Corporate scandals due to bad accounting happen far too frequently for a system of corporate governance to be deemed effective. This book tells why the safeguards designed to prevent bad accounting so often fail. By studying why the auditors and members of a board of directors regularly fail to deliver the truth about a company's financial state of affairs, this provocative book explores a serious problem in the system of reporting financial information. This book is unique in that it draws together various strands of the literature on corporate governance, accounting, law, cognitive research, psychology, behavioural economics and conventional economics to shed light on questions regarding the feasibility of independence and impartiality of boards of directors and external auditors as monitors and gatekeepers in corporate governance. The book is essential reading for professional accountants and auditors, directors, regulators, law makers, corporate lawyers, and investment bankers. It will appeal to all those interested in behavioural economics and corporate governance.

The security criteria of the International Standards Organization (ISO) provides an excellent foundation for identifying and addressing business risks through a disciplined security management process. Using security standards ISO 17799 and ISO 27001 as a basis, How to Achieve 27001 Certification: An Example of Applied Compliance Management helps an organization align its security and organizational goals so it can generate effective security, compliance, and management programs. The authors offer insight from their own experiences, providing questions and answers to determine an organization's information security strengths and weaknesses with respect to the standard. They also present step-by-step information to help an organization plan an implementation, as well as prepare for certification and audit. Security is no longer a luxury for an organization, it is a legislative mandate. A formal methodology that helps an organization define and execute an ISMS is essential in order to perform and prove due diligence in upholding stakeholder interests and legislative compliance. Providing a good starting point for novices, as well as finely tuned nuances for seasoned security professionals, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone involved with meeting an organization's security, certification, and compliance needs.

Written by two experienced lecturers, this is the first student-centered textbook to bridge the technical and theoretical aspects of management accounting change. Packed full of pedagogical features, including mini-cases, learning outcomes, key terms, article summaries, key concept boxes, real-world cases, chapter summaries and further reading suggestions and resources, it is clear and accessibly written, covering all the major emerging topics in management accounting theory.

Discussing technical developments in management accounting from conventional cost accounting to contemporary strategic management accounting and beyond, in four parts it:

• shows how conventional cost accounting techniques and management control models evolved in line with the development of mass production and bureaucracy
• explores how recent developments such as customer and strategic orientations in business, flexible manufacturing, post-bureaucracy, network and virtual organizational technologies implicate in management accounting
• provides a number of alternative theories through which the transition of management accounting from mechanistic to post-mechanistic approaches can be explained - elaborating both rational and interpretive/critical theories.

This excellent text meets a desperate need for an advanced management accounting textbook that incorporates theory and practice that is accessible and engaging for all those studying in this challenging area.

Hardbound. Advances in Management Accounting (AIMA) publishes well-developed articles on a variety of current topics in management accounting that are relevant to both practitioners and academicians. As a respected professional journal, AIMA is well poised to meet their information needs. Featured in recent volumes are articles on the practice and research of management accounting in the new century, the creation of customer value and outside-in cost, the drivers of customer and corporate profitability, product costing for manufacturing and service industries, performance measurement, capital budgeting, brand valuation, target costing, kaizen costing, and executive compensation issues. Accountants at all levels who work in corporations and not-for-profit organizations would be interested in the AIMA articles.

Volume 34 of Advances in Management Accounting uses a variety of methods, from experiments to surveys, to build upon existing knowledge within the management accounting discipline. Containing a diverse range of authors from Australia, China, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, this theoretically sound and practical research has a cutting-edge, wide-reaching appeal. Showcasing chapters on performance measurement, management control, incentive compensation and budgeting, this edited collection appeals particularly to management accountants in practice, analysing topics such as the effects that narcissism, psychological pressure, honesty, fairness, service quality and corporate social responsibility have on both performance and the roles of management accountants. Advances in Management Accounting (AMA) publishes thought-provoking volumes that advance knowledge in the management accounting discipline and are of interest to both academics and practitioners. The series seeks thoughtful, well -developed articles on a variety of current topics in management accounting, broadly defined. All research methods including survey research, field tests, corporate case studies, experiments, meta-analyses, and modeling are welcome.

