IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/aaajpp/v24y2011i6p781-809.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Let ' s talk

Author

Listed:
  • Gerard Stone

Abstract

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of small business managers ' objectives and preferred methods of communicating on the communications aspect of accountants ' advisory relationship with small business. Through exploring and reporting on these issues, the paper seeks to contribute to understanding of accounting ' s capacity to satisfy the communication needs of its users. Design/methodology/approach - – The study employs a mixed methodology, comprising a questionnaire to access evidence from small business managers and semi-structured interviews with accountants, which provide a complementary perspective to accountant/small business communications. The analysis of the findings is informed by media richness theory. Findings - – Small business managers prefer direct forms of contact with their accountants and the richness of verbal communications. This is demonstrated in accountants ' use of visual and audio cues, including reinforcing and adjusting techniques, which enhance the appeal and utility of verbal communications. Accountants ' documents have been relegated to a supplementary reinforcing function in the profession ' s communications with small business. Small firm managers ' objectives influence their interest in and use of accounting information and the communications approach that their accountant implements. The findings indicate that accountants adopt communications approaches with small business managers, which satisfy the communication needs of the economically significant small business sector, a significant user of accounting information and services. Originality/value - – The paper contributes to redressing a gap in the accounting discipline ' s literature regarding accountants ' communications with small business, while offering insights that may be useful to practitioners in their advisory relationships with small business managers.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerard Stone, 2011. "Let ' s talk," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(6), pages 781-809, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:v:24:y:2011:i:6:p:781-809
    DOI: 10.1108/09513571111155546
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09513571111155546/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09513571111155546/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/09513571111155546?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. John K. Courtis & Omar Abdullah Zaid, 2002. "Early employment problems of Australian accounting graduates: An exploratory study," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3-4), pages 320-339, September.
    2. Sonja Gallhofer & Jim Haslam & Elizabeth Monk & Clare Roberts, 2006. "The emancipatory potential of online reporting: The case of counter accounting," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(5), pages 681-718, September.
    3. Niamh Brennan & Encarna Guillamon-Saorin & Aileen Pierce, 2009. "Impression management : developing and illustrating a scheme of analysis for narrative disclosures – a methodological note," Open Access publications 10197/2905, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    4. Richard L. Daft & Robert H. Lengel, 1986. "Organizational Information Requirements, Media Richness and Structural Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(5), pages 554-571, May.
    5. Wheeler, Patrick & Arunachalam, Vairam, 2009. "The effects of multimedia on cognitive aspects of decision-making," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 97-116.
    6. Charles H. Cho & Jillian R. Phillips & Amy M. Hageman & Dennis M. Patten, 2009. "Media richness, user trust, and perceptions of corporate social responsibility," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(6), pages 933-952, July.
    7. Jane Davison & Samantha Warren, 2009. "Imag[in]ing accounting and accountability," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(6), pages 845-857, July.
    8. Marie H. Kavanagh & Lyndal Drennan, 2008. "What skills and attributes does an accounting graduate need? Evidence from student perceptions and employer expectations," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 48(2), pages 279-300, June.
    9. Shawnee K. Vickery & Cornelia Droge & Theodore P. Stank & Thomas J. Goldsby & Robert E. Markland, 2004. "The Performance Implications of Media Richness in a Business-to-Business Service Environment: Direct Versus Indirect Effects," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(8), pages 1106-1119, August.
    10. Brian Rutherford, 2003. "Obfuscation, Textual Complexity and the Role of Regulated Narrative Accounting Disclosure in Corporate Governance," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 7(2), pages 187-210, June.
    11. Catriona Paisey & Nicholas J. Paisey, 2006. "And they all lived happily ever after?: Exploring the possibilities of mobilising the internet to promote a more enabling accounting for occupational pension schemes," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(5), pages 719-758, September.
    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. Daff, Lyn & Parker, Lee D., 2021. "A conceptual model of accountants' communication inside not-for-profit organisations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).
    2. Barone, Elisabetta & Ranamagar, Nathan & Solomon, Jill F., 2013. "A Habermasian model of stakeholder (non)engagement and corporate (ir)responsibility reporting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 163-181.
    3. Alexandre Farias Albuquerque & Edmundo Escrivão Filho & Marcelo Seido Nagano & Luiz Adalberto Philippsen Junior, 2016. "A change in the importance of mortality factors throughout the life cycle stages of small businesses," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 6(1), pages 1-18, December.

