Dedicated to the advancement of accounting knowledge, the Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal publishes high quality manuscripts concerning the interaction between accounting/auditing and their socio-economic and political environments, encouraging critical analysis of policy and practice in these areas. The journal also seeks to encourage debate about the philosophies and traditions which underpin the accounting profession, the implications of new policy alternatives and the impact of accountancy on the socio-economic and political environment.

The Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal is dedicated to advancing accounting knowledge by publishing high-quality manuscripts that explore the interaction between accounting/auditing and their socio-economic and political environments. The journal encourages critical analysis of policies and practices in these areas and seeks to foster debate about the philosophies and traditions that underpin the accounting profession, the implications of new policy alternatives, and the impact of accountancy on the socio-economic and political landscape.

《Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal》致力于推动会计知识的发展，发表高质量的手稿，关注会计/审计与其社会经济及政治环境之间的互动，鼓励对这些领域政策和实践的批判性分析。该期刊还旨在促进关于支撑会计职业的哲学和传统的辩论，探讨新政策选择的影响，以及会计对社会经济和政治环境的影响。

Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the origins of strategic management accounting and to assess the extent of adoption and “success” of strategic management accounting (SMA). Design/methodology/approach Empirical papers which have directly researched SMA and prior review papers of the adoption and implementation of SMA or SMA techniques are reviewed. As well as assessing the extent of adoption of SMA and the reasons underlying an apparent low adoption rate, the role of accountants in adopting and implementing SMA is considered. Finally, the success or otherwise of SMA is discussed. Findings SMA or SMA techniques have not been adopted widely, nor is the term SMA widely understood or used. However, aspects of SMA have had an impact, influencing the thinking and language of business, and the way in which we undertake various business processes. These issues cut across the wider domain of management, and are not just the province of management accountants. Research limitations/implications There is limited value in conducting future surveys of the adoption and implementation of SMA or SMA techniques. Rather, the focus should be on how SMA‐inspired techniques and processes diffuse into general practice within organizations. Originality/value Twenty‐five years after the term strategic management accounting was first introduced in the literature, this paper brings together disparate literature and provides a broad assessment of the “state‐of‐the‐art” of strategic management accounting to inform researchers and practitioners.

Kim Langfield‐Smith

Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

Acc Auditing Accountability J

Strategic management accounting: how far have we come in 25 years?

战略管理会计：25年来我们取得了多大进展？

Purpose This paper aims to explore how organizations use annual reporting for legitimacy purposes in the context of the ten recently privatised regional water companies in the UK. Although privatization required the water plcs to establish a distinctly different organizational legitimacy for themselves as customer‐focused companies commensurate with their new private sector status, it was clear from the nature of their privatization that they would experience difficulties in achieving this. Privatization did little to change their previous monopoly character, and this created discrepancy with the model of private sector companies operating in customer‐led competitive markets. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a content analysis of statements concerning customer service in annual reports. The analysis examines the variety of ways in which the ten water plcs deployed both assertive and defensive impression management techniques in their attempts to gain, maintain and repair their legitimacy as customer‐focused companies. Findings The analysis emphasises the importance of the role of corporate reporting as a resource in legitimacy management. The paper also argues that, despite sustained efforts, the water plcs did not wholly succeed in persuading all their customers that the privatization of water was “a good thing”. Originality/value The paper will be valuable to researchers and practitioners alike, as it attempts to take further one's understanding of how organizations use corporate reporting for legitimacy purposes by examining a much more extreme case of the legitimacy problem than has been previously considered in the literature: namely, the need for an entirely new basis for corporate legitimacy.

