Christopher J. Napier

This article revisits the author’s “Research directions in accounting history” (1989), an early contribution to the historiographical study of accounting. That article identified three key approaches to accounting history: “understanding the past,” “contextualizing accounting,” and “the new positivism,” and anticipated to some degree the intellectual conflict between so-called traditional accounting history and new accounting history, which arose in the 1990s and persists to some extent. This conflict often stressed different views of the role of theory in historical accounting research, different notions of sources and methods, and even different views about the limits and boundaries of accounting itself. Accounting historians still have significant scope for innovation, and many gaps remain to be researched. Some dimensions that historical accounting researchers can consider are periods, places, people, practices, propagation, products, and professions, where newer researchers can collaborate fruitfully with more established accounting historians to expand our knowledge of accounting’s past.

RESUMO O presente artigo revisita o texto do autor, “Research directions in accounting history” (“Direções de pesquisa na história da contabilidade”, em tradução livre) (Napier, 1989), uma das primeiras contribuições para o estudo historiográfico da contabilidade. Nele, são identificadas três abordagens principais para a história da contabilidade: "compreender o passado", "contextualizar a contabilidade" e "o novo positivismo". Além disso, antecipa-se, em certa medida, o conflito intelectual entre a história da contabilidade tradicional e a nova história da contabilidade, surgida na década de 1990 e que persiste até hoje. Esse conflito frequentemente enfatizava diferentes visões sobre o papel da teoria na pesquisa histórica da contabilidade, diferentes noções de fontes e métodos, e até mesmo diferentes visões sobre os limites e as fronteiras da própria contabilidade. Os historiadores da contabilidade ainda têm um amplo espaço para inovar, e muitas lacunas permanecem a serem preenchidas. Períodos, lugares, pessoas, práticas, propagação, produtos e profissões são algumas das dimensões que os pesquisadores da história da contabilidade podem considerar. Os pesquisadores mais novos podem colaborar de forma frutífera com os historiadores mais experientes para ampliarmos nosso conhecimento sobre o passado da contabilidade.

Purpose: The paper investigates to what extent owners and managers of SMEs in Saudi Arabia have accepted the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium-Sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs). Design/methodology/approach: The research adopts an interpretive approach, using an institutional logics framework, contrasting “traditionalist” and “modernisation” logics. A total of 52 semi-structured interviews, mainly with owners, managers and advisers of SMEs, were undertaken. Findings: Respondents noted that adopting IFRS for SMEs was part of a general programme of economic development, including introduction of Value Added Tax, greater publicity for business matters and use of company financial statements for determining Zakat (a religious levy). Respondents were aware of the role of Saudi Vision 2030 in proposing economic development, but generally denied that this was a major catalyst for financial reporting changes. Despite a small number of remaining “traditionalists”, initial sceptics about IFRS for SMEs had usually become reconciled to the idea of its substantive implementation, although they sometimes criticised certain aspects of IFRS for SMEs as creating unnecessary costs of compliance. Practical implications: Responses suggest that most SMEs will comply with financial reporting regulations, especially when they can see this as part of the broader national agenda of economic development. Originality/value: The paper uses an institutional logics approach to contribute to our understanding of what makes international financial reporting regulation acceptable or undesirable to the owners and managers of SMEs in emerging economies.

This paper explores narrative and storytelling, proposing a “golden thread” approach to the writing of accounting history. The study considers “stories” as the events involving human actors and “narratives” as interpretive frameworks through which these stories can be organized and told. In accounting history, tensions arise between immersive, story-driven accounts and structured, theory-oriented approaches. The paper argues for a renewed emphasis on narrative approaches, telling stories based on empirical data and advocating the use of a “golden thread”: a unifying theme, question, or analytical concept that ensures coherence, clarity, and depth. Drawing on illustrative examples, including microhistory studies and actor-centered accounts, the paper demonstrates how a golden thread can guide the writing journey. However, the paper cautions against oversimplification, emphasizing a need to balance narrative coherence with historical complexity and nuance. This paper also contributes by offering practical guidance for scholars seeking to craft compelling, rigorous, and resonant historical narratives.

A special issue of an academic journal is a collection of scholarly articles on a specific topic within the journal's scope. Special issues could take the form of an entire issue or a themed section of an issue. These issues provide a venue for research on emerging areas, highlight important subdisciplines, or describe new cross-disciplinary applications. While literature about the special issues of accounting journals tends to emphasise the research developments in the designated fields, this contribution uses reflexivity to develop a broader discourse about the role and the phases of development of a special issue, through the eyes of the scholars directly involved. It explores our ‘behind-the-scenes’ work as guest editors, our individual perspectives on the challenges and advantages of editing a special issue for us as guest editors, the authors, the journal's editors, and the research community represented by the journal of reference, in influencing public opinion and promoting critical thinking.

This article introduces the Special Issue of Accounting History on the topic of accounting and the exploitation of the natural world. After exploring the ambivalent nature of the word ‘exploitation’, with both positive and negative senses, the article reviews some earlier contributions to the historical accounting research literature relevant to the Special Issue. The four substantive research papers in the Special Issue are discussed and put into broader contexts, and the article identifies some potentially fruitful avenues for further research into how accounting has been implicated in the exploitation of the natural world in the past. The article concludes with brief tributes to two recently deceased accounting academics, Professor Tom Schneider and Professor Mike Jones, whose contributions to the Special Issue and to stimulating research into accounting for biodiversity, respectively, are acknowledged.

Islam is the world's second-largest religion, and accountability (to God and to fellow humans) lies at its heart. Islamic principles and rules of conduct, constituting the Shariah, restrict the actions of Muslims, in particular forbidding the payment and receipt of interest. Since the 1970s, an Islamic financial industry has emerged to provide Shariah-compliant transactions and financial structures to devout Muslims. This has given rise to a need for specific accounting approaches for these transactions. Under Islam, organizations and members of society are considered to have wider accountability responsibilities, with social and environmental reporting a longstanding issue for Islamic organizations. To demonstrate compliance with Shariah, many organizations have established Shariah supervisory boards consisting of Shariah scholars familiar with commercial and financial transactions. This unique governance mechanism provides a model for more conventional entities that wish to enhance their accountability to society. Research into Islamic accounting, accountability and governance has grown substantially in recent years, but there are still potentially fruitful avenues for further research.

The Handbook of Accounting, Accountability and Governance demonstrates how these three bodies of practice are interwoven. Accountability is a fundamental attribute of humanity, and both accounting and governance have developed to make accountability possible. However, accounting has come under challenge as an excessively "technical" activity that fails to address many of the important aspects of organizational performance by favouring what can be measured (however problematically) in terms of money. Governance has moved from an idea of "good government" to a corporate governance model predicated on a shareholder primacy view of the corporate enterprise. This model is increasingly drawn on outside the corporate sector, even in circumstances where the core assumptions of modern corporate governance do not apply. The chapter calls for more qualitative research in accounting, accountability and governance, for example opening up the "black box" of the corporate board through research that investigates how accountability and governance actually work in practice. The chapter also calls for collaborative research that seeks new ways of accounting for the broader impacts of organizations on society and on the environment.

This chapter addresses the interplay of accounting, governance and accountability. After an introduction, the chapter reviews relevant prior literature that examines how accounting, accountability and governance inter-relate both generally and in specific contexts. The key concepts of the Handbook (accounting, accountability and governance) are introduced and the key interconnection points between these elements are considered. Understanding the interaction between these elements in the organizational and social contexts in which they operate is essential for the success of organizations, people and nature, as well as global stability and sustainability. Accounting, accountability and governance are not merely abstract values. Given the interplay of these elements, they shape and change the contexts in which we live, work and play and, moreover, impact human behaviour, organizational and world culture, as well as organizational and social functioning and development.

This Introduction to the Edward Elgar Handbook of Accounting, Accountability and Governance puts the collection of chapters making up the Handbook into context. The general philosophy of the Handbook is that accounting, accountability and governance go beyond being technical practices to be learned, adopted and repeated, and must be studied as social and moral practices. The chapters making up the five parts of the Handbook are outlined. Part I considers past and present perspectives on accounting, accountability and governance. Part II examines various mechanisms for accounting, accountability and governance, including audit, assurance and different forms of accounting. Part III considers accounting, accountability and governance in diverse contexts and sectors, including junior stock markets, emerging economies, higher education, the public sector, hybrid organizations and Islamic financial institutions. Part IV reviews some new perspectives on accounting, accountability and governance, including counter accounts and spotlight accounting, as well as the application of ideas of governmentality to accounting, accountability and governance. Part V considers some future directions and notes how the recent COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped accounting, accountability and governance relationships and mechanisms. The Introduction finishes with some indications of how the Handbook may be used in teaching and research.