Luca Zan

Toward a history of accounting histories

In recent years there has been increasing recognition of the marked national differences in approaches to accounting. What is less clearly appreciated is how accounting historiography is also fragmented into different national traditions,with diverse patterns and frameworks for reconstructing and interpreting accountings evolution. The prominence given to accounting theory and practice may vary in different historical periods, not least in terms of the emphasis given to the contribution of different scholars and schools of thought in the evolution of accounting theory. This article concentrates on the Italian tradition of accounting from the time of Paciolo, and on how Italian accounting historiography has depicted the evolution of this tradition; it critically questions the periodization generally adopted, the interpretations made of the relative roles played by non-Italians and Italians in the evolution of accounting ideas down to the mid-nineteenth century, and the ways in which the contribution of mo...

Special Section: Mapping variety in the history of accounting and management practices

Research in accounting history is overwhelmingly dominated by studies addressing Anglo-Saxon settings of the period 1850–1940. In spite of the many perceptive insights arising from those investigations, such a tiny time-space intersection overlooks other historiographies that are equally important to advance understanding in accounting history. This article calls for mapping variety in the history of accounting and management practices by expanding the dimensions of time (i.e., history of the present but also of proto-industrial settings and ancient history) and space (i.e., Africa, Continental Europe, Islam, Latin-America, etc) that characterize present focus of accounting history research.

Accounting and Management Discourse in Protoindustrial Settings: The Venice Arsenal in the Turn of the XVI Century

Abstract This paper investigates managerial ideas and accounting notions developing at the Venetian state shipyard, the Arsenal, in the turn of the 16th century, with three major elements of interest. First, it shows the existence of rather sophisticated managerial and accounting discourse in the Renaissance period, where modern forms of management through accounting can be highlighted inside the ‘Venetian method’. Second, it allows for an understanding of the evolution of accounting discourse over time: in the particular time span under investigation (1580-1643) new concepts and notions emerged, coupled with new ways of talking about managing issues through emerging accounting concepts (the invention of the idea of work in progress; costing expertise and other calculative practices). Third, it shows how a modern form of economic discourse gradually established itself in the face of hostile social and moral norms. The event under investigation describes a process in which the formal meaning of the economic (Polanyi, 1977) took place, with its associated moral imperative of organising and economising, conflicting to a large extent with social order. Though the term efficiency never appears in the documents, its ethos and pathos are there, fostered by accounting and discourse about managing.

Cultural heritage between centralisation and decentralisation: insights from the Italian context.

Management of Italys heritage has been in increasing turmoil since 1993. This paper identifies and reviews significant reform attempts, including outsourcing, devolution, managerialism and privatisation. The authors propose a framework for improved understanding of the various solutions examined – distinguishing between professional and organisational centralisation. It is argued that while decentralised organisational management can have positive effects, effective protection of heritage in Italy over the centuries has depended on a complex set of rules concerning stewardship and protection, relying upon centralised professional control. This still has positive value and needs to be preserved through the reform process.

Controlling Expenditure, or the Slow Emergence of Costing at the Venice Arsenal, 1586-1633

Abstract This paper aims to aid our understanding of the emergence of accounting as a control instrument in complex proto-industrial settings, through its perceived capacity of mirroring the production process. The paper starts off from an archival document, the 1586 deliberation by the Venetian Senate, which imposed on the Arsenal a stocktaking to be conducted every three years, and ad hoc galley production accounts to be kept in double entry format, where the passage of materials and work-in-process between units were recorded both in physical quantity and value. In this deliberation the Venetian Senate was clearly posing explicitly the problem of costing and the efficient use of resources within the Arsenal. Until then, the Senate controlled this organisation only by limiting the funds allocated to activities (wages, oars, ‘stuffs’) without entering into the substance of the operations. Two interrelated investigations are carried out. First, a content analysis of the 1586 document is made. Second, the question of its ‘impact’ on the Arsenals actual accounting practices is addressed. In a 1633 Report by Alvise Molin, a magistrate of the Republic, some elements of the 1586 deliberation seem to surface, insofar as a quite sophisticated calculation of the production costs of galleys is provided. In this sense it might well be that the notion of cost emerged as a sort of ‘accidental by-product’ of the Senates efforts aimed at introducing tighter forms of control on the Arsenal.

