{"title":"Accounting scholarship and the Majority World: A case of epistemic injustice","authors":"Shahzad Uddin","doi":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101679","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101679","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In April 2024, Shahzad Uddin, the recipient of the 2022 British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) Distinguished Accounting Academic Award, delivered the Keynote Address at the Annual BAFA Conference. This article builds on that keynote to critically examine the systemic challenges faced by scholars researching the Majority World within the field of accounting. It highlights their marginalisation and situates this issue within the broader framework of epistemic injustice in academia. The article argues that the knowledge and perspectives of these scholars are often devalued or overlooked, thereby reinforcing inequities in academic discourse.</div><div>The article reflects on the roles that journal editors, universities, and funding agencies could play in addressing epistemic injustice in accounting scholarship. It discusses the importance of fostering equitable relationships between Western and non-Western accounting bodies, both professional and academic. It also emphasises that reliance should not be placed solely on those in power—hegemonic actors and/or networked agencies—though their role is significant. The article calls for collective intellectual activism to challenge and dismantle entrenched inequalities within the discipline. Furthermore, it posits that a global knowledge framework free from epistemic injustice could lead to accounting standards that better reflect local knowledge, supporting economic development and poverty alleviation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47996,"journal":{"name":"British Accounting Review","volume":"57 6","pages":"Article 101679"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143930702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wonsuk Ha , Seung-youb Han , Woo-Jong Lee , Youngdeok Lim
{"title":"Discretionary reporting and analyst forecasts of operating income under IFRS","authors":"Wonsuk Ha , Seung-youb Han , Woo-Jong Lee , Youngdeok Lim","doi":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101634","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101634","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Leveraging the unique institutional features of Korea's adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2011, we examine analysts' and investors' reactions to the elimination of standardized OI reporting. We find that financial analysts are less likely to issue OI forecasts immediately after IFRS adoption. Additionally, the accuracy of OI forecasts declines compared with sales or net income forecasts. Consequently, equity investors become less responsive to analysts' OI forecast revisions. However, these adverse effects dissipate after 2012 when regulators intervened and reinstated the OI definition used prior to IFRS adoption. Our findings support the International Accounting Standards Board's recent initiative to include earnings subtotals in financial reporting (i.e., IFRS 18).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47996,"journal":{"name":"British Accounting Review","volume":"57 6","pages":"Article 101634"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145584501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Employee power and audit Fees: Worldwide evidence","authors":"Bin Wang , Qiang Wu , Rong Yang , Zhengyi Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101727","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101727","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates how country-level Employment Protection Legislation (EPL) affects auditors' pricing decisions. Using a sample of 22 OECD countries over the 1996–2011 period, we find that auditors charge lower fees for firms whose employees have greater collective bargaining power as a result of country-level employee protection legislation reforms. We further explore the potential channels and find that a firm's labor power is negatively associated with its earnings management, but positively associated with the value of employee stock options plans and staff wages. In addition, we find that the negative relationship between employee power and audit fees is more profound for firms headquartered in countries with weak corporate governance (i.e., common law countries, non-EU countries, worse governmental effectiveness), and for firms in less labor-intensive industries. Our main findings are also robust to a variety of sensitivity checks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47996,"journal":{"name":"British Accounting Review","volume":"57 6","pages":"Article 101727"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145584498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From traditional to digital: Unravelling performance measurement systems and accounting methods in drug treatment through a systematic review and content analysis","authors":"Davide Calandra , Federico Lanzalonga , Silvana Secinaro , Cláudia Costa Storti","doi":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101665","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101665","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cost measurement strategies are crucial for healthcare organisations, particularly for illicit drug use, often a lifelong condition. Long-term treatment and innovative cost-management strategies are necessary for sustainable treatment. This study proposes integrating digital transformation into drug-related healthcare spending estimates by examining existing models in the scientific literature that estimate the costs of substance abuse treatment. We conducted a systematic study using qualitative content analysis, enhanced by a snowball process. We also considered cost estimation techniques available in the grey literature from entities responsible for monitoring drug treatment. The analysis identified 11 methods for estimating the costs of treating drug dependence that can enhance performance measurement strategies in healthcare settings; however, these require improvements to align with a complete digital ecosystem. Achieving digital transformation in drug-dependence treatment costs requires collaboration among various stakeholders. To ensure a fair accounting comparison, heterogeneity among the different methods must be reduced, and researchers and practitioners need to collaborate on estimating the costs of providing healthcare for substance abuse in a digital context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47996,"journal":{"name":"British Accounting Review","volume":"57 6","pages":"Article 101665"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143901715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Linxi Shi , Pingli Li , Krishanthi Vithana , Bai Xue , Mahmoud Al-Sayed
