Wai Fong Chua, Maria Cadiz Dyball and Helen Yee
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to assess the impact of the 1999 Special Issue on Professionalization in Asia in the Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal …
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to assess the impact of the 1999 Special Issue on Professionalization in Asia in the Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ); and second, more generally to review research on this topic post-1999.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper starts with a discussion of the research articles of the Special Issue. It then identifies research that has cited papers in the Special Issue and which focusses on professionalization in Asia to identify relevant subsequent research. In addition, a literature search is conducted to locate post-1999 work that has not cited papers from the Special Issue but has investigated the same topic area. Analyzing both sets of work enables an integrated review of the field and aids the identification of future research opportunities. The study covers published research articles and books on professionalization projects in Asia from 1999 to 2018. In this paper, reference to Asia focusses on East Asia (including countries such as China and Japan), South Asia (including countries such as Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka), and South East Asia (including countries such as Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam). Given the elapsed time of near 20 years, there has been sufficient time for research to be published. Therefore, the review focusses on published output only and does not discuss unpublished theses, conference proceedings nor working papers.
Findings
First, the Special Issue of AAAJ in 1999 generally adopted a critical lens and studied professionalization as projects of market closure and collective mobility. The corporatist framework of Puxty et al. (1987) provided a useful framing to analyze the influence of states, markets and communities on professionalization. Second, the Special Issue has helped to spur interest in understanding professionalization in the region. Post-1999, there are studies of countries not covered in the Special Issue. Third, the themes identified in the Special Issue continue to be relevant and are examined in post-1999 work: the active role of the state, the legacies of colonization, the activities of transnational accounting bodies; and to a lesser degree, the influence of transnational accounting firms. Finally, future research could usefully focus on: the distinctive and more expansive role of Asian state agencies; the conduct of deeper comparative research; the role of accounting firms in the region; and the impact of transnational agencies such as the International Federation of Accountants and the World Bank.
Research limitations/implications
There are three limitations. First, the review of literature omits unpublished research such as PhD theses and working papers. Second, it focusses only on research published in English. As a result, some work may be excluded. Third, it assesses the contribution of a single issue (i.e. the 1999 AAAJ Special Issue) and does not discuss work that preceded 1999.
Originality/value
This paper is aimed at assessing the impact of the 1999 Special Issue but also presents a wide-ranging analytical review of published research on accounting professionalization in Asia since 1999. The paper identifies several areas for future research and proposes a modified model of state-market-community-profession relations. In particular, the paper emphasizes the large and distinctive roles of Asian state agencies and the activities of transnational actors (both those within the profession as well as those that are external).
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This paper examines radical reform of the Chinese public accounting profession in the 1990s. In particular, the paper seeks to provide a more nuanced understanding of the sources…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines radical reform of the Chinese public accounting profession in the 1990s. In particular, the paper seeks to provide a more nuanced understanding of the sources, responses and processes of this radical institutional change that effectively paved the way for development of the Chinese accounting profession into the twenty-first century.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical data that inform this study come from both archival materials (mostly in Chinese) and in-depth interviews. These data are analysed and interpreted from a neo-institutionalist perspective, drawing, in particular, on the concept of institutional logics and the concept of institutional work.
Findings
A state logic initially guided the development of the Chinese accounting profession but was seriously challenged in the 1990s following a series of high profile financial scandals. The findings reveal a shift to a new professional logic, which was made possible through multiple forms of institutional works instigated by various state actors.
Originality/value
Research into the radical reform of the Chinese public accounting profession in the 1990s was mostly quantitative in nature, focussing mainly on one reform programme, i.e. the disaffiliation of the accounting firms from their sponsoring agencies. This paper adopts a qualitative approach and is aimed at providing a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the institutional change process within its political and economic contexts.
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Peter Lugosi, Hania Janta and Pamela Watson
This paper aims to introduce the notion of investigative research on the internet (IRI) and conceptualise its processes through the principle of streaming. It seeks to discuss the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce the notion of investigative research on the internet (IRI) and conceptualise its processes through the principle of streaming. It seeks to discuss the similarities and differences between IRI and netnography and considers various aspects of the IRI process, including site selection, sampling, data collection and analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
Investigative internet‐based research uses the techniques of ethnography and netnography, including variations of participant observation and analysis of visual and textual material. Three international empirical cases are used to illustrate the application of IRI and streaming in research on international workers, consumer cultures and on emerging business phenomena.
Findings
IRI has a number of potential applications for hospitality management academics and practitioners. Streaming can help to understand the processes involved in conducting netnographic research, and streaming is a more appropriate way to conceptualise some internet‐based studies that do not conform to netnographic or ethnographic ideals.
