{"title":"How Have the Transformations of Supreme Audit Institutions Shaped Contemporary Public Auditing? A Professional, Process, and Stakeholder Perspective","authors":"Nicolas Lagos","doi":"10.1111/faam.70030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.70030","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Research on Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) has expanded considerably in recent decades, reflecting their central role in promoting accountability and transparency in government. Based on a systematic review of 364 peer-reviewed publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, this article examines how SAIs have redefined their work across three analytical dimensions: professional, process, and stakeholder. The analysis shows that the ongoing transformation of audit institutions has not altered the essential nature of public auditing but has introduced four distinctive emphases that characterize contemporary practice: the incorporation of methods drawn from social and computer sciences, the consolidation of globally unified audit methodologies, the shift toward responsive and outcome-oriented control, and the growing adoption of audience-centered reporting. Together, these developments demonstrate how public auditing has adapted to complex governance environments while preserving its fundamental oversight and accountability functions.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"42 3","pages":"375-395"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.70030","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148533758","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}
Johan Berlin, Eric Carlström, Magnus Jansson, David Karlsson
{"title":"The Challenges of Backsourcing","authors":"Johan Berlin, Eric Carlström, Magnus Jansson, David Karlsson","doi":"10.1111/faam.70033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.70033","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Public sector outsourcing sometimes ends in unexpected termination, forcing authorities to engage in backsourcing. The aim of this study is to identify the challenges posed by unexpected terminations of sourcing contracts in the public sector and analyze how actual practices in these situations diverge from theoretical expectations in the sourcing literature. A comparative analysis of three cases—spanning municipal, regional, and national levels—reveals that authorities face constraints such as legal obligations, limited provider options and built-in interdependence with contractors. Combined with market limitations, these interdependencies often lead to opportunistic behavior and informal “silent contracts” with public authorities that display increased tolerance and relaxed oversight to ensure service continuity. Factors such as stringent contractual requirements, unplanned dependencies, and the absence of qualified replacements add to the complexity. This highlights a gap between market theories and the practical constraints of public sector outsourcing. This study contributes to sourcing literature by emphasizing the need for proactive planning and by providing a more profound understanding of silent contracts and informal dependencies that help explain and clarify backsourcing process.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"42 3","pages":"427-445"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.70033","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148522818","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":"Government Financial Reporting: A Study of Nested Controversy","authors":"Sheila Ellwood, Rhoda Brown","doi":"10.1111/faam.70032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.70032","url":null,"abstract":"<p>There are two schools of thought on government financial reporting: one emanating from societal values and accountability to citizens; and one based on investment decisions and a business approach. There are staunch proponents of these different perspectives, which are rooted in economic thought and values. Using an analytical frame informed by competing values, and the lens of essentially contested concepts, we examine how controversy nests in government financial reporting. The controversy is apparent in the diverse goals and values in government financial reporting. The controversy nests in accounting conceptual frameworks. The controversy is reflected in accounting principles, in particular, recognition and measurement, but also in factors determining the reporting boundary and the content and presentation of the account. The controversy leads to twists and turns in producing public sector accounting standards. Our normative study analyzes government financial reporting as an essentially contested concept and considers whether attempts to align conflicting values and goals lead to confusion or meaningful development. The tensions in determining accounting standards for heritage and social benefits led to long-awaited standards tempered with pragmatism and flexibility. Overall, we identify meaningful development, but a lack of acknowledgement of non-business values and collective public value(s) in government financial reporting.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"42 3","pages":"461-478"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.70032","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148532963","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":"Coproducing Nonprofit Reporting and Accountability With Beneficiaries: What Is the Reality?","authors":"Cherrie Yang, Vien Chu","doi":"10.1111/faam.70026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.70026","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This study examines the coproduction of nonprofit reporting and accountability with beneficiaries, addressing a critical yet underexplored research area. Drawing on the theoretical lenses of impression management and functional stupidity, we analyzed annual reports from award-winning nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in New Zealand and conducted two in-depth case studies involving 20 semi-structured interviews with beneficiaries and staff. We find that NPOs strategically employ impression management tactics to affirm legitimacy, but beneficiaries’ contributions are primarily confined to individual outcomes and expressed mainly through visuals, testimonials, and success stories. These issues are largely rooted in functional stupidity, where beneficiaries exhibit a lack of reflexivity, reluctance to seek justifications, and limited substantive reasoning, all of which undermine meaningful coproduction and potentially position beneficiaries as “coproducers to functional stupidity.” By unpacking the role of impression management in shaping nonprofit reporting and exploring functional stupidity from the perspectives of both beneficiaries and staff, we provide critical insights into the complexities and barriers of coproduction in the NPO sector.