James Guthrie

James Guthrie
  • University of Bologna

About

112
Publications
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9,137
Citations
Current institution
University of Bologna

Publications

Publications (112)
Article
Purpose This paper aims to examine the non-financial information disclosed in social reports by an Italian provincial government over time to determine its relevance, contribution and evolution. Design/methodology/approach Through a case study analysis, the authors examine 10 years of social reports by one “best practice” Italian provincial govern...
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Purpose This paper aims to focus on a global consulting company and examine how it struggled to establish an effective environmental management control system for carbon emissions for its employees’ air travel. The organisation was motivated to reduce its carbon emissions both to comply with regulation and to enhance or maintain corporate reputati...
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This study examines sustainability reporting in a case study organisation in Italy. It uses content analysis to examine the use of the Global Reporting Initiative categories, including those of the telecommunication sector supplement in Italian Vodafone. It also considers the application of stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory in sustainability...
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Public sector performance measurement (PM) practices can be risky. It is imperative that research engages with the riskiness of PM and how this might be reduced. To help move towards a less risky state of public sector PM, where benefits outweigh negative potential, this paper reviews studies on PM risk to ascertain what existing research indicates...
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An accounting standard for goodwill, AASB 136 Impairment of Assets was implemented in Australia in 2005. However, several issues of compliance with the Standard were noted in the initial adoption periods. This study examines goodwill reporting practices in Australia over the five‐year period from 2005 to 2010. It explores the extent to which Austra...
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This study examines goodwill reporting disclosures in Australia under AASB 136 – Impairment of Assets from the period 2005 to 2010. It explores the extent to which the disclosures complied with the mandatory requirements for impairment testing for goodwill after the implementation of the ‘impairment regime’ in AASB 136. Using a sample of 287 Austra...
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Purpose This editorial aims to consider contemporary issues for accounting scholars, in particular journals rating and benchmarking, arguing that current international trends are risking academic research quality. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes the form of an editorial review and argument. Findings The paper acknowledges that accoun...
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This milestone editorial benefited from the constructive comments of several colleagues. Thanks to Gloria Parker, Julz Stevens and Fiona Crawford for their editorial assistance. The Editors also thank Rainbow Shum for her tireless efforts over the past nine years as AAAJ administrator in its Adelaide editorial office. They are grateful for support...
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Purpose This editorial aims to consider the relationship between academic accounting research and professional practice. Design/methodology/approach The paper takes the form of an editorial review and argument. Findings The paper acknowledges that accounting academic research is important to the higher education system, careers and publishers. Ho...
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The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED 1987) has argued for the importance of “sustainable development”. However, to date various studies have focused on corporate sustainability (Gray and Bebbington 1993; Elkington 1997; Bebbington 2007), rather than the public or not-for-profi t sectors (Ball and Grubnic 2007). This lack of sus...
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This editorial highlights the important contributions of a group of Italian authors who are published in this special issue. Also it links this work to other outcomes from the SMOG 2009 Bologna conference including the Public Management Review special issue (Ball et al, 2010) and the Economia Aziendale Online special issue (Farneti and Ricci, 2010a...
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This study examines intra-industry variation in CSR disclosure practice. Specifically, it investigates whether companies from industry sub-sectors with different CSR profiles have varying patterns of CSR disclosure. The industry analysed is the Australian food and beverage industry. The paper finds that companies from industry sub-sectors with high...
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The article is located in the social and environmental accounting research (SEAR) literature. A considerable body of work in the SEAR literature investigates the accounting and management practices and motives of businesses that report on their social, environmental or sustainability impacts. The potential value that researchers might derive in tur...
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This article provides a critique of the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) guidelines, sustainability reporting (SR) guidelines and also examines their applicability to public and third sector organizations. The article finds that these guidelines promote a ‘managerialist’ approach to sustainability rather than an ecological and eco-justice informe...
