better communication in financial reporting’, in particular, IFRS X, will pri-marily affect the choice of the classification of expenses in the operating category of the profit or loss statement, as well as disclosure of management performance measures. Originality/value: The indication of the possible impact of the project ‘Better communication in financial reporting’ on the presentation and disclosure of information in the financial statements, which is unexplored so far. Keywords: primary financial statements, presentation, notes, disclosure, taxonomy, IFRS.

Anchoring, the norm reminder effect, and the faithful representation of an entity’s financial position

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to verify the assumptions about the impact of the anchoring effect and the norm reminder effect in accounting decisions, in the case of the freedom of choice left by legal regulations, Methodology/approach: The study was based on a 2 × 2 experimental design and was conducted with 110 working accountants. Findings: The results confirmed the regularities in decision-making identified in psychology, which may influence the quality of the information provided by accountants. Being re-minded of the legal norm concerning the rules for creating write-downs of receivables bur-dened with the risk of non-payment led to a significant increase in accountants’ propensity to create write-downs. Similarly, the anchor used in the experiment showed that introducing a numerical value unrelated to the criteria for the write-down significantly impacted the accountants’ assessment of the percentage value and the write-off. Practical implications: The anchoring and norm reminder effect may affect the quality of the presented numerical information and the fulfillment of the faithful representation requirement in financial statements. Originality/value: The study presented in the article, which concerns the impact of cognitive biases on professional accounting decisions, has not been empirically verified so far in Poland. At the same time, it is one of the few experimental studies within behavioral accounting in Poland. Keywords: anchoring heuristic, legal norm, decision-making, behavioral accounting.

A new costing system in health care entities –a voice in the discussion

Purpose: The aim of article is to comment on and evaluate the new legal regulations in costing in health care regarding how they are used by health care units. Methodology/approach: analysis of legal regulations, the literature on the subject, observations, as well as inference and synthesis in order to summarize the research results. The considerations in the research part were also based on the use of elements of the Delphi method, used to present the opinions of experts and representatives of health care units. Findings: The new cost accounting in healthcare entities is based on a systematic approach. It is partly a continuation of the legal solutions from 1999, but it introduces many new, detailed procedures, also in the form of instructions. The examined regulations meet the information needs of the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System. However, the legitimacy and profitability of their use are questionable. It has to be modi-fied to fully support the management of health care entities. Practical implications: The conclusions are useful for practice by highlighting the areas of costing that require extension and further critical judgment. Originality/value: It fills the research gap on the functionality of costing in health care entities. Keywords: accounting, costing, cost calculation, health care entity, hospital, health care.

Ethical and economic implications for an accounting office that offers bundled services with a bank account

Purpose: The profession of accountant as a profession of public trust is related to observing ethical and legal standards. In the course of his work, an accountant who offers his services on the market should consider the interests of the stakeholders of signed contracts, and due to the nature of his business, he should constantly improve his professional qualifications and guarantee independence. The aim of the article is to examine the ethical and economic effects of cooperation between an accounting office and a bank that bundles accounting services with a current account. Methodology/approach: The analysis focuses on the cooperation agreement between the accounting office and the bank as part of the current account services offered by the bank that come bundled with accounting. For the analysis, the following research methods were used: analysis of the scientific literature in the field of accounting and economics, case study considered in the context of Freeman, and methods of deduction and synthesis. Findings: Based on the analyzed agreement, a significant inequality was found between the benefits and obligations of individual signatories. Attention is also paid to the implica-tions of signing an agreement of this type for other market participants. Originality/value: The article is part of a scientific and practical discussion on the ethical and economic risks associated with signing a cooperation agreement between an account-ing office and a financial market institution in the form proposed by the bank. Keywords: outsourcing, stakeholder theory, ethics in accounting, bookkeeping services, accounting offices

The appearance of agency theory in the publications of Polish authors – the need to expand research in behavioral accounting

Purpose: The aim of the article is to assess the use of agency theory by Polish authors in articles in the field of accounting published by the end of 2020. Methodology/approach: The study was carried out using a structured literature review, which is a recognized method of conducting literature analysis, also in the field of accounting. Findings: The results of the review show little use of agency relations in empirical re-search. Both in theoretical and empirical research, the issues in financial reporting were most often addressed. In most publications, agency theory constitutes the theoretical back-ground for the considerations, while there is a lack of research that focuses on the impact of the agency relationship between the owner and manager or between employees at vari-ous levels on accounting. The empirical studies analyzed only external factors that influ-ence decision-making, while there is a gap in studies that focused on individual human characteristics. Research limitations/implications: The structured literature review covers articles pub-lished between 1993 and 2020 written by Polish authors. Originality/value: The originality of the article arises from the identification of shortcom-ings in the publications of Polish authors in contrast to global achievements, in particular in the fields of management accounting and behavioral accounting. Thus, we indicate the directions of further development of research already carried out by the few Polish authors. The guidelines concern the development of research in the field of behavioral accounting, which will deepen the knowledge about the impact of the principal-agent relationship on the decisions people make in creating reporting and management information. Keywords: agency theory, agency relation, behavioral accounting, SLR, literature review.

Revenue recognition and measurement in accordance with IFRS 15 and the Polish GAAP – a comparison

Purpose: The aim of this article is to assess the scale of differences between IFRS 15 and Polish GAAP in terms of revenue recognition. Methodology/approach: The methods used include studies of professional articles and legal acts, including the Polish Accounting Act, Polish Accounting Standards and relevant IAS/IFRS. Findings: The research has proven that Polish regulations can be categorised into two seg-ments. The first segment is KSR 15, which, compared to IFRS 15, contains very similar regulations regarding the general criteria for revenue recognition, including time point and measurement basis. The second segment comprises the Polish Accounting Act and KSR 3, which are based on international standards which are already superseded – IAS 11 and IAS 18, which dealt with revenue recognition over time. Practical implications: The article points out the differences between Polish and interna-tional regulation in terms of revenue recognition, which may play an important role for entities changing the basis for preparing their financial statements from Polish GAAP to IFRS. Originality: The article is the first attempt to compare the scale of similarities between the two sets of regulations in terms of revenue measurement and recognition