Beverley R. Lord

Women students and staff in accountancy: The Canterbury tales

The growing body of literature about women’s experience of the working environment indicates that women have different experiences to men. Some of this literature narrows the focus to women in the professions, including in the accounting profession, and women as academics. There is scant literature about the experiences of women as students of accounting. This study provides experiences of women accounting academics and students as an accounting department became a much less male-dominated domain. Female students’ decisions to attend university were influenced primarily by family and friends, many of them women. Student—staff and staff—staff relationships varied depending on the personalities involved, with some gender discrimination being perceived by earlier graduates and the first women staff members. The commerce degree opened up job opportunities, particularly for women who graduated in the middle of the twentieth century. Many graduates perceived gender discrimination when they entered the business world, and female academic staff at appointment and on applying for promotion.

Target costing in New Zealand manufacturing firms

Purpose – As there is scant research outside Japan on the implementation of target costing, the purpose of this research is to examine target costing practices in New Zealand.Design/methodology/approach – A mail questionnaire survey was sent to 80 New Zealand manufacturers, with a response rate of 31 (39 per cent).Findings – A total of 12 of the 31 respondents use target costing. Findings on the use of target costing that contrast with or add to prior studies include the following: target costing is being applied to existing products; the manufacturing department is highly involved in target costing; the involvement of suppliers in target costing is relatively low; considerable adjustments are made to the calculated allowable costs, especially in order to assist sales of future products and to ensure the achievement of target costs; and higher achievement of target costs is associated with higher firm performance. The goals of target costing and the departments involved in the practice were similar to tho...

The Balanced Scorecard: A New Zealand Perspective

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC), first introduced by Kaplan and Norton in 1992, is described as a comprehensive performance measurement system as well as a strategic management tool. Over the past decade, the BSC has attracted increasing attention in mainstream management accounting research. A review of the literature identifies five main areas of criticism relating to the BSC. Using particularly Norreklit’s (2000, 2003) criticisms of the BSC’s assumptions, this research gained views (using both a pilot and follow up survey of New Zealand companies) on the number and titles of perspectives in the BSC; the existence and understanding of cause‐and‐effect relationships; whether or not the BSC was perceived as a strategic control model; the number of performance measures and perceptions of the ability to judge performance based on those measures; and the credibility and effectiveness of the BSC as a management solution. The findings show that the BSC is not used extensively by the firms studied but those that do use it take full advantage of the BSC’s flexibility, using broader perspective names, as needed, to incorporate the desired aspects of organisational performance. There appears to be no concern over whether the cause‐and‐effect relationships meet a set of academic criteria relating to empirical verification and logical independence. However, Norreklit’s (2000) criticism that the BSC fails to increase strategy awareness finds some support. The findings also contradict the suggestion that the BSC necessitates an excessive number of performance measures which could be detrimental to managerial performance evaluation. Finally, the criticism that the BSC is merely a trend, popularised by management consulting firms, is also not supported.

The Use and Perceived Merit of Customer Accounting in New Zealand

As Lindsay (1994, 1995) encourages validation of existing results, this research replicates Guilding and McManus (2002) in a New Zealand (NZ) context. The usage and perceived merit of customer accounting practices were lower in NZ than in the Australian study. Few of the regressions where customer accounting usage and perceived merit were dependent variables revealed a statistically significant role for competition intensity and market orientation. There was some minor support for the perceived merit of customer accounting being higher in companies experiencing medium levels of competition intensity.

Chinese women in the accounting profession

Purpose - This exploratory research aims to investigate the barriers to career advancement for women accountants in China. Design/methodology/approach - Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight accountants working for business companies and occupying different-level positions. Findings - Women accountants in China encounter barriers throughout their career paths. The main barrier is a negative perception of women’s work performance after having a child. Although the modern communist state claims that women have a role equal to that of men in their work contributions, centuries-old Confucian attitudes constrain women in their choices of balance between work and home life. Originality/value - The findings of this research call for enforcement of employment laws in China to give women equal opportunities in both recruitment and promotion. This research contributes to both Western and Chinese existing literature, confirming some prior findings that are contrary to modern China’s rhetoric that “Women hold up half the sky”. It also adds the perspective of accountants working in business companies rather than public practice accounting firms.

