Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal - AccountingEducation.com Members Offer

Emerald is pleased to offer all users of Accounting Education free access to selected articles from its renowned Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ). The journal, now in its 23rd volume, will publish eight issues in 2010, and it is planned that at least one article from each issue will be freely accessible to AccountingEducation.com community members.

Below are the articles freely available to AccountingEducation.com community members from Issue 1 to 4.

The articles provided free so far from issues 1 - 4 are:

• "Accounting for needs? Formula funding in the UK schools sector by Gloria Agyemang (AAAJ - Vol. 23 Iss. 1)

  Abstract
  Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the development of a needs-based funding formula for resource allocation incorporates the needs of funders or the needs of the service providers.
  Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses interview data and documentary evidence gathered from a UK local education authority about the creation of a “needs-based” formula for sharing resources to schools. It employs and extends a framework developed by Levac?ic´ and Ross to evaluate needs-based formula funding.
  Findings – Although formula funding is purported to be a more objective method of resource allocation, the paper finds that as with other resource allocation methods the power relations between the funder and the service provider impacts on the extent to which service provider needs are incorporated into the funding formula.
  Originality/value – The paper provides a useful analysis of a needs-based funding formula for resource allocation in schools and whether this incorporates the needs of funders or the needs of the service providers.
  Keywords Financing, Resource allocation, Education, Schools, United Kingdom

• Accountability, narrative reporting and legitimation by Grant Samkin and Annika Schneider(AAAJ - Vol. 23 Iss. 2)

  Abstract
  Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how a major public benefit entity in New Zealand uses formal accountability mechanisms and informal reporting to justify its existence. The paper is premised on the view that the accountability relationship for public benefit entities is broader and more complex than the traditional shareholder-manager relationship in the private sector.
  Design/methodology/approach – This longitudinal single case study of the Department of Conservation (DOC) spans the period from its establishment in 1987 to June 2006. It involves the detailed examination of the narrative disclosures contained in the annual reports, including the Statement of Service Performance, over the period of the study. A number of controversial items that appeared in the printed media between 1 April 1987 and 30 June 2006 were traced through the annual reports to establish whether DOC used impression management techniques in its annual reports to gain, maintain and repair its organisational legitimacy.
  Findings – The analysis found that the annual report of a public benefit entity could play an important legitimising role. Using legitimacy theory, it is argued that assertive and defensive impression management techniques were used by DOC to gain, maintain and repair its organisational legitimacy in the light of extensive negative media publicity.
  Originality/value – This is one of the first studies to examine the relationship between narrative disclosures in annual reports and legitimacy in the public sector. The paper provides a valuable contribution to researchers and practitioners as it extends the understanding of how public benefit entities can make use of the narrative portions of the annual report when pursuing organisational legitimacy.
  Keywords - Conservation, Public sector organizations, Financial reporting, New Zealand

• Accounting for the city by Irvine Lapsley, Peter Miller and Fabrizio Panozzo (AAAJ - Vol. 23 Iss. 3)

  Abstract
  Purpose – This paper aims to identify the study of cities as an important and neglected focus for accounting researchers.
  Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a case study approach to visualizing and calculating the city.
  Findings – There is a major preoccupation with the study of cities from numerous disciplinary perspectives. The positioning of cities is reaffirmed as a key part of modes of governing. This reveals tensions between disciplinary approaches based on space and design with the financial imperative of cities managed within a world which is dominated by New Public Management ideas and in which finances have primacy.
  Research limitations/implications – The paper is based on one case study, and it demonstrates the need for longitudinal and interdisciplinary approaches to increase understanding of the twenty-first century city.
  Practical implications – The significance of accounting as a technology, which is embedded within the public management of cities is profound. This has major implications both for the design of financial information systems and their capacity for, and the manner of, their interactions with other disciplines in planning and managing cities.
  Originality/value – This study is distinct in the manner in which it studies and reveals the importance of accounting in the management of cities. There is an increasing trend to visualize the city and represent it in numbers. This study reveals that accounting provides the most important numbers in shaping and visualizing the city.
  Keywords - Cities, Accounting, Public sector organizations, Scotland, Corporate governance

Click through here to see more AAAJ Free articles (from Vol 21 in 2008) or here for articles form Vol. 22 in 2009

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