Binh Bui

The Expectation-Performance Gap in Accounting Education: An Exploratory Study

Since the mid-1980s, professional accounting bodies, employers of accounting graduates and academics alike have lamented the failure of universities to equip accounting graduates with the competencies required for the modern business environment. Changes to accounting education have been made but the gap between the competencies which employers expect—and perceive—accounting graduates to possess has not previously been examined holistically. Based on a review of the literature, a framework of accounting educations expectation-performance gap (comprising an expectation gap, a constraints gap and a performance gap) is proposed. The paper also reports an exploratory study designed to test the proposed framework. Following a document study of the accounting programme of a New Zealand university, interviews were conducted with students, academics, graduate trainees and employers associated with the programme. The research provides support for the proposed framework and resulted in identifying ways in which the gap may be narrowed.

Drivers of tight carbon control in the context of climate change regulation

Our study examines the drivers of tight budgetary control in carbon management in the context of climate change regulation. Using the setting of New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), our study explores how firms manage their carbon performance using carbon‐focused budgetary control. Based on a survey data from New Zealand firms, including both those with and those without an ETS compliance obligations, our results suggest that economic and regulatory environmental pressures, the level of proactiveness of emissions management strategy, the level of integration of carbon issues in strategic and operational processes and the perceived importance of carbon issues are the significant drivers of tight carbon‐focused budgetary control.

Governance and compliance in accounting education in Vietnam – case of a public university

ABSTRACT Prior research suggests that despite the mass development of higher education in Vietnam recently, the quality of higher education is declining. This study aims to understand the impact of the education reform on the quality of university accounting education by investigating the involvement of different stakeholders in accounting education within one leading university in Vietnam. The findings from the interviews of key stakeholders suggest that accounting education in Vietnam is driven by reduced state control, growing institutional autonomy and increasing external guidance. This has come at the expense of reduced academic self-governance as lecturers have discretion in curriculum delivery at the individual course level, but little input into the decision-making at the school or university level and minimal participation in the curriculum development process. The findings enable regulators and decision-makers to better understand the dynamics between stakeholders in accounting education to enhance accounting graduates’ competencies and outcomes.

Voices within the winds of change: The demise of KMG Kendons

During the 1970s and 1980s, the accounting professional environment underwent major changes. This case study, largely based on oral history narratives of retired partners, focuses on KMG Kendons, a well-known and respected New Zealand national accounting firm that did not survive the 1980s. Utilising organisational change-focused theories, longitudinal archival data is used to examine how an organisation, and two competing sets of institutions within it, interact with these professional environmental changes, and then trigger significant deinstitutionalisation processes. This study also seeks to determine whether the demise of KMG Kendons might have been predicted, and thus prevented. It is argued that strong leadership, strategic direction, and a strong organisational culture and identity are critical factors in firm survival; and if these had been present at KMG Kendons, it may have survived.

Uncertainty, MCS and Firm Performance: Towards an Integrated Business Risk Focused Framework

Uncertainty is the core variable in any contingency theoretical framework (Chapman, 1997; Donaldson, 2001). Many reviews however have claimed that the accounting literature lacks a comprehensive framework for analysis of the relationship between uncertainty and MCS (Otley, 1980; Dent, 1990; Chapman, 1997; Langfield-Smith, 1997, Chenhall, 2003). Central to this study is the specification of uncertainty as it has been applied in contingency-based MCS research. This study argues that uncertainty, whilst well specified in terms of sources and types, it is under (not sufficiently) specified in terms of determining the degrees of uncertainty. This limitation is argued to impact on the explanatory and predictive capacity of an MCS based contingency theory (Schoonhoven, 1981). A theoretical framework is developed drawing insights from Otley (1999) and Kaufman (1992) that adopts a business risk view of uncertainty to explain or predict MCS fit/misfit with firm objectives, strategies and operational activities. It is postulated that the degree of change in business risk will signal and influence the level of required changes in MCS design and/or use and go toward addressing the under-specification of degrees of uncertainty. The level, extent and form of actual changes are dependent on firm capacity, defined as the available and accessible human and non-human resources, to realize the required changes. In doing so, along with considering the equilibrium/fit issues raised by Hartman and Moers (1999), the framework provides a potential basis for reviewing the apparent consistencies of past MCS research, and for positioning those studies argued to be narrow and/or of incomparable research design (Otley, 1981; Chapman, 1997). More importantly, a methodology for identifying external and internal drivers of uncertainty from a business risk perspective is presented. Additionally, through such identification a potentially proactive signalling mechanism for changes to MCS design and/or use is provided. The analytical findings of this paper will be of interest to managers, industry professionals, practitioners and academics alike.

Corporate Environmental Strategy, Lobby Group Participation and Political Reaction to New Zealand Emissions Trading Bill

This paper aims to investigate the environmental strategy on the choice of a firm’s political reaction in response to a proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in New Zealand. Using sample of 33 firms in four industries that are affected by the introduction of the ETS, this study found a contingency relationship between environmental strategy and political reaction. Accordingly, firms adopting a more reactive environmental strategy tend to oppose and dismiss the introduction of an ETS. Additionally, firms that actively participate in different lobby groups are also more likely to dismiss the ETS Bill. A firm’s political reaction is also found to correlate with firm size and industry.

Political Strategy for Performance Management in a Carbon-Constrained Operating Context: The Role of Industry and Firm Characteristics

This study examines the political strategy businesses may take in response to a pending environmental legislation and the determinants of such strategy through a sample of 33 firms and organisations affected by the introduction of New Zealand Emission Trading scheme. The findings suggest that perceptions towards the environmental legislation vary across industries, contingent on differential treatment of each industry under the proposed Bill. More-polluting industries are found to be more environmentally proactive, but also oppose the Bill the most strongly. Industry, environmental strategy, firm size and prior experience in emissions management are found to affect the perceived impacts of the proposed ETS on the studied firms, which in turn determine the mitigation measures suggested and the general attitude firm takes towards the Bill.