This book investigates the legitimacy of the current Australian Financial Services Licensee-Authorised Representative (AFSL-AR) licensing model, as specified in the Commonwealth Corporations Act 2001. The book rectifies the deficiency in scholarly attention to this matter by developing a new conceptualised framework for the financial planning discipline. It takes into account theories in agency, legislation, legitimacy and the independent individual regulatory regimes in other professions; thereafter integrating this framework with the financial planning theory to examine the legitimacy, or what was found to be the illegitimacy of licensing advisers via multiple third party conflicted commercially oriented licensees. This book makes a very useful reference to understanding financial planning licencing model in Australia.

Not Required for Text Type.

This volume develops and applies a power control exchange framework of accounting that incorporates both the structural-functional (SF) (rational choice model) and the conflict-pluralistic (CP) (political choice model) to study management/organizational control systems as a resource exchange process. The framework proposes that control as an exchange process depends on two factors: basis of power, classified as SF-rational or CP-political and perceived availability of resources, dichotomized as relative slack or relative scarcity. The relationship between these two factors yields four types of resource exchange: co-operative, competitive, distributive or unequal. These resource exchange typologies are discussed and applied to study management accounting/control systems within the context of divisionalized business organizations. The book concludes with a chronological review of research together with applications for for-profit organizations.

Advances in Accounting Education is a high-quality publication of both empirical and non-empirical research that investigates vital matters related to teaching, learning, and curriculum development. By focusing on these topics, the series supports the improvement of accounting programs at colleges and universities, and fosters innovative discussion and significant contributions to faculty development. This 26th volume features 14 peer-reviewed papers surrounding four themes: capacity building and governance; curriculum and pedagogical innovations; educational tax cases and tax literacy; information technology and the curriculum. Authors explore empirical evidence on topics such as degree type and CPA exam performance, to the link between tax literacy and business experience of college students. A review of published pedagogical tax cases offers insights into their various characteristics. Finally, Volume 26 closes with a theme that explores specific ideas for incorporating new information technology developments into the accounting curriculum. Faculty with an interest in accounting education as well as accounting program administrators should find all four themes to be highly informative and interesting. Some practitioners and regulators in the accounting profession may also find useful policy-related nuggets in Volume 26.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data based applications in accounting and auditing have become pervasive in recent years. However, research on the societal implications of the widespread and partly unregulated use of AI and Big Data in several industries remains scarce despite salient and competing utopian and dystopian narratives. This book focuses on the transformation of accounting and auditing based on AI and Big Data. It not only provides a thorough and critical overview of the status-quo and the reports surrounding these technologies, but it also presents a future outlook on the ethical and normative implications concerning opportunities, risks, and limits. The book discusses topics such as future, human-machine collaboration, cybernetic approaches to decision-making, and ethical guidelines for good corporate governance of AI-based algorithms and Big Data in accounting and auditing. It clarifies the issues surrounding the digital transformation in this arena, delineates its boundaries, and highlights the essential issues and debates within and concerning this rapidly developing field. The authors develop a range of analytic approaches to the subject, both appreciative and sceptical, and synthesise new theoretical constructs that make better sense of human-machine collaborations in accounting and auditing. This book offers academics a variety of new research and theory building on digital accounting and auditing from and for accounting and auditing scholars, economists, organisations, and management academics and political and philosophical thinkers. Also, as a landmark work in a new area of current policy interest, it will engage regulators and policy makers, reflective practitioners, and media commentators through its authoritative contributions, editorial framing and discussion, and sector studies and cases.