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"42 3","pages":"344-362"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148533760","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":"Risk Disclosure as a Resilience Tool in Central Governments: Assessing Current Practices in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands","authors":"Ekaterina Svetlova, Tjerk Budding, Silvia Pazzi","doi":"10.1111/faam.70019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.70019","url":null,"abstract":"<p>To be resilient, governments must quickly adapt their policies and working methods to new and uncertain situations. This article examines whether risk disclosure, as part of the anticipatory capacities of these organizations, can help identify and mitigate vulnerabilities. To explore these issues, we conducted a textual analysis of departmental annual reports and semi-structured interviews with regulators, accountants, and risk management specialists from three governmental departments in each of the two countries: the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Our findings indicate that current risk reporting practices are insufficient to enhance the resilience of governmental organizations. Reported risks are predominantly backward-looking, with limited recognition of changes over time and a reluctance to acknowledge vulnerabilities. This approach to risk reporting is shaped by a disconnect between internal risk management practices and risk disclosure, the complexity of governmental risks, skepticism about users’ ability and willingness to understand technical details, departmental cultures, and political influence. Nonetheless, significant variation exists in risk management and reporting practices among departments.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"42 3","pages":"327-343"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.70019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148533821","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":"Impressions that matter: How Italian SOEs construct a digital image through persuasive language strategies","authors":"Fiorenza Meucci, Raffaela Casciello, Flavio Spagnuolo, Belén Gill-de-Albornoz","doi":"10.1111/faam.70031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.70031","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Rooted in the theoretical perspective of impression management, and drawing on the critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach, this study analyzes whether and how the Italian state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the energy sector over the period 2020–2023 use persuasive language strategies in their annual reports to portray the image of a “<i>digital-oriented organization</i>,” which may generate significant competitive advantage, as it responds to new stakeholders’ needs and trends in industry practices. While digitalization issues are crucial in this sector, the Italian scenario offers a unique setting to investigate this matter due to the ongoing deregulation policies and national initiatives that are fostering digitalization and increasing the industry's competitiveness. The findings reveal that Italian SOEs align with an interplay of persuasive linguistic strategies in their corporate reports, which may convey their digital engagement signaling commitment to digitalization, enhancing organizational legitimacy, and rationalizing decisions about digital transformation choices. Additionally, the analysis shows that digital and sustainability discourses often intertwine, revealing how companies may amplify their alignment with socio-environmental goals through the strategic convergence of narratives. This study extends CDA applications to the underexplored domain of digitalization discourse, offering a theoretically grounded lens to interpret how impression management unfolds in state-influenced and market-exposed contexts. From a practical standpoint, the findings can help investors critically interpret corporate narratives, guide policymakers in refining novel reporting frameworks, and support companies in aligning disclosure strategies with stakeholder expectations in increasingly competitive and accountability-driven environments.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"42 3","pages":"396-411"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.70031","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148533846","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}
Teresa Elvira-Lorilla, Inigo Garcia-Rodriguez, M. Elena Romero-Merino, Marcos Santamaria-Mariscal
{"title":"Rethinking Liquidity in Nonprofit Organizations: The Dual Role of Excess Cash in Explaining Financial Vulnerability","authors":"Teresa Elvira-Lorilla, Inigo Garcia-Rodriguez, M. Elena Romero-Merino, Marcos Santamaria-Mariscal","doi":"10.1111/faam.70035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.70035","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the dual impact of excess cash holdings on the financial vulnerability of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) through an integrative framework that combines insights from the behavioral theory of the firm and agency theory. From a behavioral perspective, excess liquid assets represent unabsorbed organizational slack that can enhance financial resilience by buffering organizations against funding shocks. From an agency perspective, however, unusually high cash balances may be absorbed into administrative structures, increasing internal costs and weakening financial discipline. Using a large panel dataset of 9177 NPOs in England and Wales (42,350 observations from 2015 to 2022) and generalized structure equation modeling, we find that excess cash is directly associated with a lower likelihood of future financial vulnerability, consistent with its precautionary role as a financial buffer. At the same time, excess cash is associated with higher overhead costs, which in turn slightly increase financial vulnerability. This indirect channel partially offsets, but does not eliminate, the protective effect of excess liquidity. Overall, the findings show that excess cash can strengthen nonprofit financial resilience while simultaneously generating internal cost dynamics that attenuate its benefits. By distinguishing between unabsorbed and absorbed slack, the study clarifies how liquidity accumulation can have both stabilizing and potentially adverse consequences for nonprofit financial health.