Financial Accountability & Management最新文献

{"title":"Sectoral Challenges: Exploring Regulatory Dialectics in Charity Performance Reporting Regulation","authors":"Danielle McConville,&nbsp;Carolyn Cordery","doi":"10.1111/faam.12433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12433","url":null,"abstract":"<p>To reduce information asymmetry and maintain public trust in charities, they are strongly encouraged to communicate their good work, with many jurisdictions considering whether and how to regulate performance reporting. New Zealand and the United Kingdom are early developers of new governance-type performance reporting requirements—using co-regulatory tools to enhance the regulators’ legitimacy and thus, charities’ compliance. We explore how this regulation has developed, framing our analysis with Kane's regulatory dialectics, which argue that regulation is developed through a series of repeated, cyclical (often antagonistic) interactions between regulators and regulatees. We find that new governance-type performance reporting regulation exemplifies the stages of Kane's regulatory dialectics but that important differences associated with new governance regulation led to a more partnered and less adversarial process. When repeated interactions are facilitated through co-regulation, regulatee representation on regulatory bodies, formal and informal interactions, and regulatee advocacy for regulatory developments, the boundaries between regulator and regulatee become blurred. This impacts significantly on the resulting regulation and potentially improves acceptance of (and compliance with) mandatory requirements. We propose a model of new governance regulatory dialectics that can support practitioners in developing new governance regulation, and further research and theorization of this important area.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"41 3","pages":"602-615"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12433","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144537043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Half a Century of Public Sector Accounting Research Through Bibliometric Analysis: Looking Back to Move Forward","authors":"Mariafrancesca Sicilia,&nbsp;Ileana Steccolini,&nbsp;Sara Giovanna Mauro,&nbsp;Carmela Barbera,&nbsp;Giuseppe Grossi","doi":"10.1111/faam.12432","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12432","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This literature review aims to highlight the themes and the developments of public sector accounting (PSA) research over the last five decades (1970–2019), analyzing 2187 papers though a combination of bibliometric (co-word) analysis and qualitative insights into the selected papers. The review shows that PSA scholarship has grown in significance over the last few decades giving rise to a vibrant and variegated scientific community, flourishing at the intersection among but also increasingly spanning across, different disciplines. Moreover, it reveals that traditional themes such as budgeting, performance measurement, and accountability remained at the core of the literature across most of the decades, attracting attention from multiple communities and journals. Other themes, such as accruals accounting, accounting standards, reporting, and auditing experienced varied interest over the decades and reflected the interests of more specialized, or “niche” communities of scholarship. By looking at the trends of PSA over time, the paper shows how accounting systems and calculative practices have come to reflect and affect the multiple values and the need for quantifying techniques of an ever-evolving public sector. A call for more attention toward accounting for multiple and plural values is advanced, with suggestions for future research avenues.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"41 3","pages":"583-601"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12432","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144537280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Financial Clout, Global Reputation, and Governance in UK Higher Education Institutions","authors":"Arshad Hasan,&nbsp;Waqas Anwar,&nbsp;Mohamed H. Elmagrhi,&nbsp;Collins G. Ntim","doi":"10.1111/faam.12431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12431","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This paper investigates the link between financial clout and the global reputation of higher education institutions (HEIs) and consequently examines the extent to which the financial clout–global reputation nexus is moderated by HEIs’ governing board mechanisms. Using a sample of UK HEIs from 2015 to 2022, we find that financial clout, as measured by higher financial flexibility and greater operating efficiency, positively impacts HEIs’ global reputation. Specifically, we find that high financial flexibility, as captured by greater research grants and contracts, positively influences HEIs’ global reputation. In contrast, low financial flexibility, as captured by tuition fees dependency and reliance on funding body grants, negatively impacts HEIs’ reputation. Furthermore, we find that greater operating efficiency, as measured by net cash inflow from operating activities and net liquidity days, positively impacts HEIs’ global reputation. However, a higher net surplus margin negatively impacts HEIs’ global reputation, which may imply ineffective utilization of excess resources on core teaching/research facilities. Further, we find that the extent to which financial clout influences HEIs’ global reputation is moderated by the quality of board governance mechanisms. Our findings offer empirical support for neoinstitutional theory, which suggests that obtaining institutional legitimacy can help HEIs build competitive advantages, achieve a higher perception of quality, and ultimately achieve a higher global reputation. Our findings also offer important policy implications that emphasize the need for adopting governance practices that balance short-term financial health with long-term academic excellence.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"41 3","pages":"554-582"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144537310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Product Market Competition and Financial Constraints: Evidence From Higher Education","authors":"Mary Becker,&nbsp;Zachary McGurk,&nbsp;Patrick Reilly","doi":"10.1111/faam.12429","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12429","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This paper empirically investigates the relationship between product market competition and financial constraint of traditional US private colleges and universities. Using data for private, not-for-profit colleges and universities from 2006 to 2018, we create a synthetic credit rating using the Moody's Rating Methodology for Higher Education and generate market concentration measurements using enrollment data, geographic location, and incoming student SAT scores or acceptance rates. We find that higher market concentration is associated with greater financial constraint, schools with low-scoring incoming students are more constrained when facing competition from peers with low-scoring incoming students, and schools in markets with growing student populations have more financial constraint on average in less-competitive markets and less financial constraint in more-competitive markets.