Mahmoud Ezzamel

• Cardiff University

Financial analysts often work for organizations, such as brokerage houses, banks, and credit rating agencies. We ask whether these organizations condition the work of analysts and, if so, how and why. Through a qualitative study of the sovereign government rating departments of four credit rating agencies, our paper sheds light on the bundle of soc...

In this paper, we examine how accounting and financial conditions mediated public policy processes of prosecution, punishment, and imprisonment in the Spanish Inquisition during the late 16th and early 17th Centuries. Foucault’s (1979) notion of penal accountancy addresses the extent to which punishment is proportionate to the offence; drawing on t...

Research interest in the institutionalization of accounting has risen appreciably in the past twenty years. Much of this work has been occupied with regulations and professional norms, often in individual firm settings. However, social spaces around, i.e., institutional fields, and beyond corporations, regulatory agencies and professional organizat...

Literature examining dynamics between the state and self-styled professional fields is well established and points towards the crucial interrelations between the two. However, this literature evinces an occidental orientation, largely privileging the notion of a state characterised by self-limiting, liberal ideology and that is captured by dominant...

This article examines how small shareholders protected their interests from large shareholders’ expropriation by forming an alliance and taking collective action to block a convertible bonds issue by a Chinese bank that they considered harmful. Forming an alliance strengthened small shareholders’ network density, enhanced their salience (power, leg...

Extant research notes a tendency to propound the idea that female managers are secondary to men. Gender differences constitute an ethical issue and the discursive constructions of gender management are central to research in business ethics. Drawing on evidence gathered from a time–space intersection that has been widely neglected by research in th...

This field study examines the workings of multiple performance measurement systems (PMSs) used within and between a division and Headquarters (HQ) of a large European corporation. We explore how multiple PMSs arose within the multinational corporation. We first provide a first‐order analysis which explains how managers make sense of the multiplicit...

The corporation has become an increasingly dominant force in contemporary society. However, comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the concept of the corporation is often restricted, or limited to one disciplinary approach. This handbook brings together the cutting-edge scholarship, expertise and insight of leading scholars in a wide range of discipli...

We explore how the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), as a management accounting technique, was developed and marketed as a general management practice. Drawing on actor network theory (ANT), we analyze interviews with key actors associated with the BSC, insights gained from attending BSC training workshops, and other documentary evidence to construct a his...

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a very influential performance measurement system (PMS). Such systems institutionalize certain ways of looking at, and understanding, the nature of management and organization. We provide a critical analysis that integrates a technical and social view of the BSC. This allows an analysis of the core assumptions of the...

Research addressing how gendered space is experienced in the workplace, how accounting operates as a gendered and gendering technology and how it impacts identity formation and gender performance is sparse. This paper examines the relationship between accounting and lived experience in the gendered workplace. We articulate a theoretical framing tha...

Drawing on actor network theory (ANT), this paper analyses the role of Chinese characteristics in the emergence of three accounting regulations for foreign invested firms (FIFs) as part of China’s recent transformation to become part of the “world order”. The paper examines how international accounting standards (IAS) and existing Chinese accountin...

Theory building is conditioned by three registers – the ontological (reality), the epistemological (knowledge) and the ethical (values). The significance of the first two is widely acknowledged. But the third register tends to be overlooked, especially where a positive/normative dichotomy is assumed. Post-positivist thinking problematizes this dich...

This paper examines the role of management control systems, in particular performance measurement systems (PMSs) such as the Balanced Scorecard and key performance indicators, in a multinational context. We begin by exploring how globalization discourses are engaged with, consumed, appropriated, re-produced, disseminated and promoted in a major mul...

This book draws on Ancient Egyptian inscriptions in order to theorize the relationship between accounting and order. It focuses especially on the performative power of accounting in producing and sustaining order in society. It explores how accounting intervened in various domains of the Ancient Egyptian world: the cosmos; life on earth (offerings...

This paper examines the introduction of budgeting practices in situations where institutional logics are competing. The empirical cases, studied in two phases in the 1990s and in 2011, explore tensions that emerged between the new business logic, prevailing professional logic, and governance logic in the education field. We analyze the theorization...

The aim of this introduction is to discuss some of the challenges and problems faced by researchers who are interested in conducting research in transitional and emerging market economies and to highlight some of the key attributes and characteristics of these economies. The papers contained in this Special Section are introduced by way of providin...

In this paper, we test two models of executive pay that have not received much attention in research on Chinese listed companies: managerial power theory and tournament theory. We find that structural power (executive share ownership) and prestige power (executive education) are significantly positively related to executive remuneration, and politi...

We explore how the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), as a management accounting technique, emerged in local practice and was developed and marketed as a global management practice. Drawing on actor network theory (ANT) the paper offers an analytical history of the BSC, emphasizing how its various features were translated and transformed, that is shaped and...

The research has three key findings:• The success of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is due to the many users who have taken the idea and adapted it to their own needs.• The BSC is a generic theory, which can be customised into local practices through customised templates.• This process of customisation also constructs experts of those people who are...

This chapter explicates the theoretical basis and contribution of poststructuralism to the study of strategy and strategic management. More specifically, it focuses upon Foucauldian analysis which is contrasted to rationalist and interpretivist studies. Foucauldian analysis is not regarded as a corrective but as an addition to these established app...

The theorization of space in social sciences has made considerable progress in the last decades. Yet, there appears to be remarkably little interest in exploring the relationship between accounting and space. This chapter argues the case for studying the relationship between accounting and social space, which has held considerable promise as a theo...

No abstract available.

The Oxford Handbook of Critical Management Studies provides an overview of theoretical approaches, key topics, issues, and subject specialisms in management studies, as well as a set of reflections on the progress and prospects of Critical Management Studies (CMS). CMS has emerged as a movement that questions the authority and relevance of mainstre...

This paper examines the role of the discursive power of counting, accounting numbers and inscriptions in the creation and promotion of 'order' in society. This theme is explored by examining the link between accounting and order in the New Kingdom (1552-1080 BC), ancient Egypt. Accounting is conceptualized as an integral part of the assemblage that...

This paper examines the role of management control systems, in particular performance measurement systems (PMSs) such as the Balanced Scorecard and key performance indicators , in a multinational context. We begin by exploring how globalization discourses are engaged with, consumed, appropriated, reproduced , disseminated and promoted in a major mu...

This article aims to provide a brief overview of a variety of critical studies in accounting. Each section is concerned with a particular aspect of accounting practice under categories we regarded as the most obvious and accessible for non-accounting management specialists and students. The first section focuses upon accounting calculations between...

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of some of the major theoretical perspectives on governance developed within the field of business and management. We critically review conceptualizations of governance in the mainstream literature, and contrast this with the relevant literature from the governmentality and institutionalist perspect...

This paper explores the role of accounting calculations in constructing shareholder value within the context of organizational transformation in work organization. Using an intensive longitudinal case study (Conglom, a pseudonym), the paper relates innovation and experimentation in new forms of work organization to a drive for shareholder value cre...

The paper contributes to a developing interest in discourse in management and organization studies. Strategizing activity is studied as an example of organizing conceived as a discursive practice. Material drawn from an intensive case study of 'StitchCo', a global retailing and manufacturing company, is deployed to analyse how strategy activity was...

This book looks at the effectiveness of the 1999 restructuring of the UK through the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and the Assemblies for Northern Ireland and Wales, considering the process of devolution and its consequences on the key mechanisms of accounting and democratic accountability. Many of the chapters in this book examine wheth...

Les liens entre comptabilit� et syst�me �conomique ont �t� depuis longtemps �tudi�s au travers des construits conceptuels sur le capitalisme par les auteurs de diff�rents champs de litt�rature. Rares sont les travaux empiriques sur les relations d'interd�pendance entre ces objets d'�tude qui traditionnellement rel�vent de deux domaines distincts, l...

This paper examines the impact of the implementation of Local Management of Schools (LMS) in the UK on the discursive practices that help construct institutions of ‘accountability’ in a particular organizational field. The paper examines the institutionalization of accountability processes by analyzing discourses on accountability in the education...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze and critique the growing literature on record‐keeping practices in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt with a particular focus on processes of ancient accountability, and provide a research agenda for future work. Design/methodology/approach Analyzes the contributions of accounting historians in this area...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine an early stage of the institutionalization of accounting practices in devolved UK governments, concentrating on: the construction by devolved bodies of a “rational” set of planning and budgeting documents; the extent of homogeneity/heterogeneity in organizational response to seemingly similar institutional press...

A wide-ranging research project covering change and its implementation in 27 companies provides the opportunity for the authors of this article to reassess the meaning and significance of HRM. They suggest that ‘it is too simple to dismiss HRM as “old wine in new bottles”.’ Rather, they find important changes taking place. But the true significance...

This study reports further evidence as to the determinants of the audit fees paid by quoted companies in the UK. It outlines a framework based on the findings from semi-structured interviews with partners in four large audit firms and the results of previous research, and tests this framework by means of multivariate analysis using 1987 data for a...

Research on the relationship between accounting and religion or religious institutions is remarkably sparse. The lack of academic interest in studying accounting in religious institutions is rather perplexing, given the prominence of such institutions in most historical and contemporary societies, both spiritually and economically. In this introduc...

New empirical evidence is presented on organisational change, outsourcing and the impact on management accounting in three types of organisations: private sector companies, the National Health Service and Local Authorities. Spearman rank correlations are used to examine three propositions: that (i) change in organisational form exists and may be re...

Purpose Seeks to explain the survival of the Local Education Authority (LEA) as an organizational form despite the significant reform of UK education that created a hostile environment for them. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a historical perspective and drawing on neo‐institutional sociology, analyses the structuration of the educational fi...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the consequences of accounting intervention into institutionalized organizations in transition. The context for the study was the implementation of the 1988 Education Reform Act in England and Wales, known as the Local Management of Schools (LMS) Initiative, which devolved budgets from Local Education Authori...

Executive summary • The report notes the emergence of new organisational forms in response to market uncertainty and volatility. • In particular, it notes moves to focus the organisation around core activities. • This has led organisations to outsource and subcontract non-core production and service activities. • The project identifies key question...

The impact of new public management (NPM) and the implementation of resource accounting and budgeting (RAB) have given particular prominence to accounting information in the UK public sector. This paper explores the extent to which such information has informed and shaped the actions of politicians in the first term of the Northern Ireland (NI) dev...

This paper examines a failed change initiative (the implementation of economic value added, EVA™) in an in-depth case study of a major UK retailer (RetailCo, a pseudonym). The paper locates this change initiative within inter-professional competition between on the one hand the finance managers and on the other hand the buyers and merchandisers in...

There is a growing literature which suggests that the 1980s witnessed significant, even unprecedented changes in the management of organizations. This paper contributes to that literature by providing questionnaire and interview-based evidence of senior managers' perceptions of recent changes in management practice in large and medium-sized firms i...

This paper explores the role of accounting practices in the functioning of funerary temples (established to preserve the cult of important, dead individuals) from the Old Kingdom (2700–2181 BC), ancient Egypt. The paper identifies several roles played by accounting practices in this context, which involved the construction of various types of visib...

The purpose of this study is to explore the implications of the rationality of accounting thought and practice as a mediating mechanism in the highly-charged, conflict-ridden situation in Northern Ireland (NI). The paper draws on a variety of data sources, including a series of interviews with key actors. There are some indications of accounting in...

Devolution is commonly understood to be the transfer to a subordinate elected body, on a geographical basis, of functions previously exercised by ministers and the national parliament. Devolution is also called external decentralisation to differentiate it from delegating responsibility within an existing structure of authority. In 1997, the popula...