Ernest Adams Ltd: the demise of a family business:

This article tells of the changes experienced by a family business, through restructuring under outside professional management, until being taken over by a multinational company. Evidence was collected from interviews, annual reports and media articles. As a family business, the company exploited lower agency costs and sustained its profitability. Debt levels remained low. Under external professional managers, profitability declined and debt levels rose sharply. Informal communication networks were no longer utilized, and the professional managers were subject to criticism for excessive spending, inappropriate skills and a lack of industry knowledge. The board of directors began to function less effectively. Poor performance led to restructuring under three different CEOs, yet costs continually increased, profitability declined, and a takeover bid was successful. However, all responsibility, of course, cannot be placed on the new professional managers, who inherited responsibility for some decisions made prior to their period of stewardship. Also the family did not adequately plan for successful transition to professional management.

Exploring a local council's change to an outcome measurement regime

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the experience of a New Zealand (NZ) local council in changing from output‐based to outcome‐oriented performance measures, thereby, seeking to enhance understanding of how institutional pressures affect managers in a local government body.Design/methodology/approach – By means of semi‐structured interviews with four managers and a councillor at a major city council in NZ, the authors elicit a better understanding of the process of changing to outcome‐oriented performance measures. The six‐stage model of institutional change proposed by Greenwood et al. provides a useful analytical lens. The authors report the thoughts and attitudes of interviewees regarding the effects of the change on the councils performance management, and particularly on its process of Long‐Term Council Community Planning.Findings – Institutionalisation of the new outcome‐oriented performance measurement system was neither complete nor automatic. Conformity with it was harder where ou...

Sustainability reporting: Insights from the websites of five plants operated by Newmont Mining Corporation

Purpose - Sustainability reporting serves as a means of communication between corporations and their stakeholders on sustainability issues. This study aims to identify and account for the contents of sustainability reporting communicated through the websites of the plants in five continents of the same multinational mining corporation. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses data published by Newmont Mining Corporation. The corporation has regional headquarters in five continents: Africa, Asia, Australia and North America and South America. The data were drawn from the websites of the five plants adjacent to those regional headquarters. Economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability as reported by each plant were identified; to do so, a disclosure analysis based on the elements of the Global Reporting Initiative and the United Nations Division for Sustainability Development was used. These aspects were then compared and contrasted to highlight if, and to what extent, institutional isomorphism influences variations in sustainability disclosures among plants compared with the parent company. Findings - It was found that most of the reporting about sustainability matters comprises narratives; there were also a few physical measures but very little financial information. Notwithstanding that the websites of all five plants used similar headings, the contents of reports differed. The reports from the plants in Australia, South America and Africa were more comprehensive than those from the plants in Asia and North America. The authors attribute these differences to institutionalisation of location-specific characteristics, including management discretion, legislation and societal pressures influencing sustainability reporting. The authors argue that managers responsible for preparing sustainability reports and who work essentially as sustainability accountants should develop templates and measures to raise the standard and comprehensiveness of reports for improved communication, information and behaviour. Originality/value - Extant studies on sustainability reporting have focused mainly on comparisons between sustainability reports published by different corporations or sustainability reports published in different years by the same corporation. The authors believe that this is one of the first studies to have examined differences in sustainability information published by different subsidiaries within the same large corporation and the first to show how concurrent disclosures can differ.

Coping with Natural Disasters: Lessons Learnt by a Head of Department

Since the first of the 29 significant earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks that the University of Canterbury community has endured in the last year, I have learnt a few lessons as a departmenta...

Intergenerational Equity: Treatment of Infrastructure in New Zealand Local Government Financial Planning

This paper examines how local government authorities plan and financially provide for infrastructure while considering the needs of current and future communities. In New Zealand the Local Government Act 2002 provides a mandate for local authority planning through the requirement to publish Long Term Council Community Plans (LTCCPs). Our content analysis of the LTCCPs, annual plans and annual reports of five New Zealand local authorities reveals that these local authorities make conscious decisions about infrastructure that reflect concern for matters of intergenerational equity. They do so despite problems in relation to valuation, depreciation, deferred maintenance and financing of infrastructure assets.