2 research outputs found
The use of accounting in managing the institutional complexities of a festival organisation pursuing financial and social objectives
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Emerald via the DOI in this recordPurpose
This paper explores the use of accounting when managing the institutional complexities of a festival
organisation pursuing financial and social objectives. Specifically it focuses on how accounting can be
implicated in handling a festival’s multiple and potentially conflicting logics. Also, through mobilising
the concept of institutional work, the following builds on our knowledge of the importance of what
people do, in managing an organisation’s institutional complexity.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical research is grounded in a qualitative case study, for which the primary data derives from
interviews, plus examination of internal documents and information in the public domain.
Findings
The festival studied is commercially successful, though ultimately one of its main organisational goals
is to maximise donations to charitable causes. Other goals include: offering an alternative community
through music, particularly to the young; fostering new and innovative artistry, and; nurturing a festival
family that is rooted to a large extent in its army of volunteers. The paper reveals how seeking such
goals simultaneously requires the handling of logics that potentially can pull in opposite directions.
Moreover, it highlights the efforts of festival organisers to maintain coexistence between the different
logics, including the utilisation of accounting, accounts and accountability to facilitate this.
Originality/value
There are three main contributions of the paper. First, it offers new insight into how accounting can be
purposefully used to mediate between potentially opposing logics in a complex organisational setting.
Second, the paper extends our knowledge of the use of accounting specifically within a popular culture
context. Third, the following adds to recent attempts use of the concept of institutional work to
understand why and how people utilise accounting to handle institutional complexity in organisational
settings