IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bracre/v55y2023i5s0890838922000415.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital information systems in support of accountability: The case of a welfare provision non-governmental organisation

Author

Listed:
  • Cavicchi, Caterina
  • Vagnoni, Emidia

Abstract

The paper aims at exploring how the creation of Fry's (1995) “conversations for accountability” between a welfare provision non-governmental organisation (NGO) and local institutions and private donors shaped the NGO's accountability path. To this end, the role that digital information systems (ISs) played in supporting this path was analysed. In more detail, the paper investigates how the NGO uses digital information to respond to the external pressure for accountability. This action research revealed that the construction of a shared meaning of accountability was possible because of the NGO's accountability conversations with partners that fostered and were fostered by the use of digital ISs. In this regard, organisational change toward the empowerment of digital ISs was driven by the accountability discourse. The paper indeed theorises the mutually reinforcing cycle existing between “conversations for accountability” and digitalisation of NGOs in support of their accountability path. The enactment of this mutual cycle can be particularly relevant for those small NGOs experiencing financial distress, to strengthen social bonds with partners and preserve their support over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Cavicchi, Caterina & Vagnoni, Emidia, 2023. "Digital information systems in support of accountability: The case of a welfare provision non-governmental organisation," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:55:y:2023:i:5:s0890838922000415
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2022.101112
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890838922000415
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bar.2022.101112?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey Unerman & Brendan O'Dwyer, 2006. "On James Bond and the importance of NGO accountability," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 19(3), pages 305-318, May.
    2. Sven-Olof Collin & Emidia Vagnoni, 2002. "The Governance of Voluntary Work in the Public Sector: Institutional Differences and Invariant Traits," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 6(4), pages 323-341, December.
    3. Jeffrey Unerman & Brendan O'Dwyer, 2006. "Theorising accountability for NGO advocacy," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 19(3), pages 349-376, May.
    4. Cherrie Yang & Deryl Northcott, 2019. "Together we measure: Improving public service outcomes via the co-production of performance measurement," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 253-261, May.
    5. Yang, Cherrie & Northcott, Deryl, 2018. "Unveiling the role of identity accountability in shaping charity outcome measurement practices," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 214-226.
    6. Ebrahim, Alnoor, 2003. "Accountability In Practice: Mechanisms for NGOs," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 813-829, May.
    7. Rob Gray & Jan Bebbington & David Collison, 2006. "NGOs, civil society and accountability: making the people accountable to capital," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 19(3), pages 319-348, May.
    8. Ryan T. Wright & Nicholas Roberts & David Wilson, 2017. "The role of context in IT assimilation: A multi-method study of a SaaS platform in the US nonprofit sector," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 509-539, September.
    9. John C. Dumay, 2010. "A critical reflective discourse of an interventionist research project," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(1), pages 46-70, April.
    10. C. Richard Baker, 2000. "Towards the Increased use of Action Research in Accounting Information Systems," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 366-378, December.
    11. Carolyn Cordery & Ataur Rahman Belal & Ian Thomson, 2019. "NGO accounting and accountability: past, present and future," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 1-15, January.
    12. Daniela Pianezzi, 2021. "We are what we tell: an enquiry into NGOs' organizational identity and accountability," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(8), pages 1824-1850, April.
    13. Hyndman, Noel & McConville, Danielle, 2018. "Trust and accountability in UK charities: Exploring the virtuous circle," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 227-237.
    14. Kevin Zhu & Kenneth L. Kraemer & Sean Xu, 2006. "The Process of Innovation Assimilation by Firms in Different Countries: A Technology Diffusion Perspective on E-Business," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(10), pages 1557-1576, October.
    15. Matthew Hall & Yuval Millo, 2018. "Choosing an Accounting Method to Explain Public Policy: Social Return on Investment and UK Non-profit Sector Policy," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 339-361, March.
    16. Mohammed Mohi Uddin & Ataur Rahman Belal, 2019. "Donors’ influence strategies and beneficiary accountability: an NGO case study," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 113-134, January.
