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The purpose of this paper is to outline an agenda for researching the relationship between technology-enabled networks – such as social media and big data – and the accounting function. In doing so, it links the contents of an unfolding area research with the papers published in this special issue of Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal.

The paper surveys the existing literature, which is still in its infancy, and proposes ways in which to frame early and future research. The intention is not to offer a comprehensive review, but to stimulate and conversation.

The authors review several existing studies exploring technology-enabled networks and highlight some of the key aspects featuring social media and big data, before offering a classification of existing research efforts, as well as opportunities for future research. Three areas of investigation are identified: new performance indicators based on social media and big data; governance of social media and big data information resources; and, finally, social media and big data’s alteration of information and decision-making processes.

The authors are currently experiencing a technological revolution that will fundamentally change the way in which organisations, as well as individuals, operate. It is claimed that many knowledge-based jobs are being automated, as well as others transformed with, for example, data scientists ready to replace even the most qualified accountants. But, of course, similar claims have been made before and therefore, as academics, the authors are called upon to explore the impact of these technology-enabled networks further. This paper contributes by starting a debate and speculating on the possible research agendas ahead.

The purpose of this paper is to test the performativity of intellectual capital (IC) from the perspective of sell-side analysts, a type of actor who consumes and creates IC information and in whose practice IC information plays a significant role.

The empirical component of the study comprises a narrative analysis of the text of a large corpus of sell-side analysts’ initiation coverage reports. The authors adopt Mouritsen’s (2006) performative and ostensive conceptualisations of IC as the theoretical framework.

The authors find that the identities and properties of IC elements are variable, dynamic and transformative. The relevance of IC elements in the eyes of analysts is conditional on the context, temporally contingent and bestowed indirectly. IC elements are attributed to firm value both directly, in a linear manner, and indirectly, via various non-linear interrelationships established with other IC elements, tangible capital and financial capital.

This study challenges the conventional IC research paradigm and contributes towards a performativity-inspired conceptualisation of IC and a resultant situated model of IC in place of a predictive model.

This is the first study to apply a performative lens to study IC identities, roles and relationships from the perspective of a field of practice that is external to the organisation where IC is hosted. Examining IC from analysts’ perspective is important because not only can it provide an alternative perspective of IC, it also enables an understanding of analysts’ field of practice.

The authors examined how squad members within an Australian state police force perceived and attached enabling or coercive meanings to a suite of management control system (MCS) changes that were new public management (NPM) inspired.

The authors conducted a longitudinal case study of a large Australian state police department utilizing an abductive research design.

The authors found that identification processes strongly conditioned the reception of the MCS changes introduced. Initially, the authors observed mixed interpretations of controls as both enabling and coercive. Over time, these changes were seen to be coercive because they threatened interpersonal relationships and the importance and efficacy of squads in combating serious and organized crime.

The authors contributed to MCSs literature by revealing the critical role that multifaceted relational and collective identification processes played in shaping interpretations of controls as enabling–coercive. The authors build on this to elaborate on the notion of employees’ centricity in the MCS design.

This study suggests that, in complex organizational settings, the MCS design and change should reckon with pre-existing patterns of employees’ identification.

The authors suggested shifting the starting point for contemplating the MCS change: from looking at how what employees do is controlled to how the change impacts and how employees feel about who they are. When applied to the MCS design, employee centricity highlights the value of collaborative co-design, attentiveness to relational identification between employees, feedback and interaction in place of inferred management expectations and traditional mechanistic approaches.

The disclosure of information on organisational knowledge resources and related knowledge management (KM) activities in annual reports has become a much debated issue within the intellectual capital (IC) discourse. This paper discusses the disclosure of IC information, and in particularly human capital information, in an Australian public sector organisation's annual reports. It contrasts and compares the case study organisation's internal IC management issues and practices with its external IC reporting practices. The empirical analysis demonstrates inconsistency between the organisation's internal IC management issues and practices and its external IC reporting practices. It shows that strategically important information about the organisation's management challenges, knowledge resources, KM activities and IC indicators was not disclosed to external stakeholders in the organisation's annual reports. The study exemplifies to external stakeholders the significance of the provision of information on IC and, in particular human capital, and highlights to public policy makers the relevance of extending existing reporting policies to incorporate disclosure requirements for organisations to include information on IC in annual reports.