This book, first published in 1990, is a practical manual which presents guidance on how to carry out and evaluate an employee relations audit. This title also provides audits for five key areas of employee relations, including communication and consultation, equality of opportunity and disciplinary matters. This book should be of interest to lecturers, post-graduate students and practitioners of management, personnel, employee relations and industrial relations.

The financial crisis of 2008 and its economic and social aftermath have highlighted the limits and risks of an increasingly global and embedded economy. Weakening society's trust in organizations and institutions, this has led to calls for new strategic paradigms that focus more on the ethical conduct of organizations. Performance measurement for sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a central role in these new contexts. The landscape of performance measurement and reporting is changing quickly, with calls for more integrated reporting and compulsory non-financial disclosures. Keeping up with those changes is a significant concern of managers in many organizations. Including research on the effectiveness and quality of non-financial disclosure, CSR/sustainability disclosure and Integrated Reporting, this exciting new volume looks to bridge the gaps in environmental, social and financial performance so managers can understand and successfully implement a broader, integrated view of performance measurement and reporting. Aimed at researchers and managers interested in performance measurement, this volume includes innovative research that sheds light on topics such as the determinants of disclosure quality, the identification of appropriate metrics, the relationship among the different disclosure mechanisms and between voluntary and mandatory disclosure, and many more.

Contemporary Environmental Accounting: Issues, Concepts and Practice has been written by two of the world's leading experts in the field in order to provide the most comprehensive and state-of-the-art textbook on environmental accounting yet attempted. The book is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate students and their teachers, professional accountants, and corporate and organisational managers. Although no prior knowledge of environmental accounting is necessary to understand the critical issues at stake, academic accountants will also find that the book provides a useful introduction to the topic. The goals of the book are to discuss and illustrate contemporary conceptual approaches to environmental accounting; to make readers aware of crucial controversial topics; and to offer practical examples of how the concepts have been applied throughout Europe, North America and Australia. In order to increase the usefulness of the book for relevant courses, each chapter concludes with a set of questions for review. This book is essential reading for all those who are interested in how environmental issues influence accounting. A solutions manual is available on request with the purchase of this book.

Performance measurement and management control are critical components of improving organizational performance. But, researchers have historically had little success in determining the specific actions that lead to superior performance. After several decades of research in this area, we have few clear conclusions. But, recently researchers have provided some clarity. Managers and researchers have more carefully collected and analyzed data to better understand the most effective management control and performance measurement mechanisms to drive and measure superior organizational performance.

This book contains a compendium of some of the excellent papers presented at a workshop on Performance Measurement and Management Control: Superior Organizational Performance in September, 2003. Sponsored by the European Institute for the Advanced Study in Management (EIASM) and held in Nice, France, this workshop attracted leading scholars on management control and performance measurement from around the world. The contents of this book represent a collection of leading research in management control and performance measurement and provide a significant contribution to the growing literature in the area.

The primary questions relate to the specific managerial actions that can be taken to drive superior organizational performance and the most appropriate measures of long term organizational success. The papers in this volume address these questions using a variety of research methods. Experimental, analytical, empirical, and field studies are all used to explain how management control and performance measurement can aid in the implementation of strategy and the improvement oforganizational performance. The approaches are used in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.
We are hopeful that this book will continue the search for additional understanding and development in performance measurement and management control and provide guidance for both academics and managers as they work toward improving organizational performance.

As technology evolves, it can be difficult to maintain a competitive edge. The management of intangible resources like competence, relationships, brands, processes and systems becomes increasingly important in such a world. Intellectual Capital as a Management Tool reviews the evidence to demonstrate where the intellectual capital view of the firm has made major contributions. The book introduces an updated version of the Intellectual Capital Navigator as an operational tool to help managers maximise value generation from an organisations portfolio of diverse resources. This tool is the only tool that enables organisations to use the resource based view of the firm in an operational way. The book also discusses future developments of the Intellectual Capital Navigator, increasing its precision around the financial aspects of the organisation. The book has broad application across all types of organisations and in all operating environments and is vital reading for managers who want to understand and exploit the importance of managing intellectual capital.

