Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the implementation of accrual accounting among two layers of government in Sri Lanka. This study examines the process of diffusion and application among and between provincial governments and local governments to assess the barriers and enablers on the implementation of accrual accounting. Design/methodology/approach The study relies on data collected

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to describe and analyse the nature of accountability for human rights, as enacted by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), in this time of globalization and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Design/methodology/approach The authors focus on one case of alleged union-busting and unfair dismissal carried out under the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the practices, challenges and ethical issues underlying the fabric and dissemination of corporate sustainability ratings. Design/methodology/approach Based on 36 semi-structured interviews with sustainability rating practitioners, the study shows the trade-offs, ethical judgments and customizable aspects involved in rating practices, which cannot rely

Purpose This study examines the governance structures, practices and related public disclosures of the world's largest professional accounting bodies (PABs). Key aims are to advance the limited available knowledge and guidance on PAB governance and highlight avenues for further research and debate on how PABs can strengthen their governance arrangements. Design/methodology/approach Content analysis

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide insight into the roles of accounting in the management of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in five German hospitals. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted three rounds of interviews, ethnographic observations of meetings and document analyses in five German hospitals between February and August 2020. Findings The authors found that actors

Purpose This study examines unexplored horizontal accountability types between public, private and third sector actors within a hybrid organization. The case organization was applying a novel alliance model to generate service paths for heterogeneous clientele consuming cultural, educational, health and social services. It was first to do so in Finland. Design/methodology/approach This research is

Purpose The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate why and how public health agencies employed social media during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak to foster public engagement and dialogic accounting. Design/methodology/approach The authors analysed the official Facebook pages of the leading public agencies for health crisis in Italy, United Kingdom and New Zealand and they

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of inscriptions on social media in enabling action at a distance. The purpose is addressed by investigating how and by what mechanisms inscriptions on social media can shape action at a distance. Design/methodology/approach We conduct a qualitative analysis of the Facebook page of a crowdfunded grassroots initiative, where the founders and their

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a humanitarian disaster as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) shapes the working approach of accountants. This research is motivated by the call for more in-depth analyses of how COVID-19 affects the work, role and human condition of accountants. The study aims to discover the contingent effects, based on the contingency theory, on accountants'

Purpose Using a dialogic approach to narrative analysis through the lens of fairytale, this paper explores the shared construction of corporate environmental stories. The analysis provided aims to reveal the narrative messaging which is implicit in corporate reporting, to contrast corporate and stakeholder narratives and to bring attention to the ubiquity of storytelling in corporate communications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce the themes and aims of this Accounting, Auditing & Accountability (AAAJ) special issue and comments on the papers included in the issue. The paper provides a thematic outline along which the future researchers can undertake more empirical research examining how neoliberalism shapes, and shaped by, management accounting. Design/methodology/approach This

Purpose The study explores the role of accounting technologies of government (ATGs) associated with UK Tax Credits and their impact on claimants' motivations, behaviour and identities. The aim of this study is to deepen empirical and conceptual understandings of how ATGs of tax authorities transform claimants into “entrepreneurs of the self”. Design/methodology/approach The authors approach Tax Credits

Purpose Within societies in the 21st century, individuals who are embedded in a controlled context that impedes their political actions deal with the tensions they are experiencing through attempts at resistance. Several studies that examine individual infrapolitics in organizations explain how the subtle mix of compliance and resistance are constructed at the level of individual identity in a complex

Purpose Drawing on Adams (2017a) conceptualisation of value creation by organisations published in the Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, the purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptualisation of how national governments can create value for society and the economy through their approach to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Design/methodology/approach An initial conceptual

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affects corporate modern slavery accounting, auditing and accountability, and how a business can take advantage of this situation to ensure a more robust and effective modern slavery response in the long-term. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on recent literature and available statistics about modern

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the efforts of key social actors in influencing the reform of Iranian public universities budgeting system, from incremental to performance-based budgeting (PBB), the tensions that arose as competing efforts of institutional change were undertaken, and ultimately the impact of these efforts on the extent to which the Iranian government transitioned

