{"title":"Accounting and the shifting spheres: The economic, the public, the planet","authors":"Hendrik Vollmer","doi":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101574","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101574","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Accounting's sense of place and purpose is informed by social imaginaries. The imaginaries of the sphere of the economic, the public, and the planet help accountants make sense of their surroundings and the world at large, help them coordinate and form alliances with other forms of expertise, and frame their understanding of what matters. Recent disputes over materiality and declarations by the profession to serve the “people and the planet” suggest that accounting's sense of place and position is variable, yet its long-standing imaginaries indicate that it is also regular and steady. By discussing how imaginaries of the economic, the public and the planet prefigure how accounting connects us with the world from our “bubbles” (Sloterdijk), the paper makes a case for paying more attention to how these imaginaries shape our understanding of what accounting is about and can become, how they might lock accounting into position, and us with it.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48379,"journal":{"name":"Accounting Organizations and Society","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101574"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368224000345/pdfft?md5=257f661e5007555aca9c0b5cdfbe2443&pid=1-s2.0-S0361368224000345-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142098370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The politics of prudence in accounting standards","authors":"Omiros Georgiou","doi":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101571","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101571","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In the most recent revision of the conceptual framework underlying accounting standards the concept of prudence became the focus of an extraordinary public political dispute. This dispute is explored here by taking an actor-network theory perspective on politics, a ‘dingpolitik’ (Latour, 2005a) or ‘material politics’ (Barry, 2013a), that revolves around things and matters of concern, rather than just interests and ideologies. The analysis unveils how a multiplicity of human actors, including regulators, preparers, auditors, and users of accounts, academics, lawyers, politicians, and journalists, but also material actors such as IASB due process documents and responses, parliamentary debates, official statements, speeches, legal opinions, and financial press articles, come together and raise concerns that are unpredictable and evolving. These concerns ultimately expose the political qualities of prudence that are connected to other controversies relating to other financial reporting issues. At the peak of the political drama that unfolds we see a group of long-term investors commissioning a legal opinion challenging the legality of IFRSs on the grounds that the removal of prudence violates the legal requirement for accounts to show a true and fair view. Both the politics and anti-politics that take place around the concept of prudence lead us to reflect on conceptions of an unrelenting financialisation of accounting standards through fair value accounting and of their (potential) functions in organisations and society.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48379,"journal":{"name":"Accounting Organizations and Society","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101571"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036136822400031X/pdfft?md5=dcd00f02dd8c3918e8497db9d0376865&pid=1-s2.0-S036136822400031X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141998477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cynthia S. Wang , Alexis N. Smith , Edward E. Scott , Bryan D. Edwards , Seth E. Smart
{"title":"Reducing turnover intentions of Black employees in the accounting profession: The roles of racial centrality, racial identity affirmation and supervisor closeness","authors":"Cynthia S. Wang , Alexis N. Smith , Edward E. Scott , Bryan D. Edwards , Seth E. Smart","doi":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101572","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101572","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Within the accounting profession, a persistent organizational issue is higher turnover rates among Black employees compared to White employees. Yet, there is currently no clear theoretical understanding of the reasons behind this higher turnover and how to reduce it. Drawing from focus groups of Black certified public accountants and in-depth interviews with both Black accountants and White supervisors of Black accountants, we developed a theoretical framework highlighting crucial psychological, behavioral, and relational factors that we predict are associated with reduced turnover intentions by Black employees. We propose that Black employees' racial centrality is associated with racial identity affirmation—attempts to affirm one's racial identity by expressing and highlighting positive aspects of one's racial group. Furthermore, we posit that the relationship between racial identity affirmation and reduced turnover intentions is weaker for Black accountants who feel less close to their supervisors, as their affirmations are less likely to be validated. We tested these hypotheses using a sample of 222 Black accountants, and our findings supported our predictions. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory, practice, and future research.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48379,"journal":{"name":"Accounting Organizations and Society","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101572"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141998478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Algorithmic self-referentiality: How machine learning pushes calculative practices to assess themselves","authors":"Yuval Millo , Crawford Spence , Ruowen Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101567","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101567","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Despite the growing importance of machine learning in today's organisations, we know relatively little about how machine learning operates and how it influences calculative practices and cultures. Based on 695 hours of ethnographic fieldwork in the team of credit modellers from a large internet company in China, this study analyses the calculative culture that underpins the development of credit models. We show that credit scoring methodologies develop progressively into a self-referential set of calculative practices where substantive concerns about loan default are supplanted by more insular concerns around the seamless operation of the model. Insofar as the latter can only be measured by the model itself, this reduces the role of calculative experts to facilitators of machine learning rather than the purposeful interpreters of machine learning produced data. In this regard, credit scoring experts focus more on ensuring that models have a robust conversation with themselves rather than with managers or credit scoring agents. This matters because machine learning-driven credit scoring models end up privileging access to credit for those whose data trails more readily pass through data preparation filters rather than those who are less likely to default. We thus contribute to an understanding of how machine learning-driven calculative cultures both enact algorithmic bias and operate beyond the ken of purposeful human actors.