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The purpose of this paper is to review and critique the field of public sector accounting research. Many nation states deliver essential public services. In recent times, many of these nations have been involved in programmes of “modernisation”, which, in part, means that these public services now are significantly managed, delivered and governed by private and third sector organisations.

The paper employs a literature‐based analysis and critique of public sector accounting articles published in the selected journals from 1992 to 2006. From this, a descriptive meta‐analysis of the characteristics of the research will be discussed. Finally, a conceptual analysis of the selected literature will be used to evaluate the field and address a possible future research agenda.

The descriptive analysis highlights that among the research papers reviewed several interesting patterns emerged concerning public service research. Also, the dominance of Australasia and UK research was noted. The extent of research in different levels of government/jurisdiction indicated that the majority of research was organisationally based. Finally, when the various functional types of accounting are considered, management accounting remained the most researched area of interest.

The paper only considered research within eight selected journals and over the period 1992 to 2006. Therefore, for instance, US mainstream public sector accounting research has not been reviewed.

The main implications of the paper are that “contextual” public service accounting research has a strong tradition and, through the process of reflection and critique of the body of work, several important insights are provided in order to highlight areas for further research and policy development.

The article's aim is to refine prospects for theorising in public sector accounting (PSA) research in order to capture the methodological benefits promised by its multi-disciplinarity.

The study primarily employs a bibliometric analysis of research outputs invoking New Public Management (NPM). Applying a content analysis to Hood (1991), as the most cited NPM source, bibliographic methods and citation/co-citation analysis for the period 1991 to 2018 are mobilised to identify the disciplinary evolution of the NPM knowledge base from a structural and longitudinal perspective.

The analysis exhibits disciplinary branching of NPM over time and its imprints on post-1990 PSA research. Given the discourse about origins of NPM-based accounting research, there are research domains behind the obvious that indicate disciplinary fragmentations. For instance, novelty of PSA research is found in public value accounting, continuity is evidenced by transcending contextual antecedents. Interestingly, these domains are loosely coupled. Exploring the role of disciplinary imprints designates prospects for post-NPM PSA research that acknowledges multi-disciplinarity and branching in order to deploy insularity as a building block for its inquiries.

Criteria for assessing the limitations and credibility of an explorative inquiry are used, especially on how the proposal to develop cumulative knowledge from post-1990 PSA research can be further developed.

A matrix suggesting a method of ordering disciplinary references enables positioning of research inquiries within PSA research.

By extending common taxonomies of PSA intellectual heritages, the study proposes the ‘inquiry-heritage’ matrix as a typology that displays patterns of theorisation for positioning an inquiry within PSA disciplinary groundings.

Prior studies have treated colonisation as a process whereby traditional values in public sector settings are replaced by economic ones, driven by the extensive use and visibility of accounting instruments. This paper challenges this conceptualisation by proposing that colonisation can also be integrative, rather than merely a replacing process.

The study employs a qualitative research approach, utilising interviews, observations and documents obtained in a Swedish municipality. The primary focus is on the introduction of economic, market-oriented reforms in a compulsory school setting, a site traditionally guided by welfare values.

The paper demonstrates that a range of situations has emerged wherein actors attempted to integrate market-oriented and welfare values through various accounting techniques. It also shows how this integration led to colonising outcomes, stemming from an underlying premise of aligning welfare values with a market-like agenda.

This paper contributes to existing research by exploring the complexities and nuances of colonisation and the role of accounting in the interplay between economic and traditional values in public sector settings. It particularly adds to recent studies by outlining a specific form of integrative colonisation, which focusses on a calculative and technical approach to reconciling seemingly disparate values.

This paper considers the nature and effect of accounting disturbances on organizational micro-practices in three secondary schools in England. A close application of a developed model of Habermasian colonization provides a framing for both the ways in which accounting is implicated in organizational change and the effect of accounting disturbances on organizational micro-practices.