    17. Dhanani, Alpa, 2019. "Identity constructions in the annual reports of international development NGOs: Preserving institutional interests?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-31.
    18. Galina Goncharenko, 2019. "The accountability of advocacy NGOs: insights from the online community of practice," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 135-160, January.
    19. Hall, Matthew & O'Dwyer, Brendan, 2017. "Accounting, non-governmental organizations and civil society: The importance of nonprofit organizations to understanding accounting, organizations and society," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-5.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cordery, Carolyn J. & Goncharenko, Galina & Polzer, Tobias & McConville, Danielle & Belal, Ataur, 2023. "NGOs’ performance, governance, and accountability in the era of digital transformation," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahmed, Zahir Uddin & Hopper, Trevor & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2023. "From Minnow to Mighty: A hegemonic analysis of social accountability in BRAC - the world’s largest development NGO," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    2. Adhikari, Pawan & Upadhaya, Bedanand & Wijethilake, Chaminda & Dhakal Adhikari, Shovita, 2023. "The sociomateriality of digitalisation in Nepalese NGOs," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    3. Goncharenko, Galina, 2023. "In the spotlight: Rethinking NGO accountability in the #MeToo era," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Rana, Tarek & Cordery, Carolyn J., 2024. "Digitalization as a form of marketization: The performativity of calculative practices in framing and overflowing NGO performance and accountability," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(1).
    5. Girei, Emanuela, 2023. "Managerialisation, accountability and everyday resistance in the NGO sector: Whose interests matter?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    6. Cuckston, Thomas, 2022. "Accounts of NGO performance as calculative spaces: Wild Animals, wildlife restoration and strategic agency," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Dewi, Miranti Kartika & Manochin, Melina & Belal, Ataur, 2021. "Towards a conceptual framework of beneficiary accountability by NGOs: An Indonesian case study," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    8. Alshurafa, Mohammed & Kamla, Rania, 2024. "Accountability and the postcolonial identity of Palestinian human rights NGO activists," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    9. Alshurafa, Mohammed & Aboramadan, Mohammed & Haniffa, Roszaini, 2023. "Digital postcolonialism and NGO accountability during COVID-19: Evidence from the Gaza Strip," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    10. Kingston, Kylie L. & Furneaux, Craig & de Zwaan, Laura & Alderman, Lyn, 2023. "Avoiding the accountability ‘sham-ritual’: An agonistic approach to beneficiaries’ participation in evaluation within nonprofit organisations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    11. Kingston, Kylie L. & Luke, Belinda & Furneaux, Craig & Alderman, Lyn, 2023. "Examining the re-territorialisation of beneficiary accountability: Digitising nonprofit services in response to COVID-19," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    12. Scobie, Matthew & Lee, Bill & Smyth, Stewart, 2023. "Grounded accountability and Indigenous self-determination," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    13. Spanò, Rosanna & Grossi, Giuseppe & Landi, Giovanni Catello, 2022. "Academic entrepreneurial hybrids: Accounting and accountability in the case of MegaRide," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(5).
    14. Cordery, Carolyn J. & Goncharenko, Galina & Polzer, Tobias & McConville, Danielle & Belal, Ataur, 2023. "NGOs’ performance, governance, and accountability in the era of digital transformation," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    15. Cazenave, Bruno & Morales, Jeremy, 2024. "Against new humanitarian management: Prefigurative accounting in the humanitarian field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    16. Ang, Soon Yong & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2023. "Ethical disputes, coordinating acts and NGO accountability: Evidence from an NGO river-care programme in Malaysia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    17. Tweedie, Dale & Luzia, Karina, 2023. "In place, with power: (Re)conceptualising accountability in national non-government organisations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    18. Wasswa Asaph Senoga, 2023. "The Effect of Accountability, Transparency, And Integrity of Church Leaders on Fraud Prevention in The Management of Church Funds," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(1), pages 1388-1409, January.
    19. Boomsma, Roel & O'Dwyer, Brendan, 2019. "Constituting the governable NGO: The correlation between conduct and counter-conduct in the evolution of funder-NGO accountability relations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-20.
    20. Marc Pilon & Alisher Mansurov, 2024. "Hybrid organizations: a classification within economic sectors," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-7, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:55:y:2023:i:5:s0890838922000415. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-british-accounting-review .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.