Accounting History Literature Research Articles

Institutional cooperation in handling epidemics: The case of the Misericordia of Florence during the Italian preunification period

The function of nonprofit organisations (NPOs) in managing healthcare and poverty relief and the role of accounting and reporting in their management control systems have many implications for accounting historians. The present research examines the relationship between NPOs and local governments in the management of public services, particularly during health emergencies. Specifically, this study examines the institutional cooperation between the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Misericordia of Florence and the Santa Maria Nuova Public Hospital during the cholera epidemic of 1855–1862. This research applies a conceptual framework based on Michel Foucault's concepts of ‘governmentality’, ‘nosopolitics’ and the ‘government of the poor’ and Mitchell Dean's ‘technologies of government’ to the study of archival primary sources. This research makes several contributions to the accounting history literature regarding the involvement of NPOs in healthcare, including an original analysis of the role of accounting and reporting in the ‘government of the sick’ from a nosopolitical perspective.

“If You Want to Get Rid of Filth Diseases, You Must First Get Rid of the Filth”—The “Economic” Decision by a City Corporation to Collect Household Waste

ABSTRACT The collection of household waste is now taken for granted. Such services have a cost, borne by local/central government or householders. Literature highlights such costs, also noting how householders can reduce them by recycling. Waste collection was not always a service offered to householders, with the first such services appearing from the mid-19th century. Although accounting history literature has explored accounting in cities and the public sector, research on how costs featured in the introduction of services such as waste removal appears scarce. This paper explores the decision to introduce waste collection to every household in an Irish city and the role of accounting and costs therein. Events around this decision are analyzed using a dual meaning of economic. The findings suggest a substantivist meaning of economic was paramount and costs were considered within a public health framing. JEL Classifications: M4; N9; R0.

World War 2 governmental cost-plus procurement: An Australian case study

The much-maligned cost-plus contract used in the procurement of defence assets has received little attention in the accounting history literature focused on accounting and the military in times of war. An extensive archive of a World War 2 contract between the Australian government and the UK De Havilland Aircraft Company for the supply of Tiger Moth airframes provides an opportunity to investigate important features of this contract, including cost recording and disclosure, monitoring of cost data by government inspectors, resolution of uncontracted events and evidence of government action to mitigate risks associated with this form of contracting. We also broaden the extant literature on open-book accounting on the premise that government access to the contractor's costing system constitutes a strong subset of this phenomenon. Finally, the batch-costing techniques utilised show strong evidence of ‘learning’ in respect of direct labour costs, consistent with this feature of cost behaviour in aircraft assembly.

Unethical Peer Review

ABSTRACT This paper calls for greater ethical standards in the peer review process. Critical analysis through the lens of the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers is performed on two reviews received on different versions of a paper from two different journals. Both are relentlessly negative. Neither is executed ethically. No justifiable significant criticism is evident. Both appear influenced by confirmation bias. One is characterized by apparent misreading of both the paper and the reviewer’s sources, plus failure to check criticism was valid. The rhetorical style of the other diminishes clarity, introduces ambiguity, and bewilders. It conveys overwhelming negativity with no supporting substance. This paper is the first to contribute to this theme in both the accounting and the accounting history literature. It is hoped it will encourage reviewers to be ethical, that it results in unethical reviews being more readily detected, and authors being better equipped to address reviewer comments.

Accounting for colonial domination in Liberal and Fascist Italy, 1912–1941

This article addresses the role played by accounting in the government of the Italian colonies of Africa during the Liberal and Fascist periods. Drawing upon the work of Foucault, Scott and Said and their understandings of governmentality and colonialism, and using a wide range of primary sources, the article contributes to the accounting history literature by showing how calculative practices in the form of colonial budgets and regular censuses of the population helped the Italian government to control activities in its colonies. The article shows how accounting practices evolved under different political regimes in the achievement of different programmes of government. It also offers evidence of the ways in which accounting can be mobilised to enable penetrating interventions in the lives of indigenous populations.

Exploring Accounting History: Literature and Standard Setting in India

ABSTRACT This paper provides a summary of the accounting history literature relating to India and provides suggestions for potential future research. The paper also identifies key events in standard setting between 1973 and 2023 and presents an exploratory analysis of the introduction of standard setting in India in 1977, highlighting both local and international factors influencing the process. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text.

