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Purpose The purpose of this study is to augment an understanding of the importance and relevance of a proposed new definition of accounting to reset, inform and develop accounting education, professional practice and research, from tomorrow, for the purpose of shaping a better world. In the process of setting an agenda, we outline, discuss, and analyse the eight articles which follow depicting complementary and insightful scenarios during COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach This study applies an original informing framework for discussion and analysis purposes, described as Framework of the Multidimensional Nature of Accounting. The proposed, multidimensional definition is “Accounting is a technical, social and moral practice concerned with the sustainable utilisation of resources and proper accountability to stakeholders to enable the flourishing of organisations, people and nature” (Carnegie et al., 2021a, p. 69, 2021b). Findings Accounting is conceived, understood and examined in the research portrayed as a combined technical, social and moral practice concerned with shaping a better world to enable the flourishing of organisations, people and nature. To the contrary, accounting is not recognised as a mere neutral, benign, technical practice. Research limitations/implications While this paper examines the other articles, there is no substitute for carefully reading, and reflecting on, all the articles published. Importantly, each contribution provides unique and comprehensive insights on accounting during the initial global pandemic period. Originality/value Accounting is studied in different organisational and social contexts against the backdrop of a global pandemic, among other “wicked problems” worldwide.

PurposeUsing the most available literature, this viewpoint takes and supports the argument that public cultural, heritage and scientific collections of not-for-profit cultural heritage or arts institutions are non-financial resources, expressly in the specific organisational and social contexts in which they are held, for preservation, conversation and protection into perpetuity. These collections are, therefore, not “assets” or “heritage assets” for recognition in statement of financial position.Design/methodology/approachTo clarify and augment the literature in developing better understanding of how the monetary valuation of public cultural, heritage and scientific collections for general purpose financial reporting purposes is both not fit-for-purpose in these contexts and at least potentially misleading to stakeholders.FindingsThe evaluation of this public sector financial reporting issue portrays to be fit-for-purpose in its social and organisational contexts in which public, non-profit collecting institutions operate. Accounting's role is not the change contexts in the public sector into settings which they are, in substance, not.Originality/valueTo contribute to the overcoming of controversy by illuminating to both accounting professionals and heritage professionals the vexed issues involved in its ongoing discussion and debate. It is argued that there is no need for any accounting standard to be issued on this topic, which would lead to financial values being placed on non-financial cultural, heritage and scientific collections resources in statements of financial position, thereby misrepresenting these collections.

PurposeThe monetary valuation of cultural heritage of a selection of 16 major public, not-for-profit Australian cultural institutions is examined over a period of almost three decades (1992–2019) to understand how they have responded to the paradoxical tensions of heritage valuation for financial reporting purposes.Design/methodology/approachAccounting for cultural heritage is an intrinsically paradoxical practice; it involves a conflict of two opposite ways of attributing value: the traditional accounting and the heritage professionals (or curatorial) approaches. In analysing the annual reports and other documentary sources through qualitative content analysis, the study explores how different actors responded to the conceptual and technical contradictions posed by the monetary valuation of “heritage assets”, the accounting phraseology of accounting standards.FindingsFour phases emerge from the analysis undertaken of the empirical material, each characterised by a distinctive nature of the paradox, the institutional responses discerned and the outcomes. Although a persisting heterogeneity in the practice of accounting for cultural heritage is evident, responses by cultural institutions are shown to have minimised, so far, the negative impacts of monetary valuation in terms of commercialisation of deaccessioning decisions and distorted accountability.Originality/valueIn applying the theoretical lens of paradox theory in the context of the financial reporting of heritage, as assets, the study enhances an understanding of the challenges and responses by major public cultural institutions in a country that has led this development globally, providing insights to accounting standard setters arising from the accounting practices observed.

Purpose The Australian higher education sector faces severe risks from the consequences of COVID-19. This paper aims to explore these risks, their immediate impacts and the likely future impacts. The authors specifically focus on the institutional financial and social risks arising from the global pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The authors collect data using the 2019 annual reports of the 37 Australian public universities and relevant media contributions. The findings of identified sector change are interpreted through Laughlin’s organisational change diagnosis. Findings The sector confronts significant financial and social risks because of its over-reliance on income from fee-paying onshore overseas students resulting in universities primarily undertaking morphostatic changes. These risks include job losses, changing employment conditions, mental health issues for students, scholars, other staff, including casual staff, online learning shortfalls and the student expectations of their university experience. The study reveals how many of these risks are the inevitable consequence of the “accountingisation” of Australian public universities. Practical implications Despite material exposure, the universities provide only limited disclosure of the extent of the risks associated with increasing dependence on overseas student fees to 31 December 2019. The analysis highlights fake accountability and distorted transparency to users of audited financial statements – a major limitation of university annual reports. Originality/value Research on the Australian higher education sector has mainly focussed on the impact of policies and changes. The public disclosure of critical risks taken by these universities are now addressed.