Purpose The purpose of this paper aims to make contributions to the debate on “performance measurement in practice” focussing on how organisational participants respond to the “new regime” of key performance indicators (KPIs) and whether KPIs materialise as intended in a transitional economy. Design/methodology/approach Inspired by the epistemological instruction of Schatzki's practice theory, this

Purpose It is difficult for corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) to provide accountability to stakeholders. This paper assesses whether accountability-based CSR systems can be created through the application of Spotlight Accounting and WikiRate as a hybrid forum. Design/methodology/approach The current paper explores the utility of Spotlight Accounting for CSR through assessing its application

Purpose This paper considers the nature and effect of accounting disturbances on organizational micro-practices in three secondary schools in England. A close application of a developed model of Habermasian colonization provides a framing for both the ways in which accounting is implicated in organizational change and the effect of accounting disturbances on organizational micro-practices. Design/

Purpose The study investigates the use of accounting information in the form of a confession as a tool for telling the truth about oneself and reinforcing power relations in the context of the Roman Inquisition. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts Foucault's understanding of pastoral power, confession and truth-telling to analyse the accounting practices of the Tribunal of the Inquisition

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how big data analytics pushed the limits of individuals' accountability as South Korea tried to control and contain coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Design/methodology/approach The authors draw upon Deleuzo-Guattarian framework elaborating how a surveillant assemblage was rhizomatically created and operated to monitor a segment of the population

Purpose The paper explores processes associated with the adoption of corporate sustainability communication in a B2B context. It employs a combined action research and sensemaking approach to document moments that precede the initiation of external sustainability communication. Design/methodology/approach The paper is the outcome of an action research project, where we examine the case of one industrial

Purpose Using Dean's (2010) analytics of government, this research explores how regimes of governing practices are linked to the underlying policy rationalities in dealing with the UK government's COVID-19 testing policies as a strategy for governing at a distance, including how targets were set and operationalized. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on the UK government's policy documents

Purpose Literature has widely studied the financial accountability pressures on NGOs but rarely analysed how NGOs respond to them. This paper studies one large humanitarian NGO to address this question. It investigates the NGO's responses to understand the extent to which NGOs are able to regain control over their own work and turn the frames of evaluation and accountability to their own advantage

Purpose This paper investigates the use of management controls when environmental uncertainty and hostility increase abruptly. Specifically, it explores this in the context of the 2008 financial crisis in six banks located in two countries. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on 26 qualitative interviews with selected managers employed by the six banks. Eight interview guides were developed

Purpose This study attempts to explore the meaning and implication of spirituality in an accounting firm by using a Buddhist perspective of interbeing. It explains how the happiness of individuals (auditors, partners, clients and auditor family members); organisational performance and growth and auditors' commitment are interconnected and impermanent. Design/methodology/approach This study employed

Purpose The monetary valuation of cultural heritage of a selection of 16 major public, not-for-profit Australian cultural institutions is examined over a period of almost three decades (1992–2019) to understand how they have responded to the paradoxical tensions of heritage valuation for financial reporting purposes. Design/methodology/approach Accounting for cultural heritage is an intrinsically paradoxical

Purpose Hybrid organising faces a fundamental challenge in managing multiple and conflicting logics. Prior studies have evidenced the performative role of accounting within such a context largely in support of neoliberal hegemony and economic logic. Mindful of such conflict and the support towards economic logic, drawing on universal accountings, this study provides insights from counter accounting

Purpose A royal charter of incorporation imposing public benefit/social responsibilities established the privately owned British South Africa Company (BSAC), in return for power to exploit a huge territory using low-cost local labour. This study explores the dual principal–agent problem of how the BSAC used annual report narratives to report on its conflicting economic responsibilities to investors

Purpose This study locates one surprisingly powerful ally of neoliberalism enabling its proliferation in certain contexts, the discursive notion of the “long term” (LT). Earlier literature has shown that neoliberalism is concerned with investors' decision-making that has been claimed to be based on LT forecasts. This research explains this focus on the “long term.” Design/methodology/approach Share-based

Purpose This case study highlights state-logic influence on hybrid organizations and institutionally complex environments through acts of regulation (and deregulation). Design/methodology/approach This study presents a 30-year narrative case focused on the significant social achievements of the Bonneville Power Administration within the Northwest United States. It combines the analysis of historical