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48379,"journal":{"name":"Accounting Organizations and Society","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101567"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141984528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Becoming influential: Strategies of control, expertise, and socialisation in transnational governance of accounting regulation","authors":"Jan Friedrich , Tessa Kunkel , Matthias Thiemann","doi":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101566","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101566","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study examines how accounting professionals empower themselves to become influential in the transnational governance space of accounting regulation and how their ideas can persist after they leave their powerful positions. Combining the concept of issue professionals with elements from the transnational governance literature, our multi-episode study investigates the role of six issue professionals in the decades-long reform process towards anchoring the rights approach in the international lease accounting standard (IFRS 16) and the definition of assets in the IASB's conceptual framework. We highlight how these issue professionals developed an extended commitment to the rights approach, which motivated them to advance from national to more central positions in the transnational governance space. We show how their specialised knowledge on lease accounting and asset definition allowed them to navigate positions and seize control over the treatment of both accounting issues. We further demonstrate that the interplay between socialisation and formalisation of interaction patterns fostered the incremental anchoring of the rights approach at the IASB once the issue professionals who provided the impetus for change had left their influential positions. Our study contributes to the literature on transnational governance and the political economy of accounting standard-setting by elaborating on the incremental rise to power of individuals and groups, and their influence on transnational institution-building processes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48379,"journal":{"name":"Accounting Organizations and Society","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101566"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141933710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Joshua L. Gunn , Chan Li , Lin Liao , Jinxuan Yang , Shan Zhou
{"title":"Audit firms’ corporate social responsibility activities and auditor reputation","authors":"Joshua L. Gunn , Chan Li , Lin Liao , Jinxuan Yang , Shan Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101569","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101569","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Professional audit firms increasingly engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. This paper examines the effect of audit firms' CSR activities on auditors’ reputation. We find that audit firms that engage in CSR experience an increase in the size of their client base compared to audit firms that do not engage in CSR. The effect is stronger for audit firms without existing reputation from a Big 4 brand name or industry specialization. We also find that clients that value CSR are more likely to hire audit firms that engage in CSR. Overall, our results suggest that CSR is an effective tool for audit firms to build their reputation in the marketplace.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48379,"journal":{"name":"Accounting Organizations and Society","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101569"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141882424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hans Christensen , Jeffrey Hales , Brendan O'Dwyer , Mark E. Peecher
{"title":"Accounting for sustainability and climate change: Special section overview","authors":"Hans Christensen , Jeffrey Hales , Brendan O'Dwyer , Mark E. Peecher","doi":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101568","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101568","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48379,"journal":{"name":"Accounting Organizations and Society","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101568"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036136822400028X/pdfft?md5=355b397db673c061f0b623400ab38de9&pid=1-s2.0-S036136822400028X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141882423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Paul W. Black , Mark S. Cecchini , Andrew H. Newman
{"title":"When being recognized makes employees feel less appreciated: Evidence regarding when and why peer-to-peer recognition could backfire","authors":"Paul W. Black , Mark S. Cecchini , Andrew H. Newman","doi":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101565","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101565","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Research links intangible employee outcomes with ultimate firm performance and business press suggests peer recognition systems can positively influence such employee outcomes, including the degree to which employees feel appreciated. We collect survey data at a company both pre and post the rollout of their public peer recognition system. Contrary to company expectations, employees felt <em>less</em> appreciated by their peers after system implementation. We then develop and experimentally test theory to better explain <em>why</em> this decline likely occurred. We find that two features of public peer recognition systems, public feeds and leaderboards, induce different types of social comparisons, and each have incrementally negative effects on the average <em>feelings of appreciation</em> among employees, even though, in isolation, peer recognition positively influences employees’ feelings of appreciation. These results help explain the findings from our field surveys and highlight that firms should carefully consider how the features of their peer recognition systems affect employees, as some features may unintentionally harm employee outcomes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48379,"journal":{"name":"Accounting Organizations and Society","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101565"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141732211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sanaz Aghazadeh , J.Owen Brown , Laura Guichard Latiolais , Thomas J. Phillips Jr.