Performance measurement and management has become a passion, even approach-ing a mania, of Australian public universities. In a world of multiple, competing global rankings of universities, known as global university rankings (GURs), our public universities pit themselves against each other competitively in seeking to ascend selected ranking regimes that best suit and reflect their institutions. This Australian study delves into this New Public Management (NPM) driven mantra, by examining the explicit mission or purpose statements (hereafter “missions”) and the vision or ambition statements (hereafter “visions”) of the 37 public universities in Australia in late 2021/early 2022, based on their public disclosures. This study provides widespread evidence of the formal aspirations of these institutions to act in the public interest and to serve and advance society, communities and people. At the same time, however, the main operational game, or rather the passion being played out by these institutions, is facilitated by means of the transformative (or potentially corrupting) power of GURs in moving Australia’s public universities progressively towards a self-interested corporate culture and associated dysfunctional behaviours in creating competition within and across public universities. This dichotomy is identified as the “macro-contributions” approach to university management as opposed to the “micro-measurement”, metrics-driven approach to university management, described herein as “the macro-micro contradiction” in public university management. Accounting as performance measurement is portrayed as transformative, influencing human behaviour, shaping organisational culture, and impacting the organisational and social functioning and development of these institutions. Moreover, public universities, in substance, become what they are not.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the COVID-19 pandemic risk disclosures in a sample of annual reports of Australian public universities. These universities rely heavily on fee-paying onshore overseas students. Analysing these risk disclosures is essential to understanding the COVID-19 crisis and the implications for organisational change.Design/methodology/approachDocument analysis and content analysis of the 2019 annual reports of all Victorian public universities were undertaken to identify the disclosure of COVID-19 risk impacts. Applying Laughlin's Habermasian insights of change, the study explores the pathways of change adopted by universities to overcome the risk impacts. However, financial risk disclosures about income from this source were virtually non-existent.FindingsAny risk associated with COVID-19 disclosed was minimal in a qualitative, neutral and constant format. The quality of disclosures was low. Media statements, however, pointed to significant income loss and suggested a strategy of substantial cost-cutting, including employee redundancies, which we identified as morphostatic changes of universities to overcome the risk impacts.Research limitations/implicationsThe study reveals the risk associated with sector's aggressive growth strategy, jeopardising their financial viability and quality of teaching and research.Practical implicationsThe findings provide insights to the Australian higher education sector. The low quality of external risk disclosures of these universities suggests an urgent need for transformation.Originality/valueAustralian public universities play a crucial role in society. This role will be diminished by a failure to disclose and manage significant risks adequately.

PurposeThis paper aims to encourage the extension of the literature on accountant stereotypes beyond primarily Angelo-American contexts based on reflections formed on reading the novel, Blindness, by José Saramago.Design/methodology/approachA mindful insight into how an accountant, blind since birth, is portrayed in the novel Blindness by acclaimed Portuguese author Saramago, a Nobel Prize for Literature recipient.FindingsThe study reveals characters under extreme circumstances when a city is plunged into a blindness epidemic, or distinctive “white blindness”, and failings in human behaviour, particularly by hoodlums and their leaders, including the blind accountant.Research implicationsBy reflecting on what we take for granted in the accountant stereotypes literature, this paper illuminates how we can all contribute new understandings of accounting and accountants more specifically in all contexts in which the discipline and its practitioners operate, including non-Anglo-American contexts.Originality/valueThe paper presents the insights of a member of the historical and interdisciplinary accounting research community with experience in research and publication on accountant stereotypes.

Based on the acceptance of the importance of clear definitions and concepts, we explore conventional definitions of accounting and chart their change and development. While accounting's definitions have evolved, they do not, in our view, adequately reflect accounting as social and moral practice but rather continue to position accounting as a technical practice, despite the valuable work of key accounting scholars particularly over the last four decades. We highlight the social and moral aspects of accounting and propose a new definition of accounting for the 2020s to stimulate discussion, debate and improvement. In our opinion, accounting has a way to go to reach its true potential.