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This study investigates the challenges associated with designing a system to evaluate the mature operating phase of long-term partnerships with the private sector for the provision of public services (PPPS), an area largely neglected by a performance audit (PA) focus. It argues that assessing economy, efficiency and effectiveness (the three Es) are...
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of the business school now and in the future. Design/methodology/approach The paper takes the form of an editorial review and argument. Findings The paper acknowledges the impact of globalization and “marketization” on business schools. Research limitations/implications The editorial offe...
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Purpose – The paper aims to study and compare the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS) annual (AR) and intellectual capital reports (ICR) with an earlier study. The paper seeks to analyse the reporting practices of intellectual capital (IC) within this organisation. Design/methodology/approach – The case study organisation is an Australian no...
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a descriptive analysis of Balanced Scorecard (BSC) usage among companies on the Thai stock exchange; and to assess the performance effects of this BSC use.Design/methodology/approach – Sample organisations were surveyed through a questionnaire and the results used to examine whether the extent and m...
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This paper utilises legitimacy theory to explore whether a company's level of profile is related to the company's choice of legitimation strategies.Prior applications of legitimacy theory are extended to the examination of CSR disclosure by focusing on a single industry and customising the disclosure instrument to include industryspecific issues. T...
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Purpose – This editorial seeks to argue for intellectual pluralism and adventurous enquiry in an era of status badging of publication venues and institutions and to review AAAJ's role, strategies and international recognition in this context. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is an editorial review and argument. Findings – The paper acknowled...
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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...
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Recent research on social and environmental (SE) reporting has focused on corporations, rather than public sector agencies. Also, there has been little interest in ascertaining the views of preparers of accounts regarding SE reporting. This study analysed why a group of “better practice” organisations reported on SE matters. The researchers conduct...
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Accounting practices in the public sector have undergone significant changes and reform in the past three decades (Barret, 1996; Hodges and Mellet, 2003; Guthrie, et al., This has included a trend in moving government accounting and external reporting to cohere with private sector models and approaches (Broadbent and Guthrie, 2008). Australia has b...
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This study uses content analysis to investigate Intellectual Capital Reporting (ICR) by companies within the Australian Food and Beverage Industry (AFBI). It focuses on the external reporting of a single industry and examines ICR across different reporting media: annual reports and corporate websites. It finds that the extent of reporting on intell...
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There is concern internationally regarding the social and environmental impact of organisations. This has led to an increase in social and environmental (SE) reporting by corporations.Prior research has paid little attention to SE reporting in the public sector. This study analyses voluntary sustainability reporting (SR) practices within public sec...
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Purpose New public management changes in both the Australian and Italian government sectors have affected their modus operandi . This research aims to illustrate how the balanced scorecard (BSC) has been used in both Italian and Australian local government organisations (LGO), focusing on implementation and practice. Design/methodology/approach A...
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Purpose This paper seeks to examine contemporary trends in enhanced business reporting (EBR) and the development of a policy agenda for EBR. The paper aims to build on a submission to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC) advisory committee on improvements to financial statements (Pozen Committee). Design/methodology/approach The pape...
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Purpose This editorial seeks to reflect on seven contributions to this AAAJ special issue and on the interdisciplinary accounting, auditing and accountability movement and its future directions. The seven papers were invited plenary contributions to the APIRA 2007 conference, which in part served to celebrate 20 years of AAAJ . The important role o...
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review and critique the field of public sector accounting research. Many nation states deliver essential public services. In recent times, many of these nations have been involved in programmes of “modernisation”, which, in part, means that these public services now are significantly managed, delivered and go...
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Annual reports are an important component of the schools' public accountability framework. This longitudinal study applies a disclosure index to assess the annual reports of 17 New Zealand secondary schools (1997, 2001 and 2003) to determine the informational value of performance disclosure. Although the extent of disclosure complies with official...
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical account of the discourse‐practice nexus relating to an accounting for intellectual capital (IC) at an Australian public sector organisation (LandsNSW). Design/methodology/approach The paper is a case study. Data collection techniques comprised semi‐structured interviews, in situ observat...