Stuart Ogden

Julia Clarke

Customer disclosures, impression management and the construction of legitimacy

客户披露、印象管理与合法性构建

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine formal participation in the early phase of the International Integrated Reporting Council’s (IIRC’s) standard-setting. The objective of the paper is to shed light on the characteristics of lobbying parties and the determinants of their lobbying behavior toward the IIRC. Additionally, the most important points of contestation regarding the IIRC’s initial proposal for integrated reporting are identified and discussed. Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyze comment letters issued toward the IIRC’s 2011 discussion paper on the basis of a content analysis. The analysis is guided mainly by Sutton’s (1984) rational-choice model of lobbying and by findings from extant financial accounting lobbying research. The analysis of the data is both quantitative and qualitative. Findings – The paper improves the understanding of the political nature of standard-setting in the context of integrated reporting. Among other things, the authors find that comment letters toward the IIRC’s discussion paper are mainly written by large multinational firms (as opposed to small- and medium-sized ones) and by preparers (as opposed to users). The authors also observe active lobbying by sustainability service firms and professional bodies which tend to take a critical position vis-à-vis the discussion paper’s emphasis on investor needs and shareholder value creation. Moreover, the qualitative analysis reveals that respondents voice different concerns regarding, for instance, the scope of audience of integrated reporting, issues of materiality and the relationship between integrated reporting and other existing reporting frameworks. Research limitations/implications – The analysis is limited to a consideration of the 2011 discussion paper of the IIRC. The IIRC’s more recent and forthcoming proposals will likely provide a basis to extend the paper’s findings and allow investigation of the role of lobbying for the further development of the framework. Originality/value – The paper is, to the best of the knowledge, the first one to explore lobbying behavior by means of comment letters in the context of integrated reporting.

Marek Reuter

Martin Messner

Lobbying on the integrated reporting framework

综合报告框架的游说

Purpose Integrated reporting (IR) provides a joint overview of an organisation’s financial and sustainability performance and strategies. While the prior literature often critiques IR’s potential to entrench injustice, a systematic approach has not been followed. Therefore, this paper provides a systematic literature review, uncovering IR injustices, informing the development of an IR injustice assessment framework to identify injustices and a research agenda. Design/methodology/approach Combining Flyvbjerg’s phronetic social science and the phases of the IR idea journey to focus on injustice, this paper reviews published IR articles to inform a critique of IR. As a result, we identify specific injustice(s), the actors responsible for them, as well as the victims, as a basis for recommendations for praxis through the development of an IR injustice assessment framework and a research agenda. Findings We find that different approaches are needed in each phase of the IR idea journey. In the (re)generation phase, a pluralistic approach to IR is needed from the very beginning of the decision-making process. In the elaboration phase, the motivations and the features of IR are assessed. In the championing phase, IR champions support radical innovation, whereas IR opponents are obstructing its spread. In the production phase, the extent to which IR and integrated thinking are linked to the business model is assessed. Finally, we find that IR’s impact is often limited by the symbolic implementation of its tenets. Practical implications The findings suggest a need for companies to rethink the ways in which IR is implemented and used to analyse the ways in which IR is supported and disseminated within and outside the organisation, to focus on internal processes and to reflect on the expected impact of IR on the company’s stakeholders. Originality/value This study represents the first systematic approach to identifying IR-related injustices, involving how IR adoption might create injustices and marginalise certain stakeholder groups, and offering recommendations for praxis. Furthermore, the paper details the role of IR in either mitigating or amplifying these injustices and develops a research agenda.

Valentina Beretta

Maria Chiara Demartini

Charl de Villiers

Integrated reporting: developing an injustice assessment framework and a research agenda

