This book considers how the practical and public policy relevance of research might be increased, and academics and practitioners can better engage to define research agendas and deliver findings relevant to accounting and accountability in the public services. To do so, an international comparative analysis of the research-practice gap in public sector accounting has been undertaken. This involved academic perspectives from over twenty countries, and practitioner perspectives from leading international professional accounting bodies actively involved in the public services arena. It was found that research is valued for informing practice, but engaging at a high level of policy engagement has been primarily by a small group of experienced researchers. For other researchers the impact accomplished may not always be valued highly in the academic community relative to other, more scholarly, activities. The book therefore looks at how engagement and impact between academics and practitioners can be increased.

This book is the first comprehensive methodological guide for accounting researchers on Interventionist Research (IVR). It provides all the fundamental components needed for understanding what IVR is, and how to plan, design, and conduct legitimate intervention studies, which can endure the scrutiny of institutions and peer review. This text systematically opens the ‘black box’ of an alternative research paradigm seeking to contribute simultaneously to theory and practice, through direct and collaborative engagement with organisations, practitioners, managers and professionals. It mobilises the production of innovative and theoretically grounded research for academe, and of practical relevance or usefulness and interest to the field of practice. Interventionist Research in Accounting: A Methodological Approach unpacks current thinking on IVR to forge a confident path ahead for IVR through adopting a forward-thinking approach. This book recognises the remedial potential of IVR to address the research-practice-relevance gap in accounting research and deliberates the challenges of IVR in accounting. It addresses the design, development, and implementation of interventions, critical to solving real-world problems as well as guiding readers in planning the IVR project including budgetary and ethical aspects, utilising suitable research methods and data collection techniques, and establishing validity and reliability. Further, it offers guidance on selecting and managing the research team and recruiting, accessing, and retaining intervention participants; these two components are crucial to creating collaborative relationships required for effective intervention. This book is a guide serving as a valuable resource for accounting researchers conducting intervention studies, for doctoral and other research students undertaking accounting research, and academics working in universities and business schools or teaching courses in accounting and research methodology.

Is accounting as a first course going extinct? What motivates students choice of accounting as a career? How true is it that if you are not chartered, you are not an accountant? These are few of the questions that this book responds to. It is an orientation tool for intending students, students, lecturers/tutors, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, parents and the general public on the neglected story of accounting profession. It is written with the sole aim of enlightening its reader on who accountants are; career paths of accountants and their role in society; providing information to assist students in deciding a choice of career in the field of accounting. It places emphasis on the role-relevance of tertiary institutions in the development of accountants with robust acumen. This book opens up on the unsung story of the accounting profession, bringing to the fore the fact that the profession has emerged with three wings, that is practice, policy and research. As we continue to face an increasingly competitive market, the need to produce graduates with requisite knowledge and skill competence to fill vacancies in industries, which are faced with apparent economic circumstances are overwhelming. Howbeit, while it may be acceptable to find a meantime solution, a long term sustainable solution is better, which is to focus on breeding efficient, effective and productive accountants, who can sustain the objectives and goals of the going concern. Tertiary institutions must not underestimate the need to concentrate energy on creating awareness, arming graduates with necessary knowledge and skills on elements of accounting profession, which is a better way out to solve the problem rather than the fire brigade approach to salvage the situation. As the industry look up to institutions to step up the game, we must wow them by producing graduate accountants who will not only be able to practice, but also can in their circumference engage with policy issues and research in the work place environment for increased and sustainable productivity.

Many enquiries into the state of accounting education/training, undertaken in several countries over the past 40 years, have warned that it must change if it is to be made more relevant to students, to the accounting profession, and to stakeholders in the wider community. This book’s over-riding aim is to provide a comprehensive and authoritative source of reference which defines the domain of accounting education/training, and which provides a critical overview of the state of this domain (including emerging and cutting edge issues) as a foundation for facilitating improved accounting education/training scholarship and research in order to enhance the educational base of accounting practice. The Routledge Companion to Accounting Education highlights the key drivers of change - whether in the field of practice on the one hand (e.g. increased regulation, globalisation, risk, and complexity), or from developments in the academy on the other (e.g. pressures to embed technology within the classroom, or to meet accreditation criteria) on the other. Thirty chapters, written by leading scholars from around the world, are grouped into seven themed sections which focus on different facets of their respective themes – including student, curriculum, pedagogic, and assessment considerations.

This book addresses the necessary developments and adjustments that can be regarded as a promising starting point for making accrual accounting a more practice-relevant for the public sector entities. Specifically, the main focus is on Reshaping the application of accrual accounting principles and assumptions to fit the context of public sector entities; Developing a practice-relevant holistic accounting approach for governmental capital assets, which has been based on developing and reshaping the assets recognition criteria; Scope of general purpose financial reporting from an accountability perspective; Suggesting a sustainable accounting approach for reporting on the long-term fiscal sustainability; Developing a dynamic model for making public sector accrual accounting a more user practice relevant; and finally, Developing a theory of accounting information usefulness, which explains how cognitive aspects do influence the use/non-use of accounting information by the politicians. Fundamentally, the book has tackled these necessary developments and adjustments from both the producer’s and the user’s perspectives.

These conference proceedings showcase a rich and practical exchange of approaches and vital evidence-based practices taking place around the world. They clarify the complex challenges involved in bringing about a holistic educational environment in schools and institutes of higher learning that fosters greater understanding and offer valuable insights on how to avoid the pitfalls that come with rolling out holistic approaches to education. To do so, the proceedings focus on the subthemes Support and Development, Mobility and Diversity and Networking and Collaboration in Holistic Education.

This book focuses on the accounting change processes that drive integrated reporting in the public sector. The Integrated Report is a tool that allows public sector entities to quantify and convey those aspects of their organization, strategy, governance and performance that lead to the creation of public value over time. To be successfully introduced, integrated reporting must follow a specific path of accounting change. The context in which public sector entities operate, and the unique relationship between the public sector and the environment, redefine the accounting process of change to deliver an integrated report. The authors provide a fresh look at integrated reporting on the basis of the accounting change processes that drive it, helping academics and practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and benefits in terms of public value creation.

The field of critical accounting has expanded rapidly since its inception and has become recognised as offering a wealth of provocative insights in the wake of the global financial crisis. It is now firmly embedded within accounting literature and in how accounting is taught. Surveying the evolving field of Critical Accounting, including theory, ethics, history, development and sustainability, this Companion presents key debates in the field, providing a comprehensive overview. Incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives on accounting, the volume concludes by considering new directions in which critical accounting research may travel. With an international array of established and respected contributors, this Routledge Companion is a vital resource for students and researchers across the world.

Sustainability, the environment, corporate accountability, social justice, integration – these are the buzzwords of our century. This book takes readers on a journey through the landscape of standard-setting giants and corporate reporting paradigms through the eyes of two companies that have taken very different paths toward integrated thinking. Both stories provide new insights into the transition to integrated reporting, as envisaged by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), and how integrated reporting is reshaping our views on transparency. However, the top-down approach adopted in studies of integrated reporting in practice has left many questions unanswered: Is it effective? How does it evolve into established practice? Is it just another management fad? This bottom-up critique answers all these questions and one more: Could integrated reporting become the corporate reporting norm? We shall see. Given its depth of coverage, the book appeals to IIRC academic community, participants in integrated reporting networks, and others interested in integrated reporting.