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Quo vadis?
(2023)
This Special Issue emerged from the ‘Next Generation Forum’ at the 2018 Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting (IPA) Conference in Edinburgh, UK, and its sequel at the 2019 Asia-Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting (APIRA) Conference in Auckland, New Zealand. These fora were set up because many emerging and a number of senior scholars in the field felt interdisciplinary accounting research (IAR) at risk of losing its momentum, and many of them continue to be concerned today (Alawattage et al., 2021). We start by defining what we mean by IAR and then discuss the most important criticisms that IAR is currently facing. Subsequently, we summarize the contributions of the articles that appear in this Special Issue. We conclude by offering our own, necessarily subjective and personal, vision of a desirable future for IAR.
Identities in transition
(2023)
This paper studies the identity transitions of East German audit recruits during the fundamental ideological, economic, and societal change brought about by the reunification of Germany in 1990. Integrating the identity work literature with key concepts from Pierre Bourdieu and Erving Goffman, we build on semi-structured interviews with two groups of recruits—university graduates and former state auditors—to explore and theorize the marked differences observed in these recruits' transition processes. In line with wider processes of territorial stigmatization, we argue that the West German audit firms pragmatically instrumentalized their local personnel, seeking to deploy them without intending to integrate them into the profession. In turn, the audit recruits met with this exertion of symbolic violence by managing a ‘spoiled identity’. The university graduates found it easier to recognize and accumulate legitimate forms of capital, thereby submitting themselves to the inculcation of the profession's socialization process, which ultimately yielded their institution into the profession. In contrast, the former state auditors' local knowledge and access to client networks provided immediately useful capital to the West German firms, which, however, sought to retain a status differential vis-à-vis these recruits. As a result of such strategies of condescension, the former state auditors maintained key aspects of their identity as a salient part of their self-conception. We further highlight the role of the local audit offices in the recruits' transition processes, as they evolved from flexible spaces, which allowed for experimentation and improvisation, into more structured units. This process embedded professional values and practices, thereby creating localized office identities.
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 so by examining institutional factors within and across the key components of the Romanian FRES, namely the engagement of the preparers and auditors of corporate financial reports and their interactions with public oversight bodies. The creation and functioning of the Romanian FRES are driven by the dynamics between Western and local pushes and pulls. Western actors offered support, especially in terms of technical assistance and educational programs, but the Romanian government delayed the implementation of local support mechanisms, such that practices and mindsets did not change initially. Although practices and institutions have evolved since the country joined the European Union in 2007, the pursuit of a functional Western-based FRES remains an on-going process that is highly dependent on both the continuous external provision of adequate resources and the enrolment of national actors in the deployment of these resources.
Commenting on our study of a German university under the Nazi regime, Fülbier (2021) outlines 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 (Detzen and Hoffmann 2020). With this reply, we seek to complement his commentary, by reflecting on methodological considerations emanating from such an agenda. We discuss (i) historical case-based research, (ii) questions of ontology and epistemology in interpretive accounting research, and (iii) the notion of what constitutes accounting in a specific research context. We hope that our reply, along with Fülbier’s (2021) commentary, inspires further research on accounting’s role in totalitarian regimes.
Coronavirus
(2020)
German corporations are characterized as 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 continuing operations. Initially, firms amended selling and purchasing arrangements, modified financial reporting, and shifted managerial reporting to non-monetary information. As inflation accelerated, human resources were diverted to maintaining critical functions, especially those related to remunerating labor. While some elements of accounting systems fell into disrepair, there were also examples of innovation.
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 academics on both the organizational and the individual levels. As political accountability became a dominant governance instrument, most academics submitted to this new accountability regime. They became subjects of accountability, who can only be understood by the norms that were imposed on them. The change in accountability demands created considerable challenges for individuals, and, ex post, it may be impossible to ascertain their moral attitudes and how they attempted to cope with ensuing ethical dilemmas.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study how two accounting professors at a German university dealt with their denazification, a process carried out by the Allied Forces following the Second World War 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 Nazi state apparatus.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses Goffman’s work on “Stigma” (1963/1986) and “Frame Analysis” (1974/1986) to explore how the professors aimed to dismiss any link with the Nazi regime. Primary sources from the university archives were accessed with a particular focus on the professors’ post-war justification accounts.
