Accounting and redistribution: The palace and mortuary cult in the Middle Kingdom, ancient Egypt

This paper examines detailed historical material drawn from primary sources to explore the role of accounting practices in the functioning of several key stages of the redistributive economy of the Middle Kingdom, ancient Egypt. First, the paper attends to the role of accounting in securing a regular flow of commodities to the state, in the form of taxation in kind. The historical material suggests clearly that accounting practices played a crucial role in levying and collecting precise tax liabilities, and in monitoring the storing of commodities in state granaries and storehouses. The second level of analysis is concerned with the role of accounting in coordinating the outflow of commodities to consumption units focusing on two examples. The first relates to the role of accounting in the distribution of food provisions to members of the Royal family and palace dependents while on a journey; the second examines the role of accounting in the writing and execution of a series of contracts to promote the mortuary cult of a dead individual. In both cases, the paper argues that the accounting practices were linked strongly to the social, political and economic contexts within which these accounting practices functioned

Towards an understanding of changing accounting practice using institutional theory: the case of the royal tobacco factory of Seville

This paper is initially informed byan institutional theoretical framework developed by Fligstein (1993) to analyse changes in accounting practices that took place in the Royal Tobacco Factory (RTF) of Seville during the period 1760-1790. Deploying the institutional theory framework, it is possible to argue that the significantly greater development and use of accounting practices during that period can be linked to the move to the much larger and more purpose-built new factories, the dec1ine in total tobacco consumption and the pressure to increase revenue for the Spanish Crown while redllcing prodllction cost and maintaining high product quality to deter entry. These new accollnting practices may have developed in part with the intent of improving factory efticiency. It is also arglled that these new accollnting practices provided enhanced external legitimacy for the RTF in the face of the events discussed aboye and cOllld have contributed to the long survival of de RTF as a monopolist. The paper, however, suggests that typologies such as the one developed by Fligstein are too restrictive in linking the emergence of specific organizational actions (e.g. accollnting practises) as a response to a particular organizational typology, in Fligstein's case a conception of control. The paper conc1udes by suggesting that it may be best to refrain from conceptllalizing the rise of accounting practices in terms of strict matching with other organizational parameters, such as strategy, structure, or mode of control

Towards an institutional analysis of accounting change in the Royal Tobacco Factory of Seville

This paper is initially informed by an institutional sociological framework to analyze changes in accounting practices that took place in the Royal Tobacco Factory (RTF) of Seville during the period 1760-1790. We argue that the significantly greater development and use of accounting practices during that period can be linked to the move to the much larger and more purposefully built new factories, the decline in total tobacco consumption, and the pressure to increase revenue for the Spanish Crown while reducing production cost and maintaining high product quality to deter entry. These new accounting practices were developed in part with the intent of improving factory efficiency, but importantly, they enhanced the external legitimacy of the RTF in the face of the events mentioned above and contributed to the long survival of the RTF as a monopolist

Control and cost accounting practices in the Spanish royal tobacco facfory

The aim of this paper is to analyse the cost accounting system implemented in 1773 by a large Spanish tobacco company which operated as a monopolist. Drawing on data extracted from original archives, the paper examines the characteristics of the cost system within the broader context of a strict control system. The paper argues that there was a connection between the two systems. One of the main roles of the cost accounting system was to buttress a set of structural measures instituted in the RTF with the aim of minimising the scope for tobacco theft. Another aim was to impart visibility upon the various activities undertaken in the RTF. The paper also examines the role of the cost accounting practices as a disciplinary regime. A combination of physical measures, reflecting the rates and mixes of resource utilisation and monetary measures were developed to facilitate monitoring and surveillance of the activities of the factory employees. These measures were used to establish a powerful regime of calculability which rendered human accountability visible. Such calculability created an environment at the RTF in which management could compare, differentiate, hierarchaise, homogenise, and even exclude individuals

The development of accounting regulations for foreign invested firms in China: The role of Chinese characteristics

Drawing on actor network theory (ANT), this paper analyses the role of Chinese characteristics in the emergence of three accounting regulations for foreign invested firms (FIFs) as part of China’s recent transformation to become part of the “world order”. The paper examines how international accounting standards (IAS) and existing Chinese accounting were translated into new regulations for FIFs, and how these translations were shaped by malleable interpretations of Chinese characteristics. Chinese characteristics were a discursive obligatory passage point (OPP) rendered malleable through cognition and the sanctions of political authority to suit the interests of actors seeking to produce new accounting regulations. Chinese characteristics were a signifier that carved out a space for local networks to attain their identity and retain some measure of independence from global networks, shaped the construction of each accounting regulation for FIFs into an attractive package, and influenced the adaptation and transformation of those elements of Western accounting that arrived into China. In turn, IAS became part of the discursive field on accounting regulation that helped mediate the shifts in the interpretation of Chinese characteristics over time

Institutions in transition: legitimisation and cognition in the educational field