First published in 1998, this book provides an updated introduction to accounting and auditing in China, incorporating the most recent developments up to June 1997. It covers all major aspects of Chinese accounting and auditing, including accounting administrative systems, qualifications and responsibility of Chinese accountants, accounting regulations or standards setting, cost and managerial accounting, financial reporting, statutory audit and public accounting, accounting for governments and non-profit organizations, business financing and taxation systems, EDP application in accounting, accounting education and research etc. Some of the main accounting and auditing legislation and standards are complied in the Appendix. The book will be an informative reference to readers, both business executives and professionals, outside of China. It can also be used as a textbook or teaching supplement for Universities and Colleges.

This volume describes a range of experiences of internal audit in higher education institutions from the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Germany. It presents approaches to best practice designed to enable readers to assess and develop their own audit procedures.

Accounting irregularities are at the heart of those kinds of frauds that hit financial statements and include misstatement, misclassification as well as misrepresentation. In essence, they involve manipulation of accounting data, description or disclosure in order to distort the true financial picture of the organization in question. This book provides an in-depth practical reference, designed for litigators, investigators, auditors, accountants and other professionals who need to understand and combat accounting irregularities and to uphold the integrity of financial statements. Regulators will find this book an essential source of ideas and references when considering reforms. Educators and students will see this book as an alternative, inspiring way of understanding accounting and how to stay alert for accounting irregularities. The first two chapters introduce the basics of accounting irregularities in the context of the financial reporting environments, and generally accepted accounting principles in the UK and Hong Kong. Perpetrators often seek ways to creating financial illusions in four common directions - selling more, costing less, owning more and owing less as discussed in Chapters 3 to 6. The seventh chapter considers various ways that perpetrators manipulate the classification and disclosure of financial statements. Chapter 8 explores three scenarios of accounting irregularities - tax evasion, theft and commercial dispute. The concluding chapter sets out the deterrents to accounting irregularities in two dimensions. At the micro-level, deterrents are implemented within the authority of the organization in question, whilst the macro-level deterrents refer to the external environment beyond the controls of any individual organization.

As technology evolves, it can be difficult to maintain a competitive edge. The management of intangible resources like competence, relationships, brands, processes and systems becomes increasingly important in such a world. Intellectual Capital as a Management Tool reviews the evidence to demonstrate where the intellectual capital view of the firm has made major contributions. The book introduces an updated version of the Intellectual Capital Navigator as an operational tool to help managers maximise value generation from an organisations portfolio of diverse resources. This tool is the only tool that enables organisations to use the resource based view of the firm in an operational way. The book also discusses future developments of the Intellectual Capital Navigator, increasing its precision around the financial aspects of the organisation. The book has broad application across all types of organisations and in all operating environments and is vital reading for managers who want to understand and exploit the importance of managing intellectual capital.

This book examines the transgressions of the credit rating agencies before, during and after the recent financial crisis. It proposes that by restricting the agencies' ability to offer ancillary services there stands the opportunity to limit, in an achievable and practical manner, the potentially negative effect that the Big Three rating agencies - Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch - may have upon the financial sector and society moreover. The book contains an extensive and in-depth discussion about how the agencies ascended to their current position, why they were able to do so and ultimately their behaviour once their position was cemented. This work offers a new framework for the reader to follow, suggesting that investors, issuers and the state have a 'desired' version of the agencies in their thinking and operate upon that basis when, in fact, those imagined agencies do not exist, as demonstrated by the 'actual' conduct of the agencies. The book primarily aims to uncover this divergence and reveal the 'real' credit rating agencies, and then on that basis propose a real and potentially achievable reform to limit the negative effects that result from poor performance in this Industry. It addresses the topics with regard to financial regulation and the financial crisis, and will be of interest to legal scholars interested in the intersection between business and he law as well as researchers, academics, policymakers, industry and professional associations and students in the fields of corporate law, banking and finance law, financial regulation, corporate governance and corporate finance.