The purpose of this paper is to review and present a contemporary perspective on interdisciplinary accounting research in the context of the public services.

The authors present the experience, interpretations and perspective on the state of this research and how it might usefully proceed. The authors use the concept of knowledge production modes to inform the discussion on how the authors might tackle wicked problems.

The interdisciplinary accounting research project in the public services needs to do more in terms of moving outside the disciplines of accounting scholarship. Shifting to a mode of knowledge production that addresses wicked problems requires the interdisciplinary accounting project to work on specific problems with real world application. The authors must re-envision how the work with practice in the doing of research.

This timely perspective argues for a transition in the interdisciplinary accounting research project in the public services before its approach, assumptions and methods become taken-for-granted, potentially missing this opportunity to shift into a more engaged research enterprise.

The purpose of this study is to examine how managers in financial institutions satisfy themselves of the effectiveness of risk mitigation strategy and management control. It studies the co-opting of accounting tools within a single financial institution case study, examining the recursive and emergent characteristics of risk management practice.

Adopting a field study approach within the strategy-as-practice perspective, the paper provides insights into the role of actor perceptions of risk and accounting as a calculative practice in the adaptive enactment of risk strategy.

Results highlight the interactions between risk management strategy, management controls and actor interests at Lehman Brothers. The actions and reactions of risk management decision-makers such as Executive Committee and Board members are examined to better understand the role of accounting and leadership.

Results of this study may not be generalised beyond this single case study.

The paper emphasises that concern for the social relations and the performative interests of actors in a risk management network needs to be understood and considered in accounting research. It is argued that the market prices of tradable financial asset will continue to be opaque without these insights.

This study explores an under-researched topic in the accounting literature in examining how management controls are affected by and, in turn, affect risk strategising.

Drawing on the concept of intellectual capital (IC) as a complex web of intangible resources, this paper seeks to outline a method for making sense of IC utilising narratives, numbers and visualisations.

The paper details the use of organisational narratives to make sense of the complexity of IC and how it works within a firm. It then demonstrates how organisational interventions into IC might be prioritised and developed.

The method is presented in the context within which it was developed, being a research project into how IC works within a division of a financial services company. In the project, divisional management was dissatisfied with its current financial and non‐financial performance measures. As a result, it engaged with the researchers to identify how to make sense of IC, how IC created value and how this could be used to inform management interventions.

The paper contributes to the literature on management accounting and IC by presenting a relatively novel method for: disentangling complex IC interactions at a point in time into its discoverable components, prioritising interventions, and revealing IC system dynamics when the method is repeated over time.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a framework that examines the effectiveness and efficiency of managing knowledge in organizations for competitive advantage.

Reviews knowledge management and strategic cost management literatures to identify key elements that determine and facilitate the enhancement of competitive advantage. Develops a cost‐knowledge management (CKM) framework that integrates these elements and enables the analysis of how knowledge utilization in organizational activities can be made more effective and efficient.

The CKM framework is usefully applied to a sample of four Italian firms operating in the mechanical industry. Both the results of applying the CKM framework and the insights that are generated are discussed.

The CKM framework allows organizations to analyze the activities performed in terms of cost structure and cost drivers, value created, and knowledge utilized, the latter in terms of knowledge specificity and type. The framework can also be used to highlight specific areas of effectiveness improvements in terms of identifying which activities should be leveraged and how knowledge can be better mobilized. In addition, the framework enables an assessment of the non value added but required and waste elements of organizational activities and the specific drivers of costs in these activities, thereby enabling an identification of efficiency improvement opportunities.

This paper integrates strategic cost management and knowledge management perspectives to examine how organizations can usefully analyze and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of managing knowledge for competitive advantage. Thus far, this integration has not occurred in either literatures.