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Postmodernist ideas – most particularly those of Foucault but also those of Latour, Derrida and Barthes – have had a much longer presence in accounting research than in other business disciplines. However, in large part, the debates in accounting history and management history, have moved in parallel but separate universes. The purpose of this study is therefore one of exploring not only critical accounting understandings that are significant for management history but also one of highlighting conceptual flaws that are common to the postmodernist literature in both accounting and management history.

Foucault has been seminal to the critical traditions that have emerged in both accounting research and management history. In exploring the usage of Foucault’s ideas, this paper argues that an over-reliance on a set of Foucauldian concepts – governmentality, “disciplinary society,” neo-liberalism – that were never conceived with an eye to the problems of accounting and management has resulted in not only in the drawing of some very longbows from Foucault’s formulations but also misrepresentations of the French philosophers’ ideas.

Many, if not most, of the intellectual positions associated with the “Historic Turn” and ANTi-History – that knowledge is inherently subjective, that management involves exercising power at distance, that history is a social construct that is used to legitimate capitalism and management – were argued in the critical accounting literature long before Clark and Rowlinson’s (2004) oft cited call. Indeed, the “call” for a “New Accounting History” issued by Miller et al. (1991) played a remarkably similar role to that made by Clark and Rowlinson in management and organizational studies more than a decade later.

This is the first study to explore the marked similarities between the critical accounting literature, most particularly that related to the “New Accounting History” and that associated with the “Historic Turn” and ANTi-History in management and organizational studies.

This paper seeks to present an invited response to a paper describing the historical relationship between the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (and its predecessor body) and the universities in New Zealand.

The paper is conceptual and takes the form of a commentary/review of the findings of the principal paper.

The paper adds to the description in the principal paper and presents additional factors that are necessary in assessing the relationship between the professional body and the university sector.

The paper extends the discussion in the principal paper with some reflection on the nature of professionalism and argues that a broader appreciation of professionalism is necessary to judge the effectiveness of the relationship in question.

The purpose of this paper is to review critical emancipatory literature to identify a discourse that could be used to successfully customise generic Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to particular user‐needs. The customisation exercise is posited in the context of contemporary society, which has to try to become more sustainable amidst uncertainty about the complex interrelationships between elements of the ecosystem. It raises new challenges for the customisation exercise, that of fostering the precautionary ethos and engaging realistically with complexity and uncertainty inherent in emergent knowledge about ecological resilience.

This is a conceptual paper that draws on published research papers to tease out political constructs which are vital for facilitating sustainable decisions.

This paper argues that the critical emancipatory influence on systems design has generated attempts to formulate socio‐ethical information systems. However, these systems are limited by their inability to engage with the politics of asymmetrical distribution of power, even though these systems rely on bottom‐up participation to change the status quo. Hence, it is suggested that systems design should learn from Gandhi's experiences in mobilising social reform to instil a precautionary ethos in the context of asymmetrical power relations. The discourse used to customise ERP should facilitate social learning about ecological resilience as it affects the capacity to reform in the interest of sustainable outcomes. It is proposed that the discourse be socially constructed on the vocabulary of integrated risk because it would enable management to take advantage of lived experiences and enhance the organisation's capacity to learn about formulating sustainable business practices.

The recommended approach to identifying user‐needs (in customising ERP) is based on Gandhi's tried‐and‐tested approaches of mobilising bottom‐up participation in social reform.

This paper brings in Eastern philosophy (namely Advaitic thinking) into the predominately Western‐dominated systems design arena. Its value lies in its practical applicability to real‐world design challenges.

This paper aims to provide a debate piece on recent approaches to Maori development and the participation of Maori in the accountancy profession.

The paper considers the relationship between “accounting”, “accountability” and cultural identity for those Maori wanting a career in accountancy.

The paper finds that, while Maori accountants have made some progress as members of the profession, they remain statistically unfavoured in terms of participation.

The paper raises challenging questions about whether the profession should provide Maori accountants with the opportunity to develop approaches based on their own priorities and culture to assist in building the capacity and capability of Maori organisations and Maori accountants as service professionals, thereby making a valuable contribution to Maori development.

Protocols that should apply for research in Pacific settings are a current topic of debate. A significant theme is that such research is cross‐cultural and entails integrating local and metropolitan research approaches. This paper aims to take up this theme.

A current Pacific Health Research Framework devised for use in Aotearoa New Zealand is appraised, using results of two case projects, which took place in about 1980 – a population census and oral history project – in what is now the Republic of Palau in the Western Caroline Islands. In each study, Palauan and social scientific research methods and protocols were adapted in order to ensure that indigenous expectations and world‐views were represented.

The methods and protocols used in the two Palau studies reflect elements in the framework that is appraised. Apparent, even at the time, was that the locally designed census raised issues of whether metropolitan occupation categories appropriately account for economic production in ways reflecting Palauan understandings. This contrasted with inferences available from a parallel analysis using International Labour Organisation (ILO) census categories of a metropolitan nature. The oral history project raised similar issues. The framework is useful for researchers working in Pacific settings.