Findings
The paper shows how the professors created a particular frame, which they supported by downplaying frame breaks, primarily their Nazi party memberships. Instead, they were preoccupied with what Goffman (1974/1986) terms “the vulnerability of experience,” exploiting that their past behavior requires context and is thus open to interpretation. The professors themselves provide this guidance to readers, which is a strategy that we call “authoring” of past information.
Originality/value
The paper shows how “counter accounts” can be constructed by assigning roles and powers to characters therein and by providing context and interpreting behavior on behalf of the readers. It is suggested that this “authoring” of past information is successful only on the surface. A closer examination unveils ambiguity, making this strategy risky and fragile.
Transgenerational control intention (TCI) is a pivotal characteristic of many family firms. Yet, it remains unclear whether TCI benefits family-firm performance by instilling a long-term view, or hurts performance by fueling harmful socioemotional wealth (SEW) goals. We posit that it depends who pursues it. When faced with TCI, family managers are known to suffer from cognitive biases that, we submit, do not similarly apply to nonfamily managers. Thus, only family managers harm performance when pursuing TCI. An empirical iestigation of 107 private German family firms supports our theory; the effect of TCI on firm performance depends on who pursues it.
Die jüngsten Beschlüsse des EZB-Rats führen dazu, dass risikolose Zinssätze nunmehr endgültig auch in der praktischen Anwendung negativ sein werden. Als Konsequenz stellt sich die Frage, wie Fair Values derivativer Finanzinstrumente zu bestimmen sind. Traditionelle Methoden, die zur Preisfindung von Standard- sowie OTC- Optionen genutzt werden, geraten mehr und mehr an die Grenzen ihrer konzeptionellen und praktischen Anwendbarkeit. Ihr unbedarfter Einsatz im veränderten Zinsumfeld kann Abschlussadressaten falsch informieren und erscheint nicht konform mit den Vorgaben von IFRS 13. Der Beitrag leitet die entsprechenden Problempunkte her, diskutiert deren praktische Implikationen und zeigt mögliche Lösungen für die Praxis auf.
This article examines the relationship between long-term orientation, family iolvement in the top management team (TMT), and family firm performance. On the basis of agency and stewardship theory, we propose that the inclusion of family members in the TMT only enhances firm performance if it induces a long-term orientation among management. An empirical analysis iolving 201 privately owned family firms from Germany supports our theory that a long-term orientation helps align family and organizational goals. As such, it represents an important mediator that links family iolvement in the TMT to performance.
FMA oder OePR: ein Beitrag zur derzeit ungeklärten Rollenverteilung im österreichischen Enforcement
(2014)
Ab 2014 unterliegen kapitalmarktorientierte Unternehmen in Österreich erstmals dem Enforcement-Verfahren. Das konzeptionell zweistufig gestaltete Enforcement-System offenbart Unklarheiten im Zusammenwirken der installierten Enforcement-Institutionen. Auf Basis einer Analyse der Rechtsgrundlagen des österreichischen Enforcements und erster Verlautbarungen seitens der Enforcer, ist davon auszugehen, dass die österreichische Finanzmarktaufsicht eine dominierende Rolle in diesem Verfahren einnehmen kann und wird.
A copy of this doctoral thesis can be obtained on account from the HHL Library. Please send your request indicating the delivery address to: library(at)hhl.de._x000D_ For packaging and postage we request an advance payment of EUR 5.00 for deliveries within Germany or EUR 20.00 for international orders.
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 myths in the presence of an expertise gap between both parties. Lobbyists successfully follow rhetoric strategies of providing knowledge and demonstrating expertise to parliamentarians in the form of using a mixed approach of conceptual and self-referential arguments when expressing a neutral opinion. Apart from their argumentative rhetoric, lobbyists also create myths that transfer knowledge in a more subtle way by employing signifiers that are disentangled from the underlying message to be communicated. Parliamentarians respond by using self-referential arguments in cases where they support the regulatory proposals and enrich their arguments by continuing and amplifying the myths created by lobbyists. Parliamentarians’ adoption of these strategies demonstrates the effectiveness of the transfer of knowledge and provides evidence of the strategic exploitation of the expertise gap by lobbyists.
