No abstract

No abstract

The measurement and reporting of intellectual capital has recently attracted a growing interest from accounting researchers, promoting a lively and far-reaching debate. Two related issues have informed this debate. It is possible to identify these issues as exemplifying financial reporting and management accounting perspectives on the emergence of intellectual capital. Provides a commentary on the progress of the debate to date, while also attempting to contextualise some of the issues it entails in both earlier and wider debates. In an effort to progress the project of accounting for intellectual capital, suggests the adoption of a critical accounting perspective. This would entail exploring the possibilities of intellectual capital providing its own accounts, rather than remaining imprisoned within accounts devised by others

No abstract

There is growing interest in the new techniques of intellectual capital accounting (ICA) as a method of measuring and reporting the range of human and knowledge-based factors that create sustained economic value. This paper suggests that viewing ICA as an aspect of expanded forms of management knowledge, and in particular as a 'management fashion', provides critical insight into the technique's occupational and organizational roles. The fashion perspective emphasizes the symbolic means of establishing the appeal of ideas to particular audiences, as well as the social mechanisms by which the dissemination of ideas takes place. The paper reviews the emerging debate on ICA, and interprets the professional literature as a narrative that reveals accountancy's keen interest in ICA as a mechanism of exploiting tacit knowledge. The suggestion is that the discipline's concerns with its own occupational situation and corporate relevance may be a reflection of the appeal of a development like ICA as much as any simple views of efficacy.

No abstract

Recent diagnoses of a debilitating crisis within management accounting have quickly given way to the development and dissemination of many new techniques intended to restore the lost relevance of the discipline. Some of these techniques promise to have significant consequences for the future nature not only of management accounting but accounting in general. This paper identifies three generic approaches to relevant management accounting which are collectively termed accounting for strategic positioning, discusses the range of techniques which presently exist within these approaches and considers some of the difficulties involved in ensuring their widespread adoption. The paper concludes with some brief thoughts on how best to realize the full potential of accounting for strategic positioning.

No abstract