Accounting and racial violence in the postbellum American South

PurposeThe paper aims to explore the relationship between accounting and racial violence through an investigation of sharecropping in the postbellum American South.Design/methodology/approachA range of primary sources including peonage case files of the US Department of Justice and the archives of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) are utilised. Data are analysed by reference to Randall Collins' theory of violence. Consistent with this theory, a micro-sociological approach to examining violent encounters is employed.FindingsIt is demonstrated that the production of alternative or competing accounts, accounting manipulation and failure to account generated interactions where confrontational tension culminated in bluster, physical attacks and lynching. Such violence took place in the context of potent racial ideologies and institutions.Originality/valueThe paper is distinctive in its focus on the interface between accounting and “actual” (as opposed to symbolic) violence. It reveals how accounting processes and traces featured in the highly charged emotional fields from which physical violence could erupt. The study advances knowledge of the role of accounting in race relations from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, a largely unexplored period in the accounting history literature. It also seeks to extend the research agenda on accounting and slavery (which has hitherto emphasised chattel slavery) to encompass the practice of debt peonage.

A Review on New Accounting History and Empirical Research

This research paper provides an explanation of the accounting history. The paper explores how merchants developed a record-keeping system known as the Bollac and traces the stages of accounting development from Mesopotamia in 3500B.C. to the present dayIt also examines Luca Pacioli's important contributions to the advancement of double-entry accounting, for whom he is frequently referred to as the Father of Accounting. The report also highlights the importance of accounting history in the modern world. The research then discusses the opportunities and difficulties that the accounting industry may face as the decade comes to an end. This essay looks into the methods used in historical research and suggests ways to make accounting history more relevant to modern accounting scholars. It explores several connected topics, including organizational history, internal accounting, specialized international accounting history literature, and accounting theory These subjects offer insightful information and resources that enable researchers to delve further into their particular fields of study

A study of Michelangelo's David from an accountability perspective: Antecedents of dialogic accounting in the early Florentine Renaissance

This article contributes to the accounting history literature through an investigation of the realisation and placement of Michelangelo's David from an accountability perspective. Using a contextual approach to thematic archival research, we explore whether and how early dialogic accounting (DA) tools were adopted by a hybrid organisation – the Opera of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence – during the period of the statute of David's realisation (1501−1504). Through our analysis of primary and secondary sources, this study sheds light on an early Renaissance accountability system that was based on consensus building and DA. The novel contribution of this study is thus threefold. First, this article adds an early Renaissance analysis to the literature concerning DA. Second, we reveal a new strand of research for accounting historians in regard to the historical period and context of this study. Third, we extend the literature's focus to a hybrid organisation that was financed by the Republic of Florence, associated with the Church and managed by commercial guilds.

Lost in translation: Pacioli's de computis et scripturis

This article seeks to determine how much we understand of Pacioli's purpose, and to clarify what he wrote justifying his preparation and publication of his ‘bookkeeping treatise’ in 1494. The context that motivated Pacioli to prepare his treatise is identified: why he published it and for whom. A new critical translation of the first chapter is presented, revealing statements omitted from the translations, and terms misunderstood. Its primary contribution is the clearer overview of fifteenth century Venetian business and bookkeeping practice and of the treatise than is currently presented in the accounting history literature. This should lead to new understanding of the role and purpose of using double entry in European trade during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and thereafter. Finally, all 10 translations of the treatise evaluated, including the five in English, were found to be unreliable. Anyone using these translations needs to refer continuously to the original text and to how it has been translated into other languages.

Accounting for and accounts of death: Past, present and future possibilities

Despite being an inevitable consequence of living, accounting for and accounts of death are under-researched in the accounting history literature. In this article, we review this literature and find that only a few studies engage beyond a mere reference to death; and even fewer that attempt to account for or provide accounts of death. Those studies that attempt to provide an account fall into two broad categories. First, those that treat death as a transactional phenomenon; and second, those that call for some form of accountability for death, a phenomenon we term necroaccountability. Further, we highlight a third space where accounting and death coalesce in the business of death. Through this process, we identify opportunities to increase our knowledge of accounting and death by understanding the ways in which it has been conceptualised and mobilised in the past.

The “accountant” stereotype in the Florentine medieval popular culture: “galantuomini” or usurers?