{"title":"Hospital Management Accounting Systems: Evolving roles, actors, and interactions","authors":"Linxi Shi , Pingli Li , Krishanthi Vithana , Bai Xue , Mahmoud Al-Sayed","doi":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101666","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101666","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Seeking to offer an integrated understanding of Hospital Management Accounting Systems (HMAS) dynamics—through a synthesis of 196 studies on management accounting in public healthcare since 1980—we provide critical insights into HMAS roles—diagnostic, interactive, culture shaping, political, and symbolic—and their interconnections, shedding light on their (in)effectiveness in relation to relevant actors. The review highlights that different actors contribute significantly to the diverse roles of HMAS, while these roles—if functioning as mechanisms for meaningful change—in turn, impact their activities, managerial awareness, and power relationships. While being criticised for unintentionally intensifying value conflicts, HMAS changes reportedly have long-term impact on shaping organisational culture and reconciling values within broader public management transformations. It underscores the need for the longitudinal perspectives to better capture a holistic insight of the evolving roles and effectiveness of HMAS in empirical research. In this regard, the analytical framework we employed for examining the (in)effectiveness of HMAS and the underlying reasons through actors, roles, and interactions could provide a foundation for future empirical studies. Practically, this review advocates for greater involvement of medical professionals and patients in HMAS, promoting changes that balance flexibility with accountability while respecting medical professionals' autonomy through an interactive approach.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47996,"journal":{"name":"British Accounting Review","volume":"57 6","pages":"Article 101666"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143930701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Salma Ibrahim , Christos Begkos , Michela Arnaboldi , Cameron Graham , Fathima Roshan Rakeeb
{"title":"Performance measurement, financial reporting quality, and digitalization in the healthcare sector","authors":"Salma Ibrahim , Christos Begkos , Michela Arnaboldi , Cameron Graham , Fathima Roshan Rakeeb","doi":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101738","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101738","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This editorial introduces a special issue that addresses emerging accounting research challenges in the healthcare sector, a domain whose societal and economic significance has become even more evident in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis exposed some weaknesses in cost-centric healthcare governance and underscored the need to re-evaluate accounting's role in supporting more resilient and equitable healthcare systems. This special issue brings together contributions that explore three interrelated themes central to this re-evaluation: performance measurement, financial reporting quality, and digitalization. Each theme reflects both longstanding concerns and new complexities brought to the fore by the pandemic. The selected papers offer insights into the limitations and consequences of existing accounting practices, as well as the opportunities presented by technological innovation and broader governance issues. Collectively, they underscore the need for accounting research to engage more deeply with healthcare's evolving organizational, political, and digital landscape.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47996,"journal":{"name":"British Accounting Review","volume":"57 6","pages":"Article 101738"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144924019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Which governance mechanisms matter for firm pollution?","authors":"Sarfraz Khan , John K. Wald","doi":"10.1016/j.bar.2023.101297","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bar.2023.101297","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><span>Using U.S. EPA pollution data, we analyze which governance provisions are related to firm pollution. We find that classified boards, poison pills, limits to amend bylaws, and fair price amendments are associated with significantly greater pollution. In contrast, cumulative voting, because it allows a greater voice for minority shareholders, is associated with lower pollution. We create a pollution-based index (the P-index) based on the sum of those governance provisions positively related to pollution plus an indicator for lack of cumulative voting. The P-index has approximately twice as large an association with firm-level pollution as the E-index. Most measures of </span>board structure or compensation have no significant relation with pollution after controlling for the P-index. An instrumental variable analysis suggests a causal relation between the P-index and pollution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47996,"journal":{"name":"British Accounting Review","volume":"57 5","pages":"Article 101297"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138544869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Environmental regulations and corporate cash holdings","authors":"Wenrui Chen , Yue Cao , Yizhe Dong , Diandian Ma","doi":"10.1016/j.bar.2024.101388","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bar.2024.101388","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The impact of environmental regulations on corporate performance and decisions has attracted significant attention from academics, practitioners and policymakers. We extend this line of research to examine the impact of regional environmental regulations on firms’ cash holdings. We find that environmental regulations motivate firms to increase cash holdings. Further analyses reveal that firms increase cash holdings due to having less debt financing, decreased sales and more green innovation, all caused by environmental regulations. Under regulatory pressure, firms operating in more competitive industries, facing more financial constraints, having more environmental expenditure and belonging to the secondary sector tend to hold more cash than other firms, while firms with better CSR performance do not maintain as high cash holdings as their counterparts. We further demonstrate that increased cash holdings caused by the imposition of environmental regulations increase firm value.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47996,"journal":{"name":"British Accounting Review","volume":"57 5","pages":"Article 101388"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140903309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial: What have we learned about green and climate finance?","authors":"Hao Liang , Lilian Ng , Aaron Yoon","doi":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101749","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bar.2025.101749","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47996,"journal":{"name":"British Accounting Review","volume":"57 5","pages":"Article 101749"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145181277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The geography of environmental regulation: Plant-level emissions data","authors":"Douglas Cumming , Huiying Wu , Yang Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.bar.2024.101381","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bar.2024.101381","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigate how geographic proximity between environmental regulators and firms affects corporate polluting behavior through resource constraints and information asymmetry<span>. Using plant-level emissions data from China, we find that firms pollute less when they are located closer to regulators. Proximity is more closely connected to pollution when regulators are subject to greater financial constraints, more severe manpower shortages, and higher transportation costs related to inspection. These results provide support for a resource constraint channel. There is less evidence that proximity affects corporate pollution through an information asymmetry<span> channel. A heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of geographic proximity on plant pollution is weaker in regions with greater public attention to environmental issues. Overall, our results have implications for the strategic deployment of resources for environmental enforcement.</span></span></div></div>","PeriodicalId":47996,"journal":{"name":"British Accounting Review","volume":"57 5","pages":"Article 101381"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140794346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}