This response to the recent contribution by Matthews (2019) entitled “The Past, Present, and Future of Accounting History” specifically deals with the issues associated with concentrating on counting publication numbers in examining the state of a scholarly research field at the start of the 2020s. It outlines several pitfalls with the narrowly focused publications count analysis, in selected English language journals only, as provided by Matthews. The commentary is based on three key arguments: (1) accounting history research and publication is far more than a “numbers game”; (2) trends in the quality of the research undertaken and published are paramount; and (3) international publication and accumulated knowledge in accounting history are indeed more than a collection of English language publications. The author seeks to contribute to discussion and debate between accounting historians and other researchers for the benefit and development of the international accounting history community and global society.

Gas-phase ion–molecule clusters of the form V+(H2O)n (n = 1–30) are produced by laser vaporization in a supersonic expansion. These ions are analyzed and mass-selected with a time-of-flight mass sp...

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board of the International Federation of Accountants issued exposure draft ED78 Property Plant and Equipment in April 2021. It proposes valuing ‘heritage items’ for recognition as ‘heritage assets’ in statements of financial position. This proposed requirement for global application casts the spotlight on a highly controversial topic in regulated financial reporting. The monetary valuation of cultural, heritage and scientific collections of public not‐for‐profit museums, art galleries and similar repositories has been subject to considerable discussion and debate for the past three decades. Our purpose is to critically examine this perennial financial reporting controversary, in the context of the three conceptions of accounting: accounting as technical practice, social practice and moral practice as articulated in the definition of accounting proposed by Carnegie et al. (2021a, 2021b) for discussion, debate and potential adoption in the accounting profession, including by accounting standard setters in all sectors. This article is intended to challenge accounting to enhanced self‐awareness in reaching its full potential.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the portrayal of early accountants in the unfamiliar site of Portugal by examining Portuguese-language realist literature from the second half of the nineteenth century. Design/methodology/approach Two popular literary works – Uma Família Inglesa (An English Family), written by Júlio Dinis and published in 1867, and Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loura (The Idiosyncrasies of a Young Blonde Woman), written by Eça de Queirós and published in 1873 – were examined through a qualitative content analysis. Findings The dimensions of the accounting stereotype discerned for the two early accounting practitioners featured in these works are portrayed as: modest; on-the-job trained practitioner; uncreative, conservative and unenergetic; honest financial manager; servant of the capitalist (i.e. merchant), and warm and sentimental. The accountant stereotype depicted from 1860s to 1870s period is similar to the conventional accountant stereotype, identified as the “traditional accountant” stereotype. Variations from this stereotype, however, are identified in the local, time-specific settings of Lisbon and Oporto. Originality/value The study’s portrayal of early accounting practitioners occurs during a period of transformation marked by liberalism. It augments an understanding of the image of early accounting practitioners, reflecting their social positioning at a time of significant social, economic, political and cultural changes, thereby contributing to an appreciation of the historical legacy of the accountant stereotype in continental Europe. Importantly, a taxonomy is proposed for content analysis that can be used and developed by future researchers., Study conducted, by the second author, at Research Center in Political Science (UID/CPO/00758/2013), University of Minho and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds.

Gas-phase ion-molecule clusters of the form V

The purpose of this article is to examine the emergence and development of all conferences, colloquia and symposia connected with Accounting History, a specialist, English-language international journal. These journal-associated events comprise an integrated, multidimensional set of scholarly forums which have contributed to the international accounting history movement. This article presents an historical account of the motivation for establishing the Accounting History International Conference and the later associated colloquia, first, in the form of the Accounting History Doctoral Colloquium and, second, the Accounting History International Emerging Scholars' Colloquium, as part of the international strategy of the New Series of the journal from 1996. Regional symposia across Australia and New Zealand, known as the Accounting History Symposium, were also introduced under a holistic approach to nurturing historical accounting research. An overview of the conferences, colloquia and symposia held to the time of writing is provided along with a discussion of the key distinguishing features of these integrated forums of discourse.

