Maintaining market principles: Government auditors, PPP equity sales and hegemony

Smyth, Stewart; Whitfield, Dexter

doi:10.1016/j.accfor.2016.06.003

Cited by 19 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The work of Gramsci on hegemony has been used in accounting research in order to theorise the way accounting contributes to and is related to institutions, civil society, and political society (e.g. Cooper, 1995;Smyth & Whitfield, 2016;Spence, 2009). We extend this work on hegemony to the study of financial reporting regulation diffusion, by using the theoretical concept of hegemony in conjunction with institutional theory.…”

Section: Making Institutional Theory Critical: the Role Of Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards by Greek non-listed companies: The role of coercive and hegemonic pressures

2017

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In this paper we examine the motivations for preparers in Greek non-listed to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Previous literature has focused on listed companies and assessed the effect of IFRS on market efficiency to justify its adoption. Using data from a cross-sectional survey and from interviews with senior managers, our analysis indicates that the motivations to adopt IFRS in Greece are not primarily related to the technical competence of the standards. We draw insights from literature on institutional theory and Gramsci's work on hegemony (Gramsci, 1971), and show that the decision to comply with IFRS can also be motivated by coercive and hegemonic pressures, which are exerted by powerful institutional constituents as they interact with organisational interests at the international and national level. The adoption of IFRS is driven predominantly by the pressures exerted by parent companies on their subsidiaries and by the legal requirements of the state, but also through borrowing and debt-contracting requirements as enforced by civil society actors, such as financial institutions. This mobilisation of power plays a pivotal role in supporting the establishment of IFRS among non-listed companies.

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Section: Making Institutional Theory Critical: the Role Of Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards by Greek non-listed companies: The role of coercive and hegemonic pressures

2017

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“…With reference to prior accounting research on PPPs, we can say that the developments in Tallinn bear a close resemblance to other analyzed cases. As suggested by Shaoul (1997Shaoul ( , 2005, Shaoul et al (2012) and Smyth and Whitfield (2017), the partial privatization of water services in Tallinn resulted in excessive gains to the private sector company and the company's persistent privileging of managerial accountability to shareholders came at the expense of public/social accountability to the broader society. The private benefits from the PPP arrangement clearly outweighed the public ones (see Letza and Smallman, 2001;Toms et al, 2011), violating civic society groups' sense of justice.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bakhtin, 1981;Volosinov, 1973). In critical accounting studies, the Bakhtinian dialogical understanding of language has often been combined with a Marxist view of society (Catchpowle and Cooper, 1999;Catchpowle and Smyth, 2016;Smyth and Whitfield, 2017). These studies have illustrated for instance how a particular word (e.g.…”

Section: A Discursive Perspective On Legitimation Strugglesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The discursive legitimation of profit in public-private service delivery

Peda

Vinnari

2020

Critical Perspectives on Accounting

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Public-private partnerships are a topic of continuing interest for accounting researchers. However, as yet there are only a few studies focusing on the post-implementation phase of PPPs. In particular, even though scholars have criticized PPPs for inflating the profits of private partners at the expense of the public sector and citizens, they have rarely scrutinized the public debates whereby the legitimacy of PPP organizations' profits are societally contested and debated. The purpose of this article is to shed light on the processes of profit (de)legitimation by examining the construction of senses of (il)legitimacy in public-private service delivery. These processes are examined in the case of Tallinn Water, an Estonian public-private water company. Our findings suggest that the main themes debated revolved around the following questions: What is a normal profit for a public-private monopoly? Who or what is the ultimate authority in such matters? What is morally appropriate behaviour for such a company? Our findings also indicate that even relatively affordable prices and high performance levels do not suffice to create legitimacy for an organization that tries to make excessive gains from the provision of something that is generally regarded as a human right.

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“…The focus on equity transactions is justified because the development of this secondary market embeds the processes of financialization (and marketization) in public infrastructure assets (O'Neill, 2013). This has implications for ownership transparency, democratic accountability and value for money for the taxpayer (Smyth and Whitfield, 2017). There are also implications for the performance of PPP projects, as the design of appropriate performance measurement systems requires a clear understanding of the nature of the subject being measured.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infrastructure Investment – The Emergent PPP Equity Market

Whitfield

Smyth

2018

Ann Public Coop Econ

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Increasingly governments are looking to private sector actors to invest in infrastructure projects. An emergent mechanism for such investment is the market in PPP equity. This is an aspect of PPPs that has to date had little empirical attention. This paper reports on the size and scope of the market in PPP equity sales within the UK. In the process, the nature of PPP projects and the existing rationales for the policy are critiqued. The paper concludes by laying out a number of potential research agendas focused on PPP equity sales including a call for reassessing theoretical perspectives.

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Maintaining market principles: Government auditors, PPP equity sales and hegemony

Cited by 19 publications

References 29 publications

Adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards by Greek non-listed companies: The role of coercive and hegemonic pressures

Adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards by Greek non-listed companies: The role of coercive and hegemonic pressures

The discursive legitimation of profit in public-private service delivery

Infrastructure Investment – The Emergent PPP Equity Market

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