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"41 3","pages":"539-553"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144536946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Object Not of One's Desire: UK Service Club Membership Recruitment, Retention, and Public Image","authors":"David Yates","doi":"10.1111/faam.12430","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12430","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Membership organizations rely on maintaining and growing their membership base, both for financial stability and to allow them to increase their impact. UK service clubs are one such kind of membership organization that has suffered a decline in membership in more recent years and is seeking to address this to maintain their presence. However, membership recruitment and retention have proven problematic for these organizations, in particular, recruitment and retention of younger members to ensure the continuity of the organization. This paper utilizes a theoretical framework based on the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and contemporary philosopher Slavoj Zizek, in order to conceptualize the issues around membership and public image within the theoretical constructs of identity, ideology, and desire. This is combined with a qualitative methodological framework utilizing 42 semistructured interviews with service club members and external stakeholders (donors, beneficiaries, and local government representatives). The results of this research found that although current members profess to desire younger members to join, they are reluctant to change their organization to facilitate this. Instead, icons and rituals combine to form an image of the organization that is unappealing to younger prospective members, relegating their desire to join to an almost purely symbolic act. This, therefore, carries implications for service clubs and their membership, especially when considering the level of engagement that potential younger members would be prepared to offer in the future. The strong ideological forces at play within service clubs mean that they will continue to appeal to a relatively narrow membership profile (one that sees their current operation aligned to an organizational “ego ideal” that is symbolically constructed and maintained).</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"41 3","pages":"525-538"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12430","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144537270","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How Business-Like Operations Shape Student Union Values and Accountability: Accounts of Publicness and Privateness Discourse in Universities","authors":"Joane Jonathan,&nbsp;Zahirul Hoque","doi":"10.1111/faam.12428","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12428","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This study explores how business-like operational models in public universities transform university student unions’ core values and accountability discourse. It builds on a publicness theory and an open-ended interview-based field study conducted in three student union bodies in Australia. Findings reveal a significant transformation in core (public) value(s) and accountability practices in university student unions over time. Implementing business-like (privateness) models in public universities drove this transformational change. Contrary to expectations, student unions lost their public identity (<i>publicness</i> values) as a social service provider to its members while satisfying their corporate university stakeholders as a subunit through business-like (<i>privateness</i>) accountability practices such as budgeting. These findings offer insight into how the commercialized operational model forces universities to use competing dimensions of organizational publicness (public values and privateness) when managing student unions through business-like accountability mechanisms.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"41 3","pages":"508-524"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144537276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Public Financial Management for Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges, Experiences, and Perspectives","authors":"Francesca Manes Rossi,&nbsp;Isabel Brusca,&nbsp;Sandra Cohen,&nbsp;Eugenio Caperchione,&nbsp;Anna Thomasson","doi":"10.1111/faam.12424","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12424","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The special issue critically explores how public sector financial management can support the achievement of sustainable development and how it can act in the service of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It aims to encourage further research in the field, while also drawing on findings from the eight papers included, which touch on important areas of research in the nexus between public financial management and the SDGs and specifically: (1) <i>Reporting on SDGs</i>: This is an area that deserves further attention, even moving beyond the theories already adopted to investigate the topic. (2) <i>Embedding sustainability into operations</i>: Sustainable development requires the adoption of methods and tools that can enhance sustainability-related action at the public sector entity level. (3) <i>SDGs and calculative practices</i>: The use of calculative practices in SDGs reporting can help to take a meaningful step from a symbolic to a substantive approach to sustainability, but the unintended consequences of performativity in promoting sustainable development need to be further investigated. (4) <i>Environmental reporting and SDGs</i>: While environmental reporting is a dominant theme in sustainable development, further research on climate change and environmental disclosure in the public sector is required. In addition, the special issue draws attention to some further dimensions: the governance for SDGs achievement, the assurance of SDGs reporting, and the creation of citizen-driven demand for reporting on SDGs achievement in a digital environment.