School of Accounting and Commercial Law – Te Kura Kaute, Ture Tauhokohoko: Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research

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See the Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research website for more information about the centre or the School of Accounting & Commercial Law website for their degrees, people, courses, contact details, news and events, and research.

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Open Access
Does Darwin Belong in Business? The Danger and Comfort of the Evolutionary Metaphor
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2007) Baskerville, Rachel F; O'Grady, Winnie
The metaphor of Darwinism has been extensively researched and analysed in other research disciplines. The usage of the biological metaphor of “Darwinism” in IT related headlines is documented and reviewed. The use of the Darwinian metaphor in business studies has changed from its usage by Veblen and Stamp as a descriptor for the scientific method. More recently its meaning has been transformed to synonymy with the “struggle for existence”. The use of this metaphor in IT carries with it a reassurance, which can endanger consumer requirements for performance and accountability.
Open Access
An Ethnographic Study of Annual General Meetings in Not-for-Profit Organisations
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2007) Cordery, Carolyn Joy; Baskerville, Rachel F
Purpose: Accountability has been described as an institutional social practice to encourage stewardship reflection and as such it is a process that can be observed and reported upon. This paper describes observations of an accountability event, the Annual General Meeting (AGM), which has been largely absent from the literature. The method and results of empirical research as to how accountability was discharged in not-for-profit AGMs is provided. Methodology/Approach: The research utilised a critical ethnographic methodology to explore community-specific accountability. Findings: Sensemaking was identified as an important function of the meeting and accountability processes. Further, accountability was enhanced when not-for-profit entities adhered to foundational rules, provided opportunities for sensemaking, and was seen to be characterised by organisational transparency. Research limitations: This was a pilot study undertaken to develop the observation and coding model. Future research would include expanding this tool into AGMs of other organisational types. Originality: AGMs are required of many organisations, but they have seldom been researched. This paper provides an insight into the characteristics of sensemaking within meeting behaviours, and insights into the role of governors and organisational members in the discharge of accountability.
Open Access
A Game Theory Approach to Research on Lobbying Activities in Accounting Regulation: Benefits and Issues
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2007) Baskerville, Rachel F
There is a lack of consensus on the most appropriate methodological framework for studies of regulation and due process in order to provide robust outcomes and predictive potential. In addition to this diversity of approaches, research typically adopts a “single event focus” to an examination of due process and regulatory efficiency. The objective of this research is to examine the advantages and issues arising when methodologies offering a multi event approach are adopted; specifically the utility of game theory methodology in accounting lobbying research. The applications of game theory in previous studies in accounting research are summarised (the application to FASB voting rules, auditor client interaction, and accounting disclosure choices relevant to wage bargaining); and the theoretical basis for studies of lobbying behaviour is also reviewed. The standard model as currently utilised in research on lobbying activities is described; and an alternative dynamic model proposed. Four core issues arise in the application of such a dynamic model: identification of the master game and subgames; gradual or punctuated equilibrium; agency issues; and reputation effects. It is apparent from the application of game theory in other areas of accounting research, that evolutionary game theory offers a more comprehensive and dynamic model of real world events, based on multi period or sequential events. The proposed utility of a game theoretic model in accounting research on due process and regulation justifies further developments in this area.
Open Access
Hegemony, Stakeholder Salience and the Construction of Accountability in the Charity Sector
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2005) Cordery, Carolyn Joy; Baskerville, Rachel F
This research reviews the manner in which accountability may be better constructed in the Charities Sector with detailed stakeholder analysis. This combines the adoption of Hayes’ (1996) four types of accountability by charities with a hegemonic application of the Mitchell, Agle, and Wood (1997) model of stakeholder salience. In applying these tools to a particular transgression event, it is demonstrated that the lower salience of beneficiaries of a charitable activity in crisis is due to their lack of coercive power through a lack of knowledge. This study illustrates the dynamic, myriad and heterogeneous nature of stakeholders in the not-for-profit sector.
Open Access
Icons of Repute: The attribution of Lamarckian and Darwinian evolutionary mechanisms in economics
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2007) Baskerville, Rachel F
Paul David’s 1986 exposition on the QWERTY keyboard configuration gave rise not only to Stan Leibowitz and Stephen Margolis’s “Fable of the Keys”, but also to a consideration by Stephen J. Gould of the characteristics, and correct attribution, of Lamarckian versus Darwinian mechanisms of evolutionary change. This study draws attention to the following issues from this debate: is it correct to attribute the operation of forces of change in evolutionary economics as being Darwinian in nature? How did evolutionary dynamics in economics come to be described utilising concepts and nomenclature typical of organic or biological evolution? It is suggested that it was the extension of Veblen’s advocacy of Darwinism as a “scientific methodology” which led to the adoption of Darwinism as an icon of evolutionary mechanisms, and gave rise to the invocation of Darwinian evolutionary mechanisms in economic theories. The basis for such invocation is reexamined and it is suggested the Lamarckian theory provides the more appropriate mechanism for evolutionary success or fitness in economic studies.
Open Access
Paying the Price of the Failure to Retain Legitimacy in a National Charity: the CORSO Story
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2007) Sutton, David; Baskerville, Rachel F; Carolyn, Cordery
