Accounting history research and its diffusion in an international context

Drawing on extensive evidence gathered from all accounting history papers published in major research journals during the 1990s, it is argued that extant patterns of dissemination of accounting history research in international contexts are less than efficient, which in turn results in a glaring neglect of the 'majority' in 'international' journals in the English language. My understanding of the term majority refers to the subjects who conduct research (i.e., men and women affiliated to non-Anglo-Saxon institutions), the research settings (i.e., non-Anglo-Saxon environments), and the observation periods (i.e., those different from 1850-1940). At best, some of historiographies have a superficial visibility in the international arena, whereas most of them are fully neglected. I shall argue that accounting history research would gain in strength if other scholars, settings, and periods of study were added to those regularly reflected in 'international' journals. I contend that such broadening of the discipline represents the most important challenge for accounting historians in the years to come

The Dissemination Of Accounting Research And Performance Reviews: The Role Of Publication Forms

This project is supported financially by the CICYT research grants # 01-0657 and SEJ-2004-08176-C02-01. I would like to thank Jose Carlos Molina for assisting with the management of the database. Previous versions of this paper were presented at the Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association (Seville, 2003); the Accounting, Business and Financial History Conference (Cardiff, 2003); and the World Congress of Accounting Historians (Oxford, Mississippi, 2004). I am grateful to the participants at these conferences and to Garry Carnegie, Mahmoud Ezzamel, Kari Lukka, and Steve Walker for their helpful suggestions.

Accounting And Forms Of Accountability In Ancient Civilizations: Mesopotamia And Ancient Egypt

The aim of this paper is to identify the relevance and implications of ancient accounting practices to the contemporary theorizing of accounting. The paper provides a synthesis of the literature on ancient accounting particularly in relation to issues of human accountability, identifies its major achievements and outlines some of the key challenges facing researchers. We argue that far from being an idiosyncratic research field of marginal interest, research in ancient accounting is a rich and promising undertaking. The paper concludes by considering a number of implications of ancient accounting practices for the theorizing of accounting and identifies news avenues for future research.

Cost Accounting in Early Regulated Markets: The Case of the Royal Soap Factory of Seville, 1525-1692

(WP 16/03 Clave pdf) Regulated markets and state-owned monopolies characterized the economies of many Southern European territories around the end of the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. Although this economic form was of considerable importance in implementing public policy at the time, investigation into the functioning of cost accounting in such contexts has been consistently neglected in accounting research. In this paper, we examine the role of cost systems in early regulated markets by focusing on the case of the soap production and distribution monopoly in the City of Seville, Spain.Early cost accounting, Institutional sociology, Regulated markets

An institutional approach to the role of cost accounting in regulated markets: the case of the royal soap factory of Seville (1515-1692)

Regulated markets and state-owned monopolies characterized the economies of many Southern European and Latin American territories around the end of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Strikingly, however, investigation into the functioning of cost accounting in such contexts has been widely neglected in accounting research. In this paper, we examine the role of early cost systems in regulated markets by focusing on the case of the soap production and distribution monopoly in the City of Seville (Spain). In 1423, the King of Castille granted the soap monopoly to the Duke of Alcalá as a reward for his war achievements, but the decision on the price of soap rested in the hands of the local government. Disputes between the Duke of Alcalá and the local government (the parties) about the fair price of a pound of soap were resolved through tests that replicated the soap production process and determined its cost through complex calculations. Drawing on the insights of institutional sociology, we found that the test and its accompanying cost calculations constituted an institution that legitimized the parties both in the public opinion and before the King. Further, our data revealed that the parties engaged in active agency before the King of Spain to shape in their favor the constitutive elements of the institution, such as the use of purpose-purchased or stored materials in the soap test; incorporation into the total cost the rents that would have been earned if the factory buildings were leased; and the salaries of some employees (i.e., slaves, factory administrator and priest)

Ambiguity in multicriteria quality decisions.

Quality is becoming an issue of increasing strategic importance in business. The aim of this paper is to analyze quality from a decision-making perspective. Quality decisions are characterized by their ambiguity while their evaluation uses a multicriteria viewpoint. Fuzzy decision theory provides a conceptual framework to model decisions with these features. It enables the decision maker to add his/her own experience and any other type of information to that obtained from hard figures. This theory is applied to a set of quality decision alternatives which are evaluated using different criteria such as their impact on fixed costs, cost of quality, leadtime and flexibility. The approach provided in this paper can be extended to other quality decisions.Quality decision-making; Quality dimensions; Fuzzy multicriteria decision making;

A red queen approach to management accounting: an experiential study of a Spanish hotel group

Studies of accounting in action have primarily focused on the organizatíon as a unit of analysis. Remarkably, however. the population level as a field of study has been neglected. This paper studies the process of management accounting change in a population of beach hoteIs located in Southern Spain. This population, like those of other Spanish organizations. experienced the turbulent environment characteristic of Spanish society from 1975 until1995. It is shown how an analysis of the macro and task environments of the population provides support for a Red Queen rnetaphor. which is deemed to be a valid contribution to population ecology as a relevant context for management accounting theorizing

Gender, the state and the audit profession: evidence from Spain (1942–88).

Extant knowledge on gender and auditing overwhelmingly relies on evidence gathered from a limited group of Anglo-Saxon countries. It is widely admitted, however, that gender issues are affected by the institutional contexts of the investigation. The Anglo-Saxon settings, we contend, embrace a number of idiosyncratic, institutional characteristics that advise caution in the generalizability of results. Our study addresses the role of gender in Spanish audit practice during the period 1942 to 1988. The environment of the Spanish audit profession witnessed the peaceful transition from a dictatorship to a full-fledged democracy as well as the emergence of a free market economy from a system characterized by stiff economic autarchy and an overriding intervention of the state in the economy. We found that the dominant role of the state in Spanish society affected the structure of the audit profession and made impossible the emergence of an autonomous project. In particular, our findings reveal that the audit profession did not have an independent strategy about the role of women at work, but mimicked the attitudes deployed by the state during our observation period.

Human capital, age and job stability: evidence from Spanish certified auditors.

During the period 1976-1988, Spain witnessed pervasive transformations that led the country from a military dictatorship to a fully fledged democracy. In turn, the audit profession experienced high demand which doubled the number of members of the Institute of Sworn Auditors of Spain (Instituto de Censores Jurados de Cuentas de España). In this unique social laboratory, we draw on the insights of human capital theory and the entrepreneurship literature to examine the profile of newly certified auditors at the time of receiving the audit certificate that enabled them to (i) become a licensed auditor and engage in public practice, or (ii) become an unlicensed auditor and leave the profession immediately after receiving the professional qualification. Our results indicate that those Spanish auditors who had high general or specific human capital and job stability and were at the younger or older ends of the age continuum were less likely to apply for audit licences than their counterparts (i.e. low general or specific human capital, middle aged, and unstable jobs).Auditors; Audit market; Human capital theory; Entrepreneurship; Spain;