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 the joint editorship of James Guthrie and Lee Parker. This historical account discusses the motivation for establishing the journal and the important publishing initiatives, developments and trends across this period. The study positions the journal as a key thought leader, the catalyst for other Community activities such as the Asia-Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting conference. Design/methodology/approach The investigation involved a selective review of the contents of AAAJ, particularly the annual editorials published since inception, and other relevant literature, analysis of the main research themes and the most cited papers, and oral history interviews with the joint editors. The future prospects for the AAAJ Community are addressed. Findings The AAAJ Community has shaped and led developments in interdisciplinary accounting research. Recognised for innovation and with a reputation for nurturing scholars, AAAJ continues to grow in stature as one of the world’s leading accounting journals, challenging the status quo and fostering inclusive scholarship. Research limitations/implications The study does not examine the journal’s publication patterns nor assess in detail the research studies that have been published in the journal. Originality/value The study recognises AAAJ as central to the development of an interdisciplinary accounting research community, firmly located in the sociological, critical and interpretative tradition also associated with some other leading accounting journals.

Most mammals live in social groups in which members form differentiated social relationships. Individuals may vary in their degree of sociality, and this variation can be associated with differential fitness. In some species, for example, female sociality has a positive effect on infant survival. However, investigations of such cases are still rare, and no previous study has considered how male infanticide might constrain effects of female sociality on infant survival. Infanticide is part of the male reproductive strategy in many mammals, and it has the potential to override, or even reverse, effects of female reproductive strategies, including sociality. Therefore, we investigated the relationships between female sociality, offspring survival, and infanticide risk in wild white-faced capuchin monkeys using long-term data from Santa Rosa, Costa Rica. Female capuchins formed differentiated bonds, and bond strength was predicted by kin relationship, rank difference, and the presence of female infants. Most females formed stable bonds with their top social partners, although bond stability varied considerably. Offspring of highly social females, who were often high-ranking females, exhibited higher survivorship during stable periods compared with offspring of less social females. However, offspring of highly social females were more likely to die or disappear during periods of alpha male replacements, probably because new alpha males are central to the group, and therefore more likely to target the infants of highly social, central females. This study shows that female sociality in mammals can have negative fitness consequences that are imposed by male behavior.

The Australian accounting environment is dominated by two competing brands – Chartered Accountant (CA) and Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) – which signal that the profession has been unable to achieve full unification. Focussed on 1969, this dual theory-informed, in-depth study examines the first of four unsuccessful attempts to merge the two professional accounting associations from which the two brands originate: The Australian Society of Accountants (the Society) and The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (the Institute). Primary data from public archives and oral history interviews, combined with secondary sources, are drawn upon to explain the failure of this proposed merger and to consider its legacy. The complementary theoretical perspectives of “boundary-work” and “institutional work” are applied. Amidst other challenges, corporate collapses during the 1960s precipitated a legitimacy crisis for the profession and raised the prospect of there being sufficient commonality of purpose to enable a merger. While there was overwhelming support from Society members, the merger proposal was defeated by a comprehensive “no” vote from Institute members. This pattern of voting was repeated in three subsequent merger attempts, leading to the persistence of the curious binary structure of the Australian accounting profession and associated ongoing differences and tensions.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategies and dynamics of the fledging accounting professional project in the context of boom, bust and reform in colonial Victoria. In doing so, the study provides evidence of the association of members of the Incorporated Institute of Accountants, Victoria (IIAV) (1886) and other auditors with banks that failed during the early 1890s Australian banking crisis, and addresses the implications for the professionalisation trajectory. Design/methodology/approach The study uses primary sources, including the surviving audited financial statements of a selection of 14 Melbourne-based failed banks, reports of relevant company meetings and other press reports and commentaries, along with relevant secondary sources, and applies theoretical analysis informed by the literature on the sociology of the professions. Findings IIAV members as bank auditors are shown to have been associated with most of the bank failures examined in this study, thereby not being immune from key problems in bank auditing and accounting of the period. The study shows how the IIAV, while part of the problem, ultimately became part of a solution that was regarded within the association’s leadership as less than optimal, essentially by means of 1896 legislative reforms in Victoria, and also addresses the associated implications. Practical implications The study reveals how a deeper understanding of economic and social problems in any context may be obtainable by examining surviving financial statements and related records sourced from archives of surviving business records. Originality/value The study elucidates accounting’s professionalisation trajectory in a colonial setting during respective periods of boom, bust and reform from the 1880s until around 1896 and provides insights into the development of financial auditing practices, which is still an important topic.