Qualitative field studies at three secondary schools were used to gather empirical detail in the form of interview data and documentary evidence. A total of 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and bursars.

Accounting disturbances that were constitutive-transactional in nature had the greatest influence on organizational micro-practices. Behavioural responses to accounting disturbances can be organizationally ambiguous, subtle and subject to change over time.

More field studies are needed, and there is scope to develop a longitudinal perspective to better understand the impact of accounting disturbances over time.

By framing the processes of accounting change using a developed model of Habermasian colonization, contributions are provided by illuminating aspects of both the processes of accounting colonization and the impact of accounting on organizational micro-practices. The findings also add to prior appreciations of reciprocal colonization, creative transformation of accounting disturbances and how accounting can be enabling.

Social robots increasingly adopt service roles in the marketplace. While service research is beginning to unravel the implications for theory and practice, other scientific disciplines have amassed a wealth of empirical data of robots assuming such service roles. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize these findings from a role theory perspective with the aim of advancing role theory for human–robot service interaction (HRSI).

A systematic review of more than 10,000 articles revealed 149 empirical HRSI-related papers across scientific disciplines. The respective articles are analyzed employing qualitative content analysis through the lens of role theory.

This review develops an organizing structure of the HRSI literature across disciplines, delineates implications for role theory development in the age of social robots, and advances robotic role theory by providing an overarching framework and corresponding propositions. Finally, this review introduces avenues for future research.

This study pioneers a comprehensive review of empirical HRSI literature across disciplines adopting the lens of role theory. The study structures the body of HRSI literature, adapts traditional and derives novel propositions for role theory (i.e. robotic role theory), and delineates promising future research opportunities.

This research proposes and examines a theoretical model grounded in anthropomorphism theory considering the curvilinear and linear relationships between service robot anthropomorphism and consumer usage intention and explores the mediating effect of perceived risk.

To examine the developed model, two complementary studies are designed. In Study 1, multi-time data of 511 participants show that service robot anthropomorphism inverts U-shaped (curvilinear) relationship on consumer usage intention and perceived risk mediates this curvilinear relationship. In Study 2, multi-source data of 460 volunteers are used to confirm the findings of Study 1 and examine that consumer empathy moderates the complex nonlinear effect of service robot anthropomorphism on perceived risk, and the indirect curvilinear effect of service robot anthropomorphism on consumer usage intention through perceived risk.

This research provides preliminary and yet important findings on how service robot anthropomorphism most likely is positively associated with consumer usage intention, i.e. the positively influence mechanism of service robot anthropomorphism on consumer usage intention.

This research provides preliminary and yet important findings on how service robot anthropomorphism most likely is positively associated with consumer usage intention, i.e. the positively influence mechanism of service robot anthropomorphism on consumer usage intention.

This paper aims to explore the effects of the increased influence of accounting on core values and practices within the services providing home care in Sweden – a public sector setting involving inter‐organisational cooperation.

Case study data were obtained primarily through semi‐structured interviews with managers and front‐line staff involved in home care.

When accountingisation is extended to include inter‐organisational cooperation, a form of heterogeneous accountingisation occurred in the home care services: an internal domain (with a low level of accountingisation) could be differentiated from an inter‐organisational domain (with a high level of accountingisation). When the accounting‐induced disturbances intensified, there was a redefinition of core values. In the internal domain, core values of pensioner‐oriented focus and flexibility during service delivery persisted. In contrast, in the inter‐organisational domain, core values had the legal boundaries of the organisation as their central foundation, standardisation was emphasised, and inter‐organisational work practices were defined as the other organisation's responsibility. The findings also extend the research on absorption groups by indicating the rise of a new type of absorption process. Absorption was not undertaken by a few individuals, specialist work groups or satellite organisations, as described in the literature; instead, all front‐line welfare professionals were involved in absorbing the accounting‐induced disturbances when performing their tasks.

This case study research is context‐specific and the meaning and consequences of accountingisation may differ within the public sector because of the status and strength of professional groups concerned.