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"42 3","pages":"446-460"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.70035","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148532450","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":"Governing the Costs and Financial Sustainability Standardization of Italian Universities","authors":"Massimo Sargiacomo, Vincenzo Sforza, Antonio D'Andreamatteo, Francesca Manes Rossi, Rosanna Spanò","doi":"10.1111/faam.70024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.70024","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article investigates the growing role of cost standards and financial sustainability procedures in the governance of public universities, focusing on the Italian higher education sector. Although the neoliberal transformation of universities and the spread of performance-based management have been widely studied, limited research has explored how States themselves implement cost standardization as a mechanism of control. Adopting a Foucauldian theoretical framework and drawing on primary data from interviews and institutional documents, the study first traces the evolution of these reforms over the past two decades and then examines how university actors experience and interpret their impact conceptualizing standard costing and sustainability metrics as <i>technologies of government</i>—instrumental in aligning institutional behavior with macro-level policy objectives. These technologies are produced by multiple <i>centers of calculation</i> and rely on calculative practices that link funding distribution to performance classifications. The findings reveal how these practices contribute to a disciplinary regime that reshapes accountability structures and power relations within universities. By situating the Italian case within broader debates on neoliberalism, standardization, and public sector accounting, the study extends Foucauldian scholarship on governmentality and contributes to understanding how financial reforms manifest in higher education governance.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"42 2","pages":"305-321"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.70024","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715243","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":"Increasing Public Managers' Perceived Autonomy by Decreasing the Level of Detail in Payment Models? The Dependency and Interdependency of Control Practices","authors":"Anna Glenngård, Lina Maria Ellegård","doi":"10.1111/faam.70018","DOIUrl":"10.1111/faam.70018","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We investigate public managers' perceptions about the characteristics of global budgets and the association with perceived autonomy, using a qualitative, experiential approach. We compare and contrast differences in managers perceived autonomy associated with the use of global budgets in two large public healthcare organizations, while considering both the characteristics of other control practices and their dependencies and interdependencies with the payment model. The results from our comparative case-study support and nuance the finding in previous research that perceptions about payment models depend on how they are combined with other controls, by illustrating that such perceptions depend on how payment models are integrated into a MCS. Our comparative study nuances the picture from previous research about the interplay between formalization, uncertainty, room for maneuver, and perceived autonomy. Our empirical findings illustrate that room for maneuver is positively associated with perceived autonomy only if control practices are combined such that managers also experience a low level of uncertainty about outcome goals and how to perform their job. Role clarity and room for maneuver are interdependent in relation to perceived autonomy via enabling effects. The results suggest that control extensiveness is not perceived in a negative way if controls offer flexibility and contribute to knowledge and mutual understanding about priorities and organizational goals.</p>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"42 2","pages":"219-236"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/faam.70018","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715235","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 Use of Sustainable Tourism Performance Information: Assessing the Impact on Small Municipalities' Policy-Making and Management","authors":"Elisabetta Reginato, Isabella Fadda, Patrizia Modica, Michela Floris","doi":"10.1111/faam.70020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.70020","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This study investigates how Sustainable Tourism Performance Measurement Systems (STPMS), such as the European Tourism Indicator System (ETIS), are used in small municipalities’ policy-making and management. Grounded in Institutional Theory, the research explores how coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures, together with organizational factors, influence the instrumental or conceptual use of sustainability performance information. The study employs a qualitative, multi-case approach, drawing on four small coastal municipalities in Sardinia involved in the “Visit South Sardinia” (VSS) project. Based on 15 in-depth interviews, 5 stakeholder meetings, and documentary evidence, the findings reveal a two-phase trajectory: during the VSS project, institutional pressures, particularly normative ones, played a crucial role in initiating the instrumental use of ETIS. After the project's conclusion, although the normative pressure diminished, it continued to play a key role in influencing the development of a sustainability-oriented culture and, indirectly, in promoting a conceptual approach to sustainability data. Overall, the findings reveal a dynamic and evolving relationship between institutional and organizational factors. While institutional pressures initiate change, organizational factors emerged as the real discriminants for whether municipalities limited themselves to symbolic compliance, discontinued the use of indicators, or instead appropriated the sustainability conceptually as a performance goal.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47120,"journal":{"name":"Financial Accountability & Management","volume":"42 2","pages":"237-260"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147715155","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}