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The Influence of the Accountant on British Business Performance From the Late Nineteenth Century to the Present Day

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  • Derek Matthew

Abstract

Britain has more professionally qualified accountants per capita than any of her leading economic rivals and they play a major role as advisers to British companies and take a disproportionate share of the jobs in top management. Unfortunately for the accountants, business historians, other academics, commentators and even contemporary politicians have almost universally noted this to be a bad thing. This article discusses whether this reputation is justified by assessing the past performance of professional accountants as business advisers and managers. Stereotypical criticisms of accountants in terms of excessive caution, their support for the holding company form, or seeing problems in narrow financial terms are found to be unjustified. The promotion of accountants to the top jobs can be seen as rational profit‐maximizing behaviour by British companies and a recent survey has demonstrated the performance of accountants in top management in recent years to be superior to other professions such as engineers.

Suggested Citation

  • Derek Matthew, 2001. "The Influence of the Accountant on British Business Performance From the Late Nineteenth Century to the Present Day," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 37(3), pages 329-351, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:abacus:v:37:y:2001:i:3:p:329-351
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-6281.00090
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    Cited by:

    1. Martin Quinn & Desmond Gibney, 2018. "Accounting at an Irish maltster – the accounting practices of Bennetts of Ballinacurra in the 1920s and 1930s," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1-2), pages 61-84, May.
    2. Martínez Franco, Carmen & Feeney, Orla & Quinn, Martin & Hiebl, Martin R.W., 2017. "Position practices of the present-day CFO: A reflection on historic roles at Guinness, 1920–1945," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 55-62.
    3. Malcolm Anderson, 2002. "Accounting History publications 2001," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 505-512.

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