Christopher Napier

• MA, MSc, PhD, FCA, FHEA
• Professor at Royal Holloway University of London

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 applic...

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 th...

Purpose This paper seeks to broaden the agenda for environmental and ecological accounting research across several dimensions, extending the form of accounting in this field by encouraging research into its historical roots and developing a definition of accounting that can address the severe environmental and ecological challenges of the 21st cent...

This special issue aims to act as a focus for research providing a more granular understanding of the individual-level processes that drive collective accountability phenomena by illuminating a multilevel conceptualisation of accountability processes. The special issue will prioritise papers that take a micro-level approach, for example, examining...

The theorisation of fraud has largely been developed in the for-profit sector, and the paper extends this to the not-for-profit sector. Motivated by social control theory, we adopt a qualitative approach to assess the views of key charity stakeholders (social control agents) of charities registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales...

The world is facing difficult, uncertain and challenging times, which have consequences for accounting practice, education and research. This new and uncertain environment may lead us to conclude that accounting research should focus on the present and develop answers to be implemented in the future. Does this mean that accounting history must be p...

Purpose Despite increasing public attention and media coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic, little research was conducted on how the crisis affected accountability practices in the not-for-profit sector. This study focusses on international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) that operate in emerging economies worldwide but are registered in Englan...

Historical accounting research is sometimes criticised for lack of relevance to contemporary accounting issues. One approach that researchers have adopted to demonstrate relevance is the use of theory and theorisation. This paper studies three frameworks for theorisation developed initially in the organisation studies literature: Ann Langley’s “sev...

We respond to the call for more research into the entanglement between multiple (including non-visual and non-verbal) modes of communication within organizations by exploring the relationships between rhetoric and materiality. We draw on archival sources concerning the Founder’s Building at Royal Holloway College (1874–1897). We discuss the buildin...

We welcome submissions of full papers that research the following areas: Alternative forms of environmental and ecological accounting and auditing, such as nature diaries, travel journals, letters, reports, reviews; Aesthetic and creative historical accounts of nature, wildlife, the natural environment and ecology such as literature, poetry, histo...

In recent years, there has been a debate about whether the owners of “heritage assets” should include them on their balance sheets. We present a longitudinal study of the collection of 77 pictures donated by Thomas Holloway to Royal Holloway College between 1881 and 1883. We draw on archival material to analyse accounting practices for Holloway’s p...

International Financial Reporting Standard 15 (IFRS 15) Revenue from Contracts with Customers has significantly changed the philosophy of revenue recognition, not only to provide a fairer representation of corporate revenues, but also to inhibit the use of revenues for ‘earnings management’ purposes. We provide a framework to analyse the various ef...

Research on stand-alone sustainability reports (SASRs) has focused on published documents rather than on the process by which SASRs are produced. This study investigates the process of producing Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3.1 A+ rated SASRs, particularly examining how visual impression management choices are made within the organisation. Th...

Purpose The paper investigates attitudes towards and perceptions of the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia, immediately before and during the period of adoption. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts an interpretive approach, using a new institutional...

Historical accounting research has a substantial track record of using a variety of theoretical insights to better understand of how and why accounting has contributed to, and been affected by, organisational change and development. The article outlines the emergence of a range of theories that have been employed by accounting historians, against t...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate an element of the internal politics of standard setting by reference to the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) movement to the International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium-Sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs). The authors examine the politics of the IASB’s expertise in...

Why do we use the term ‘corporate governance’ rather than ‘corporate direction’? Early British joint stock companies were normally managed by a single ‘governor’. The ‘court of governors’ or ‘board of directors’ emerged slowly as the ruling body for companies. By the nineteenth century, however, companies were typically run by directors while not-f...

This study examines the contribution of Raymond J. Chambers to the British inflation accounting debate in the early-to-mid 1970s, from the perspective of the reception of his book, Securities and Obscurities: A Case for Reform of the Law of Company Accounts, published in 1973. To structure the empirical narrative, drawing on previously unpublished...

Accounting has been taught and studied at LSE since 1902, but for the first 30 years, it was a largely technical subject. Early accounting professors, Laurence Dicksee and Frederic de Paula, were practitioners influenced by law rather than economics. In the 1930s, however, a group of economists with accounting training, including Ronald Coase, deve...

This study provides insight into how two national arts organisations located in London manage their performance in the pursuit of heterogenous objectives, within the confines of external influences. These organisations significantly rely on the government for funding and are therefore required to implement policy initiatives, albeit at arm's length...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the origins and development of the “Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ) Community”, a flourishing international interdisciplinary accounting research community. This scholarly community has emerged over some 30 years from the publication in 1988 of the inaugural issue of AAAJ under t...

This study seeks to provide an account, drawing on previously unexamined archival material, of some of the events surrounding the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) postulates and principles controversy in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We examine these events from the viewpoint of Raymond J. Chambers, one of the most prol...

