Sebastian Hoffmann

• Professor
• Professor in Accounting at IESEG School of Management

This study investigates the role of technical staff within a global standard setting organization, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Building on publicly available documents, interviews with staff and Board members, and observations of Board meetings, staff practices of standard setting are explored in light of their impact on th...

This article conducts a study of the circumstances surrounding an ‘invention’ by Edmond Degrange père in 1804 which was said to be ‘American’. Degrange sought to simplify double-entry bookkeeping by combining the journal and ledger on a single page. Based on a review of the curious follow-on literature, first in Belgium and then also in Italy, Fran...

Purpose: We passively apply a researcher profile pitch (RPP) template tool in accounting and across a range of Business School disciplines. Design/methodology/approach: We document a diversity of worked examples of the RPP. Using an auto-ethnographic research design, each showcased researcher reflects on the exercise, highlighting nuanced perspect...

We dedicate this Special Issue of Critical Perspectives on Accounting (CPA) to Cornelia Beck. It would not have been possible without her positive energy, endless enthusiasm and intellectual brilliance. We miss her as a dear friend, colleague and co-editor. This Special Issue emerged from the ‘Next Generation Forum’ at the 2018 Interdisciplinary Pe...

This paper studies the identity transitions of East German audit recruits during the fundamental ideo- logical, economic, and societal change brought about by the reunification of Germany in 1990. Inte- grating the identity work literature with key concepts from Pierre Bourdieu and Erving Goffman, we build on semi-structured interviews with two gro...

Commenting on our study “Accountability and ideology: The case of a German university under the Nazi regime", published in 2020 in Accounting History, Fülbier recently outlined a research agenda on the manifold ways in which the Nazi doctrine affected institutions of higher education, going beyond the scope of our original article. With this reply,...

German corporations are characterized as having been adaptable in the face of numerous traumatizing events during the twentieth century. This article explores how firms adapted their accounting information systems during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. It suggests that responses to the crisis focused on system elements identified as key to continu...

Building on semi-structured interviews and publicly available documents in the realm of accounting, auditing and capital market regulation in Romania, this paper reviews and reflects on the prerequisites for, and conditions affecting the development of a financial reporting enforcement system (FRES) of Western origin in an emerging economy. It does...

This special issue of Critical Perspectives on Accounting provides an opportunity to further advance discussions about the future of the interdisciplinary academic accounting community. We welcome submissions from a wide range of theoretical, methodological and empirical approaches that relate to this special issue’s topic, and specifically invite...

This article studies accountability demands at an educational institution following extreme changes of societal conditions, as observed in Nazi Germany (1933–1945). We refer to the Handelshochschule Leipzig founded as the first free-standing business school in Germany to show how the Nazi doctrine made its way into this university, affecting academ...

Purpose This article studies how two accounting professors at a German university dealt with their denazification, a process carried out by the Allied Forces following World War II to free German society from Nazi ideology. It is argued that the professors carried a stigma due to their affiliation with a university that had been aligned with the N...

This paper employs an expertise framework to analyze the case of lobbying on the modernization of German accounting regulation between 2007 and 2009. The parliamentary context of accounting standard setting in Germany provides a unique opportunity for an examination of lobbyists’ and parliamentarians’ use of rhetoric in the form of arguments and my...

This article examines the regulatory history of asset valuation in Germany from the fifteenth century to the implementation of the European Economic Community’s Fourth Directive in 1986. Aiming to explain regulatory changes by reference to preceding socio-economic and political developments, we find that accounting requirements often became more re...

This instructional resource familiarizes students with the accounting for business combinations under IFRS 3 and illustrates the uncertainty and professional judgment involved in asset valuation and consolidation. First, students need to assess the quality of information generated under IFRS 3 and fair value accounting. Second, they are asked to ac...

Based on understanding accounting as a social construct we aim to raise research questions in context of trust and accounting regulation. While not providing a comprehensive literature overview, we identify opportunities for research which we mainly see in understanding what trust in accounting constitutes. Regulation theory and issues surrounding...

In order to assure transparency of the process of formation of a new International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS), the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) follows a strict due process. Part of this process is the analysis of comment letters sent to the IASB on the specific accounting problem under consideration. This analysis is pr...

In May 2009 the latest state-initiated accounting reform in Germany has been finished. Although German Commercial Code is made by parliament, especially academic experts play a vital role in accounting reform processes throughout Germany. As there may be various reasons for an engagement of academics in accounting standard setting an analysis of th...

Lobbying in accounting standard setting has been researched since the 1980s. In this respect, finding linkages between the decision makers and the several interest groups in the political process of accounting standard setting is of highest interest. Up to now only few attempts have been made to do this, e.g. by examining monetary flows or conducti...

Particularly in the field of German research tradition concerning financial accounting thoughts about interpretation and development of standards are focal points. Along with the appearance of the information economics it became apparent that financial accounting is not only a technical vehicle but a social institution. By making accounting informa...

Particularly in the field of German research tradition concerning financial accounting thoughts about interpretation and development of standards are focal points. Along with the appearance of the information economics it became apparent that financial accounting is not only a technical vehicle but a social institution. By making accounting informa...