PurposeThis paper explores the stereotype of the accountant in Florentine medieval popular culture based on literary works and from a historical perspective. It aims to highlight how stereotypes change with time and represent the cultural and historical evolution of a society. This research challenges Miley and Read (2012), who stated that the foundation of the stereotype was in Commedia dell'arte, an Italian form of improvisational theatre commenced in the 15th century.Design/methodology/approachThe authors applied a qualitative research method to examine the accountant from a medieval popular culture perspective. The analysis consists of two phases: (1) categorisation of the accountant stereotype based on accounting history literature and (2) thematic analysis of The Divine Comedy (1307–1313) and The Decameron (1348–1351). The authors explored a synchronic perspective of historical investigation through a “cross-author” comparison, identifying Dante Alighieri as the first key author of medieval popular culture. During his imaginary journey through The Divine Comedy, Dante describes the social, political and economic context of the Florentine people of the 14th century. Then, with its various folkloristic elements, The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio becomes the “manifesto” of the popular culture in the Florentine medieval times.FindingsThis study shows the change of the accountant stereotype from the medieval age to the Renaissance. The Divine Comedy mainly connotes a negative accountant stereotype. The 14th century's Florentine gentlemen (“i galantuomini”) are apparently positive characters, with an ordered and clean aspect, but they are accused of being usurers. Dante Alighieri pictures the accountant as a “servant of capitalism”, “dishonest person, excessively fixated with money”, “villain and evil” and “excessively rational”. Giovanni Boccaccio mainly portrays a positive accountant stereotype. The accountant is increasingly more reliable, and this “commercial man” takes a more prestigious role in the society. In The Decameron, the accountant is depicted as a “hero”, “gentleman”, “family-oriented person with a high level of work commitment” and “colourful persona, warm, and emotional”. Overall, the authors provided new evidence on the existence of the accountant stereotype in the Florentine medieval popular.Originality/valueThis study engages with accounting history literature accountants' stereotypes in an unexplored context and time period, providing a base for comparative international research on accounting stereotypes and popular culture. Additionally, it addresses the need for further research on the accountant stereotype based on literary works and from a historical perspective. Therefore, this research also expands the New Accounting History (NAH) literature, focussing on the investigation of the accountant stereotype connotations in the 14th century.

Accounting as an instrument of power: The case of an Italian hospital in the late nineteenth century

During the past few years, scholars have investigated accounting practices from different perspectives and in different contexts; however, the topics of accounting and fraud-corruption appear to be underresearched areas in accounting history literature. This article examines the case of Galliera Hospital of Genoa, established as Opera Pia De Ferrari Brignole Sale in 1877 by the Duchess Maria Brignole Sale. Currently, the Galliera Hospital is an important and specialised Italian hospital with 450 beds and almost 2,000 employees. Using the lens of Foucault’s governmentality and discipline power framework, this article explores how unforeseen events and misconduct can deeply change governance and control mechanisms, implying the adoption of empowered accounting practices. Thus, this article shows that accounting practices, when perceived as a real technology of government, allow the exercise of power. The study offers a relevant contribution to the extant accounting history literature by examining how accounting can be used as an instrument of power in the presence of misconduct.

The Naturalist's Journals of Gilbert White: exploring the roots of accounting for biodiversity and extinction accounting

PurposeThis paper explores the historical roots of accounting for biodiversity and extinction accounting by analysing the 18th-century Naturalist's Journals of Gilbert White and interpreting them as biodiversity accounts produced by an interested party. The authors aim to contribute to the accounting history literature by extending the form of accounting studied to include nature diaries as well as by exploring historical ecological accounts, as well as contributing to the burgeoning literature on accounting for biodiversity and extinction accounting.Design/methodology/approachThe authors’ method involves analysing the content of Gilbert White's Naturalist's Journals by producing an 18th-century biodiversity account of species of flora and fauna and then interpretively drawing out themes from the Journals. The authors then provide a Whitean extinction account by comparing current species' status with White's biodiversity account from 250 years ago.FindingsThis paper uses Gilbert White's Naturalist's Journals as a basis for comparing biodiversity and natural capital 250 years ago with current species' status according to extinction threat and conservation status. Further the paper shows how early nature diary recording represents early (and probably the only) forms of accounting for biodiversity and extinction. The authors also highlight themes within White's accounts including social emancipation, problematisation, aesthetic elements and an example of an early audit of biodiversity accounting.Research limitations/implicationsThere are limitations to analysing Gilbert White's Naturalist's Journals given that the only available source is an edited version. The authors therefore interpret their data as accounts which are indicative of biodiversity and species abundance rather than an exactly accurate account.Practical implicationsFrom the authors’ analysis and reflections, the authors suggest that contemporary biodiversity accounting needs to incorporate a combination of narrative, data accounting and pictorial/aesthetic representation if it is to provide a rich and accurate report of biodiversity and nature. The authors also suggest that extinction accounting should draw on historical data in order to demonstrate change in natural capital over time.Social implicationsSocial implications include the understanding gleaned from the authors’ analysis of the role of Gilbert White as a nature diarist in society and the contribution made over time by his Journals and other writings to the development of nature accounting and recording, as well as to one’s understanding and knowledge of species of flora and fauna.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge this is the first attempt to analyse and interpret nature diaries as accounts of biodiversity and extinction.

