Accounting: In Crisis or Ascendancy?

Accounting: In crisis or ascendancy?, Accounting History, 10(3), 2005, 71-87

30 Pages Posted: 8 Sep 2013

See all articles by Indra Abeysekera

Indra Abeysekera

Charles Darwin University, Australia

Date Written: 2005

Abstract

Recent corporate failure has challenged the credibility of the accounting profession, leading many stakeholders to question the usefulness of financial reports for decision-making. This paper examines fluctuations in the accounting profession’s authoritative influence over accounting standard setting and financial reporting. It focuses on the period following the collapse of the HIH Group in 2002, with contextual reference to earlier periods. It then outlines the submissions made by the accounting profession, actuaries and regulatory institutions to the Royal Commission Inquiry into the collapse of the HIH Group. These submissions are analysed in relation to the profession promoting functionally defined interests and offering stable compromises, the questioning of the legitimacy of accounting techniques by society and government, and the demand by other constituents that the accounting profession overcome the inequalities that arise from current accounting practice. Finally, the paper offers suggestions as to how the profession can reconstruct itself to regain its lost authority.

Keywords: accounting, associations, Australia, conceptual framework, corporate failures, HIH Group, political economy

Suggested Citation

Abeysekera, Indra, Accounting: In Crisis or Ascendancy? (2005). Accounting: In crisis or ascendancy?, Accounting History, 10(3), 2005, 71-87, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2322123

Indra Abeysekera (Contact Author)

Charles Darwin University, Australia ( email )

Australia
+61889468807 (Phone)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
66
Abstract Views
388
Rank
613,074
PlumX Metrics