Accounting history studies the methods of accounting in the past and investigates how accounting ideas and practices extant today came into existence and developed over time.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges faced by an Australian accounting academic, R. J. Chambers, in the 1950s, in breaking into the accounting research community, at that time, almost entirely located in the USA and the UK. For academics outside the networks of accounting research publication in these countries, there we...

The requirement for UK listed companies to prepare their financial statements in accordance with IFRS for accounting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2005 provided these companies with an accounting policy choice in the area of pension accounting. Probit models indicate that the characteristics of size of firm and interest coverage are sign...

This study seeks to provide an account, drawing on previously unexamined archival material, of some of the events surrounding the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) postulates and principles controversy in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We examine these events from the viewpoint of Raymond J. Chambers, one of the most prol...

This study reviews the concept of “popular history” in the context of accounting history, drawing on evidence from post-Enron stories about corporate collapse and accounting and auditing failure. The study complements the work of Carnegie and Napier [2010], which focused on how professional accountants and their firms and organizations were portray...

“The New Accounting History” (NAH) is usually associated with a special issue of Accounting, Organizations and Society published in 1991, although publications within this research tradition had been appearing for at least 10 years before this. The present paper examines the emergence of NAH in the decade or so before this special issue, and studie...

This article examines the challenges faced by an Australian accounting academic, R. J. Chambers, in the 1950s, in breaking into the accounting research community; at that time almost entirely located in the United States and the United Kingdom. For academics outside the networks of accounting research publication in these countries, there were sign...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to revisit the special issue of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal published in 1996 on the theme “Accounting history into the twenty‐first century”, in order to identify and assess the impact of the special issue in shaping developments in the accounting history literature, and to consider issues for...

Building upon panel discussion held at the sixth Accounting History International Conference, a resounding “yes” is offered in response to the question of whether accounting history matters. However, reflecting the viewpoint that accounting history can and should matter more, various suggestions are presented for advancing the quality, relevance an...

'Accounts are the one subject of which lawyers are supposed to know nothing.' In both statute and case law, this view has until quite recently been evidenced by a reluctance to set detailed rules for company accounts, and a willingness to leave matters of accounting to accountants and 'men of business.' Where accountants and men of business agree,...

Purpose The paper seeks to examine the cultural factors that shaped the creation of one of the earliest Islamic banks, discussing the tensions that arise between religious and economic aims. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a case study of a historically significant institution. The information on which the paper is based was obtained thro...

Society's perception of the legitimacy of the accounting profession and its members is grounded in the verbal and visual images of accountants that are projected not only by accountants themselves but also by the media. The paper uses the critical literature on stereotypes to examine how books written for a general readership on Enron and other rec...

Given the aims of the founders of the London School of Economics, it is not surprising that accounting should have been taught at the School from soon after its establishment. An early focus on teaching practical accounting, with professional practitioners as teachers, was gradually supplanted by approaches informed by the economics of decision-mak...

The emergence of Islamic banks and other financial institutions since the 1970s has stimulated a modern literature that has identified itself as addressing “Islamic accounting”. Much of this literature is prescriptive, though studies of actual practice, and of attitudes to proposed alternatives, are beginning to emerge. Historical research into Isl...

Accounting for pensions has been a problem for standard setters for over 30 years. Early attempts to develop accounting standards were based on a cost orientation and reflected funding considerations. More recently, a balance sheet focus has led to issues over identification and measurement of pension liabilities and assets. Accounting standards th...

The possibility of measuring and comparing sustainability performance is generally taken for granted in management studies and practices based on the evaluation, selection and ranking of the supposedly best companies in the field. The purpose of this article is to question this basic assumption by analyzing the comparability of sustainability perfo...

The last thirty years have witnessed the appearance and rapid expansion of Islamic banking both inside and outside the Islamic world. Islamic banks provide financial products that do not violate Sharia, the Islamic law of human conduct. The Islamic principles upon which the banks claim to operate give an important role to social issues. Applying th...

This study provides evidence on ownership structures and corporate diversification by analysing 355 public listed companies (PLCs) in Malaysia. The majority of the companies in the sample have an ultimate controlling owner, particularly an individual or family. As controlling owners have on average, rights of control over a greater percentage of sh...

p>This thesis consists of ten papers published between 1996 and 2006 in the field of accounting history. Six of the papers are conceptual or methodological in nature, and the other four are specific studies of episodes from accountings’ past. The conceptual papers advocate a critical and interpretive approach to historical accounting research, with...

The last 30 years have witnessed the appearance and rapid expansion of Islamic banking both inside and outside the Islamic world. Islamic banks provide their customers with financial products that do not violate Sharia, the Islamic law of human conduct. Islamic banks now operate in Western countries such as the UK and USA, as well as most of the Is...

