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Accounting for capital: the evolution of an idea / Christopher Nobesa. // Accounting and Business Research. Volume 45, N4, 2015.
London, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales] Abingdon, UK : Routledge, Taylor & Francis , 2015.
pages 413-441.

The word ‘capital’ has many meanings, within and beyond business. In accounting, it was originally a credit concept but has many uses related to assets. In economics and tax, it has exclusively asset meanings. This paper investigates the development of the concept of capital, focussing on accounting and related disciplines, especially in the UK. Even as a credit term, ‘capital’ can be as narrow as original equity or wide enough to include debt. A credit/debit confusion can be seen in Pacioli s treatise and through to recent documents by standard setters. At various dates, amounts called ‘capital’ have been shown on different sides of the balance sheet. Capital maintenance is central to the measurement of income for various purposes. It was thrown off course in 1889 by a legal case which seems to have been influenced by the double-account system, which also had echoes in economics. However, the conventional accountants’ view was re-established in 1980 because of an EU Directive. Maintenance of capital (both credit and debit forms) was much discussed in the 1970s in a period of high inflation. The concept of equity began to become clear with the separation of provisions and reserves (in the 1940s) and when liabilities were defined (from the 1960s). However, accounting practice departs from the definition and it measures liabilities in various ways, so that there is still no clear concept of equity capital. A number of policy implications are set out in the paper.
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An analysis of business phenomena and austerity narratives in the arts sector from a new materialist perspective / Helen Oakesa & Steve Oakes. // Accounting and Business Research. Volume 45, N6-7, 2015.
London, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales] Abingdon, UK : Routledge, Taylor & Francis , 2015.
pages 738-764.

The paper adopts a lens of new materialism to analyse narratives of managers in the arts sector in response to the master narrative of austerity and proposed ‘solutions’ using business models (including accounting). It explores the complex trajectories of the master narrative through the analysis of a diverse range of funding and arts organisations. Accounting, business models and austerity reveal rhizomatic characteristics as they diverge from their origin and are implicated in uncertainty about the future and a variety of unintended consequences. Accounting is depicted by many interviewees as not fulfilling many of its promises, thus creating uncertainty regarding its effectiveness. The new materialist approach offers insights into the nature and scale of uncertainty and pays attention to affect and emotion in interviewee responses, fostering an empathetic approach to social analysis. Three implications of new materialism relating to accountability, individual responsibility and inter-organisational communication are highlighted.
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Analysts’ earnings forecasts: coexistence and dynamics of overconfidence and strategic incentives / Katrien Bosqueta, Peter de Goeijb* & Kristien Smedtsc. // Accounting and Business Research. Volume 45, N3, 2015.
London, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales] Abingdon, UK : Routledge, Taylor & Francis , 2015.
pages 307-322.

This paper formulates a two-stage model to capture the decision process of financial analysts when issuing earnings forecasts. Our model extends the model of Chen and Jiang [(2005). Analysts’ weighting of private and public information. Review of Financial Studies, 19 (1), 319–355], by allowing for a distortion of forecasts independent of whether an analyst has private information. Using quarterly earnings forecasts, we provide empirical evidence on the coexistence of overconfidence and strategic incentives. Financial analysts overweight their private information and at the same time strategically inflate their forecast.
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Are interim management statements redundant? / Thomas Schleichera & Martin Walkera. // Accounting and Business Research. Volume 45, N2, 2015.
London, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales] Abingdon, UK : Routledge, Taylor & Francis , 2015.
pages 229-255.

In 2004 the Transparency Directive increased the reporting frequency by mandating the Interim Management Statement (IMS). However, only nine years later, the EU announced that it was making quarterly reporting voluntary again, arguing that IMSs are redundant as they are unlikely to contain any additional information not already required by the Market Abuse Directive (MAD). The current paper tests this argument empirically. For that it collects data on trading statements from a post-MAD pre-IMS year and uses these statements to predict which IMSs are genuinely incremental firm announcements (‘incremental IMSs’) and not simply substitutes for otherwise disclosed trading statements (‘non-incremental IMSs’). It then calculates three-day abnormal return variability and abnormal trading volume associated with incremental and non-incremental IMSs and it makes three observations. First, the introduction of IMSs coincided with a substantial reduction in other trading statements consistent with a large substitution effect between IMSs and non-periodic trading statements. Second, incremental third-quarter IMSs, but not incremental first-quarter IMSs, exhibit significantly positive abnormal return variability and abnormal trading volume, suggesting that the withdrawal of IMSs will involve the loss of some relevant information. Third, higher abnormal return variability and trading volume for non-incremental IMSs, relative to incremental IMSs, are consistent with the argument that a MAD-only regime will ensure the release of most relevant information.
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Between Maxwell and Micawber: plotting the failure of the Equitable Life / David Collinsa, Ian Dewingb & Peter Russellb. // Accounting and Business Research. Volume 45, N6-7, 2015.
London, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales] Abingdon, UK : Routledge, Taylor & Francis , 2015.
pages 715-737.

This paper offers reflections on the failure of The Equitable Life Assurance Society. Noting that the collapse of this financial institution precipitated a raft of official inquiries, we provide a detailed analysis and ‘re-view’ of the public inquiry report that was produced by Lord Penrose. The paper observes that Lord Penrose s text presents itself as a factual description of events. Yet we counter that this report remains, at root, a creative product which depends upon narrative strategies of characterisation and emplotment. Analysing the narrative resources and the broader narratological choices that underpin Lord Penrose s account of the Equitable affair, we suggest that this report turns upon a Maxwellian rendering of the drama s key protagonist. Questioning the assumptions, omissions and elisions which underpin this method of plotting the failure of the Equitable, we propose another means of characterising the drama s principal. Building upon a reading of David Copperfield, we proffer a Micawberish alternative to the Maxwellian autocrat favoured by Lord Penrose s text. Readers are invited to consider the relative merits of these contrasting narratives and are, furthermore, encouraged to reflect upon the manner in which the interplay between text, author and reader acts to shape public understanding of accounting, accountability and financial regulation more broadly.