IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/acctbr/v32y2002i2p79-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The contributions of Alexander Thomas Niven and John Ballantine Niven to the international history of modern public accountancy

Author

Listed:
  • T. Lee

Abstract

This study examines the historical contributions to public accountancy of two Scottish Chartered Accountants. Alexander Thomas Niven was a charter member of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh in 1854. and founded the Scottish public accountancy firm of A T Niven and Company in 1859. His son, John Ballantine Niven, became a Society member in 1893, co-founded the American public accountancy firm of Touche, Niven and Company in 1900, and was elected President of the American Institute of Accountants in 1924. The professional careers of both men are analysed in the context of a researched genealogy of the Niven family over two centuries in Scotland and the US. The analysis reveals the potential impact of successive generations of the Niven family in Scotland on the professional careers of Alexander Thomas Niven and John Ballantine Niven, and the significance of the latter's emigration to the development of the American profession. The historical contributions of both men are discussed within the context of specific economic and social factors over a considerable period of time. The conclusions of the study are that each Niven career was more than the sum of the events of a defined lifetime, and that the transfer of public accountancy knowledge through the emigration of John Ballantine Niven was a vital ingredient in the maturation of the American profession.

Suggested Citation

  • T. Lee, 2002. "The contributions of Alexander Thomas Niven and John Ballantine Niven to the international history of modern public accountancy," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 79-92.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acctbr:v:32:y:2002:i:2:p:79-92
    DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2002.9728958
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00014788.2002.9728958
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00014788.2002.9728958?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. Whatley,Christopher A., 1997. "The Industrial Revolution in Scotland," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521572286.
    2. Whatley,Christopher A., 1997. "The Industrial Revolution in Scotland," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521576437.
    3. Miller, Peter & Napier, Christopher, 1993. "Genealogies of calculation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 18(7-8), pages 631-647.
    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. Poullaos, Chris, 2016. "Canada vs Britain in the imperial accountancy arena, 1908–1912: Symbolic capital, symbolic violence," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 47-63.

    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. Mark Freeman & Robin Pearson & James Taylor, 2007. "Technological change and the governance of joint-stock enterprise in the early nineteenth century: The case of coastal shipping," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(5), pages 573-594.
    2. Bottomley, Sean, 2014. "Patenting in England, Scotland and Ireland during the Industrial Revolution, 1700–1852," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 48-63.
    3. Bryer, Rob, 2006. "Capitalist accountability and the British Industrial Revolution: The Carron Company, 1759-circa. 1850," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 687-734, November.
    4. Bottomley, Sean, 2014. "Patenting in England, Scotland and Ireland during the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1852," IAST Working Papers 14-07, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    5. Lee Parker, 2004. "'Presenting' the past: perspectives on time for accounting and management history," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 1-27.
    6. Bigoni, Michele & Funnell, Warwick, 2015. "Ancestors of governmentality: Accounting and pastoral power in the 15th century," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 160-176.
    7. Carmona, Salvador & Donoso, Rafael & Walker, Stephen P., 2010. "Accounting and international relations: Britain, Spain and the Asiento treaty," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 252-273, February.
    8. Himick, Darlene, 2016. "Actuarialism as biopolitical and disciplinary technique," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 22-44.
    9. Jeacle, Ingrid, 2016. "The diet of the nation: The state, family budgets and the 1930s nutritional crisis in Britain," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 54-68.
    10. Lambert Jerman, 2013. "La Juste Valeur : Une Comptabilite Actuarielle Pour Les Marches ... Ou Les Comptables ?," Post-Print hal-00991877, HAL.
    11. Caroline Lambert & Éric Pezet, 2007. "Discipliner les autres et agir sur soi:la double vie du contrôleur de gestion," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 10(1), pages 183-208, March.
    12. Hayoun, Shaul, 2019. "How fair value is both market-based and entity-specific: The irreducibility of value constellations to market prices," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 68-82.
    13. Power, Michael, 2015. "How accounting begins: Object formation and the accretion of infrastructure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 43-55.
    14. 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.
    15. Phillip Cobbin & Graeme Dean & Cameron Esslemont & Patrick Ferguson & Monica Keneley & Brad Potter & Brian West, 2013. "Enhancing the Accessibility of Accounting and Business Archives: The Role of Technology in Informing Research in Accounting and Business," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 49(3), pages 396-422, September.
    16. Franck Aggeri & Julie Labatut, 2010. "La gestion au prisme de ses instruments. Une analyse généalogique des approches théoriques fondées sur les instruments de gestion," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 13(3), pages 5-37., September.
    17. Andrea Mennicken & Robert Salais, 2022. "The New Politics of Numbers: An Introduction," Post-Print hal-04115712, HAL.
    18. John Richard Edwards, 2014. "‘Different from What Has Hitherto Appeared on this Subject’: John Clark, Writing Master and Accomptant, 1738," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 50(2), pages 227-244, June.
    19. Rodrigues, Lúcia Lima & Craig, Russell, 2018. "The role of government accounting and taxation in the institutionalization of slavery in Brazil," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 21-38.
    20. Lambert, Caroline & Pezet, Eric, 2006. "Discipliner les autres et agir sur soi : les vies du contrôleur de gestion," HEC Research Papers Series 844, HEC Paris.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:acctbr:v:32:y:2002:i:2:p:79-92. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RABR20 .

    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.