1,721,116 research outputs found
Political economy of accounting and governance in Africa
No full textGovernance has become an important concept in the development agenda and forms part and parcel of the development discourse and has, thus, become central in donor decisions. Unfortunately, while government accounting system is likely to contribute to strengthening governance, most efforts in the areas to ultimately improve governance fail or achieve limited results. This paper examines the views of various stakeholders on the ground to understand the lack of success in government accounting and governance initiatives. Our analysis is based on case studies conducted in two African countries, namely Benin and Ghana. Data was collected by ways of interviews, informal discussions and document analysis. The views of the participants were paramount in drawing tentative conclusions from the study. We find that weak governance and accounting systems and the resistance to improve go beyond widely reported corruption, weak capacity and lack of ownership but rather lie within the political economic forces and interests at work in Africa. Three groups of forces and interests are found to shape the state of governance and accounting system. These are (1) internal political system and institution forces, (2) internal economic interests/forces, and (3) international political economic forces and interests. In conclusion we suggest that in order to understand governance and how this should be improved requires engaging with the stakeholders on the ground. Furthermore, we conclude that accounting is central to the analysis of governance and should be accorded more importance in the development arena
Government accounting reform in an ex-French African colony: the political economy of neo-colonialism
No full textThis paper examines the political economy of introducing a computerised accounting system in a former French colony in Africa with little government accounting and few financial statistics. The reforms were a condition of structural adjustment programmes imposed by the World Bank to improve governance, decision making and government accountability in a country with a turbulent political history since independence, and weak and often corrupt governance. The reform was unusual in that indigenous civil servants had considerable discretion over the choice and development of the system. Thus the local capability in developing government accounting technology suited to the local context and derived from learning by experience was created. The system was widely regarded as effective but it was abandoned for a French system which ultimately proved problematic. The decision to change the system and its ensuing problems are attributed to North-South relations, indigenous neopatrimonial leadership, and neocolonialism, especially by France in Francophone Africa
Accounting and Development in Africa
No full textDespite accounting being often seen as a crucial ingredient in economic and social development for African countries with pressing needs to meet development challenges (such as alleviating poverty, improving sanitation and public infrastructures, increasing literacy, and improving health), research on African accounting and development is often neglected and relegated to the periphery, especially in leading accounting journals. This Special Issue features a variety of works – theoretically, methodologically, and empirically spanning a wide range of countries across Africa, seeking to redress this and provide avenues and questions for further reflection and future research. In particular, the articles in this Special Issue document the role of accounting in Africa across the private, public and third sectors, and how the role is constrained and compromised by the political economy at play in the continent. The constraints and compromises relate to: (1) external actors, namely international financial institutions, Western governments, international accounting standard setters, Western accounting associations pursuing global growth, and the ‘Big 4’ accounting firms; and (2) local actors and circumstances, such as domestic governments, weak regulation, low accounting capacity, and webs of corruption. The reported problems with accounting in Africa appear not to reside primarily in accounting per se, but with how it is conceived, implemented and used to achieve particular interests, mostly at the expense of social, economic and institutional development at the domestic level
Globalisation, accounting and developing countries
Get PDFAccounting is an instrument and an object in globalisation but its impact and manifestation is not uniform across Northern developed countries and Southern developing countries (DCs). This paper reviews contributions on globalisation and its influence on accounting in DCs, and identifies important research gaps. It examines the role of accounting in changing development policies, from state capitalism through neo-liberal market-based to good-governance policies. It then considers specific accounting issues, namely the diffusion of International Accounting Standards (now International Financial Reporting Standards) and how they promote global neo-liberalism; the development of the accounting profession in DCs in the face of competition from Northern global accounting firms and professional associations; accounting issues in state-owned organisations, and privatised and multinational corporations; government accounting reforms and the resurrection of the state in DCs; social and environmental accounting issues; and the rise of non-governmental organisations and their accounting and accountability. The discussion and conclusions reflect on achievements to date and important areas requiring further development
How the colonial legacy frames state audit institutions in Benin that fail to curb corruption
No full textSupreme audit institutions are an important pillar of governance and government resource management, particularly for controlling corruption. Francophone African countries inherited these from their former colonial power, France, but their role and function are limited. This paper argues that this is partly a legacy of their colonial experience. It investigates the Chamber of Accounts in Benin, the country's supreme audit institution, using the lenses of Ekeh (1975) two publics and legitimacy theory. Nonetheless, Ekeh's theory needed extending to incorporate changes affecting governance after Benin's independence. The amorality of political officials, accepted by much of Benin society, rendered the institution largely ineffective in controlling corruption. Nevertheless, civil society organizations, donors, and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have attempted to redress this. Politicians and government officials responded by engaging in symbolic compliance to meet stakeholders’ expectations. A separate audit institution – the General Inspectorate of State – was established under the sole control of the President to gain external legitimacy and retain donors’ budget support, whilst persistent corruption and rising poverty continue. Benin's auditing institutions have become empty crates, which sometimes facilitate rather than control corruption.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
An investigation of organisational culture: A case study of Indonesia’s professional accounting firms
No full textExisting research on accounting firms has dealt with professional and ethical values, global professional networks, and nation-state organizational cultures, but there have been few studies that scrutinise all factors in a non-Western country such as Indonesia. As a fast-developing country, Indonesia offers a unique set of characteristics: cultural diversity, an emerging and strengthening economy, and exposure to many aspects of business globalisation. This study documents the impact of both global and local values and beliefs (institutions) on audit professionalism and accounting firm cultures.
The objective of this research is to investigate the extent to which Indonesian audit professionalism is influenced by external factors such as norms of Global Professional Networks (the Big 4), Indonesian cultures, political economy and the accounting profession. The organisational, as well as institutional, fields are observed to gain a thorough understanding of norms and values that are socially constructed by auditors within an accounting firm. These dimensions are combined in an institutional analysis, in order to explore all possible influences on beliefs and values of audit professionalism in Indonesia. To meet this research objective, the research question in this thesis is: To what extent do the values of the global professional network, as well as Indonesian national cultures, affect the manifestation of audit professionalism within accounting firms?
A qualitative approach is used, using an ethnographic method. Semi-structured interviews and observations collected the data in two phases. Phase One was a pilot study, for the researcher to make initial observation of current issues in Indonesian accounting. There were twenty participants, ranging from accounting staff from a university and partners from small accounting firms to chairmen from Accounting Associations. Phase Two was conducted in one of the Big-4 firms in Jakarta. Thirty auditors were interviewed and the questions consisted of attitudes and perceptions of audit professionalism in the accounting firm. Observations were made of auditors' behaviour during interviews, work and free time.
To answer the research question, this research employs an institutional logics framework offered by Thornton, Ocasio, and Lounsbury (2012). To enhance the understanding of the cultural’ mix within an organisation, an institutional logics framework enables scrutiny of the multiple logics that are manifest in day-to-day behaviours. These logics are related to six audit professionalism dimensions offered by Kerr, Von Glinow, and Scheriesheim (1977): expertise, autonomy, collegial maintenance of standards, ethics, professional commitment and professional identification. The institutional logic approach allows identification of the ideal types of institutions for an accounting firm in Indonesia, in that the framework may be re-calibrated to accommodate elements that reflect a specific country’s norms and values.
This study found that institutions in Indonesian accounting firms differ from Western institutions which might be observed in similar contexts. The findings also suggest some different institutions compared to those of the model proposed by Thornton et al. (2012). There are four important institutions in the Indonesian accounting: Kekeluargaan, Clients, Indonesian Accounting Professionalism and the Global Professional Networks. Kekeluargaan is considered the fundamental element of Indonesian norms, is influenced by Javanese values of Rukun (harmony) and Respect. The regulatory institutions are strongly influenced by Javanese Bapakism (paternalism) and characterised by a high level of bureaucracy. Indonesian accounting professionalism underpins a norm of promoting Indonesian accounting quality and reputation, while the corporate institutions strongly reflect Western capitalisation and the norms of Global Professional Networks. The extent to which these institutions affect audit professionalism is analysed.
The study concludes that audit professionalism is a set of attitudes and behaviours that can be perceived and actioned differently in different locales, based on different institutional fields. With the significance of the above four Indonesian institutions, the application of Western audit standards creates a distinctive approach in Indonesia. The theoretical contribution emphasises the value of the development of Indonesian institutional fields, particularly in audit firms, while the practical contribution of this study will be toward the ongoing adaptation of audit and accounting standards in Indonesia. Limitations of the study are acknowledged, such as lack of previous qualitative studies in Indonesian audit firms and professionalisation, and cross-sectional data collection. Some suggestions for future research include cross-comparison to other Big-4 accounting firms, both nationally and internationally
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