Search Results (6)

Approximately two decades after the approval of POCP, and following an assessment of the need for an accounting system that meets the demands of proper planning, accountability, and financial control, the SNC-AP was introduced. This system, regulated by 27 Public Accounting Standards, has faced challenges in its implementation. Therefore, it is relevant to analyze how managers of Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs) perceive this issue. The objective of this research is to determine whether HEI managers use management control tools, which management control models are adopted, and the difficulties encountered in their implementation. To achieve this, a qualitative empirical study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with 12 administrators and financial directors from Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs). The results show that management accounting is complex and challenging to implement. Portuguese HEIs are still in the early stages of adopting these tools, with progress limited to defining activities and cost centers. Conditions have not yet been established to calculate, for example, the cost per course, student, project, or service, as outlined in NCP27 of the SNC-AP. Full article

Objective: In recent years, management accounting in higher education institutions has undergone significant changes due to the various New Public Management (NPM) reforms. One of the management accounting tools that has been advised to HEIs is Activity-Based Costing (ABC). With this evolving field of research, this article aims to analyze research in international scientific journals focusing on ABC in HEIs. To this end, this article provides an overview of how research in this area has evolved. We present an overview of the past, present, and future of research in the field of the ABC model applied in HEIs. Methodology: Through a systematic literature review, the Web of Science and Scopus databases were used as a source of articles. Our analysis is based on a total of 139 articles. We used a systematic literature review combining different bibliometric techniques. These allowed us to develop a mapping of the literature on the application of the ABC model in HEIs, which helps us better understand the research related to the topic and its evolution. Results: It is concluded that the existing literature on this topic has developed along three lines of research: implementation of ABC as a cost-control method, TDABC as a time-based cost-control method, and the application of the ABC Method in health services. Originality: Based on the results found, this article identifies avenues of research that can be explored, namely the study of the application of ABC in the education sector, and provides a research agenda for future studies. Full article

This paper reviews accounting education literature with a focus on the supply of and demand for accounting professional’s competencies. Its main objective is to determine which actors are involved in the relationship, ascertain both sides’ perspectives, and evidence competency supply and demand over the last 15 years. After a solid selection, the analysis includes 122 empirical articles from 2006 to 2021. The actors and competencies addressed in the relevant literature were identified and strategies used in their assessment were discovered. The identified competencies were then categorized and framed in the five constructs presented by Kroon and Alves. This approach evidenced that mismatches remain between competency expectations and competency supply in the accounting profession. Investigators may consider the results to improve the consistency of research in this field of study, contributing to a theory that is still lacking. Using the identified concepts and the constructs’ components, empirical studies can bring substantial practical implications to reduce or eliminate existing competency gaps. This study provides an integrated understanding of the literature on the fit between higher education institutions and the labor market of the accounting professional’s competencies. The framing of actors, strategies, and competencies will assist other researchers in augmenting knowledge in this area. Full article

Purpose: This paper reviews the recent accounting literature focusing on emerging technologies’ impacts on accountants’ role and skills. Specifically, it determines what emerging technologies are most studied concerning their impacts on accountants’ role and skills, which research strategies are used in the studies that focus on this theme, and the impacts of the identified emerging technologies on accountants’ skills. It also investigates whether open innovation is an influencing factor in this connection. Methodology: Through a systematic literature review following the five-step approach described by Denyer and Tranfield, the Web of Science and Scopus databases are used as a source of article collection. Thus, our analysis starts with a total of 157 articles. Findings: The main analytical results of the study identify the skills that today’s accountants must have and what role is assigned to them. Practical implications: Professional bodies and regulators may take the results into account in informing the revision of standards, rules, and laws for the new environment. Educational institutions can use the results to adjust their programs to prepare students with the skills employers expect them to have. Contribution: This study provides an integrated understanding of the implications of recent technological developments on the accountant’s role and skills that have been hitherto discussed in the existing literature in a fragmented way. Future research suggestions are also provided, based on identified gaps in the literature, assisting other researchers in finding a way to augment knowledge in this area. Full article

The discussion in recent decades about sustainable development issues has given rise to a new accounting dimension: social accounting. Currently, this issue remains an emerging theme. Although there are some studies and literature reviews, none include disclosure of social accounting information or the analysis of research paradigms. This article reviews the research on social accounting disclosure and tries to answer the following research questions: What research streams have been followed? Which theories and research paradigms have been used? The search for articles to be included in the literature review was performed through the Web of Science. The 126 articles obtained were later analyzed using Bibliometrix software. Results expose the growing interest in this theme and identify three distinct research lines (three clusters): Cluster 1—Social accounting disclosures, Cluster 2—Legitimacy vs. disclosure of social accounting, and Cluster 3—Motivations for disclosure of social accounting. The main contribute of this article resides, on the one hand, in the fact that no literature review articles have been found that include the theme of the disclosure of information on social accounting and, on the other hand, the treatment of data has been done with innovative software, an R package for bibliometric and co-citation analysis called Bibliometrix. As well as mapping the literature, another theoretical contribution of this study was identifying the main research approaches used in the studies. Within the paradigmatic plurality of social accounting research, the results suggest that social accounting research can also be critically addressed when addressing the sustainability challenges posed by climate change or carbon emissions, among many other aspects. This study is, to our knowledge, the first bibliometric review done about social accounting information disclosure. Full article

With globalisation, there has been an intensification of investments by foreign groups in sectors strategic to their country of origin, such as some minerals. It is, therefore, crucial for a parent company to implement specific controls in its management control systems. In these circumstances, this study aims to determine the degree of control exercised by the parent company over a subsidiary in cultural and organisational dimensions. In addition, other exogenous factors (entities and external factors) influence this system. The results obtained showed that the parent company had an influence on the Management Control System (MCS) of the subsidiary and changed the way control was exercised there, but was unable to deal with macroeconomic instability, environmental and strategic uncertainty, and, consequently, the management risk involved in the extractive activity; in this case, for this subsidiary to operate a seam mine and not be aware of it since it is essentially a commercial, economic group. In addition to these effects on the organisational dimension and the cultural dimension, the shareholders were unable to integrate the subsidiary’s organisational and local culture, which generated some dynamic tension with the expatriate. In addition to the theoretical framework used, it was confirmed that the Flamholtz model is passive to implement in industries in general, particularly in the extractive industry. Finally, some final considerations were made about the management control system, in which the argument is reinforced that there must be empathy between the local staff and the expatriate, as a representative of the shareholders, in order for this system to be a vehicle for the effective transfer of knowledge between both parties, as well as to be supported by open innovation. Full article