The paper notes that the ILO categories are still in use nearly 30 years later. This poses such questions as: how can international and local researchers better record and analyse the monetary and non‐monetary productivity of Pacific nations, given the size of their so‐called “subsistence” economies? It is also noted that the current system of national accounts protocols recognises the informal economy as a subsector within the household sector economy; and suggests that, as so many of the world's peoples depend on this informal economy, the worldwide challenge is to define the sector and subsector and to design tools for data collection and analysis that capture these activities and support comparative studies. Furthermore, that such a challenge requires genuine cross‐cultural research in which local and metropolitan approaches are integrated.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Tongan businesses in New Zealand, bearing in mind that they have shared mixed success. Faced with the challenges of competition, compliance, and financial and operational management, these businesses are characterised by a relatively higher failure rate.

A series of open‐ended interview‐type sessions called talanoa were carried out to study their business practices and how these were linked to sustainability. These data were then triangulated with talanoa sessions carried out with business advisers who had worked with many of those Tongan businesses. Further information was collected during individual and group sessions with members of the Tongan community regarding Tongan businesses practices from both a general and a customer perspective.

The results of the talanoa sessions support a theoretical framework that suggests that an entrenched Tongan culture based on a “commons” mentality of sharing is partly responsible for a relatively high failure rate in an “anti‐commons” environment. The findings also suggest that certain aspects of the Tongan culture, in the form of social capital, support business sustainability.

The data gained from the talanoa sessions are based on a small number of Tongan businesses, Pacific business consultants and members of the Tongan community in New Zealand. The findings are therefore not statistically generalisable, although they do provide insights to guide further research in this area.

The findings are likely to provide benefits to a number of key stakeholders including Tongan businesses, policy makers, Government business assistance programmes and the wider small business community.

The research project introduces traditional talanoa to qualitative business research. The findings are specific to Tongan business operating in a western commercial context and provide insights into the drivers of business success and failure for the growing Pacific business community in New Zealand.

This paper seeks to examine the milieu of reporting in two villages operating on Koro Island, Republic of Fiji Islands. It aims to analyse how both western‐narrow and traditional reporting offers rural villages extensive opportunities to discharge responsibilities of stewardship, accountability and accounts of the activities of farmers and stores in an agrarian setting, whether the activities are subsistence‐ or cash‐based.

Fieldwork was conducted in two villages of Koro Island, Nacamaki and Nabuna, to ascertain the milieu of reporting, and open‐ended interviews were conducted with villagers from both villages. The “view from the centre” is adopted here, rather than the “view from the periphery”.

The study shows that people of both Nacamaki and Nabuna villages have adapted their specific reporting styles according to the circumstances facing them. Despite being only 5 km apart, two sharply contrasting village reporting milieux emerge. One relies greatly on the use of both Traditional oral and Western‐narrow hand‐written reports to fulfil accounts of entities (co‐operative and individual farmers) operating in the village. The other prefers oral communication to any form of written communication to raise accounts of villagers' collectivist and independently charged, agrarian‐based activities.

The study raises three sets of policy issues that are central to the development of reporting in Eastern Fijian villages. Numerous resources are unnecessary in presenting a western‐narrow account of transactions when the accounts are supplemented by a traditional reporting mien. Western‐narrow reporting appears to be well received by co‐operative members and individually oriented farmers. In the absence of Western‐narrow reporting, Traditional reporting seems to serve the needs of both communally oriented and individualistically inclined villagers. The results of the study underlie both the complexity of village life in determining systems of reporting and the fragility of written reporting in Eastern Fijian outer island villages.

The study shows the way in which Eastern Fijian villages resolve subsistence and cash exchanges at the social level, taking into account local conventions, customs, laws, rituals and values.

The originality of the paper rests in considering villagers' own reporting through internal points of reference, providing space for interrelations between traditional Fijian values, the island landscape and the cultural geography.

This paper aims to extend the literature on public sector reforms in less‐developed countries in the Pacific. It seeks to examine the roles of accounting and control systems in the reforming of two public sector organisations in Fiji: a process that was demanded by international financial agencies. The impacts of the reforms on the local population are also considered.

The case study method is employed. The empirical evidence is interpreted using Laughlin's, and Greenwood and Hinings's frameworks. The empirics are used to flesh out the skeletal model with specific cultural and political issues particular to Fiji.

Empirical evidence from two public sector organisations in Fiji that underwent structural reforms is used to illustrate the difficulties of transformation; and how the Fijian people's needs were not met for the purpose for which the organisations were established.

Although this study is limited to two public sector enterprises in Fiji, it provides valuable insights into one country's public sector enterprises, and offers a platform for similar studies in other countries.

The case studies show the limitations of the introduction of private sector managerialism into state‐sector organisations. There are implications for state sector organisations in Fiji and elsewhere in the Pacific.

The paper adds to the literature of developing countries. There are cultural and political influences specific to Fiji that trigger resistance to change from public service values to commercial business norms. Such cultural and political influences may not be so pertinent in western industrialised countries.