Research limitations/implications
The three empirical cases highlight the processes of streaming in practice, which can be applied elsewhere. Principal limitations are the ethical dimensions of conducting undisclosed research and the sampling bias resulting from adopting an unobtrusive role and focusing on active internet users.
Practical implications
The paper highlights several issues, identified through streaming, that can be used to design human resource, marketing and operational strategies.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates the application of streaming. Streaming can help researchers conduct netnographic studies; it is also a more appropriate way to describe broader types of investigative internet research. Moreover, it demonstrates the applicability of streaming in research on hospitality management and public policy issues.
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This paper aims to review the research on accounting professionalisation in China to develop insights into how the research is developing, offer a critique of the research to date…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the research on accounting professionalisation in China to develop insights into how the research is developing, offer a critique of the research to date and outline future research directions and opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a methodological approach of systematic literature review, as suggested by Tranfield et al. (2003) and Denyer and Tranfield (2009), to identify, select and analyse the extant literature on the Chinese public accounting profession. In total, 68 academic works were included in the review process.
Findings
This paper finds that the extant literature has produced fruitful insights into the processes and underlying motivation of accounting professionalisation in China, demonstrating that the Chinese experience has differed, to a large extent, from the hitherto mainly Anglo-American-dominated understandings of accounting professionalisation. However, due to the lack of common theoretical vernacular and an agreed upon focus, the extant literature illustrates a fragmented and contradictory picture, making attempts to accumulate prior knowledge in the field increasingly difficult.
Research limitations/implications
This paper focusses only on research published in English. Consequently, the scope of review has been limited as some works published in languages other than English may be excluded.
Originality/value
This paper provides one of the pioneering exercises to systematically review the research on accounting professionalisation in China. It explores significant issues arising from the analysis and provides several suggestions for furthering the research effort in this field.
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The following annotated list of materials on instructing users in library and information skills covers publications from 1982. A few items have not been annotated because the…
Abstract
The following annotated list of materials on instructing users in library and information skills covers publications from 1982. A few items have not been annotated because the compiler was unable to secure copies of these items.
Expanding upon the special issue entitled “The special issue: AAAJ and research innovation”, published in 2012, this introduction to the second special issue of the genre is…
Abstract
Purpose
Expanding upon the special issue entitled “The special issue: AAAJ and research innovation”, published in 2012, this introduction to the second special issue of the genre is concerned with selected thematic special issues of AAAJ appearing during the second decade of publication from 1998 to 2007. The paper explores research innovation by means of the thematic issues addressed from this decade.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides a background to this special issue and an outline of the articles included. The issue features seven retrospective/prospective articles written by the guest editors of special thematic issues published during 1998 to 2007, supplemented where appropriate by other co-authors or, in one instance, by a new author team.
Findings
The guest editors and other contributing authors sought to identify and discuss the progression of each field since the AAAJ special issue was published, and to assess the impacts of the special issues to this progression, and to propose future research developments in the designated fields.
Research limitations/implications
This commentary on articles published is no substitute for carefully reading these contributions. The papers provide a comprehensive review of key developments in the literature until most recently and explore the opportunities for further innovative interdisciplinary accounting research.
Originality/value
This AAAJ special issue, and the earlier 2012 prototype, constitute a different approach to producing special issues, where the original special issues are revisited with a view to assessing research trends and impacts and to identifying research developments which are ripe for pursuing in each of these interdisciplinary accounting fields.
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Joseph Lok-Man Lee, Noel Yee-Man Siu, Tracy Junfeng Zhang and Shun Mun Helen Wong
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of cultural factors (concern for face and stability of attribution) in the relationships among service recovery…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of cultural factors (concern for face and stability of attribution) in the relationships among service recovery quality, postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention. Based on the politeness theory, this paper proposes a theoretical model for understanding how concern for face and stability of attribution may affect collectivists’ consumption behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected in a field survey of 600 Hong Kong consumers who had experienced a telecommunications service failure. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the theoretical hypotheses.
Findings
A cultural factor of concern for face is found to negatively moderate the relationship between service recovery quality and postrecovery satisfaction. Face also positively influences the relationship between postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention. Another cultural factor, stability of attribution, is found to negatively moderate the relationship between service recovery quality and postrecovery satisfaction and to negatively moderate the relationship between postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention.
Practical implications
This study contributes to the understanding of the relevance of concern for face and stability of attribution in collectivists’ consumption behavior. The findings have significant implications for managers in a position to exploit the cultural value mechanisms of collectivist consumers.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this has been the first research to examine the impact of concern for face and stability of attribution among service recovery quality, postrecovery satisfaction and repurchase intention.