IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/acctbr/v43y2013i4p418-441.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Meeting the evolving corporate reporting needs of government and society: arguments for a deliberative approach to accounting rule making

Author

Listed:
  • David J. Cooper
  • Wayne Morgan

Abstract

We review ways in which corporate reporting might be useful for the government's management of the macro economy and for society's needs for more comprehensive reporting of corporate social and environmental performance. We highlight the constitutive as well as the representational nature of corporate reporting and how accounting subtlety impacts the culture and focus of governments, societies and corporations. Prominent examples are the ways accounting encourages financialisation and fails to account for externalities and the environment. While many proposals for the reform of corporate reporting emphasise more standards and rules, we suggest that what is needed instead are different rules, brought about by a more deliberative approach. A move to deliberation, however, requires that accountants highlight the pervasive but often subtle impacts of accounting.

Suggested Citation

  • David J. Cooper & Wayne Morgan, 2013. "Meeting the evolving corporate reporting needs of government and society: arguments for a deliberative approach to accounting rule making," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 418-441, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:acctbr:v:43:y:2013:i:4:p:418-441
    DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2013.794411
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00014788.2013.794411
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00014788.2013.794411?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. Donald MacKenzie, 2008. "An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262633671, December.
    2. Isabelle Huault & Chrystelle Richard, 2012. "Finance. The Discreet Regulator," Post-Print halshs-00732997, HAL.
    3. Camfferman, Kees & Zeff, Stephen A., 2007. "Financial Reporting and Global Capital Markets: A History of the International Accounting Standards Committee, 1973-2000," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199296293, Decembrie.
    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. O'Dwyer, Brendan & Unerman, Jeffrey, 2016. "Fostering rigour in accounting for social sustainability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 32-40.
    2. George, Sendirella & Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2023. "Social movement activists’ conceptions of political action and counter-accounting through a critical dialogic accounting and accountability lens," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    3. O’Leary, Susan & Smith, David, 2020. "Moments of resistance: An internally persuasive view of performance and impact reports in non-governmental organizations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Tanima, Farzana Aman & Brown, Judy & Wright, Jan & Mackie, Vera, 2023. "Taking critical dialogic accountability into the field: Engaging contestation around microfinance and women’s empowerment," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Baudot, Lisa & Cooper, David J., 2022. "Regulatory mandates and responses to uncomfortable knowledge: The case of country-by-country reporting in the extractive sector," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    6. Judy Brown & Jesse Dillard, 2015. "Dialogic Accountings for Stakeholders: On Opening Up and Closing Down Participatory Governance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(7), pages 961-985, November.
    7. Ruff, Katherine, 2022. "In support of making up users," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. Stenka, Renata, 2022. "Beyond intentionality in accounting regulation: Habitual strategizing by the IASB," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    9. Stenka, Renata & Jaworska, Sylvia, 2019. "The use of made-up users," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Brown, Judy, 2017. "Democratizing accounting: Reflections on the politics of “old” and “new” pluralisms," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 20-46.
    11. Aresu, Simone & Monfardini, Patrizio, 2023. "Oppressed by consumerism: The emancipatory role of household accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    12. Lehman, Glen, 2017. "The language of environmental and social accounting research: The expression of beauty and truth," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 30-41.
    13. Jittima Wichianrak & Tehmina Khan & David Teh & Steven Dellaportas, 2023. "Critical Perspectives of NGOs on Voluntary Corporate Environmental Reporting: Thai Public Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-24, April.
    14. Emilio Passetti & Lara Bianchi & Massimo Battaglia & Marco Frey, 2019. "When Democratic Principles are not Enough: Tensions and Temporalities of Dialogic Stakeholder Engagement," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 173-190, March.
    15. Murphy, Tim & O’Connell, Vincent, 2017. "Challenging the dominance of formalism in accounting education: An analysis of the potential of stewardship in light of the evolution of legal education," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-29.
    16. Brown, Judy & Tregidga, Helen, 2017. "Re-politicizing social and environmental accounting through Rancière: On the value of dissensus," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1-21.
    17. Picard, Claire-France, 2016. "The marketization of accountancy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 79-97.

    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. William R. Morgan, 2023. "Finance Must Be Defended: Cybernetics, Neoliberalism and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-21, February.
    2. Thomas Delcey, 2019. "Samuelson vs Fama on the Efficient Market Hypothesis: The Point of View of Expertise [Samuelson vs Fama sur l’efficience informationnelle des marchés financiers : le point de vue de l’expertise]," Post-Print hal-01618347, HAL.
    3. Robert K. Larson & Paul J. Herz, 2013. "A Multi-Issue/Multi-Period Analysis of the Geographic Diversity of IASB Comment Letter Participation," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 99-151, June.
    4. Molina Sánchez, Horacio & Bautista Mesa, Rafael, 2018. "La participación en el /Participation in the IASB Due Process," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 36, pages 429-458, Mayo.
    5. S. Susela Devi & R. Helen Samujh, 2015. "The Political Economy of Convergence: The Case of IFRS for SMEs," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 25(2), pages 124-138, June.
    6. Stephen A. Zeff & Christopher W. Nobes, 2010. "Commentary: Has Australia (or Any Other Jurisdiction) ‘Adopted’ IFRS?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 20(2), pages 178-184, June.
    7. Olivier E. Malay, 2021. "How to Articulate Beyond GDP and Businesses’ Social and Environmental Indicators?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 1-25, May.
    8. Francesco De Luca & Jenice Prather-Kinsey, 2018. "Legitimacy theory may explain the failure of global adoption of IFRS: the case of Europe and the U.S," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(3), pages 501-534, September.
    9. Sikka, Prem, 2011. "Accounting for human rights: The challenge of globalization and foreign investment agreements," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(8), pages 811-827.
    10. Bronk, Richard & Jacoby, Wade, 2016. "Uncertainty and the dangers of monocultures in regulation, analysis, and practice," MPIfG Discussion Paper 16/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    11. Wolf, Marcus, 2018. "Ain't misbehaving: Behavioral economics and the making of financial literacy," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 19(2), pages 10-18.
    12. Daniel Mügge & Bart Stellinga, 2015. "The unstable core of global finance: Contingent valuation and governance of international accounting standards," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(1), pages 47-62, March.
    13. Stephen A. Zeff, 2013. "The objectives of financial reporting: a historical survey and analysis," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 262-327, August.
    14. Matthew Henry & Christopher Rosin & Sarah Edwards, 2023. "Governing taste: data, temporality and everyday kiwifruit dry matter performances," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(2), pages 519-531, June.
    15. Martin, Ulf, 2018. "The autocatalytic sprawl of pseudorational mastery (version 0.12)," Working Papers on Capital as Power 2018/04, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism.
    16. Scott, Susan V., 2010. "Understanding the characteristics of techno-innovation in an era of self-regulated financial services," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 37867, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Christian Berndt & Norma M. Rantisi & Jamie Peck, 2020. "M/market frontiers," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(1), pages 14-26, February.
    18. Gilles Saint-Paul, 2013. "Economic Science And Political Influence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(5), pages 1004-1031, October.
    19. Becker, Kai Helge, 2016. "An outlook on behavioural OR – Three tasks, three pitfalls, one definition," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(3), pages 806-815.
    20. Botzem, Sebastian & Hofmann, Jeanette, 2008. "Transnational institution building as public-private interaction: the case of standard setting on the Internet and in corporate financial reporting," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 36535, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:acctbr:v:43:y:2013:i:4:p:418-441. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RABR20 .

    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.