综合报告：开发不公正评估框架与研究议程

Purpose Previous work has explored the ability of auditors to expand successfully into seemingly unrelated fields, referred to as new audit spaces. The present paper focuses on how auditors respond to challenges when entering a new audit field and devising strategies to sensemake and sensegive about those challenges. Design/methodology/approach This study builds on findings from 32 interviews with auditors and participant observation of interactions between auditors and blockchainers to understand how auditors approached a new audit space. Findings We find that when auditors enter a new audit space, they endeavour to impose a logic of auditability. First, they determine an acceptable knowledge basis for this target audit space by developing a codified set of rules to organize knowledge, then develop a codified set of practices to verify conformity to the auditor’s set of rules. Next, auditors engage in three strategic tactics to influence members of the target audit space: appealing to the financial benefits of adopting a logic of auditability; appealing to their credentials from established audit markets; and appealing to bona fides in the target audit space to establish credibility. We posit that these sensemaking and sensegiving strategies do not take hold in the blockchain space because auditors are approaching these activities from a different mental model than blockchain natives. Because auditors are unable to adopt the mental model of the blockchain space, they are unable to devise strategies to compellingly influence blockchain natives and secure a stronghold in this new audit space. We developed a model for sensemaking and sensegiving when auditors enter new audit spaces. Originality/value This paper challenges and contrasts prior accounts of the seemingly unending expansion of audit firms into new spaces. The study demonstrates that there are limitations to auditors’ abilities to transplant their verification skills in the blockchain field.

Erica Pimentel

Emilio Boulianne

Crawford Spence

When audit confronts blockchain

当审计遇上区块链

Purpose This paper examines the state’s accountability to its citizens, in particular the First Peoples of settler colonial nations such as Australia, and how these responsibilities may be enacted via a process of compensatory justice in Native Title claims. We focus on the landmark Timber Creek ruling and the impacts of racialized preconceptions on the accountability outcomes of the case. Design/methodology/approach This study draws on critical race theory to reveal embedded racialised perspectives that perpetuate exclusion and discriminatory outcomes. Court documents including hearing transcripts, case judgements, witness statements, appellant and respondent submissions, expert reports and responses from First Nations leaders, form the basis of our analysis. Findings The case highlights how the compensation awarded to Native Title holders was based on racialised assumptions that prioritised neoliberal values, commercial activities and reaching a “socially acceptable” judgement over valuing Aboriginal uses of land. A critical analysis of court documents reveals the pervasiveness of presumed “objectivity” in the use of accounting tools to calculate economic value and the accountability implications of a process based on litigation, not negotiation. These findings reveal the hiding places offered by calculative practices that equate neoliberal priorities with accountability and reaffirm the importance of alternative accountings to resist inequitable distributive outcomes. Originality/value Novel insights, drawing on First Nations peoples’ connections to land and their perspectives on accountability and justice, are offered in this study. Our analysis of Native Title holders’ submissions to the courts alongside historical and anthropological sources leads to the conclusion that compensation decisions regarding Native Title land must be approached from the perspective of Aboriginal landowners if accountable outcomes are to be achieved.

Ellie Norris

Shawgat Kutubi

Glenn Finau

Compensatory justice and accountability for First Nations peoples: the Timber Creek case

补偿正义与原住民责任：Timber Creek案

Purpose This study aims to examine how hospitals and regional and local health authorities in the Italian region of Marche accounted for and reported the use of emergency funds from the EU, the Ministry of Economic and Finance and administrative bodies called actuator subjects. Unlike a sudden impact disaster, such as an earthquake, the pandemic was slow moving and novel. This meant that the guidelines for medical, legislative, financial and administrative action were not as developed as those for sudden impact emergencies with which the Italian state was, unfortunately, experienced. Design/methodology/approach The paper investigates the Italian public healthcare setting since the declaration of the State of Emergency until its end—that is, from January 2020 to July 2021. We conducted 31 semi-structured interviews with nine key-actors working for national, regional and local administrative bodies. A range of related official documents were analyzed. Findings We show a non-linear and emergent account of standardization and coordination. We show how different state and transnational actors developed their own procedures to standardize COVID-related cost classifications and reports. These attempts also involved coordinating assemblages, at the center of which are templates imposed on hospitals and regional authorities by national state entities for cost-reporting practices and aggregation. Importantly, templates’ visual features enabled coordination across the different standardization initiatives that populated the emergency response effort. Research limitations/implications The paper provides academics and policy makers with insights into the role played by accounting tools, templates, reports and guidelines to coordinate different cost standardization initiatives. Originality/value Accounting guidelines that standardize costs are known to be deployed hierarchically by states and transnational organizations for coordination purposes. We highlight, however, the emergence of not only hierarchical forms of coordination but also their interrelation with decentralized forms of coordination. These two types of coordinating assemblages, each standardizes cost through the accounting templates that they use. We demonstrate the emergent nature of coordination even within hierarchical entities like the state. Reporting templates are pivotal for understanding this coordination process. However, when a centralized coordinating body is absent, it is the visual features of accounting, rather than its imposition, that enable coordination.