{"title":"The effects of a client's social media disclosure and audience engagement on auditor judgment","authors":"Sanaz Aghazadeh , J.Owen Brown , Laura Guichard Latiolais , Thomas J. Phillips Jr.","doi":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101564","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101564","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The rapid rise of social media enables companies to disclose information to the public instantly. Thus, auditors may initially receive client information via a client's social media account instead of through private, client-to-auditor communication. Drawing on Social Penetration Theory, we conduct an experiment to investigate how a client's initial disclosure via social media (versus private disclosure) and audience engagement of the client's posts (e.g., number of “likes,” “replies,” and “reposts”) affects auditors' perception of the auditor-client relationship and their evaluation of the client-provided information. We find that when auditors initially receive client information via social media with high audience engagement, they are less willing to accept the client's preference than when the same information is disclosed privately or publicly with minimal audience engagement. Our findings are consistent with auditors perceiving client disclosure via social media with high audience engagement as a significant violation of their communication expectations such that their relational closeness with the client weakens and causes them to respond critically. We contribute to the literature on the use of social media for corporate disclosure, which has implications for the auditor-client relationship and audit quality.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48379,"journal":{"name":"Accounting Organizations and Society","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101564"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141732244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Steven E. Kaszak , Govind S. Iyer , Philip M.J. Reckers
{"title":"Opinion shopping for tax advice: The effects of client narcissism, social bonds, and message framing","authors":"Steven E. Kaszak , Govind S. Iyer , Philip M.J. Reckers","doi":"10.1016/j.aos.2024.101562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2024.101562","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Contentious interactions can arise between a tax professional and client upon disagreement over a tax position. These interpersonal exchanges can lead to “opinion shopping” and represent a threat to voluntary tax compliance and the public interest. Opinion shopping is likely to increase in an era of rising narcissism because antagonistic narcissists are known to react aggressively to rejection of their views. To better understand drivers of opinion shopping, we conduct a quasi-experiment with 222 U.S taxpayers. We find clients with higher (<em>lower</em>) levels of antagonistic narcissism are more (<em>less</em>) likely to opinion shop and switch to another tax preparer. We also examine the efficacy of two theory-motivated moderators of client antagonistic narcissism: [1] tax professional – client social bonds and [2] persuasive messaging by the advisor. By doing so, we respond to calls to explore moderating influences on the undesirable effects of antagonistic narcissism while also providing novel insight into factors influencing taxpayer clients’ decision-making following interpersonal exchanges with a tax advisor. We find that while close social bonds and sanction warnings reduce opinion shopping among participants lower in antagonistic narcissism, they fail to do so among participants higher in antagonistic narcissism. Theory provides no basis for predicting a three-way interaction, and we find none. Contributions to the research literature, as well as implications for tax practice and policy internationally, are also discussed.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48379,"journal":{"name":"Accounting Organizations and Society","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 101562"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141324325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}