Accounting History Research Research Articles

Entertainment as an archival source for historical accounting research

This research champions indigenous voices and epistemes in accounting history. It corrects the hegemony of the coloniser’s voice in the archive and fills the archival vacuum with indigenous voices. This research presents the case of rice accounting in Cambodia. Cambodia was devastated by half a millennium of warfare and coups destroying written archives. The archives of the French coloniser are all that survive. That archive tells the coloniser’s version of rice accounting. To challenge that version of rice accounting, this research examines the story of rice accounting found in a traditional form of Cambodian entertainment: circus performance. Circus performance is a form of archive that captures collective memory, providing an indigenous voice and episteme. This research examines how, in preserving collective memory, traditional forms of entertainment can facilitate a richer understanding of accounting history when the written indigenous archive is impaired, destroyed or has failed to recognise the indigenous voice.

Enlisting accounting history in the contest between competing visions of accounting systems: Tommaso Zerbi and the origin of double-entry bookkeeping

Biographical research has attracted a significant level of interest from the accounting history community. Nevertheless, most of these studies are focused on documenting the life and work of renowned accounting scholars and practitioners. This study seeks to investigate the work of an author who is yet to attract the attention of the international community, Tommaso Zerbi, in close connection with the social and academic context in which this work was developed. The study emphasises the political and militant role that accounting history may play in academic communities by showing how accounting history research is not necessarily a value-free endeavour in the generation of new knowledge but can be enlisted in ensuring the success of a specific understanding of accounting systems in the context of academic struggles. Although mainly aiming at contributing to a national debate, the originality and value of Zerbi’s work ended up offering a significant contribution to the international debate on the origin of double-entry bookkeeping.

Accounting history and theorising about organisations

Historical accounting research has a substantial track record of using a variety of theoretical insights to better understand how and why accounting has contributed to, and been affected by, organisational change and development. The article outlines the emergence of a range of theories that have been employed by accounting historians, against the background of the development of accounting history as a significant disciplinary field within accounting research. From its investigation of accounting historians’ approaches to studying accounting as a central practice in organisational processes, it reveals how historical accounting studies have been informed by and contributed to theorisation of such organisational phenomena. The article concludes that theory is largely used to provide conceptual frameworks for historical narratives, with historical accounting research often focused on case studies of single organisations or organisational settings. However, theory has also been mobilised at more general levels, to provide meta-narratives of the rise of capitalism and the emergence of managerialism. Far from treating accounting as technical practice, accounting historians are revealed as conceiving accounting as social practice, impacting both human behaviour and organisational and social functioning and development. As social practice, accounting emerges deeply embedded and pervasive in organisations and societies.

“The Past, Present, and Future of Accounting History”: A Comment on the State of Accounting History

ABSTRACT This response to the recent contribution by Matthews (2019) entitled “The Past, Present, and Future of Accounting History” specifically deals with the issues associated with concentrating on counting publication numbers in examining the state of a scholarly research field at the start of the 2020s. It outlines several pitfalls with the narrowly focused publications count analysis, in selected English language journals only, as provided by Matthews. The commentary is based on three key arguments: (1) accounting history research and publication is far more than a “numbers game”; (2) trends in the quality of the research undertaken and published are paramount; and (3) international publication and accumulated knowledge in accounting history are indeed more than a collection of English language publications. The author seeks to contribute to discussion and debate between accounting historians and other researchers for the benefit and development of the international accounting history community and global society.

Perkembangan Penelitian Sejarah Akuntansi di Indonesia dalam Bingkai Perspektif NAH

This study aims to capture the development of new accounting history research in order to understand the extent to which accounting history has been carried out and the possible direction of research in the future. This study use literature review to collect the data. The result shows that the NAH research in Indonesia has been carried out such as accounting research during the colonioal period, the early era of Indonesia’s independence, the ancient java and bali period. However, the opportunity to do the New accounting history research in Indonesia is still widely open considering that Indonesia is a country with many cultures and dynamics. Some opportunities in this field are accounting research during the Islamic Kingdom and contemporary accounting research which can describe various current accounting dynamics that impact the development of accounting.