Massimo Sargiacomo

Daniel Martinez

Stefania Servalli

Antonio Gitto

Antonio D'Andreamatteo

Coordinating assemblages: accounting for a novel disaster

协调集合体：对新型灾难的会计处理

Purpose This study aims to investigate how disclosures through different communication media were used by the Australian mining company Rio Tinto to manage its reputation after the Juukan Gorge Cave Blast. Design/methodology/approach Case study research was used with a focus on a single case, Rio Tinto and the Juukan Gorge incident. Data on sustainability disclosures were collected from Rio Tinto’s website, corporate reports and social media platforms (Facebook, X and LinkedIn) for the 2020 and 2021 periods. Gioia methodology was applied to analyse disclosure strategies and an extended Reputation Risk Management (RRM) framework was used as a conceptual lens. Findings The findings reveal a slow and inappropriate initial response from the company resulting in negative reputational consequences for the company’s senior executives. Although the company’s initial response was to avoid responsibility and mitigate offensiveness, it gradually accepted full responsibility and adopted reparation strategies such as corrective action, mortification and stakeholder engagement to rebuild its reputation. The temporal analysis suggests that Rio Tinto was “left behind” as a result of its initial response, limiting the effectiveness of its subsequent RRM strategies. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study contribute to an improved understanding of communication strategies for managing a reputation crisis. The extended RRM framework developed in this study provides a comprehensive list of various disclosure strategies that can be used in future studies that analyse disclosure post an environmental or social incident. Practical implications The findings of the study provide insights into the effectiveness of different communication strategies when communicating to stakeholders with varied interests. This study highlights that the timing of the response is critical to restoring lost reputation and a slow response which emphasises financial stakeholders at the expense of the affected communities can be detrimental to RRM, no matter how well-intentioned subsequent strategies are. Social implications This research focuses on a marginal stakeholder group, Indigenous people and communities. The findings offer insights to society into whether corporate strategies to manage a reputation crisis promote and support equity and inclusivity. Originality/value This study focuses on a community-based stakeholder, Indigenous groups, a context that has unique cultural intricacies and requires a transition beyond a corporate perspective on RRM.

Abbreviation	AAAJ
Journal Impact	4.74
Quartiles(Global)	BUSINESS, FINANCE(Q1)

ISSN	0951-3574, 2051-3151
h-index	121

Publication Information	Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: journal，Open Access Journals: No
Basic data	Year of publication: 1988，Proportion of original research papers: 93.90%，Self Citation Rate:17.40%， Gold OA Rate: 24.32%

Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal

Journal Citation Format

A journal article with 1 author

A journal article with 2 authors

A journal article with 3 authors

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Books Citation Format

Thesis Citation Format

Web sites Citation Format

Patent Citation Format

Staying up late manually editing references? ivySCI automatically matches journals and helps you generate references with a single click.

Share Submission Experience

Strategic management accounting: how far have we come in 25 years?

Customer disclosures, impression management and the construction of legitimacy

Lobbying on the integrated reporting framework

Integrated reporting: developing an injustice assessment framework and a research agenda

When audit confronts blockchain

When audit confronts blockchain

Integrated reporting: developing an injustice assessment framework and a research agenda

Compensatory justice and accountability for First Nations peoples: the Timber Creek case

Coordinating assemblages: accounting for a novel disaster

Being left behind: disclosure strategies to manage the Juukan Gorge cave blast