To date, research on accountingisation has primarily employed an intra‐organisational perspective. This paper analyses accountingisation in an inter‐organisational setting.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how an Higher Education Institution’s (HEI) choice of undergoing a voluntary reorganisation, motivated by its own interest of increasing its autonomy, whilst also having to satisfy the government in order to maintain the level of public funding, impacts on the HEI’s accounting.

The paper draws on the institutional logics perspective to present a single case study of a German HEI that chose to be reorganised from a public into a foundation university. Data were obtained using multiple data collection methods.

The findings suggest that organisational characteristics, which act as filters for institutional logics, play an important role for HEIs’ ability to increase not only their de jure, but also their de facto autonomy through self-motivated, rather than government imposed, reform processes.

The paper is based on a single case study in a country-specific context, limiting the empirical generalisability of the findings.

Germany is not only one of the main nations exporting higher education, but its economy has also been recognised for its stability and development over the last decades. Nevertheless, Germany struggles in its transition to become a knowledge-based economy. Yet, research has so far tended to neglect educational reforms in Continental European countries, such as Germany. By addressing this gap in the literature, this paper is among the first to explore how reform processes shape accounting in German HEIs.

The paper problematizes previous research on accountingisation, where the role of accounting in determining the scope of professional work is understood in relation to a professional/economic dichotomy and a model of episodic change. The purpose of this paper is to investigate everyday professional work in established new public management (NPM) settings, and proposes a new conceptual framework to analyze the role of accounting therein. The aim is to enable future investigations into how, when and where a situated “bottom line” emerges, by conceptualizing professional work as a process of calculation.

Qualitative data from case studies of two tertiary level geriatric organizations using observations of 33 employees and four interviews. Data related to patient discharge, and the management of the discharge processes, were analyzed.

Few visible trade-offs between distinctly professional or economic considerations were observed. Rather, the qualification of patients’ status and evaluation of their dischargeability centered on debates over treatment time. Time therefore operated as a situated “bottom line,” to which various other concerns were emergently linked in a process of calculation. Professional practitioners seldom explicitly evoke accounting concepts and technologies, but these were implicated in the ongoing translation of each patient into something temporarily stable, calculable and thus actionable for the professionals involved in their care. The study’s findings have implications for the conceptual understanding of professional work in established NPM settings.

Case study research is context-specific and the role of accounting in professional work will vary due to the professional groups and accounting technologies involved.

The study’s findings have implications for how to influence professional behavior through interventions in the existing landscape of accounting technologies. The possibility to change behavior through the introduction or removal of individual accounting technologies is questioned.

To date, research on the role of accounting in determining the scope of professional work has assumed a professional/economic dichotomy and studied episodic change linked to accounting-oriented reforms. This paper analyses the role of accounting as an on-going process with emergent boundaries between professional and economic considerations.

This paper examines the historical background of accountingization, colonization and hybridization in the health services by exploring the relationship between hospital accounting and clinical medicine in Britain between the late 1960s and the early 2000s.

The paper draws on an analysis of professional journals, government reports and other documentary sources relating to accounting and medical developments. It is informed by Abbott's sociology of professions and Eyal's sociology of expertise.

The paper shows that not only accountants but also elements within the medical profession sought to make the practice of medicine more visible, calculable and standardized, and that accounting and medical attempts to make medicine calculable interacted in a mutually reinforcing manner. Consequently, it argues that a movement towards clinical forms of quantification within the medical profession made it more open to economic calculation, which underpinned hospital accounting reforms and the accountingization, colonization or hybridization of health services.

The paper demonstrates that a fuller understanding of the relationship between accounting and public sector professions can be developed if we examine their mutual interactions rather than restricting ourselves to analyzing accounting's effects on public sector professions. The paper moreover illustrates instances of intraprofessional conflict and inter-professional cooperation, and draws on the sociology of expertise to suggests that while hospital accounting reforms have curbed the power of medical professionals, they have also enhanced the power of clinical expertise.