Search results

1 – 10 of 16
Per page
102050
Citations:
Loading...
Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 21 December 2021

Basil P. Tucker and Hank C. Alewine

The contribution of accounting research to the space sector has arguably been less discernible, less visible and less appreciated than that made by STEM disciplines. This paper…

662

Abstract

Purpose

The contribution of accounting research to the space sector has arguably been less discernible, less visible and less appreciated than that made by STEM disciplines. This paper aims to ascertain the nature and extent to which management accounting can contribute to interdisciplinary advancements of the space sector. This is accomplished by investigating possible contributions realised by management accounting research to the space sector and identifying the opportunities and challenges facing interdisciplinary accounting researchers in making a contribution.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative empirical study draws on interviews with 25 academic researchers and practitioners from Australia, the USA, the UK, Canada, Europe, India and China, with research or practitioner experience on accounting issues germane to the space sector. The purpose is to seek their perceptions of how interdisciplinary management accounting research can solve contemporaneous problems in the space sector.

Findings

The potential contribution that management accounting research can make in the space sector is grounded in the inherent interdisciplinary of the discipline. The propensity to draw on other disciplines, theories, methodologies and methods is a strength of management accounting, as it is arguably by such interdisciplinarity that “wicked problems’ such as those presented by space exploration, policy and research can be solved.

Originality/value

This is one of the first papers to explore the role and contribution management accounting research can offer to what has traditionally been a STEM-dominated field. In so doing, it underscores the central importance and value-added by an interdisciplinary approach to management accounting research.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 35 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 11 June 2024

Basil P. Tucker and Hank C. Alewine

This article introduces the AAAJ special issue's content and, in so doing, aims to reflect on the contribution that accounting as a discipline is placed to make within the more…

235

Abstract

Purpose

This article introduces the AAAJ special issue's content and, in so doing, aims to reflect on the contribution that accounting as a discipline is placed to make within the more contemporary context of space exploration, the space economy and public space policy.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws together, identifies, expands upon and advances opportunities available to researchers seeking to investigate the ways in which accounting research and practice might inform the modern space sector.

Findings

Papers comprising the AAAJ special issue are informed by authors with diverse research backgrounds (including various accounting subfields and non-accounting business disciplines) and varying methodological approaches, including positivist, interpretivist as well as critical research paradigms. Interestingly, the call for papers also attracted several non-accounting academics or academics who have not traditionally undertaken or engaged appreciably with accounting research. This diverse approach to addressing initial space accounting questions should help establish a firm launching point for future research advances.

Originality/value

The paper's originality lies in advancing a need to engage with the unique demands of “the New Space Age”, requiring fundamentally innovative approaches to many aspects of accounting such as financial accounting, management accounting and sustainability accounting as well as contextualising or re-contextualising current accounting concepts, principles and thinking to apply to a new setting.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 37 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Book part
Publication date: 8 September 2017

Hank C. Alewine and Dan N. Stone

The increasing use of complex, nonfinancial environmental performance measures in managerial decisions motivates consideration of contextual influences that potentially impact…

Abstract

The increasing use of complex, nonfinancial environmental performance measures in managerial decisions motivates consideration of contextual influences that potentially impact managerial judgments in environmental settings. This study extends general evaluability theory (GET: Hsee & Zhang, 2010) to environmental accounting by investigating the combined effects of evaluation mode and incomplete supplemental evaluability information (SEI; e.g., benchmark data) on management decisions. To elaborate, evaluation mode is the display format in which the accounting information system (AIS) provides available information for analysis; e.g., a manager’s or business unit’s performance is assessed either comparatively (i.e., in joint mode) or individually (i.e., in separate mode). GET suggests more decision weight on measures containing SEI in separate mode because that evaluation mode contains less context in which to analyze information. On the other hand, more decision weight should result for measures that do not contain SEI in joint mode because that mode already contains more context for analysis (e.g., comparing multiple performances with each other). To test these predictions, experimental participants (n = 53) evaluated environmental measures for factories with similar environmental performances. To operationalize the information available in many environmental AIS, some, but not all, performance measures contained benchmark data (incomplete SEI); factories were evaluated either jointly or separately. Participants evidenced decision intransitivity; i.e., in separate evaluation mode, factories rated higher when a favorable measure contained SEI, while in joint evaluation mode, factories rated higher when a favorable measure lacked SEI. The results extend previous AIS and management accounting research by investigating contextual influences, and potential systems design elements, in judgments using environmental AIS.

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 5 May 2020

Hank C. Alewine

The emerging and rapidly growing space economy warrants initial analysis from an accounting lens. This article explores accounting's role in entity transactions involving outer…

1586

Abstract

Purpose

The emerging and rapidly growing space economy warrants initial analysis from an accounting lens. This article explores accounting's role in entity transactions involving outer space activities by addressing two questions: (1) What accounting challenges exist within a developing space economy? (2) What accounting research opportunities exist to address these challenges?

Design/methodology/approach

Background context introduces accounting scholars to the modern space economy and its economic infrastructure, providing insight on entity transactions involving activities in outer space. Detailed discussion and analysis of space accounting challenges and research opportunities reveal potential for a robust, interdisciplinary field in the accounting domain relevant for both practitioner and academic spheres. The article concludes with a summary investigation of the future exploration of accounting for space commerce.

Findings

Many accounting challenges and opportunities exist now and in the near future for accounting practitioners and scholars to contribute towards humanity's ambitious plans to achieve a sustained presence on the moon sometime during the 2020s and on Mars in the 2030s. All of accounting's traditional subject-matter domain, as well as sustainability accounting matters, will be relied upon in these efforts. Interdisciplinary inquiries and problem solving will be critical for success, with particular collaboration needs existing between accounting and operations management scholars.