Writing Accounting and Management History: Insights from Unorthodox Music Historiography

Few disciplines are probably more different than music and accounting. Nonetheless possible suggestions about historiography in accounting and management can be drawn from an innovative textbook on the history of music [Favaro and Pestalozza, 1999]. This is a rather unusual music history textbook. It has several distinguishing features which raise issues about: histories of the present, history and theory making, a non-linear sense of history, a social history of music, a pluralist view of genres, and a multi-geographical emphasis. These features have interesting parallels with accounting history and historiography.

A centralized decentralization: outsourcing in the Turkish cultural heritage sector

Recently Turkey has experimented with reforming its highly centralized cultural heritage sector by outsourcing commercial activities at museums and archeological sites. We examine three outsourcing contracts executed in 2009–2010 and their implications for understanding New Public Management in Turkey’s cultural sector. The initial project at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum was soon superseded by a ‘monopoly’ model that outsourced gift shop and ticket collection services at over 50 museums and sites to single companies. All three projects have significantly increased visitor numbers and revenues for the revolving fund that controls commercial operations within the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Yet unlike countries such as Italy, where outsourcing has led to decentralization, increased private sector involvement in Turkey has increased the control of the central government. This ‘centralized decentralization’ is a distinctly Turkish approach that allows for modernization without disturbing a highly centralized administrative tradition.

Managing Machu Picchu: institutional settings, business model and master plans.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze elements of continuity and change in the administrative history of the Historical Sanctuary of Machu Picchu (HSM) over the last decade.Design/methodology/approach – Based on a field study and of both qualitative and quantitative data, the paper reconstructs changes in accounting and planning processes and discourses.Findings – At the macro level, in the recent past Peru has gone through a process of modernization of the State, moving to more transparent and accountable forms of public management that deeply restructured the public sector. In parallel, the international community (particularly, UNESCO) has urged the adoption of a comprehensive strategic management plan for the HSM. Common to these pressures for change is a logic of efficiency, of rationalization and control of public expenditures and of more effective public services. At the micro level, these two pressures for change are shaping both the transformation of the accounting representation syst...

The Economy of Music Programs and Organizations. A Micro Analysis and Typology

The paper presents a model for understanding the inner economy of live music programs and organisations at a micro level, according to a management and accounting perspective. The complexity and variety of situations and solutions in organizing live music is described with reference to a number of real events. As a way of handling such a complexity and variety in organising, a typology is proposed based on three distinct features that can be found, to a different extent, inside music entities: the preparation of the Premiere; the running of performances after the Premiere; and the management of a portfolio of music programmes. The typology is a tool to understand possible implications on the economy of music programs arising from different solutions to the issue of organising and related cost behaviour.

Budgeting China. Macro‐policies and micro‐practices in public sector changes

Transformations taking place in China are of crucial importance in the development of the world economy. The international community is turning its attention to China’s move towards a market economy and assessing the likely impact on the years ahead. This paper aims to plot the evolution of administrative reforms in China with particular reference to the state (and therefore public sector), because the modernization of the state is an issue that will persist into the future, and because the state itself has been driving the country’s transformation towards a market economy in a deliberate way. Within this framework, the paper revisits the debate on administrative reforms at different levels; i.e., fiscal, budgeting, government organizations, and Public Sector Units (PSUs). In addition to reconstructing the evolution of norms and procedures as part of deliberate strategies by the centre, the paper also investigates how actual practices at the micro level have followed this process of reform, with reference to the administration of cultural heritage at the municipal level, based on a field research project. We find that a lack of relation with the role played by actual accounting transformation seems to characterize the current debate on policies. Serious discrepancies can be found between expectations and actual changes, and between macro and micro policies, and micro practices.