This paper examines original documents from the Middle Kingdom in ancient Egypt (2050-1780 BC), containing material on various practices relating to the organization of work and labour discipline in state projects. The paper explores the roles of accounting and administrative practices in rendering possible the form and functioning of work organiza...

This paper examines the role of accounting in management–labour relations within the context of contemporary moves to re-conceptualise and reorganise manufacturing processes. We explore how new manufacturing and accounting discourses are received by employees, and how their (more or less accommodating) responses to such initiatives shape the trajec...

This paper seeks to clarify and illustrate the distinctive contribution of Foucauldian discursive analysis to the study of strategy. We distinguish it from other forms of analysis before applying it to interpret a fragment of empirical material drawn from a longitudinal study of a global retailing company. In conclusion, the paradox of undertaking...

This article examines the impact of devolution, the New Public Management and public management culture on accounting for democratic accountability in the first term of the devolved national assemblies and parliament in the UK. Although there is more openness, transparency, consultation and scrutiny with regard to budgets, accounts and performance...

Existe un debate en historia de la contabilidad acerca de las distintas formas cómo los materiales históricos deben ser recopilados, interpretados, analizados y, finalmente, sobre la forma cómo los mismos deben ser redactados. En cierta manera, el centro de este debate descansa en torno a la eterna polémica acerca de la “objetividad/subjetividad” d...

The paper examines the contribution of inscriptions, in particular new accounting measures, to a process of transforming the ethos and operations of `Britech', a high-tech division of a major British manufacturer. Focusing upon the increased and changing use of inscriptions at this site, we interpret them as moves to signify and facilitate an incre...

Existe un debate en historia de la contabilidad acerca de las distintas formas cómo los materiales históricos deben ser recopilados, interpretados, analizados y, finalmente, sobre la forma cómo los mismos deben ser redactados. En cierta manera, el centro de este debate descansa en torno a la eternal polémica acerca de la "objetividad/subjetividad"...

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conferenc...

Drawing on historical evidence form Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, this paper theoretically examines the relationship between accounting, writing and money. We develop Foucalut’s work on practices and Derrida’s work on “the logic of the supplement" to advance the argument that writing emerged as a supplement to accounting, money emerged as the doub...

This paper examines detailed historical material drawn from primary sources to explore the role of accounting practices in the functioning of several key stages of the redistributive economy of the Middle Kingdom, ancient Egypt. First, the paper attends to the role of accounting in securing a regular flow of commodities to the state, in the form of...

El objetivo general de este trabajo es el de ofrecer un perfil completo de los or�genes, la evoluci�n y el multiforme desarrollo de la historia de la contabilidad en Espa�a, as� como de su posible evoluci�n futura. Haciendo referencia a las actividades cient�ficas y a los estudios m�s recientes se ha intentado mostrar el notable grado de desarrollo...

Using survey data we examine the relationship between various categories of non-audit services and audit fees. Compared to previous research, we use a more refined classification of non-audit services both for incumbent and non-incumbent auditors, and control for the existence of an internal audit function and basis of disclosure. Our results sugge...

Drawing on the literature on social comparison and equity theories, this paper analyses the determinants of, and the relationships between, the cash pay awards of CEOs and other board members for a sample of large UK companies over the period 1992–95. Our results suggest that external labour market and internal (i.e., within board) pay comparisons...

This paper examines the relationship between accounting and taxation in antiquity. It draws upon complete translations of original documents from the New Kingdom (1552–1080 BC), ancient Egypt, to examine the accounting practices used in the various stages of the ‘cycle of taxation’, beginning with identifying taxable subjects, through the estimatio...

This article examines the role of accounting in running the household economy and private estates in ancient Egypt. Drawing on translations of original accounts and business letters dating back to the Middle Kingdom, a number of diverse accounting roles are isolated. Firstly, the accounts and business letters shed interesting light on the determina...