The concept of opportunity cost, an integral part of classical economic theory, is more than two hundred years old. Yet it is still not fully understood today. This work focuses on opportunity cost as it affects decision making, managing, and business problem solving--where the acceptance of one alternative precludes the acceptance of others. H.G. Heymann and Robert Bloom clarify the issues associated with the opportunity cost principle, the measurement of opportunity costs, and its practical applications in the areas of finance and accounting. By providing numerous examples to demonstrate these specific issues, they make an important, complex economic concept simple to understand.

Heymann and Bloom begin their work with simple examples that relate to the opportunity cost principle and introduce the framework in which it has been defined. Following a discussion of basic concepts, applications in economic theory, finance, and accounting are reviewed and analyzed, and increasingly complex, multidimensional, and interdependent problem statements are considered in relation to practical management procedures. The book's interdisciplinary approach addresses a number of issues related to opportunity cost, including the environment in which theories, models, and concepts are developed; the multiple dimensions of problem situations faced by practicing managers; various interpretations of opportunity cost in economic theory; and the relevance of opportunity cost in computer-aided Decision Support Systems. Written in a way that even people with a minimum background in economics can understand, "Opportunity Cost in Finance and Accounting" will enhance the reader's appreciation of the many complex issues that relate to organizational management, financial decision making, valuation, and opportunity costs. It will be a valuable supplementary text for courses in business and public administration, as well as for developmental seminars for professionals in finance, investment, and accounting. It will also be a significant addition to public, academic, and business libraries.

Environment and sustainable development challenges are a matter of global concern. Trillions of dollars of mostly public money are invested every year in domestic and international policies and programs to address these challenges. The effectiveness of these policies and programs is critical to environmental sustainability. Performance audits that examine the effectiveness of governmental policies and programs heavily influence their implementation. Despite this, performance auditing in the environment field has received very little academic attention. This book takes a closer look at performance auditing of public sector environmental policies and programs. It examines trends in global environmental performance auditing; and how it is currently practiced drawing on a global survey and case studies from Canada, India and Australia. In doing so, it identifies issues and challenges faced by Supreme Audit Institutions in undertaking these performance audits. This book will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners of sustainable development, environmental auditing and public sector auditing as well as to donor organisations engaged in these areas.

The book is designed to provide a conceptual framework for management accounting. The student as well as the practitioner in management accounting should be aware not only of the new multidisciplinary scope of the field but also of the conceptual foundations which justify this extended scope. Unlike most management accounting books which do not introduce or integrate all these foundations and are generally restricted to an exposition of cost accounting techniques, this book both asserts that the management accounting professional needs a grounding in various disciplines and justifies the adaptation of their techniques to managerial problem solving.

Five conceptual foundations envisioned for management accounting are presented: accounting foundations, decisional foundations, organizational foundations, behavioral foundations, and strategic foundations. A recurrent theme in each of these chapters is that a failure to grasp any of these conceptual foundations of management accounting may result in deficiencies in the management accounting system and inadequacies in the provision of the diverse services required by both the small and the complex organizations of today.

This collection of memorial articles and selected obituaries highlights the careers and contributions to accounting practice, the accounting profession, and the accounting literature of leading American figures in the 20th century. The memorial articles do much more than recite their subject's career. More importantly, they discuss and assess their subject's role in influencing the course of accounting practice and the profession as well as the evolution of their influential writings, revealing the names of the accounting leaders and leading thinkers of the past century. Memorial Articles for 20th Century American Accounting Leaders is useful in providing students and young researchers with a rich source of intelligence on the leaders who have established norms of practice, advanced the profession, and set the terms of debate in the literature - leaders who are cited and even quoted but who are known mostly as names without a full-bodied treatment of their backgrounds and broader roles in shaping the accounting literature.