Title: Depending an Accounting Jurisdiction: The Case of Cash Flows
Abstract: This paper suggests that the success or failure of particular accounting rules depends on the ability of the accounting standard-setter to "enroll" other actors to accept or agree that such rules "represent" an organization. The Latourian framework used in this paper suggests that success in standard-setting is less a function of developing technically "correct" rules than a process of convincing others of the propriety of one's work, gaining their acceptance of this work, and convincing them to build upon this work. Given its position as an obligatory passage point, a standard-setting organization has the opportunity to "translate" accounting problems and offer new interpretations of these problems. Successful translations may be used to reinterpret challenges to accounting and accounting standard-setting in ways that may maintain the authority of the accounting standard-setter. This paper traces the emergence of "cash earnings" and "cash flows" and the subsequent strategies employed by accountants and accounting standard-setters to eliminate and/or to place this concept within the existing framework of accounting and accounting reports. The paper also considers the allies and others who assisted or refused to co-operate in these translation and enrolment efforts.
Publication Year: 1995
Publication Date: 1995-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 17
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