IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bracre/v37y2005i4p367-387.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Minding our manners: Accounting as social norms

Author

Listed:
  • Sunder, Shyam

Abstract

The accounting standardization project, kicked off by the passage of US securities laws in the 1930s, has steadily gained momentum over seven decades. Today, written standards dominate accounting thought, practice, regulation, instruction, even research. Generally accepted accounting principles—originally a mere description in its plain English meaning—have since been capitalized into a proper name—Generally Accepted Accounting Principles—and the phrase now describes rules and regulations issued by authorities with power to inflict punishment on those who do not choose to accept them. How and why did financial reporting get caught in the standardization project, replacing social norms of corporate and professional behavior by written rules and standards? What are the consequences of this transformation? What alternative courses are available to accounting and corporate governance? I argue that heavy reliance on the codification of financial reporting has been a wrong path. A shift from rules towards norms of behavior may yet help accounting and corporate governance recover a better balance.

Suggested Citation

  • Sunder, Shyam, 2005. "Minding our manners: Accounting as social norms," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 367-387.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:37:y:2005:i:4:p:367-387
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2005.08.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890838905000624
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bar.2005.08.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Plott, Charles R & Sunder, Shyam, 1988. "Rational Expectations and the Aggregation of Diverse Information in Laboratory Security Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(5), pages 1085-1118, September.
    2. Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, James, 1991. "The aura of accounting in the context of a crisis: Germany and the first world war," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(5-6), pages 487-520.
    3. Maltby, Josephine, 1997. "Accounting and the soul of the middle class: Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 69-87, January.
    4. George J. Stigler, 1971. "The Theory of Economic Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 2(1), pages 3-21, Spring.
    5. Djankov, Simeon & Glaeser, Edward & La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "The new comparative economics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 595-619, December.
    6. Sunder, Shyam, 2002. "Regulatory competition among accounting standards within and across international boundaries," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 219-234.
    7. Karim Jamal & Michael Maier & Shyam Sunder, 2003. "Privacy in E‐Commerce: Development of Reporting Standards, Disclosure, and Assurance Services in an Unregulated Market," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 285-309, May.
    8. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    9. Chrysanthos Dellarocas, 2003. "The Digitization of Word of Mouth: Promise and Challenges of Online Feedback Mechanisms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(10), pages 1407-1424, October.
    10. repec:aei:rpbook:53576 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Dye, Ra, 1985. "Strategic Accounting Choice And The Effects Of Alternative Financial-Reporting Requirements," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 544-574.
    12. Sunder, Shyam, 2002. "Regulatory competition for low cost-of-capital accounting rules," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 147-149.
    13. Shyam Sunder, 2003. "Rethinking the Structure of Accounting and Auditing," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm392, Yale School of Management.
    14. Barth, James R. & Caprio, Gerard Jr. & Levine, Ross, 2004. "Bank regulation and supervision: what works best?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 205-248, April.
    15. Shyam NMI Sunder & Ronald A. Dye, 2001. "Why Not Allow the FASB and IASB Standards to Compete in the U.S.?," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm192, Yale School of Management.
    16. Dellarocas, Chrysanthos, 2003. "The Digitization of Word-of-mouth: Promise and Challenges of Online Feedback Mechanisms," Working papers 4296-03, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    17. Kumar Sivakumar & Gregory Waymire, 2003. "Enforceable Accounting Rules and Income Measurement by Early 20th Century Railroads," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 397-432, May.
    18. Jackson, Myles W., 1992. "Goethe's economy of nature and the nature of his economy," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 459-469, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bayou, Mohamed E. & Reinstein, Alan & Williams, Paul F., 2011. "To tell the truth: A discussion of issues concerning truth and ethics in accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 109-124, February.
    2. Braun Eduard, 2019. "The Ecological Rationality of Historical Costs and Conservatism," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-30, March.
    3. Komori, Naoko, 2015. "Beneath the globalization paradox: Towards the sustainability of cultural diversity in accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 141-156.
    4. Allen D. Blay & Eric S. Gooden & Mark J. Mellon & Douglas E. Stevens, 2018. "The Usefulness of Social Norm Theory in Empirical Business Ethics Research: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 191-206, September.
    5. Murphy, Tim & O’Connell, Vincent & Ó hÓgartaigh, Ciarán, 2013. "Discourses surrounding the evolution of the IASB/FASB Conceptual Framework: What they reveal about the “living law” of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 72-91.
    6. Serhii Lehenchuk & Yurii Velykyi & Svitlana Belinska, 2018. "Development Of Variability Concept In Accounting: Ukrainian Context," Baltic Journal of Economic Studies, Publishing house "Baltija Publishing", vol. 4(3).
    7. Stergios Leventis & Emmanouil Dedoulis & Omneya Abdelsalam, 2018. "The Impact of Religiosity on Audit Pricing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 53-78, March.
    8. Jeff P. Boone & Inder K. Khurana & K. K. Raman, 2013. "Religiosity and Tax Avoidance," Working Papers 0198acc, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    9. Boahen, Eric & Mamatzakis, Emmanuel, 2016. "Do Religion, Corporate Governance and BIG 4 Audit Interactions Affect Misclassification?," MPRA Paper 76804, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Mathieu Gomes & Sylvain Marsat & Jonathan Peillex & Guillaume Pijourlet, 2023. "Does religiosity influence corporate greenwashing behavior?," Papers 2312.14515, arXiv.org.