This biographical study presents a portrait of Robert William Gibson (1931–2014), who spent the bulk of his academic career at the University of Melbourne, the Gordon Institute of Technology and Deakin University, spanning the period 1960 to 1993. Gibson was a prominent researcher of the historical development of regulated company accounting and in exploring issues in contemporary financial reporting. He stimulated curiosity as an accounting educator across a range of subjects, especially accounting theory. Gibson was an editor of accounting history publications, specifically as joint editor of the Accounting History Newsletter (1980–1989) and as editor of the initial or first series of Accounting History (1989–1994). His active life and productive academic career are examined in this study, which includes an outline of his administrative leadership at Deakin University, and his often long-lived voluntary roles beyond higher education institutions, which continued into his retirement. The recognition afforded to Gibson’s all-round contributions to accounting academia is also outlined.

Background: Ice hockey is a fast, physical sport that requires high levels of muscular strength, muscular endurance and agility. Objectives: This study was conducted to create a profile including: anthropometric measurement, muscular strength, muscular endurance, lower body jump height and distance, and agility characteristics for elite youth hockey players. Methods: Pre-season off-ice testing results were retrospectively reviewed from a human performance database. Variables included height, weight, body fat percentage, grip strength, push-ups/bench press, supine rows, the plank test, vertical jump, standing long jump, hip adductor and abductor strength, and the 5-10-5 shuttle, and. One-way ANOVAs (1group x 4 time) and Tukeys post-hoc tests were performed to determine changes in the immediately successive age group (p

Titanium–water complexes are produced by laser vaporization in a pulsed supersonic expansion, mass selected in a time-of-flight spectrometer, and studied with infrared laser photodissociation spectroscopy using argon complex predissociation. Density functional theory calculations provide structures and vibrational spectra for these ions. Spectra in the O–H stretching region indicate that the water is intact in these complexes, even though inserted structures are computed to be more stable. Although the ground state of Ti(H2O)+ is established to be a quartet, that predicted and observed for Ti(H2O)Ar+ is a doublet. Attachment of argon changes the electronic ground state of this system.

Historical accounting research has a substantial track record of using a variety of theoretical insights to better understand 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 the background of the development of accounting history as a significant disciplinary field within accounting research. From its investigation of accounting historians’ approaches to studying accounting as a central practice in organisational processes, it reveals how historical accounting studies have been informed by and contributed to theorisation of such organisational phenomena. The article concludes that theory is largely used to provide conceptual frameworks for historical narratives, with historical accounting research often focused on case studies of single organisations or organisational settings. However, theory has also been mobilised at more general levels, to provide meta-narratives of the rise of capitalism and the emergence of managerialism. Far from treating accounting as technical practice, accounting historians are revealed as conceiving accounting as social practice, impacting both human behaviour and organisational and social functioning and development. As social practice, accounting emerges deeply embedded and pervasive in organisations and societies.

Vanadium and niobium cation-water complexes, V

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to outline some personal reflections, based on recent published accounting history research and methodological contributions, on the state of the art and future directions in interdisciplinary research on accounting's past.Design/methodology/approach– An essay focusing on recent developments in the accounting history specialisation and outlining some possible future research developments.Findings– The paper points to the growing literature in the accounting history specialisation; the conduct of historical accounting research across an array of institutions, including business, social and religious institutions; the diversity of theoretical perspectives which have been applied during the past 15-20 years, essentially on the premise of accounting as social practice, and the prospects of theoretically-informed investigations continuing to offer the greatest potential insight into both accounting's present and future. Reflections rendered on possible future directions of historical accounting research may provide some motivation for future research or at least stimulate some discussion and debate on the subject.Research limitations/implications– The analysis and critique represents the author's perspectives as a longstanding academic in the field.Originality/value– The paper may assist in generating some new ideas, topics and approaches for future historical accounting research in any given country or region and may even stimulate “comparative international accounting history” (CIAH) studies in different locations around the globe.

The “surprise” element of many corporate failures during calamitous periods typically results in criticisms of accountants and auditors and their principles, practices and standards and typically leads to governance reforms including those related to the preparation and audit of corporate financial reports. Set in Australia, this historical study presents the results of an examination of four rounds of heavy and unexpected corporate collapses across a number of sectors which occurred in the early 1890s, early 1960s, late 1980s/early 1990s and the early 2000s. The longitudinal study examines the interplay of corporate collapse, accounting failure and governance change within these periods and seeks to elucidate the continued implication of accounting in corporate scandals despite the governance reforms that were introduced after each calamitous period in order to alleviate or curtail future failures. The study applies an investigatory framework for analysis purposes which draws upon Clarke, 2004 , Clarke, 2007 perspective on cycles of crisis and regulation, Jones's (2011a) model of the potential for accounting failure and the scholarly literature on legal conceptions of rule effectiveness.