The Principality of Hutt River: Using Accounting for Sovereignty

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to show how the Principality of Hutt River has used accounting to uphold its sovereignty. The Principality unilaterally seceded from Australia in 1970 and is not formally recognized as a sovereign state. Nonetheless, with an increasing trend of post-nationalism, the status quo of sovereign states as sole providers of citizenship and company registration is being challenged. Therefore, in order to reaffirm its sovereignty, the Principality has developed political rationalities and technologies with the intention of offering citizenship and company registration to foreigners. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach was adopted to examine the Principality’s implemented government practices aiming to intervene in economic and social life within its borders. The researchers undertook an archival search regarding the Principality throughout Australian court cases and diplomatic cables, as well as reviewing published material and the internet home site of the Government of the Principality of Hutt River. Findings – The evidence supports the argument the Principality has used accounting to intervene in economic and social life within its borders. The Principality’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accepts citizenship applications and foreign companies can register with the Principality’s Registrar of Companies & Bank. Nonetheless, the Principality is landlocked in Australia and such government practices are still challenged by the Australian Government. Hence citizens of the Principality can only reach its territory if the Australian Government grants them a visa to enter Australian territory. Regarding the registration of foreign companies with the Principality, the Australian Government brands such action mostly as a tax avoidance scheme. Originality/value – This article contributes to the growing research in new accounting history as it explores the wake of the relationship between accounting and the state, with an emphasis on a secessionist state. Individuals becoming citizens of the Principality and foreign companies registering with the Principality show the increasing relevance of territories such as the Principality competing with sovereign states and the role of accounting in the advance of a post-national zeitgeist.

The accounting history research in the ‘Rivista Italiana di Ragioneria’ (Italian Accounting Review), 1901–2015

This study investigates the evolution of accounting history research in Italy throughout the analysis of the historical publications on the most important generalist accounting journal—the ‘ Italian Accounting Review’ (IAR, ‘ Rivista Italiana di Ragioneria’). Following the studies on the patterns of publications in the accounting history research, we tracked the accounting history contributions in IAR over 115 years, from 1901 to 2015. Our longitudinal analysis included number and subject areas of the tracked contributions. The findings support the consolidated tradition of the historical perspective for the Italian accounting researchers. They also reveal emerging topics and developing fields of historical enquiry that could be addressed in future. We make a call for more research on accounting history in specific contexts, through knowledge creation in diverse languages and settings.

Development of accounting in Fiji, 1801–2016

This article reviews the development of accounting in Fiji. Although this article mentions the pre-European contact period (before 1800), four key phases during which accounting developments occurred are examined. These are the pre-colonial period (1801–1873), the colonial period (1874–1970), Fiji as a Sovereign State under the 1970 Constitution (1971–1986) and the Fijian Sovereign State following the 1987 coups (1987–2016). In each of these periods, a number of major accounting developments that occurred in the country are reviewed and the players responsible for the developments are identified. Directions for future accounting history research are suggested.

Academic independence, freedom and ‘enlightenment’: The case of accounting research

This article examines the problem of academic freedom in a rather unlikely area: accounting and historical accounting research. It discusses some cases in the United States and the United Kingdom where accounting research led to controversy and tells the story of a PhD student (the author) sued for libel in 1986 for his research concerning a policy issue, the subject of public debate, and related to conflicts of interest for directors of a mutual organization (a building society) and their use of its funds. It shows how ‘managerial diversion’ was discovered, how the libel suit was successfully defended and how the law was changed. While academic independence issues have always existed and across disciplines, the case and discussion largely relate to the 1980s in the United Kingdom when universities suffered savage cutbacks in public funding and the imposition of ‘reforms’. The case study illustrates, and the article discusses these issues as they relate to the state of modern universities and the pressures on academics.

Accounting History Research Topics—An Analysis of Leading Journals, 2006–2015

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes and categorizes published research papers in three specialist accounting history journals—Accounting History, The Accounting Historians Journal, and Accounting History Review. A key objective is to highlight under-represented areas for future research. We inductively derive a categorization system, and classify over four hundred papers from 2006–2015 according to twelve categories. The results show some rather under-researched areas, namely religion and accounting education. Using statistical analysis techniques, we note similarities and differences across the three journals and suggest avenues for future researchers.

Accounting History Research: Scope, Topics and Agenda

Since the 1970s, accounting history has built a considerable research infrastructure (e.g. congresses, journals, and associations) that supports networking, as well as the dissemination of studies in this area. This editorial reviews research trends in accounting history and suggests four areas: (i) new settings and observation periods; (ii) accounting in native nations; (iii) gender; and (iv) accounting and the State hold promise to advance accounting knowledge.In 1970, Ernest Stevelinck organized in Brussels the first World Congress of Accounting Historians, which signaled the awakening of accounting history research as an academic discipline. World congresses instilled in accounting historians the practice of receiving high-quality feedback on their studies before submitting their papers to a journal or their books to a publisher. In 1973, Gary J. Previts lead the foundation of The Academy of Accounting Historians. For accounting historians, the