    11. Biondi Yuri, 2011. "The Pure Logic of Accounting: A Critique of the Fair Value Revolution," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-49, January.
    12. Gregory Waymire & Sudipta Basu, 2011. "Economic crisis and accounting evolution," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 207-232, August.
    13. Eduard Braun, 2014. "Just a Matter of Prospect (Theory)? - The Ecological Rationality of the Traditional Accounting Principles," TUC Working Papers in Economics 0012, Abteilung für Volkswirtschaftslehre, Technische Universität Clausthal (Department of Economics, Technical University Clausthal).
    14. Chantziaras, Antonios & Dedoulis, Emmanouil & Grougiou, Vassiliki & Leventis, Stergios, 2020. "The impact of religiosity and corruption on CSR reporting: The case of U.S. banks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 362-374.
    15. Shizuki Saito, 2011. "Accounting Standards and Global Convergence Revisited: Social Norms and Economic Concepts," The Japanese Accounting Review, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, vol. 1, pages 105-117, December.
    16. Shyam Sunder, 2011. "Paradox of Writing Clear Rules: Interplay of Financial Reporting Standards and Engineering," The Japanese Accounting Review, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, vol. 1, pages 119-130, December.
    17. Alharbi, Samar S. & Atawnah, Nader & Ali, Muhammad Jahangir & Eshraghi, Arman, 2023. "Gambling culture and earnings management: A novel perspective," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 520-539.
    18. Lamia Chourou & Luo He & Ligang Zhong, 2020. "Does religiosity enhance the quality of management earnings forecasts?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7-8), pages 910-948, July.
    19. Luzi Hail & Ahmed Tahoun & Clare Wang, 2018. "Corporate Scandals and Regulation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 617-671, May.
    20. Heydebrand, Wolf, 2009. "Accounting for great expectations: Lessons from the new media surge for critical management theory," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 418-444.
    21. Karim Jamal & Shyam Sunder, 2014. "Monopoly versus Competition in Setting Accounting Standards," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 50(4), pages 369-385, December.
    22. Hanne Nørreklit & Lennart Nørreklit & Falconer Mitchell, 2010. "Towards a paradigmatic foundation for accounting practice," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(6), pages 733-758, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2021. "Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1176-1248, September.
    2. Robert Bushman & Wayne Landsman, 2010. "The pros and cons of regulating corporate reporting: A critical review of the arguments," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 259-273.
    3. Shyam Sunder, 2003. "Rethinking the Structure of Accounting and Auditing," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm382, Yale School of Management.
    4. Mertzanis, Charilaos, 2020. "Financial supervision structure, decentralized decision-making and financing constraints," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 13-37.
    5. Baum, Donald R. & Cooper, Rachel & Lusk-Stover, Oni, 2018. "Regulating market entry of low-cost private schools in Sub-Saharan Africa: Towards a theory of private education regulation," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 100-112.
    6. Darcy W E Allen, 2020. "When Entrepreneurs Meet:The Collective Governance of New Ideas," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number q0269, January.
    7. Thorsten Beck & Ross Levine, 2008. "Legal Institutions and Financial Development," Springer Books, in: Claude Ménard & Mary M. Shirley (ed.), Handbook of New Institutional Economics, chapter 11, pages 251-278, Springer.
    8. Shyam Sunder, 2005. "Social Norms versus Standards of Accounting," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2525, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Sep 2005.
    9. Napier, Christopher J., 2006. "Accounts of change: 30 years of historical accounting research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 445-507.
    10. Christensen, Hans B. & Liu, Lisa Yao & Maffett, Mark, 2020. "Proactive financial reporting enforcement and shareholder wealth," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2).
    11. Karim Jamal, 2008. "Mandatory Audit of Financial Reporting: A Failed Strategy for Dealing with Fraud," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(2), pages 97-110, May.
    12. Madsen Paul E., 2013. "Evaluating Accounting Standards: A Comment on Ramanna’s ‘The International Politics of IFRS Harmonization’," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 3(2), pages 1-15, January.
    13. Lisa Evans, 2009. "“A witches' dance of numbers”," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(2), pages 169-199, January.
    14. Roland Königsgruber, 2010. "A political economy of accounting standard setting," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 14(4), pages 277-295, November.
    15. David Procházka, 2015. "Is a Full International Accounting Convergence Desirable? [Je žádoucí úplná konvergence účetního výkaznictví?]," Český finanční a účetní časopis, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2015(3), pages 7-23.
    16. Fang, Mingyue & Nie, Huihua & Shen, Xinyi, 2023. "Can enterprise digitization improve ESG performance?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    17. Edgardo Arturo Ayala Gaytán, 2009. "Social network externalities and price dispersion in online markets," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(2), pages 1-28, November.
    18. Liuan Wang & Lu (Lucy) Yan & Tongxin Zhou & Xitong Guo & Gregory R. Heim, 2020. "Understanding Physicians’ Online-Offline Behavior Dynamics: An Empirical Study," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 537-555, June.
    19. Tobias Gesche, 2022. "Reference‐price shifts and customer antagonism: Evidence from reviews for online auctions," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 558-578, August.
    20. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Levine, Ross, 2006. "Bank supervision and corruption in lending," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(8), pages 2131-2163, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:37:y:2005:i:4:p:367-387. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-british-accounting-review .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.