Accounting historians have long recognised accounting’s international scope but have typically concentrated their research endeavours on region- or country-specific studies, or on investigating the diffusion of accounting ideas, techniques and institutions from one country to others. Much potential exists to study the development of accounting from...

Both history and auditing are "evidence-based" practices. Accounting historians, who may be skilled in audit as well as historical research, may have special insights into how sources provide evidence to support judgments and opinions. Considerations of evidence by theorists of history may be of relevance to theorists of auditing, and vice versa, T...

Concern has been growing recently that the modern commercial organisation is becoming less auditable. The volume and complexity of transactions and the opacity of computer-based information systems, coupled with the increased knowledge gap between auditors and clients, make the auditor reliant on evidence whose quality and reliability is open to br...

Concern has been growing recently that the modern commercial organisation is becoming less auditable. The volume and complexity of transactions and the opacity of computer-based information systems, coupled with the increased knowledge gap between auditors and clients, make the auditor reliant on evidence whose quality and reliability is open to br...

The “new” accounting historians that emerged from the mid-1980s characterised their predecessors as relying heavily on a view of accounting as progressive and accounting change as evolutionary. From a social science perspective, progress is a problematic concept, as it implies not just change but also improvement, and thus seems to imply the making...

Keenan's methodological criticisms of “Genealogies of Calculation” are shown to be either innocuous or invalid. His sketch of a nonteleological evolutionary explanation of the transition from charge and discharge accounting to double-entry in nineteenth century Britain is criticized, and an alternative genealogical sketch is provided.

In recent years, considerable pressure has grown within the British auditing industry for limitation of liability arising from negligent mis-statements in audit reports. Under British company law, auditors are forbidden from contracting with companies for their liability to be restricted. This legal provision was introduced in the Companies Act 192...

Alfred Chandler has recently suggested that 'the general failure to develop organisational capabilities weakened British industry and with it the British economy'. However, his view has been criticised as regards British multinational investment, where organisational forms such as mercantile groups were significant. This article examines the organi...

It is well known that no equivalent of the German Betriebswirtschaftslehre (Business Economics) developed in Britain. British economists were relatively uninterested in the internal workings of organisations, and thus did not provide the same theoretical underpinnings to the early development of accounting that were achieved in several continental...

Accounting history has a long tradition, but in recent years it has expanded its interests and approaches. Early literature of accounting history that sought to glorify the practice of accounting and the status of accountants has been supplemented first by a more utilitarian approach viewing the past as a “database” for enhancing understanding of c...

Economics was slow to emerge as a distinct academic and professional discipline in the United Kingdom. In the years around 1900, some British universities began to offer degrees in commerce, including accounting. These degrees were influenced by the contemporary emergence of business economics (betriebswirtschaftslehre) in Germany. However, there w...

It is well known that no equivalent of the German. Betriebswirtschaftslehre(business economics) developed in Britain. British economists were relatively uninterested in the internal workings of organizations, and thus did not provide the same theoretical underpinnings to the early development of accounting that were achieved in several continental...

In recent years there has been increasing interest shown in the history and development of accounting practices; accounting records are an important source of historical data, and they can also provide evidence of varied organizational structures and systems of management control. This volume brings together published work by the major British scho...

This paper calls firstly for genealogies of calculation, in contrast to traditional accounting history. The term genealogy conveys a focus on the outcomes of the past, rather than a quest for the origins of the present. It is intended to avoid an a priori limiting of the field of study to accounting as it currently exists, or to a particular accoun...

The publication in January 1992 of The Valuation of Intangible Assets, a report by Arthur Andersen & Co., has again stimulated the ‘brands’ debate. The Report claims to present a range of valuation methods for intangibles that command a ‘consensus’ among preparers, and that overcome the problems of subjectivity, consistency, separability and releva...

The aristocracy played a significant role in the development of the British economy in the first half of the nineteenth century, not only as the owners of most of the agricultural land but also as promoters of urban development, transportation links and mineral extraction. One of the most important aristocratic families was that of the Marquesses o...

During the period 1914–31, the P&O group's financial statements reflected many of the accounting ‘manipulations’ for which Lord Kylsant of the Royal Mail group was prosecuted. The paper examines the accounting practices of P&O during the inter-war period. These relied on extensive use of inner reserves to smooth reported profits. Given the high deg...

The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) was one of the most important British shipping companies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The extensive P&O archives reveal the evolution of the company's methods of accounting for its fleet of merchant ships, from an initial arbitrary depreciation reserve fund, through relatively s...

Accounting has sometimes been criticised as an illegitimate field for historical study. This paper examines three interrelated approaches to historical accounting research: the attempt to understand the past for its own sake, the locating of accounting in its sociohistorical context and the application of positive accounting theory to history. By i...