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"41 3","pages":"484-489"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12424","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144537290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Spectacularization of NGOs Accountability in Disaster Situations: Evidence From the 2015 Nepal's Earthquakes","authors":"Pawan Adhikari,&nbsp;Bedanand Upadhaya,&nbsp;Shovita Dhakal Adhikari,&nbsp;Sanjaya Aryal,&nbsp;Chaminda Wijethilake","doi":"10.1111/faam.12427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12427","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Drawing on Guy Debord's concept of the spectacle, this article aims to extend our understanding of the way in which certain non-governmental organizations (NGOs) spectacularize their performance in the context of disaster situations and the continued co-existence of a multiplicity of accountabilities, with reference to the 2015 Nepal earthquakes. Data for the study were gathered through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The findings of the study demonstrate how the voices of many Nepalese NGOs involved in the relief, recovery, and rehabilitation efforts following the 2015 earthquakes remained unheard and how they were forced to compromise their felt responsibilities by having to adhere to the control-oriented and accounting-based requirements imposed by the government and funders. Such requirements put certain NGOs, which were established to pursue political and personal goals, in a position to benefit from the situation, allowing them to obfuscate the ground level reality, for instance by manipulating the number of beneficiaries and geographical areas served, showcasing their performance on social media, and facilitating pseudo-ceremonies and participation. The spectacle created by NGOs was oppressive, exacerbating inequalities in aid distribution and excluding certain groups of beneficiaries from the relief, recovery, and rehabilitation efforts. The key contribution of the study lies in illustrating how both wider society and NGOs’ stakeholders have been relegated to the role of passive spectator–consumers, as they accepted and consumed the NGO-led representation.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"41 3","pages":"490-507"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12427","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144537291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Repealing the Eighth Amendment: Counter Stories and Storytelling for Resistance, Empowerment and Social Change in Irish Reproductive Politics","authors":"Rebecca Bolt,&nbsp;Susan O'Leary","doi":"10.1111/faam.12423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12423","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper examines the pivotal role played by counter accounts in reshaping public sentiment and disrupting the power and reach of hegemonic discourse. While prior scholarship has largely focused on the emergence of counter accounts as alternative perspectives to dominant and institutionalised narratives, we highlight the prevalence and significant influence of institutionalised public narratives, which tend to become deeply ingrained in the collective public consciousness of society. These narratives often go unquestioned and unchallenged. Consequently, when attempting to reshape public discourse and people's perspectives on a particular issue, the focus is often not on countering the content of the hegemonic account itself, but on how to challenge the widespread <i>acceptance</i> and <i>power</i> that this narrative holds in various forms that limit the potential for alternative viewpoints to gain traction. Our empirical investigation centres on counter accounts that emerged within the ‘Together for Yes’ (TfY) and Repeal the Eighth campaigns in Ireland where we investigated how counter accounts that draw on the private experiences of women's reproductive rights engendered public solidarity in addressing deeply personal issues and transgressed the prevalence of institutionalised narratives on abortion. Drawing on the insights of bell hooks (1989; 1990; 1992; 1994), we find that this takes place in the form of stories and storytelling, that do not directly confront or deconstruct the narratives promoted by dominant institutions but instead aim to address the underlying dynamics and consequences generated by the very existence of these institutionalised narratives within the public sphere. hooks' work underscores the transformative potential of storytelling, which immerses audiences in the intricacies of narratives, fostering perceptual shifts and challenging preconceived notions. Our findings highlight stories and storytelling as a potent tool for countering the omnipresence of hegemonic discourse by specifically challenging the dynamics of silence, dehumanisation, stigma, and shame perpetuated by institutionalised narratives concerning women's reproductive rights.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"41 3","pages":"468-483"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.12423","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144537254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cultivating Public Value and Accountability Beyond NPM: A Non-Western Perspective","authors":"Soon Yong Ang,&nbsp;Danture Wickramasinghe","doi":"10.1111/faam.12426","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12426","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This paper reveals the limitations of New Public Management (NPM) and introduces an alternative model for creating and sustaining public value through grassroots engagement in a non-Western context. Focusing on a river-care education project in Malaysia, it demonstrates how community-led initiatives, targeting public values like clean water (SDG 6) and partnerships for goals (SDG 17), interact with local management practices to foster sustainable outcomes. Drawing on Bozeman's public value theory and Dewey's public interest approach, we present a multi-layered framework incorporating political–ideological, institutional, techno-managerial, and individual layers. This model emphasizes culturally responsive, localized practices and reveals that NPM's market-driven focus does not fully address societal goals like equity, sustainability, and social justice. Through a qualitative case study approach and by proposing an adaptive, context-sensitive approach, this study contributes to public sector accounting and management research, providing a pathway to public value creation aligned with Sustainable Development Goals in diverse, non-Western settings.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"41 3","pages":"439-467"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144537271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}