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 portrayed in books about Enron and Arthur Andersen that were published during the period 2002 to 2005. These books can be characterized as “popular histories”, and the present paper illustrates how the scholarly work of academic accounting historians is given little attention by the authors of these post-Enron stories. It points to the largely untapped potential for accounting historians to make their research findings and insights available for a general readership.

The accounting practices adopted by Australia's 36 public universities in accounting for their library collections – including heritage and special collections – are identified and analysed. The data is collected from a survey of these institutions' annual reports over the period 2007 to 2011 and the analysis is guided by theoretical perspectives drawn from new institutional sociology (NIS). Consistent with prior research by West and Carnegie (2010), accounting for university library collections is depicted as a chaotic field of practice. Inconsistent and idiosyncratic policies that compromise the overall reliability, comparability and usefulness of university financial reports are observed, along with instances of dramatic valuation adjustments. However, the beginnings of some amelioration of the chaos are also detected, as regulatory activity and a voluntary homogenisation of accounting policies begin to take effect. In particular, a general trend towards more conservative accounting practices is eviden...

PurposeThe purpose of this Australian case study, set in the 1960s, is to comprehensively examine the responses of the two major professional accounting bodies to a financial/corporate/regulatory crisis necessitating the defence of the profession's legitimacy.Design/methodology/approachThis historical paper draws on surviving primary records and secondary sources and applies the perspectives on the dynamics of occupational groups and the legitimacy typology of Suchman.FindingsWhile the history of the accounting profession has been characterized by intra‐professional rivalries, this case study illustrates how such rivalries were put aside on recognising the power of collectivizing in defending the profession's legitimacy. Based on the available evidence, pragmatic legitimacy is shown to have been a key focus of attention by the major accounting bodies involved.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper may motivate similar studies in Australia and elsewhere, thus potentially contributing to developing a literature on comparative international accounting history. The evidence for this historical investigation is largely restricted to surviving documents, making it necessary to rely on assessments of the key sources.Originality/valueIn addressing responses to crises in defending the legitimacy of the profession as a whole, the paper makes an original contribution in exploring the relationship between literature on the dynamics of occupational groups and on legitimacy management.

PurposeThe 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 future historical research in accounting.Design/methodology/approachA retrospective and prospective essay focusing on developments in the historical accounting literature.FindingsThe special issue's advocacy of critical and interpretive histories of accounting's past has influenced subsequent research, particularly within the various research themes identified in the issue. The most significant aspect of this influence has been the engagement of increasing numbers of accounting historians with theoretical perspectives and analytical frameworks.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study examines the content and impact of a single journal issue. It explores future research possibilities, which inevitably involves speculation.Originality/valueIn addressing recent developments in the literature through the lens of the special issue, the paper emphasises the unifying power of history and offers ideas, insights and reflections that may assist in stimulating originality in future studies of accounting's past.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to a special issue commemorating the 25th anniversary of the publication of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ).Design/methodology/approachThe paper provides the background to the special issue and a summary of the articles appearing across the following pages. It features five retrospective/prospective essays by the guest editors of selected special issues, published between 1991 and 1997 within the first ten volumes of AAAJ.FindingsThe guest editors of selected special issues have endeavoured to identify and assess the impacts of the issues they edited in shaping future developments in the literature and to consider issues for future research developments in those fields.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper serves as a selected commentary and is not a substitute for carefully reading each of the essays published. Each individual paper provides a comprehensive review of developments in the relevant literature and of the possibilities for future research developments within the theme addressed.Originality/valueThe paper outlines a novel approach to the development of the AAAJ special issue which may gain wider acceptance or provide a basis for the further development of approaches to the production of other special issues.

