Accounting, Ideological and Political Work and Chinese multinational operations: A neo-Gramscian perspective

Abstract

This paper critically analyses the role of accounting in China's new phase of politically driven economic reforms, which is the international expansion of Chinese enterprises. In particular, the paper examines how China's multinational state-owned enterprise (SOE) and its managers conceive of, and use, accounting and control practices in response to the state's international political and economic objectives. Drawing upon neo-Gramscian concepts of hegemony, this study contends that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has sought to create and maintain its hegemony by turning its political ideologies into initiatives of "economic development", articulated through intensive ideological and political work exercised from the national to the organisational level. The study highlights the role of SOE managers in accommodating accounting and control practices in line with the state's hegemonic and ideological demands. Crucially, it reveals the ability of managers to coordinate and balance the state's political ends and the enterprise's economic interests, where there is a selective use of accounting and control practices deployed for reasons beyond their economic functionality. This paper argues that it is necessary to include the superstructure and economic base of the Chinese state in a hegemonic analysis, and to investigate how the managerial cadre engages with ideology building at the organisational level. By focusing on the Chinese state's new political dynamism regarding the expansion of multinational business operations, this paper provides new insights into the complexity of the motivations underlying the use of accounting and control practices in a globalised context.

Hegemony of Performance Accountability Systems of Government Intitutions in Malang : An Ideology Perspective

“…Hegemony is a form of power relations in which the ruling class, in building and maintaining its supremacy by getting the approval of the lower class (Li, and Soobaroyen, 2021). Gramsci argues that ideology has an important role in reaching an agreement, because it is formed as a frame of mind which consists of a set of ideas that dominate the social thinking of society, and influence how individuals develop their subjectivity in social relations (Li, and Soobaroyen, 2021). Therefore, the hegemonic construction is formed by the diffusion of ideology which requires individuals to accept hegemonic class domination and leadership (Li, and Soobaroyen, 2021).…”

“…Therefore, the hegemonic construction is determined by the diffusion of ideologies that guide individuals to voluntarily unite around a 'collective desire' that will be in line with hegemonic class domination and leadership. (Li, and Soobaroyen, 2021).…”

“…Ideology appears as a core concept in hegemonic construction so that ideology must be internalized in the social structure of the actors into a mindset. Li, and Soobaroyen (2021) said that hegemonic construction is formed by the diffusion of ideology to the individual's mindset so that it will voluntarily be in line with the desires of the hegemonic class. Ideology is instilled to form a culture which in the end hegemony can be maintained.…”

The strategic significance of the CICPA in the making of a Chinese home-grown public accounting profession

“…A number of other scholarly works have also highlighted the impact of the state's political ideologies on accounting change (particularly accounting practices) in China (e.g. Ezzamel et al 2007;Xu et al 2013Xu et al , 2018Li and Soobaroyen 2021). Zhu et al (2021, p. 1) analysed the state-profession dynamics in China by drawing upon Bourdieu's work on the symbolic power of the state.…”

Flipped Classroom Design of College Ideological and Political Courses Based on Long Short-Term Memory Networks

“…is is a realistic problem faced by teachers of ideological and political theory. It is also a frequently discussed and important topic in the field of ideological and political theory teaching and research [8,9]. Take online teaching [10,11] as a useful supplement to traditional teaching methods, continuously innovate online teaching methods and combine online teaching with traditional teaching methods.…”