Public value and public sector accounting research:a structured literature review Purpose The paper investigates the role and impact of accounting within the fragmented field of public value theory literature.Design/methodology/approach The work develops a structured literature review and seeks to shed light on the state of public value research, with particular emphasis on the role of accounting scholarship.Findings The lack of empirical research and the limited number of papers on accounting for the creation of public value means that accounting scholars need to address theoretical stagnation to achieve a deeper understanding of how to govern the public value creation process.Originality/value The paper develops the first wide-ranging structured literature review on public value accounting. It is a starting point to develop new research avenues, both in the fields of accountability/external reporting, and management accounting and performance management.

In Germany, financial pressure and a lack of efficiency have caused the need for several reform processes in the local governments of German municipalities. These local governments are facing a growing contradiction between decreasing levels of financial support and increasing responsibilities. In order to address this tension, municipalities are starting to change their accounting systems by implementing accrual accounting and output-based budgeting. Starting from a description of reform processes in German municipalities, we use the concept both of the resource-based view and of dynamic capabilities in order to observe the implementation of these new accounting standards. Based on six case studies, our empirical findings show that the idiosyncratic adaptation of new standards in municipalities leads to a diversity of outcomes in the implementation process. Finally, the future prospects of further public financial management reform processes in Germany are presented.

No abstract

No abstract

PurposeThe article's aim is to refine prospects for theorising in public sector accounting (PSA) research in order to capture the methodological benefits promised by its multi-disciplinarity.Design/methodology/approachThe study primarily employs a bibliometric analysis of research outputs invoking New Public Management (NPM). Applying a content analysis to Hood (1991), as the most cited NPM source, bibliographic methods and citation/co-citation analysis for the period 1991 to 2018 are mobilised to identify the disciplinary evolution of the NPM knowledge base from a structural and longitudinal perspective.FindingsThe analysis exhibits disciplinary branching of NPM over time and its imprints on post-1990 PSA research. Given the discourse about origins of NPM-based accounting research, there are research domains behind the obvious that indicate disciplinary fragmentations. For instance, novelty of PSA research is found in public value accounting, continuity is evidenced by transcending contextual antecedents. Interestingly, these domains are loosely coupled. Exploring the role of disciplinary imprints designates prospects for post-NPM PSA research that acknowledges multi-disciplinarity and branching in order to deploy insularity as a building block for its inquiries.Research limitations/implicationsCriteria for assessing the limitations and credibility of an explorative inquiry are used, especially on how the proposal to develop cumulative knowledge from post-1990 PSA research can be further developed.Practical implicationsA matrix suggesting a method of ordering disciplinary references enables positioning of research inquiries within PSA research.Originality/valueBy extending common taxonomies of PSA intellectual heritages, the study proposes the ‘inquiry-heritage’ matrix as a typology that displays patterns of theorisation for positioning an inquiry within PSA disciplinary groundings.