The purpose of this paper is to examine the consequences of accounting intervention into institutionalized organizations in transition. The context for the study was the implementation of the 1988 Education Reform Act in England and Wales, known as the Local Management of Schools (LMS) Initiative, which devolved budgets from Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to individual schools. We develop the argument that the emergence of new accounting practices in institutions and the accompanying process of re-institutionalization is not inconsequential, but detail rather the accounting’s re-presentation of teachers as costs does accompany a re-distribution of the authority and resources in schools and LEAs, thus implying that administrative changes and organizational actions are not decoupled. Our case study of institutional change focuses as an illustration on the example of school ‘carry forwards’ (budget under-spends) as we analyze the ability of accounting practices to influence legitimacy and cognition by stimulating new debates, according them increased visibility and endowing them with significance. We assess the contribution of our study to the further development of neo-institutionalist theory; in particular, we consider the new problems of cognitive legitimacy that arose between LEAs and schools, and examine their implications for institutionalized organizations

Accounting History Research: Traditional and New Accounting History Perspectives

There is an ongoing debate in accounting history around the ways in which historical material should be gathered, interpreted, analysed and written. Lying at the heart of this debate is the perennial concern with 'objective/interpretive' modes of investigation. The mainstream orthodoxy of accounting history embraces the 'objective' view of history, whereas the alternative approach promotes interpretive and critical stances. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the achievements of NAH. This is attempted here by contrasting NAH with TAH along four dimensions: what counts as accounting; origins versus genealogies; roles of accounting; and sources of historical material. Under each of these dimensions, we show the differences between the two approaches and comment on the extent to which NAH may contribute to the study of accounting history. We argue that, although TAH and NAH approaches exhibit fundamental differences, both contribute significantly to the field, and indeed to the sharpening of each other's research agenda.Existe un debate en historia de la contabilidad acerca de las distintas formas cómo los materiales históricos deben ser recopilados, interpretados, analizados y, finalmente, sobre la forma cómo los mismos deben ser redactados. En cierta manera, el centro de este debate descansa en torno a la eternal polémica acerca de la "objetividad/subjetividad" de la investigación histórica. Así, mientras que la corriente más ortodoxa sostiene la idea de una interpretación objetiva de la historia, el enfoque alternativo defiende una interpretación de carácter crítico. En este artículo, nosotros pretendemos hacer una valoración del debate entre los enfoques tradicional y de nueva historia de la contabilidad. En concreto, pretendemos contrastar la aproximación tradicional y de nueva historia de la contabilidad en torno a cuatro dimensiones: qué es lo que cuenta como contabilidad, el debate entre orígenes y genealogías, los distintos papeles y roles que se atribuyen a la contabilidad, y las fuentes de historia de la contabilidad. En este artículo examinamos las diferencias entre la historia tradicional de la contabilidad y la nueva historia en torno a cada una de estas dimensiones, concluyendo que a pesar de las posiciones tan diversas que sostienen, las dos aproximaciones han contribuido sustancialmente a elevar el rigor investigador en historia de la contabilidad, así como a fortalecer el programa de investigación en esta disciplina

MULTIPLICITY OF PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS

由厦门大学会计发展研究中心提供的第五届会计与财务问题国际研讨会——当代管理会计新发展论文集中的第二部分：战略管理会计与平衡记分卡1In modern organizations there is a strong emphasis on managing by numbers, as part of an approach to management that emphasizes ‘facts’ and evidence, particularly quantified facts (Locke 1996; Porter 1995; Rose 1991, Chua, 1996). This emphasis on facts, numbers and quantification is pervasive, and leads to what has been refered to as ‘a numerical view of work and management’ (Martinez Lucio & MacKenzie, 2004). The implications for accounting of managing by numbers have been most clearly articulated by Bob Kaplan. Among his many works, Kaplan (1983) stressed the importance of accounting collecting facts about manufacturing operations, Johnson and Kaplan (1987) and Cooper and Kaplan (1996) called for changes in cost systems to make cost information more meaningful and factual, and, most recently, Kaplan and Norton (1996, 2001, 2004) articulated the Balanced Scorecard to facilitate quantified, fact based, strategic management

The multiplicity of performance management systems:Heterogeneity in multinational corporations and management sense-making

This field study examines the workings of multiple performance measurement systems (PMSs) used within and between a division and Headquarters (HQ) of a large European corporation. We explore how multiple PMSs arose within the multinational corporation. We first provide a first‐order analysis which explains how managers make sense of the multiplicity and show how an organization's PMSs may be subject to competing processes for control that result in varied systems, all seemingly functioning, but with different rationales and effects. We then provide a second‐order analysis based on a sense‐making perspective that highlights the importance of retrospective understandings of the organization's history and the importance of various legitimacy expectations to different parts of the multinational. Finally, we emphasize the role of social skill in sense‐making that enables the persistence of multiple systems and the absence of overt tensions and conflict within organizations