    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. García Osma, Beatriz & Guillamón-Saorín, Encarna, 2011. "Corporate governance and impression management in annual results press releases," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 187-208.
    2. Charles H. Cho & Jillian R. Phillips & Amy M. Hageman & Dennis M. Patten, 2009. "Media richness, user trust, and perceptions of corporate social responsibility," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(6), pages 933-952, July.
    3. Yang, Jialiang & Li, Yaokuang & Calic, Goran & Shevchenko, Anton, 2020. "How multimedia shape crowdfunding outcomes: The overshadowing effect of images and videos on text in campaign information," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 6-18.
    4. Shrives, Philip J. & Brennan, Niamh M., 2015. "A typology for exploring the quality of explanations for non-compliance with UK corporate governance regulations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 85-99.
    5. Leung, Sidney & Parker, Lee & Courtis, John, 2015. "Impression management through minimal narrative disclosure in annual reports," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 275-289.
    6. Encarna Guillamón-Saorín & Carlos M. P. Sousa, 2014. "Voluntary Disclosure of Press Releases and the Importance of Timing: A Comparative Study of the UK and Spain," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 71-106, February.
    7. Iyer, Sriya & Velu, Chander & Mumit, Abdul, 2014. "Communication and marketing of services by religious organizations in India," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 59-67.
    8. Kshitij Khanna & Helen Irvine, 2018. "Communicating the Impact of the Global Financial Crisis in Annual Reports: A Study of Australian NGOs," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(1), pages 109-126, March.
    9. Josef Windsperger & Nina Gorovaia, 2011. "Knowledge attributes and the choice of knowledge transfer mechanism in networks: the case of franchising," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 15(4), pages 617-640, November.
    10. Shuili Du & Edward Vieira, 2012. "Striving for Legitimacy Through Corporate Social Responsibility: Insights from Oil Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(4), pages 413-427, November.
    11. Korschun, Daniel & Du, Shuili, 2013. "How virtual corporate social responsibility dialogs generate value: A framework and propositions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1494-1504.
    12. Stone, Gerard William, 2011. "Readability of accountants’ communications with small business—Some Australian evidence," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 247-261.
    13. Cho, Charles H. & Roberts, Robin W. & Patten, Dennis M., 2010. "The language of US corporate environmental disclosure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 431-443, May.
    14. Pan, Peipei & Perera, Hector, 2012. "Market relevance of university accounting programs: Evidence from Australia," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 91-108.
    15. Niamh Brennan & Doris M. Merkl-Davies, 2013. "Accounting Narratives and Impression Management," Open Access publications 10197/4949, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    16. Ciaran Heavey & Zeki Simsek & Christina Kyprianou & Marten Risius, 2020. "How do strategic leaders engage with social media? A theoretical framework for research and practice," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(8), pages 1490-1527, August.
    17. Koo, Chulmo & Wati, Yulia & Jung, Jason J., 2011. "Examination of how social aspects moderate the relationship between task characteristics and usage of social communication technologies (SCTs) in organizations," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 445-459.
    18. Rajiv D. Banker & Indranil Bardhan & Ozer Asdemir, 2006. "Understanding the Impact of Collaboration Software on Product Design and Development," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 352-373, December.
    19. Perkiss, Stephanie & Bernardi, Cristiana & Dumay, John & Haslam, Jim, 2021. "A sticky chocolate problem: Impression management and counter accounts in the shaping of corporate image," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    20. Maria-Silvia Sandulescu & Catalin-Nicolae Albu, 2018. "Impression Management in The Letters to Shareholders of Listed Entities: A Romanian Case Study," Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems, Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 353-373, September.

    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:eme:aaajpp:v:24:y:2011:i:6:p:781-809. 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: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.