CORSO was a New Zealand organisation established in 1944, dedicated to the relief of poverty overseas. It was the coordinating agency for many different national bodies; all of whom shared the poverty relief vision and worked to ensure New Zealand’s contribution was under one “umbrella”. Its primary vision for the relief of poverty attracted 50 member organisations by 1967. In examining CORSO’s decline from 1970, until its ‘functional death’ in 1991, the causes of this decline provide a valuable illustration of the importance of political independence and integrity for charitable organisations’ survival. The data for this study is derived from primary and secondary sources including newspaper articles, annual reports, correspondence and opinion surveys. This research also analyses accounting data, evidencing a correlation of robust or deficient accounting processes respectively with economic excellent or poor health. To this extent the accounting data provides a ‘biomarker’ of organisational health. Key to CORSO’s demise was a change in strategic direction brokered by governing members which resulted in a philosophical shift unsupported by many of its core orthodox member bodies, with ‘fatal’ consequences.
Open Access
Research on financial reporting by defined benefit schemes
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2007) Baskerville, Rachel F
The objective of this working paper is to provide a comprehensive, readable and informative summary of superannuation reporting by defined benefit schemes in New Zealand; in order to: · monitor compliance with FRS 32 and identify areas where further requirements or amendments may be beneficial to users of such scheme reports; and · gain information with which an interested individual may be able to evaluate the necessity for a reporting standard addressing the reporting of superannuation schemes assets and liabilities by sponsoring entities; or in other ways to encourage adequate disclosure of superannuation schemes assets and liabilities by listed companies in New Zealand. Most of the work examining the schemes reports was undertaken in January 2000, and only one year of each scheme’s reports has been examined.
Open Access
The Role of Expectancy Theory and Observed Constituency Response Levels to Exposure Drafts in Accounting Standard-Setting in New Zealand
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2005) Baskerville, Rachel F
A brief history of studies of standard setting and constituency lobbying is summarised, and a description of standard setting in New Zealand is provided. Historically, levels of responses to exposure drafts in New Zealand indicate there is no clear existing body of theory to clarify the factors contributing to the pattern in responses to exposure drafts in the last twenty years. The historic longitudinal data from New Zealand exposure drafts exhibited a pattern which could be described as consistently low with two major fluctuations. An alternative approach (expectancy theory) is explored. It is proposed that the response level in New Zealand was generally low over time because there is not a sufficient belief by stakeholders that the Board will change the resulting standard sufficiently to ensure making a submission is cost-benefit efficient. It is suggested that the fluctuations represent periods when there were changes in expectancy by participants of their potential influence on due process.
Open Access
Sectorneutral Accounting Standards: A Ten year Experiment
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2007) Baskerville, Rachel F; Bradbury, Michael E
In 1992, New Zealand adopted a sectorneutral approach to standard setting – where the difference in accounting treatment is driven by differences in the nature of transactions and not by ownership or the objectives of the reporting entity. In the process of adopting International Financial Reporting Standards, New Zealand standardsetters are currently struggling to maintain sectorneutrality in financial reporting because international standards are primarily developed for profitoriented entities. With the possible loss of sectorneutral financial reporting, it is appropriate to review the outcome of tenyear experiment. In particular, we focus on the impact that transactions that are common to a number of public benefit entities have on accounting standards that apply to profitorientated entities. The results of this review may be useful to future standard setters and to the joint FASB/IASB convergence project.
Open Access
Situating IFRS translation in the EU within speed wobbles of convergence
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2011) Baskerville, Rachel F; Evans, Lisa
The objective of this study is to demonstrate the degree to which debate about translation in the EU, and translation specifically of IFRS in the EU, generates both: - Deeply held convictions about language; and - Diversity of views on key issues even within translators into one language group. This study describes the empirics and method of data collection, and then offers detailed analysis of five issues faced by translators, drawing examples from each of the major language family groups in the EU. The data used in this study are derived from 109 responses to a survey of IFRS translators, members of IFRS translation committees or review panels, and textbook writers in the EU; undertaken in 2009. Each ‘Language Family Example’ illustrates deeply-held convictions about language; and diversity of views even among highly experienced translators. These empirical data also illustrate translators’ awareness that the ‘English’ in which IFRS are written may impact on the ease or difficulties in translation. In nation-states where there is a relatively low level of foreign language study, there may be a greater number of accounting teachers, standard-setters, textbook writers and regulators who are unaware of such diversity and emotion. This study contributes towards understanding some key language issues during the IFRS convergence programme.
Open Access
Tylor's Legacy in International Accounting Research
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2007) Baskerville, Rachel F
When Hofstede published the book Culture’s Consequences International Differences in Work Related Values in 1980, he established indices of culture; culture was to be a measurable variable in international business studies. Hofstede's theoretical basis is traced to a comparative approach established by George Murdock. The lack of use of Hofstede’s dimensions in mainstream social sciences is described. This is sourced to the nineteenth century scholarship of Edward Tylor, and the debate concerning "Galton's problem". Murdock took the occasion of the 1971 Huxley Memorial Lecture “Anthropology’s Mythology” to renounce his own adherence to this method, and to plead for a new association between anthropology and psychology. Such a shift was paralleled by Hofstede in 1991. It is suggested that there are other methods which may better advance international comparative accounting research.

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