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Purpose – It has long been recognised that social institutions, including business organisations, must obtain social approval for their continued operations. Recently, economic performance and social and environmental (SE) performance have become increasingly important issues of interest to stakeholders, including shareholders. It is expected that...
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This study proposes a framework for classifying BSC into three different usage types and this is used to examine BSC usage among the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) listed companies, perceived benefits gained, and effects on financial performance. So far, there is little published evidence on BSC usage in Thailand. This paper provides a descriptiv...
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Regulators and other industry associations have recognised the importance of considering the industry setting when determining social and environmental (SE) policy and reporting requirements. However, social and environmental impacts vary greatly from industry to industry.The generalised nature of many SE disclosure instruments is a limitation on t...
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Our earlier studies have reported on contemporary international developments in public sector accounting (PSA) within the reforms of New Public Management (NPM) and New Public Financial Management (NPFM). This paper focuses on what we consider to be the crucial change associated with NPFM, the transformation of traditional modified cash accounting...
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Historical studies that have examined the extent and quality of Corporate Social Disclosure (CSD) have limited their analysis to annual reports. However, there is growing evidence that companies use other media to communicate their corporate social and environmental performance (Frost et al., 2005; Unerman et al., 2007). This paper assesses the app...
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Purpose Change in the New Zealand state education system during the 1980s brought about a transfer of responsibility for school financial management from the centre to the school level. The purpose of this paper is to report an investigation of how aspects of this devolved responsibility have been operationalised and managed in a secondary school s...
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This article examines the political processes surrounding public sector accounting standard setting, in particular, the Australian decision to adopt sector-neutral International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). It contends that the history of private and public sector involvement in the accounting standard setting process to date, and recourse...
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Purpose of this paper: The aim of this paper is to discuss using a case study approach, how an environmental change for an organisation can be a catalyst for the implementation of intellectual capital (IC) practice. In particular, it uses Laughlin's (1991) 'colonizing' model of organisational change to frame the discussion of transforming the accou...
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce alternative perspectives on “new” business reporting models as they appear in the “thought pieces” in this special themed section of AAAJ . Design/methodology/approach The paper employs a literature based analysis and critique. The paper is primarily a discussion paper. Findings There are several...
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This paper tests English and Guthrie's (2003) proposition that Departments of Treasury are the sole evaluators of PPPs by mapping the focus, extent and patterning of state audit of PPPs in Australia in a period spanning 1988-2005. The supporting tasks undertaken in the paper are threefold: (1) a review of the audit and public accountability literat...
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Internationally, there is growing awareness of the environmental and social impacts of the business activities of organizations. This awareness was heightened by the 1987 report Our Common Future by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987). In order to address the concerns raised, companies have increasingly reported the soc...
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New public management (NPM) changes in both the Australian and Italian government sectors have affected their modus operandi. This research aims to focus on how the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has been used in both Italian and Australian local government organisations, focusing on implementation and practice. The findings of the paper suggest that the...
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the voluntary reporting of intellectual capital (IC) by listed companies in Australia and Hong Kong and to evaluate size, industry and time effects on IC disclosure levels. Design/methodology/approach – The study is an empirical one conducted in two stages. Stage one is an exploratory study of...
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Purpose The paper seeks to explore the ongoing development of an array of interdisciplinary specialist research areas in the accounting research community and its literature. It sets out to explore developments over the last 25 years with the aim to identify a number of important trends for the accounting scholarly community and to consider the rol...
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Purpose The purpose of this article is to trace the techniques and consulting methods developed and deployed by an Australian project team during an investigation of a client organisation's intellectual capital management, measurement and reporting (ICMMR) practices. The article aims to highlight the benefits of adopting an integrated approach to i...