Professor Henning Zülch and Sebastian Hoffmann from HHL’s Chair of Accounting and Auditing have updated the first edition and, in collaboration with KPMG partners Oliver Beyhs and Günther Hirschböck, extended it to Austria._x000D_ The guide provides a thorough and practical guidance through the enforcement process which checks the audited annual financial statements of capital market oriented firms for accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards._x000D_ Abstract in German: Seit nunmehr zehn Jahren unterliegen kapitalmarktorientierte Unternehmen dem Enforcement der Rechnungslegung. Doch trotz steigender Sensibilität für das Verfahren melden die zuständigen Aufsichtsbehörden regelmäßig Fehlerquoten im zweistelligen Prozentbereich. Auf welche Bilanzierungsvorschriften Sie besonders achten müssen, um eine Fehlerfeststellung zu vermeiden, und wie Sie anstehende Enforcement-Prüfungen zielgerichtet vorbereiten, stellt Ihnen die umfassend überarbeitete 2. Auflage dieses Leitfadens auf neuestem Stand vor. _x000D_ Rechtliche und organisatorische Rahmenbedingungendes Enforcement-Prozesses, erweitert um das neue österreichische Verfahren und europäische Harmonisierungsbemühungen; Analyse sämtlicher aktueller Fehlerveröffentlichungen der DPR und zugrundeliegender Bilanzierungsprobleme; Zentrale Prüfungsschwerpunkte, erweitert u. a.um latente Steuern (IAS 12), Pensionsrückstellungen (IAS 19) und die neuen Konsolidierungsvorschriften (IFRS 10-12) ._x000D_ Anhand einer detaillierten Fallstudie und vieler aktueller Praxishinweise finden Sie alle wesentlichen Fragen rund um das Enforcement-Verfahren kompetent beantwortet.
Deutschland und Österreich als Beispiele der Implementierung hybrider Enforcement-Systeme in Europa
(2014)
Mit der Implementierung eines zweistufigen Enforcement-Systems in Österreich finden sich nun zwei Hybrid-Systeme innerhalb Europas. Auf Basis einer kritischen Würdigung der Rechtsgrundlagen zum Enforcement in Deutschland und in Österreich sowie der daraus resultierenden Kompetenzen innerhalb des Verfahrens zeigt der Beitrag, dass es einer weiteren Differenzierung von hybriden Enforcement-Systemen bedarf. Abschließend werden Implikationen dieser Differenzierung für die Bilanzierungs-, Prüfungs- und Beratungspraxis skizziert.
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 restrictive following economic crises, after which regulation was perceived to be inadequate. In the nineteenth century, fair valuation replaced the early practice of historical cost accounting. Following a severe economic crisis in the 1870s, historical costs were reintroduced as an upper valuation boundary for Aktiengesellschaften (stock companies). However, the requirements were unspecific and discretionary and provoked a lively debate on principles-based accounting after 1900. The interwar years and the Great Depression encouraged the Government also to implement historical cost as a lower boundary to asset valuation. Following the Second World War, the valuation principle was extended to all company forms.
Die vorliegende Studie wurde vom Lehrstuhl für Strategisches und Internationales Management der Philipps-Universität Marburg und dem Center für Strategie und Szenarioplanung der HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management durchgeführt. Ziel der Untersuchung war es, die unternehmerische Ausrichtung und Professionalisierung von Familienunternehmen verschiedener Generationen zu beurteilen. Darauf aufbauend wurden der Erfolg und die Zukunftsfähigkeit der Familienunternehmen verglichen. Die Studie liefert zudem Erkenntnisse zur Nachfolgeregelung der teilnehmenden Unternehmen. Die Datenerhebung erfolgte im Herbst 2012 durch eine Befragung von 218 Familienunternehmen verschiedener Branchen und Größenklassen.