Junaid Ashraf

Management Accounting Research and Structuration Theory: A Critical Realist Critique

Abstract The article extends the critique of structuration theory from a critical realist perspective, in particular by demonstrating how its theoretical shortcomings are manifest in management accounting research. Examining of one of the most cited structuration-based accounting studies and other more recent structuration-based accounting studies, the article highlights what accounting researchers who have embraced a structuration lens may have ignored. It also demonstrates why accounting researchers could not get a better theoretical purchase out of structuration. We find that a critical realist account provides a far more in-depth account of budgeting changes and is likely to avoid the problems encountered in using a structuration theoretical lens. The article has important implications for accounting researchers as it demonstrates that analytical dualism instead of duality has much better potential to offer deeper understanding of accounting changes.

Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre Endowment Fund

The case looks at issues pertaining to the financial management of the Endowment Fund of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (SKMCH&RC). The Chairman of SKMCH&RC, Mr Imran Khan, is also the head of the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), the key contender in the general elections of May 2013. One of the key figures of a rival political party PML-N, Mr Khawaja Asif has accused Mr Imran Khan of ‘gambling’ with donated funds leading to significant financial losses of money which should have been used for the treatment and care of the poor cancer patients of the hospital. The case is intended to be used for Executive Teaching and should be assigned and read together with the Technical Note ‘Understanding Endowment Funds.’ Together the technical note and the case aim to offer a number of learning objectives for managers of nonprofit organizations. The technical note lists the main types of endowment funds and, by considering the endowment funds of Harvard University and Yale University (considered to be two well managed funds), discusses matters related to their financial management and accounting and reporting requirements. After reading this note, students will have acquired some technical understanding of how to address the key questions in the case.

Review of Management Control hange Research with Special Reference to the Public Sector and Less Developed Countries: A Critical Evaluation

This chapter stems from interests in management control change, the public sector1 and less developed countries (LDCs)2. Many studies have been devoted to understanding changes to management accounting controls by drawing insights from various theoretical perspectives (e.g. Burns and Scapens 2000) in different settings. Certain geographical and country-specific cultural factors have been examined in respect of their influence on the path dependency of management control change (Granlund and Lukka 1998; Burns and Vavio 2001, pp391–392; Busco, Quattrone Riccaboni 2007). However, few studies have provided critical accounts of the theoretical approaches to the understanding of management control changes adopted by the researchers (Guthrie and Broadbent 2008)