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Intellectual Capital Reporting (ICR) is located high on the agenda of government, concerned with the establishment of guidelines and positioning their nation-states as 'knowledgeeconomies' on the global landscape. Voluntary guidelines have been established in certain jurisdictions while others have mandated ICR. In contrast to this burgeoning focus...
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This paper focuses on issues and consequences for the public sector from the current policy decision to adopt sector-neutral International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from reporting periods on or after 1 January 2005. It contends that an examination of the history of private and public sector involvement in the accounting standard setting...
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Intellectual capital (IC) is becoming a much featured item on the agendas of business executives, public policy makers, accountants and researchers. Question in foci pertain to 'what constitutes intellectual capital?', 'how to establish guidelines for reporting intellectual capital?', 'how to value and measure such 'invisible' organisational resour...
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Australian and international public sector organisations have faced, and continue to encounter, a plethora of reforms under the umbrella of 'New Public Management' (Guthrie et aI., forthcoming). Underpinning these reforms have been imperatives of budget surpluses and reduced government debt, with NPM reforms generally characterised by budget cuts,...
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Over the past two decades, the reporting frameworks used within the public sectors of a wide variety of jurisdictions have undergone significant change. Much of this change has arguably been relatively incremental, resulting in reporting frameworks still being cast in highly traditional form. At the same time, events in global capital markets have...
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This study examines the annual reports of each of the top 30 firms listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange in the period 1998/1999 to 1999/2000, using the ‘content analysis’ method. The findings indicate that the most reported accounting category during this period was external capital and the second most reported was human capital. There was an incre...
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Recent accounting scandals and a greater focus on sustainable development have highlighted the insufficiency of traditional financial statements in providing information about company value and performance. This study argues for the importance of reporting both IC information and non-economic performance. Based on an Extended Performance Reporting...
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Purpose The paper explores the rapidly changing environment affecting universities and their research communities. It sets out to explore the effect of university corporatisation on research and teaching, and aims to identify likely coping strategies for researchers. The role of AAAJ in supporting research in this turbulent environment is then cons...
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The disclosure of information on organisational knowledge resources and related knowledge management (KM) activities in annual reports has become a much debated issue within the intellectual capital (IC) discourse. This paper discusses the disclosure of IC information, and in particularly human capital information, in an Australian public sector or...
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This article presents an investigation into the Australian public education sector and focuses on the management of research and doctoral education in an increasingly corporatized climate. It is argued that diversity in knowledge creation and production is central to the successful Knowledge Economy. Diversity in doctoral education encompasses: div...
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Recently there has been increased interest in sustainable development and sustainability reporting. This study conducts content analysis to examine, ex post, whether the sample companies' voluntary sustainability reporting within their annual reports represents attempts to gain, maintain or repair legitimacy. It brings a new approach to analysing c...
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Addresses the Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal's actions and issues of concern to the accounting academic community and describes some interdisplinary perspectives on accounting, auditing and accountability (IPAAA). Concludes that the IPAAA movement has clearly arrived in the accounting discipline and has firmly established its place i...
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The 1989 transformation of educational administration in New Zealand emphasised a new accountability framework. The aim of the ‘new’ accountability was to demonstrate that educational investments yielded educational payoffs; including a demand that educational institutions provide evidence of their performance in terms of efficiency and effectivene...
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This paper examines the current move to the international harmonisation of public sector accounting standards in Australia and New Zealand. It argues that an examination of the historical arrangements to standard setting will do much to inform the current dilemmas posed by the current international harmonisation process. New Zealand has always had...
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Few authors have examined the intellectual capital of non-profit organizations or discussed their strategic management in terms of intangibles. The Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS), a third sector organization, is the subject of this study. The purpose of the study is to better understand the value dimensions of the ARCBS from an external...
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Increasingly, researchers in the field of Intellectual capital (IC) need to be able to justify the specific research methods they use in the collection of the empirical data that they examine to support opinions regarding the merit of different approaches to managing and reporting Intellectual Capital. Of the various methods available to researcher...