Singly and doubly charged manganese-water cations, and their mixed complexes with attached argon atoms, are produced by laser vaporization in a pulsed nozzle source. Complexes of the form Mn(+)(H(2)O)Ar(n) (n = 1-4) and Mn(2+)(H(2)O)Ar(4) are studied via mass-selected infrared photodissociation spectroscopy, detected in the mass channels corresponding to the elimination of argon. Sharp resonances are detected for all complexes in the region of the symmetric and asymmetric stretch vibrations of water. With the guidance of density functional theory computations, specific vibrational band resonances are assigned to complexes having different argon attachment configurations. In the small singly charged complexes, argon adds first to the metal ion site and later in larger clusters to the hydrogens of water. The doubly charged complex has argon only on the metal ion. Vibrations in all of these complexes are shifted to lower frequencies than those of the free water molecule. These shifts are greater when argon is attached to hydrogen and also greater for the dication compared to the singly charged species. Cation binding also causes the IR intensities for water vibrations to be much greater than those of the free water molecule, and the relative intensities are greater for the symmetric stretch than the asymmetric stretch. This latter effect is also enhanced for the dication complex.

Revenues generated on a 'fee-for-service' or 'user-pays' basis are a significant source of income for Australian local governments. However, how local governments set prices and charges remains under-explicated. This article reports empirical evidence obtained on the pricing policies and practices of Australian local governments. The responses to a national survey reveal considerable diversity - and often an apparent lack of 'rationality'- in setting specific prices. Instead, general 'across the board' adjustments to historical prices are typically made to assist in balancing budgets. The cost of service delivery is neither a prominent nor standardised input to pricing decisions.

The income-capital breeding model was developed to explain birth seasonality and reproductive strategies in female animals in relation to the abundance of food energy in the environment. An income breeder uses currently available energy and acts so as to maximize either maternal survival or weanling survival, depending on the relationship between timing of births and abundance of food energy. A capital breeder stores energy reserves for future reproductive use. Here we examined energetic influences on reproductive seasonality in a population of female white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) living in a seasonal dry forest in Costa Rica. Our objectives were to determine: 1) the degree of fruiting seasonality in capuchin food trees and 2) the temporal relationship between capuchin births/ conceptions and fruit abundance. Our sample included 25 yr of birth data (N=100 births), 4 yr of capuchin fruit tree phenology data, and 18 mo of ovarian hormone data, which we used to calculate gestation lengths and estimate conception dates. Using circular statistics, we found that the mean peak in fruit abundance occurs in June, and that this population of capuchins reproduces seasonally, with 44% of births occurring within a 3-mo period (May to July, mean month=May). We propose that white-faced capuchins can be generally classified as income breeders that maximize maternal survival instead of weanling survival and that they time infant births such that the most energy expensive period of reproduction, mid-to-late lactation, occurs during the mean peak in fruit abundance.

A complex set of issues underlies the pricing of the diverse range of goods and services from which Australian local governments derive a significant portion of their revenues. Although local governments have a not-for-profit orientation, they are expected to be financially viable and embrace a broad notion of accountability. They are also expected to influence the behaviour of constituents in accordance with policy decisions, but be equitable in doing so. These and related parameters are discussed and illustrated in order to reveal and elucidate the nature of pricing decisions in local government, and to differentiate the local government context from other price-setting environments

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the circumstances and implications of an episode of accounting change arising from the extended use of accrual accounting within the Australian public sector. The matter under scrutiny is the reporting of the library collections of Australia's public universities as assets in general purpose financial reports.Design/methodology/approach – A survey is undertaken of the annual reports of Australia's 36 public universities for the period 2002 to 2006. The analysis of the findings is informed by new institutional sociology (NIS), with a focus on mimetic processes, and the concept of “accounting's margins”.Findings – The survey reveals considerable diversity and subjectivity in the accounting practices adopted, as well as instances of sudden and dramatic changes in carrying values. The financial reporting of library collections is depicted as a “chaotic margin” of accounting, and the technical propriety of attempting to express and account for these non‐financi...

Accounting involves the recording of events, the preparation and reporting of results and is a key medium in discharging accountability. It pervades organisations and institutions in every country and is a key element of the business fabric and economic development of any nation. This study examines the development of accounting regulation, education, and literature in Australia across five key phases of European settlement from 1788 to 2005 and presents an overview of the major historical trends in each of these periods. The development of accounting and the profession is intimately linked with significant economic development in Australia over 200 years.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to look at the adoption of double entry bookkeeping at the Royal Treasury, Portugal, on its establishment in 1761 and the factors contributing to this development. The Royal Treasury was the first central government organization in Portugal to adopt double entry bookkeeping and was a crucial first step in the institutionalisation of the technique in Portuguese public administration.Design/methodology/approachSet firmly in the archive, this paper adopts new institutional sociology (NIS) to inform the findings of the local, time‐specific accounting policy and practice at the Portuguese Royal Treasury.FindingsEmbedded within the broader European context, this study identifies the key pressures exerted upon the Royal Treasury on its formation in 1761, which resulted in major accounting change within Portuguese central government from that date. The study provides further evidence of the importance of the state in the institutionalization of accounting practices by means of coercive pressures and highlights for Portugal the importance of individual actors who, as powerful change agents, made key decisions that influenced accounting change.Originality/valueThis study examines a major instance of accounting change in European central government and broadens the application of NIS in accounting history research to a different country – Portugal – and to a different time – the eighteenth century. It also serves to illuminate the difficulties of collecting pertinent evidence pertaining to this long‐dated time period in identifying certain forms of institutional pressures.