Contributing to the international accounting history movement: Integrated forums of discourse

The purpose of this article is to examine the emergence and development of all conferences, colloquia and symposia connected with Accounting History, a specialist, English-language international journal. These journal-associated events comprise an integrated, multidimensional set of scholarly forums which have contributed to the international accounting history movement. This article presents an historical account of the motivation for establishing the Accounting History International Conference and the later associated colloquia, first, in the form of the Accounting History Doctoral Colloquium and, second, the Accounting History International Emerging Scholars' Colloquium, as part of the international strategy of the New Series of the journal from 1996. Regional symposia across Australia and New Zealand, known as the Accounting History Symposium, were also introduced under a holistic approach to nurturing historical accounting research. An overview of the conferences, colloquia and symposia held to the time of writing is provided along with a discussion of the key distinguishing features of these integrated forums of discourse.

Public Sector Accounting in Italy at the Beginning of the 20th Century: The Contributions of Fabio Besta

ABSTRACTThe 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century were particularly important for the development of accounting theory. Various accounting historians have emphasized the key role of Italian scholars during this period (Amaduzzi 2001; Bariola 1897; Ceccherelli 1915; Luchini 1898; Melis 1950). One of the most important of these scholars was Fabio Besta. This paper presents both a biography of Fabio Besta and a discussion of his contributions to accounting thought. There are two primary motivations for this paper; namely (1) to contribute to the biographical strand of accounting history research, and (2) to develop a better understanding of the history of public sector/state accounting. Besta is acknowledged as one of the most important Italian scholars of the accounting discipline. His work, focusing on public administration, is remarkable for its clarity and depth, and it is of particular interest today for researchers of business and management, especially with regard to those aspects that differentiate private sector from public administration. Over a century after his death, Besta's work continues to be of great interest. In fact, the debate concerning accounting methods in the public sector has not yet been completely resolved, with the process of change from cash-based to accrual-based accounting still taking place in many countries.

Twenty years of Accounting History, 1996–2015: Evidence of the changing faces of accounting history research

Early research into accounting history publishing patterns indicates researchers were predominately male, working for Anglophone universities and were researching private sector accounting in Anglophone countries. However, recent research suggests this may be changing. Extending and expanding the earlier research of Williams and Wines (2006), the purpose of this paper is to examine publication patterns in the New Series of Accounting History from 1996 to 2015. There has been growth in the journal’s thematic coverage and its global and gender representation. It also reports that while temporal and geographical coverage has expanded, there has been little change in the degree of international collaboration. Although much has been achieved over the past 20 years of Accounting History, there are a number of emerging topics and developing fields of historical enquiry that could be addressed in future volumes, together with research that interfaces accounting with the wider business, political, social and legal historical space.

The Development of Accounting History Research in Japan

The Development of Accounting History Research in Japan

Revisiting the roles of accounting in society

In order to facilitate the development of new research agendas, pioneering authors in AOS embarked on difficult journeys in search of the interconnections between accounting and the social. Contributions such as Burchell et al (1980) located a number of roles of accounting in society and inspired agenda-shifting historical investigations. However, as Hopwood (1985) recognised, the participation of historians in this project requires reinvestments in theoretical and epistemological thinking. This paper encourages renewed explorations of the concepts that might guide accounting history research seeking to probe the social. Such investments are especially pressing given that notions of ‘society’ and the ‘social’ have shifted since the early years of AOS. The study charts the problems of connecting accounting and the social, indicates how social historians have addressed similar issues, and reveals the scope for drawing on other notions of the ‘social’ that have the potential to extend historical understandings of the roles of accounting in society. The latter is illustrated through a discussion of the interactions between accounting and social control.

Accounting historiography: looking back to the future

Purpose– This paper aims to contextualise and critically evaluate the state of accounting historiography, its past and future agenda as a foundation for future scholars’ design and pursuit of accounting history research.Design/methodology/approach– Focussing on the historiographic accounting history literature, the paper draws on prior state-of-the-art reviews as well as a range of contemporary accounting history research studies to provide an overview of the accounting history community internationally, its emergence, institutions, theories and methodologies.Findings– Accounting history researchers are identified now as an established and growing international community of scholars, increasingly diverse in national origins and focus, yet still on the threshold of moving beyond its specialist literature into general accounting and history research literatures. Nonetheless, their historiography exhibits a vibrant theoretical and methodological discourse that has laid the foundations for expanding opportunities in both research subjects and approaches available for study.Research limitations/implications– Theoretical and methodological proliferation offers a wealth of options for further research in this field, in terms of subject matter focus and in terms of innovative and insightful approaches to their investigation.Practical implications– Findings already available in the accounting history literature offer useful foundational understandings that have the potential to better inform contemporary policy and practice decision-makers.Originality/value– The paper provides a reference point for emerging and established scholars in accounting history, presenting a summary of their underlying historical institutional and historiographic development contexts and offering a research agenda based on theoretical and methodological diversity.