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This paper documents the growing dependence of Australian governments on the use of private funding to provide infrastructure and related services to the public. Using a Habermasian framework proposed by Broadbent and Laughlin in 1999 the paper examines their second research question: “what is the nature of PFI and who is regulating its application...
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In recent years, a trend in management has been the introduction of human capital (HC) management and accounting. As a result of this trend, there has been a demand from external stakeholders for a different sort of information, and many firms have, in an attempt to meet this demand, become more involved in the creation, measurement and reporting o...
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This paper describes accrual output based budgeting (AOBB) systems and examines their adoption in Australia. An analysis of claims made about AOBB systems by central agency reformers is set out, and the conclusion offered that these claims are fundamentally rhetorical in their characteristics. These rhetorical claims are contrasted against a critic...
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This article provides an overview of the key findings and reflections of a detailed, two year comparative study examining experiences with, and without, New Public Financial Management (NPFM) reforms in eleven different countries. The study highlights the problems of trying to explain such developments through simplistic explanatory variables and e...
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This paper updates previous reviews of intellectual capital reporting by focusing on several important associated issues. It examines various definitions of intellectual capital and intellectual capital reporting, via intellectual capital statements, ratios, and through theoretical frameworks. One important finding of the review was that published...
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The recent public policy trend emphasising markets and economic logic among public sector institutions, including universities, has led to the introduction of greater managerialism and formal demonstrations of efficiency and effectiveness. Such moves require a definition of inputs, outputs and outcomes as a means to rendering these activities visib...
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Internationally, the past two decades have seen considerable changes in the management and control of public sector organisations. Reform has been promoted on the grounds that the public sector was too large and cumbersome, organised on the wrong principles and in need of re-invention and institutional renewal. At least five different categories of...
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To ascertain the status of intellectual capital reporting in a developing nation, this pioneering study examined annual reports of top 30 companies by market capitalization listed in the Colombo stock exchange, Sri Lanka in 1998/1999. They were analyzed using content analysis and data were recorded in a theoretically backed coding framework with 45...
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The changes in public sectors of many western democracies, particularly as applied in public funded universities, have led to an environment where students have been redefined as customers, organisations and their programs have been redefined as fee generating and services have been reconstituted as commercialised competitive activities in the open...
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This paper presents a challenge to public sector managers, policy-makers and interested academics. Drawing on the findings of previous international comparative studies of new public financial management (NPFM) reforms, it concludes that public services and their providers are caught in an 'evaluatory trap'. The continual promotion of NPFM reforms,...
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This paper presents a challenge to public sector managers, policy makers and interested academics. In drawing off the findings of previous international comparative studies of New Public Financial Management (NPFM) reforms, it concludes that public services and their providers are caught in an 'evaluatory trap'.The continual promotion of NPFM refor...
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With the introduction in the 1998-99 state budget of accrual output-based management (AOM), the state of Victoria in Australia is now at the cutting edge of a global public sector management transformation movement. The fundamental elements of financial management change are a full accrual approach to planning, budgeting, resource allocation decisi...
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This paper examines a political struggle in the Australian federal sphere over parliament's right, exercised through the office of the Auditor-General, to oversee the accounts and management practices of the executive and entities created by legislation to deliver public services. The period from the early 1970s is characterised by a dramatic shift...
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A heated debate is raging over our nation’s public schools and how they should be reformed, with proposals ranging from imposing national standards to replacing public education altogether with a voucher system for private schools. Combining decades of experience in education, the authors propose an innovative approach to solving the problems of...
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There is currently increasing pressure for the mandatory establishment of audit committees in both the private and public sectors. Audit committees, as presently conceived, cannot adequately manage the conflicts of interest and loyalty to board colleagues which arise from boards processing information which is used to evaluate their own performance...
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Reviews some recent contributions to “alternative” accounting research in relation to the changes which have taken place in the public sector, and which have altered the structure of the sector. An important task for the authors therefore has been to define what they view as comprising the public sector. Concludes that there is still a paucity of r...

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