Early investigations into variable repro- ductive success in nonhuman primates tended to focus on the benefits conferred by high dominance rank. How- ever, the effect of high rank on individual reproductive success has been found to vary both intra- and interspe- cifically, requiring researchers to expand their investiga- tions to include additional factors. Here we examine the age and rank of the mother, sex of the infant, group size, number of close kin, replacement of group males, and resource availability as possible predictors of female reproductive success in white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) in the Santa Rosa sector of the Area de Con- servacion Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We examine the length of interbirth intervals (IBI) and infant survivor- ship as measures of individual reproductive success for the 31 adult females that resided in our three study groups between 1986 and 2007. The greatest predictor of IBI length was whether or not the first infant in the interval survived (number of matrilineal kin and resource availability were also significant predictors); while infant survivorship was most significantly pre- dicted by the occurrence of a turnover in group males in the year following the birth of an infant (infant sex was also a significant factor). Based on these findings, we conclude that male and female reproductive strategies are at odds in this species, with male strategies strongly influencing female reproductive success. Am J Phys

This study explores the present-day dimensions of the international accounting history community with a focus on examining the formal (that is institutionalized) and informal (that is non-institutionalized) arrangements for accounting history in various countries and regions. Following a review of recent commentaries on the state of accounting history, the study elucidates the dimensions of the field where accounting history associations or special interest groups operate, comprising Australia and New Zealand, China, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain and the USA, and also depicts the informal arrangements in place for the accounting history community as identified in France and in the UK. The study is intended to enhance understanding of the nature, size and dynamics of this expanding group of scholars and to assist any future enquiries into the drivers of organizational success and the relative health of accounting history in the different jurisdictions.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to extend the work of Carnegie and Walker and report the results of Part 2 of their study on household accounting in Australia during the period from the 1820s to the 1960s.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a microhistorical approach involving a detailed examination of actual accounting practices in the Australian home based on 18 sets of surviving household records identified as exemplars and supplemented by other sources which permit their contextualisation and interpretation.FindingsThe findings point to considerable variety in the accounting practices pursued by individuals and families. Household accounting in Australia was undertaken by both women and men of the middle and landed classes whose surviving household accounts were generally found to comprise one element of diverse and comprehensive personal record keeping systems. The findings indicate points of convergence and divergence in relation to the contemporary prescriptive literature and practice.Originality/valueThe paper reflects on the implications of the findings for the notion of the household as a unit of consumption as opposed to production, gender differences in accounting practice and financial responsibility, the relationship between changes in the life course and the commencement and cessation of household accounting, and the relationship between domestic accounting practice and social class.

Purpose – Beyond the public world of work, the home provides an arena for examining accounting and gender in everyday life. This study aims to examine household accounting in Australia from the early nineteenth to around the mid-twentieth century. Design/methodology/approach – The study comprises two parts. The first part, as reported in this paper, presents evidence on household accounting as prescribed in the didactic literature in Australia, and evidence of actual accounting practices based on the examination of 76 sets of surviving Australian household records available in public repositories. The second part adopts a microhistorical approach involving the detailed scrutiny of 18 sets of accounting records and relevant biographical and family data on the household accountants involved. Findings – The study indicates that household accounting was an instrument for restraining female consumption, particularly during times of crises, and that accounting in Australian homes focussed on maintaining records of routine transactions as opposed to the preparation of budgets and financial statements. Household accounting in Australia was performed by women and men. The surviving records examined suggest that while areas of financial responsibility were defined by gender there was little evidence of formalised hierarchical accountability between spouses as has been found to be the case in Britain. Originality/value – The study extends knowledge of household accounting and gender. Most historical investigations on this subject draw on instructional literature. The current investigation also examines accounting practice in the home.