“Speaking truth to power”: analysing shadow reporting as a form of shadow accounting
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 20 March 2017
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the act of shadow reporting by a social movement organisation as a form of shadow accounting within a sustained campaign against a target corporation. Situated within a consideration of power relations, the rationales underlying the production of the shadow report, and the shadow reports perceived value and limits as a shadow accounting mechanism, are investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
A Foucauldian approach to power/knowledge and truth is drawn upon in the analysis of a single case study. Alongside a consideration of the shadow report itself, interviews with both the preparers of the report and senior management of the corporation targeted comprise the main data.
Findings
The paper provides an empirical investigation into shadow reporting as a form of shadow accounting. While a range of insights are garnered into the preparation, dissemination and impact of the shadow report, key findings relate to a consideration of power relations. The perceived “truth” status of corporate accounts compared to accounts prepared by shadow accountants is problematised through a consideration of technologies of power and power/knowledge formations. Power relations are subsequently recognised as fundamental to the emancipatory potential of shadow reporting.
Research limitations/implications
Results from a single case study are presented. Furthermore, given the production of the shadow report occurred several years prior to the collection of data, participants were asked to reflect on past events. Findings are therefore based on those reflections.
Originality/value
While previous studies have considered the preparation of shadow reports and their transformative potential, this study is, the author believes, the first to empirically analyse the preparation, dissemination and perceived impacts of shadow reporting from the perspectives of both the shadow report producers and the target corporation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was funded through the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Marsden Fund, Grant 09-AUT-015 Corporate Chameleons, Greenwashing and Counter Narratives. The author would like to acknowledge Markus Milne and Kate Kearins as Associate Investigators on this funded project. Earlier versions of the paper were presented at the University of Sydney, University of Waikato, University of South Australia and the North American CSEAR Congress. The author would like to thank the participants at these events and also Steven Burch and Dale Tweedie for their valuable comments which helped in the development of the paper.
Citation
Tregidga, H. (2017), "“Speaking truth to power”: analysing shadow reporting as a form of shadow accounting", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 510-533. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-01-2015-1942
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited