Lee D. Parker

Corporate Social Reporting: A Rebuttal of Legitimacy Theory

Various rationales have been advanced to explain the phenomenon of corporate social reporting. Among these has been legitimacy theory which posits that corporate disclosures are made as reactions to environmental factors and in order to legitimise corporate actions. This paper reports the results of an historical analysis of social disclosures in 100 years of annual reporting by a dominant corporation in the Australian mining/manufacturing industry. A variable but significant pattern of social reporting is identified and compared with an earlier study of social reporting by US Steel. The results of this study fail to confirm legitimacy theory as the primary explanation for social reporting in the Australian case.

The impact of corporate characteristics on social responsibility disclosure: A typology and frequency-based analysis

Since the mid-1970s a number of studies have investigated the nature and frequency of corporate social responsibility disclosures, their patterns and trends, and their general relationships to corporate size and profitability. This study seeks to extend our knowledge of the relationship between a number of corporate characteristics and specific types of social responsibility disclosures, based on an extensive sample of U.S. corporate annual reports. Corporate size and industry category are found to correlate with certain types of disclosures while the existence of a corporate social responsibility committee appears to correlate with one particular type of disclosure.

Methodological themes: Back to the drawing board: revisiting grounded theory and the everyday accountant’s and manager’s reality

Restates the case for accounting and management research from a grounded theory perspective, and advocates its informed and more frequent application. Examines the intellectual foundations and key tenets of grounded theory in the context of researchers’ theoretical assumptions and methodological characteristics, discussed in relation to Laughlin’s (1995) classification schema. Pays particular attention to grounded theory assumptions and methods in relation to other interpretive paradigms such as symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology and hermeneutics. Describes the basic principles and methods of grounded theory research, and presents potential applications to the accounting and management research arenas. Argues that rigorous grounded theory research can offer the accounting and management literatures unique understandings that provide additional perspectives to those already being offered by major schools of thought, and discusses implications of grounded theory for informing contemporary professional practice.

Accounting and management research: passwords from the gatekeepers

This study explores academic activities with particular reference to research in the accounting and management disciplines. It explores emerging social constructions of the role of research in academic work and the concept of what is deemed to constitute “quality” research. To this end it presents the results of an exploratory set of interviews with a sample of “gatekeepers”, namely professors and heads of accounting and management departments in British and Australian universities. They offer insights into the factors determining their construction of what constitutes quality in an academic’s research and publishing record, their ranking of various publication types and of publication activity generally, and their assessment of the influence of government policy priorities on the social construction of research quality.

Professional accounting body ethics: In search of the private interest

This paper expounds the hypothesis that protection of the accounting professions self-interest is a primary latent rationale for its promulgation and maintenance of ethics codes. The sociological literature on professional body ethics provides the basis for a private interest model of the accounting professions ethical claims. The model is subject to amplification via an exploratory examination of published Australian accounting body disciplinary cases. Finally, it is hypothesized that the private and public interest rationales of professional accounting body ethics may be to a degree interrelated.

Twenty-one years of social and environmental accountability research: A coming of age

Abstract This study extends upon previous research into the profile and direction of social and environmental accounting research, analysing and critiquing 21 years of contemporary research in social and environmental accounting published particularly in four leading interdisciplinary accounting research journals covering the period 1988–2002 inclusive. It reflects upon selected seminal papers on the field, and presents an empirical analysis of SEA publication that updates Parkers (2005) findings. The prospect of a sharing of the territory between critical and managerialist approaches is envisaged, along with the application of multiple theoretical lenses. Social and environmental research show signs of more recent balancing between these two subject areas, while recent shifts in methodological approaches are increasingly emphasising the employment of content analysis/statistical relationships research and case/field/action/ethnograpic research. National practices/comparisons and regulations are leading topic areas occupying researchers. External disclosure, attitudinal studies and theoretical framework papers also attracted significant attention. The paper also overviews emerging research in three non-Anglo-Saxon countries and identifies leading and emerging scholars in the field. The SEA field exhibits considerable momentum, but is found to be largely driven by research and publishing infrastructure outside North American economics focussed research communities.

The Australian public sector in the 1990s: New accountability regimes in motion

The Australian public sector has been undergoing major changes in its philosophy, structure, processes and orientation since the early 1980s. Such changes have had major implications for accounting, auditing and accountability relationships and practices in Australian public sector organizations. This article focuses attention on the implications for management and financial accountability of these changes. In particular, changes in managerial philosophy, concepts of financial accountability and the focus of audit activity are reviewed and critiqued. The contemporary public sector predisposition to import corporate notions of accountability from the private sector are contrasted against the unique objectives and characteristics of Australian public sector organizations.

Historiography for the new millennium: adventures in accounting and management

This paper reflects upon the status of historical research in the contemporary accounting and management research literature, briefly revisits some of its fundamental methodological dimensions and considers the multiple potential roles which it has the capacity to fulfill. The author then selects a number of methodological and research subjects which show signs of maintaining their momentum or deserve experimentation or increased application. These include the historical narrative, “macro” literary style narrative histories, business history lessons for accounting and management history, critical theory informed research, emerging social history, and opportunities for research employing oral and visual history. The paper concludes with reflections on the dividends for the individual historian and the historical research community that may accrue from opportunities taken up in the new millennium.

A Quarter of a Century of Performance Auditing in the Australian Federal Public Sector: A Malleable Masque

Utilizing Porter’s (1981) theoretical framework for historical narrative analysis, this article examines the history of performance auditing in the Australian federal public sector. The analysis considers four crucial events in the period 1973-98 the Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration (1976), the Australian National Audit Office efficiency audit developments (1979), the Joint Committee of Public Accounts Inquiry (1989), and the struggles over the passage of the Audit Act 1997. The analysis supports the proposition that performance auditing is a malleable social construct rather than a definitive performance review technology. The construction of its technological basis has been contested, with several concepts being included or excluded by various groups. These have both reflected and influenced agendas and activities at individual, organizational, institutional, sociopolitical and socioeconomic levels in the Australian public sector. Performance auditing is therefore revealed as a masque that ultimately may defy any universal technical definition.

The relationship between academic accounting research and professional practice

Purpose - This editorial aims to consider the relationship between academic accounting research and professional practice. Design/methodology/approach - The paper takes the form of an editorial review and argument. Findings - The paper acknowledges that accounting academic research is important to the higher education system, careers and publishers. However, its impact on teaching, professional practice, and the professions and society is a hotly debated issue. Research limitations/implications - The editorial offers scope for accounting academics to engage with the profession and society as to the impact of their research, an important issue in higher education, not only in Australia, but internationally. Originality/value - The paper provides important commentary on the relationship between accounting research and practice as represented in academic journals.