Stefano Zambon

Towards a stakeholder responsible approach: the constructive role of reporting

It is commonly recognized that nowadays social and environmental aspects, and more in general stakeholder‐linked issues, are becoming important corporate value drivers. It is also rather clear that there is a strong relationship between the stakeholder perspective, and a number of concepts and practices which stress non‐financial aspects of company behavior, such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability (including environmental respect) and corporate governance. Accordingly, these emerging company ideas and attitudes are here collectively referred to as “stakeholder responsible (or oriented) approaches”. Current literature underlines especially the importance and difficulty of the implementation phase of these approaches into concrete company actions, but it seems to largely overlook the impact which the reporting process has on both concepts and company actions. On the basis of an ad hoc theoretical model, the paper aims to provide insights into the “active role” subtly played by stakeholder oriented reporting (e.g. social and sustainability statements) in constructing and reconstructing the underlying ideas and notions, as well as company behaviors in this field. Far from being a neutral and “passive” mirror of the stakeholder responsible approach implemented, reporting carries out the decisive and constitutive role to concretize abstract concepts, and to visualize company activities, thus substantially contributing to make the “stakeholder philosophy” viable and reliable.

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.

A political economy of intangibles reporting: the case of Japan

Purpose – The paper aims to explore the economic, political and social premises according to which some governmental agencies have decided to promote IC reporting in their country. Firstly, it will examine the contextual premises and conditions that have encouraged (or inhibited) IC reporting. Secondly, it will investigate the way these premises and conditions interact in different ways, thus establishing (loosely) coupled relationships.Design/methodology/approach – The relationship between IC recommendation for corporate reporting and contextual linkages will be analysed from a political economy perspective, as proposed by Cooper and Sherer, and others, and as modified by the type of discursive analysis inspired by Burchell et al.Findings – In light of the relationship that the paper will establish between different discourses, IC will be understood not as a merely corporate neutral technique but as an economic and socially constructed phenomenon aimed at re‐launching the growth of a country. In this way...

Exploring the conceptualisation of Intangibles in law and accounting in the USA: A historical perspective

Purpose – Over the last decades concepts and practices related to intangibles gained momentum at international level especially within the economic, accounting and management arenas. However, dating back to the beginning of the 1900s, intangibles was a topic that in the USA dominated the law and taxation fields. Indeed, at that time few papers were published in accounting journals and reviews, whereas the majority populated law and taxation publications. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing upon the sociology of the profession, the ways through which lawyers and accountants constructed a “professional competition and power” (Dezalay and Sugarman, 2005) upon this arena are here explored. In particular, an in-depth analysis of the papers published on this field from the beginning of the 1900s until the 1970s in the USA is carried out. Findings – Notwithstanding the current conceptualisation of intangibles as a field of research and practice at the margins (Miller, 1998...

Malea Fashion District: A New Way to Learn Managerial Accounting

Over the most recent years there has been a growing body of literature and studies on intangible assets and intellectual capital from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective. The study conducted by Guthrie, Petty and Ricceri positions itself in this rich stream of research, proposing a comparative analysis of the disclosure practices of intellectual capital (IC) in two fast developing geographical areas, being, Hong Kong and Australia, where the role of new knowledge and the increasing size and sophistication of the markets are triggering the issue of the measurement and representation of company intangibles and their contribution to long-term value creation. In particular, the study explores voluntary information on IC provided by sampled companies in their annual reports. In methodological terms, authors use a content analysis approach to identify and evaluate disclosure concerning three categories of IC: internal, external and human, concerning and further broken down into 15 sub-categories. To this main objective, the study also pursues the aim to extend the literature on cross-border comparison of IC reporting practices and to consider implications for policy setters. The organisation of the book is quite straightforward and is articulated in six chapters. The first chapter is devoted to present the theoretical background of the research, highlighting the progressive importance of IC over the last two centuries and the basic framework of IC referred to by the authors. The second chapter indicates some developments concerning guidelines, frameworks and regulations for IC reporting, also noting the existence of a mandatory disclosure in some countries and the prominent role of voluntary reporting on IC. This chapter’s objective is of course not to extensively review all the relevant literature on IC. The literature review in fact just sketches the primary topics and contributions, without any attempt to provide the reader with completeness. The purpose of this exercise is to shape the background of the research. European Accounting Review Vol. 19, No. 4, 857–862, 2010