Is Traditional Management Accounting Still in Use? Contemporary Issues

This paper aims to review the relevant literature on the role of management accounting in organizational management. It also compares traditional and new or strategic management accounting and their limitations. It focused on the role of management accounting in the constitution of organizations and the ways in which management accounting systems as structures of intentionality both shape and are shaped by shared norms and understandings. The findings help to understand the concerns of the current mainstream in management accounting literature. In fact, the findings cohere with Hopwood and Scapens and their followers in the sense that management accounting is not a static phenomenon but one that changes over time to reflect new forms and practices. It was also found that management accounting is part and parcel of organizational change. By reviewing a subset of the studies on accounting history published during the period 1980 - 2018, this paper updates accounting history literature by focusing on management accounting research. The paper also contributes to the existing literature by presenting the discussions of management accounting and organizational change. However, other studies can consider this paper as starting point to examine other areas of accounting such as financial accounting.

The state relationship with religion: Defined through disciplinary procedures of accounting and regulation

State regulation of charities is increasing. Nevertheless, although religious entities also pursue charitable objectives, jurisdictions often regulate them differently. In some states (including England until recently), the church (religious charities) are not called to account for their common-good contribution, despite owning significant assets and receiving public and government income. These regulatory and accounting variations emanate from a state’s historically informed positional relationship with religion, which may be discordant against increasing religious pluralism and citizens’ commonly-held beliefs. To open a debate on state–church relationships within the accounting history literature, this article analyses changes in England since 1534. It utilises a state–church framework from Monsma and Soper, combined with an application and extension of Foucauldian governmentality. The longitudinal study shows direct and indirect governmentality tools change with the state–church relationship. Such harmonisation of regulatory approach relies on citizens/entities subverting imposition of state demands which fail to meet their concept of common-good.

Accountability by the accountable self: The case of Leone Wollemborg

The accounting history literature has mostly concentrated on depicting how accountability practices evolve with respect to the organisational and social contexts, leaving at the margins explorations of the role of the ‘accountable self’ in this process. To extend this literature, the present study examines how the economist and landowner Leone Wollemborg (1859–1932) acted as an ‘accountable self’, explaining his own actions to the ‘other’, to promote a new organisational model aimed at solving the credit issue affecting the rural population. Based on archival material, the article explores Wollemborg’s biography and develops a content analysis of his discourses. The findings show that, by making a pervasive use of face-to-face narrative accountability, Wollemborg obtained trust and engagement of external potential stakeholders, thus expanding the rural credit cooperatives (Raiffeisen-style). This research facilitates understanding of the relevance for the initiator of a new organisational model to act as an ‘accountable self’.

The contribution of the Italian literature to the international Accounting History literature

Italian and Anglo-Saxon accounting scholarships are rather different in their philosophical foundations and conceptual categories. Such difference has implications for Italian scholars aiming at contributing to the international accounting history (AH) literature. This work aims to qualify the contribution of Italian scholars to the AH literature. By means of a review of the AH publication patterns of Italian scholars both in Italian and English language, from 2010 to 2016, the analysis compares Italian and international outlets. Furthermore, the comparison considers the entrenched bi-lingual and cultural aspects, by highlighting the textual similarities and differences of specific contributions. With its results, the study adds to prior literature on the publishing patterns in AH, by shedding light on how Italian accounting historiography has developed in an international context. Moreover, this work highlights the challenges for Italian scholars willing to disseminate AH research outside their national context and promotes cross-country collaborations to expand the pathways, time and foci of international AH.

The profession of arms and the profession of accounting numbers – Accounting, the military and war: A review

Within the accounting history literature, there exists a small sub-realm that focuses on the nexus between accounting and war and accounting and the military. This article is a review of 55 articles published in the new millennium (2000–2017) ranging across a 420-year period, encompassing many wars and periods of peace, and involving multiple countries. Several accounting issues including procedures, costing, budgeting, disclosure, financing, efficiency gender and culpability emerge. The availability of existing accounting knowledge forms the basis of the review, with accounting shown to be adaptive and reactive to the needs of the military (and the state) in peacetime and wartime emergency. Specifically, in applying existing accounting knowledge, accounting contributes to the military or war. Where new accounting knowledge is developed, accounting is influenced either by the needs of the military or the dictates of war.

History of research performance measurement systems in the Australian higher education sector

Performance measurement systems (PMSs) are a global phenomenon emanating from new public management (NPM) reforms. While they are now prolific and entrenched, they have attracted criticism based on their design and the manner in which they are applied. The purpose of this article is to explore the history of accounting for research in the Australian higher education sector (HES). It focuses on how successive Australian governments have steered research within the sector through the introduction of PMSs, in line with NPM reforms. Relying on publicly available online policy documents and scholarly literature, the study traces the development of performance measures within the Australian HES from the mid-1980s to 2015. It contributes to literature in management accounting aspects of NPM through the means of management accounting techniques such as PMSs. It also contributes to accounting history literature through an examination of three decades of accounting for research in the Australian HES.