Goodwill accounting as a missing link between financial and management accounting: literature review and research agenda

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to deal with the relationship between financial and management accounting concerning goodwill accounting. In this research I referred to the existing literature on goodwill accounting, impairment losses, and impairment testing, considering both the amortization and the impairment era in order to understand how interrelationships between financial and management accounting based on goodwill accounting were investigated theoretically. The results of the review still show a lack of dialogue in the accounting research. Even though the scant empirical evidence of operating practice within the companies demonstrate a natural linkage during the impairment era, internal and external reporting are still considered as two separate domains. This result, more logical in the amortization era, denotes by now a relevant gap in accounting research and it is time to pose some relevant research questions to open up an interdisciplinary (internal and external reporting) view. It is possible that the development of this new strand of research helps to advance our knowledge of business on many fronts. I refer to the advancement necessary to explain the mixed results of financial accounting studies such as the controversial value relevance of write-offs or the reason for opportunistic behavior in goodwill accounting, to interpret how financial accounting rules influence management accounting and, in the opposite sense, how management accounting represents a relevant factor in determining the financial reporting environment. A less myopic view, more open to a comparison between management and financial accounting, will also help standard setters , to understand if their rules require the disclosure of already adopted internal practices, if they favor company managerial growth, or if they add new and too sophisticated administrative tasks, too far from the current state of managerial thinking.