Innovation in accounting thought and practice – an introduction

Innovation is crucial to the evolution of human society. Accounting, as a complex human construction, both defines and reflects our behaviour (Rose and Miller, 1992). It has emerged in different settings across time and space and plays a key role in ordering the affairs of individuals, organisations and society. Accounting not only emerges but also changes. Historical accounting researchers are not indifferent to this evolution. A variety of approaches have been used to examine the evolution of accounting ideas, thought and practice in different historical periods. From this point of view, and since the opus prima by AC Littleton entitled Accounting Evolution to 1900 (Littleton, 1933), accounting history research has expanded in its coverage of periods, areas, episodes and institutions (Carnegie and Potter, 2000; Carmona, 2004, 2006; Walker, 2008) and elucidated the ability of the human being to invent, to innovate and to change. In addition, the lenses used in approaching accounting history have been widened (Gaffikin, 2011; Carnegie, 2014). This special issue comprises six contributions, the earlier versions of which were presented at the seventh Accounting History International Conference (7AHIC), held in Seville, Spain, in September 2013. The authors of these works are from France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the USA. The topics studied within the settings under examination involve professional associations, accounting authors, government agencies, the adoption of forms of accounting regulation, private companies and not-for-profit organisations. Interestingly, the periods studied relate mainly to the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. Baker and Quere draw upon two theoretical models describing state regulation of economic activity in order to analyse two contrasting historical periods. The first is the Colbert period under Louis XIV in seventeenth-century France. The second is the United States, in the early twentieth century, when the federal government sought to control capitalist activity. The first theoretical model employed is that of Miller (1990) who maintained that the principal “reason of state” for intervention in business and accounting practices during the Colbert period was “military competition” between France and other European powers. The second model is based on Clarke (2004) 596396 ACH0010.1177/1032373215596396Accounting HistoryEditorial research-article2015

Relación de agencia y monopolio. El caso del tabaco en España (1887-1986)

Historical accounting research provides evidence, within the framework of agency theory, of the conflict of interests produced in the organisation. By means of a longitudinal study based on primary sources, the present study aims to examine how agency relationship is regulated by means of formal contracts, as well as to explore the function performed by accounting within that relationship. The case study on which our research is based, and which might constitute an important contribution to the field, examines the leasing of the State tobacco monopoly to a private corporation, from the beginning of this process (1887) until this monopolistic activity starts to decrease (1986). The findings underline that the specific contracts established lead to a significant control of the principal over the agent, and that not all conditions required in order to consider them as “good contractual agreements” are met. On the other hand, accounting appears as a key factor in State control of the lessee corporations. The main conclusion of the study is that the agent takes more risks in the leasing, and that the principal maintains an opportunistic behaviour throughout the whole process, which questions the most widespread assumptions on the theory, and suggests the possibility of softening of the initial assumptions.

Exploring the Accounting History Research in Turkey: Publishing Patterns of Academicians

The aim of the study is to determine how much interest the accounting academicians have in the history of their field. To analyze this interest we reviewed the academic research of the accounting academicians in Turkey on accounting history. The study explores publishing patterns in Turkish accounting academicians in academic journals and the thesis submitted in Turkish Universities on accounting history. In the study we analyzed and reported the recent development of the accounting history research in Turkey in the period 2000 to 2013. In the study we implemented a content analysis for academic articles. Firstly a comprehensive literature review has been done to find the accounting history articles published by the Turkish academicians in the last decade. We found 74 accounting history articles published in national and international academic journals by the Turkish academicians. The analysis of the articles examined the patterns of authorship, the most published authors, institutional affiliations of authors, author gender, the most published journals, subject areas, and period covered by the articles. In the second part of the study is a content analysis for the master and doctoral thesis on accounting history in Turkish Universities is provided. We searched the theses in the thesis database of The Council of Higher Education of Turkey. We limited the research on accounting history thesis, and we found only 11 theses on accounting history. The analysis of the theses examined the authorship, institutions thesis submitted, advisor of the thesis, subject areas, and period covered by the theses. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4p323