Originality/value

This is the first paper to explore accounting for the burgeoning space economy, and to offer insight and guidance on the development of an emerging accounting subfield: space accounting.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 33 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Book part
Publication date: 23 November 2016

Hank C. Alewine and Timothy C. Miller

This study explores how balanced scorecard format and reputation from environmental performances interact to influence performance evaluations.

Abstract

Purpose

This study explores how balanced scorecard format and reputation from environmental performances interact to influence performance evaluations.

Methodology/approach

Two general options exist for inserting environmental measures into a scorecard: embedded among the four traditional perspectives or grouped in a fifth perspective. Prior balanced scorecard research also assumes negative past environmental performances. In such settings, and when low management communication levels exist on the importance of environmental strategic objectives (a common practitioner scenario), environmental measures receive less decision weight when they are grouped in a fifth scorecard perspective. However, a positive environmental reputation would generate loss aversion concerns with reputation, leading to more decision weight given to environmental measures. Participants (N=138) evaluated performances with scorecards in an experimental design that manipulates scorecard format (four, five-perspectives) and past environmental performance operationalizing reputation (positive, negative).

Findings

The environmental reputation valence’s impact is more (less) pronounced when environmental measures are grouped (embedded) in a fifth perspective (among the four traditional perspectives), when the environmental feature of the measures is more (less) salient.

Research limitations/implications

Findings provide the literature with original empirical results that support the popular, but often anecdotal, position of advocating a fifth perspective for environmental measures to help emphasize and promote environmental stewardship within an entity when common low management communication levels exist. Specifically, when positive past environmental performances exist, entities may choose to group environmental performance measures together in a fifth scorecard perspective without risking those measures receiving the discounted decision weight indicated in prior studies.

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 22 February 2013

Hank C. Alewine and Dan N. Stone

Environmental consequences increasingly influence management strategy and choice. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects on attention and investment of…

4664

Abstract

Purpose

Environmental consequences increasingly influence management strategy and choice. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects on attention and investment of: incorporating environmental data into a balanced scorecard (BSC), called the sustainability balanced score card (SBSC) and the organization of environmental accounting information.

Design/methodology/approach

In a between‐participant design, participants (n ≈ 95) chose from among two investments using BSCs. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: no environmental data (control or BSC condition); environmental data embedded within the traditional BSC (four‐perspective SBSC); or environmental data added to a BSC as a standalone fifth perspective (five‐perspective SBSC).

Findings

Investment to achieve environmental stewardship objectives was greater with the four‐perspective SBSC than the traditional BSC. In addition, participants were most efficient, i.e. spent the least total time, and least time per data element examined, with the four‐perspective SBSC. Finally, the time spent examining, and decision weight given to, environmental data were unrelated.

Research limitations/implications

Professional managers and accountants may have greater knowledge of environmental metrics than do students, who are the participants in this study; hence, the results may not generalize to higher knowledgeable professionals since their processing of environmental data may differ from the lower knowledge participants of this study.

Practical implications

The form (i.e. organization) of environmental accounting data changed the allocation of participants' attention while the presence of environmental accounting data changed participants' investments; hence, both the presence and form of environmental accounting information influenced decision making.

Originality/value

This study is among the first to show differing influences from both the presence and organization of environmental accounting data on attention and investment.

Details

International Journal of Accounting & Information Management, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1834-7649

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 28 October 2010

Hank C. Alewine

The purpose of this paper is to survey the research methods employed in the extant environmental accounting literature, finding few experimental studies. The need for more…

2114

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to survey the research methods employed in the extant environmental accounting literature, finding few experimental studies. The need for more experimentation in the literature is discussed, as well as how experiments' unique methodological advantages can help address important environmental accounting issues. These issues culminate in a proposed model for conducting experimental environmental accounting research.

Design/methodology/approach

A synthesis of the environmental accounting literature emphasizes the research methods, and, advantages and disadvantages of each method, as well as why and how experimental designs can contribute to the environmental accounting literature. Finally, the paper proposes and analyzes a framework for conducting environmental accounting experiments.

Findings

Experiments can provide unique contributions to the environmental accounting literature. Relative to traditional accounting information, environmental accounting information comprises lower levels of user familiarity which may hinder effective processing of these non‐traditional data. These characteristics make the organizational display of these data, and their combination with non‐environmental metrics, a particular and unique concern. The proposed model considers the impact of environmental strategy on the implementation of environmental information systems, which in turn influences evaluation effectiveness of decisions based on environmental accounting information. Stakeholder influences, management communication of environmental issues, and evaluation scales also influence these relationships.

Research limitations/implications

The model assumes environmental information generates from within the entity (i.e. private firms, public agencies, etc.). Future research can enhance and/or modify the framework to include information design and capture from non‐entity end‐users (e.g. stakeholders), as well as empirically test the model's relationships.

Practical implications

The framework provides factors to consider to design more effective environmental accounting information systems. Also, the model's factors should aid researchers in developing robust experimental designs for environmental accounting studies.

Originality/value

This is the first paper to propose a framework for conducting experimental environmental accounting research.

Details

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, vol. 1 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-8021

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 28 October 2010

Jesse Dillard and Madeleine E. Pullman

514

Abstract

Details

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, vol. 1 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-8021

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 25 February 2014

148
Available. Content available
Book part
Publication date: 23 November 2016

Abstract

Details

Advances in Management Accounting
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-972-5

1 – 10 of 16
Per page
102050