Public sector accounting in emerging economies: a review of the papers published in the first decade of Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies

Abstract

PurposeA review of papers on public sector accounting in emerging economies, as published in the Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies' (JAEE) first decade.Design/methodology/approachA reflection on the issues covered and achievements made in the reviewed papers in the context of extant knowledge in this domain.FindingsA majority of the research in JAEE is dominated by accounting reforms inspired by New Public Management (NPM). Performance management, budgeting and accrual accounting are the main topics in the reviewed research. NPM claims, which can range from usability and use of a new accounting repertoire to desirable impacts on efficiency and service delivery, are often not fulfilled. Many papers attempt to explain failing accounting innovations by the local context in which they are embedded, including political instability, poor governance and a lack of capabilities.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper reviews research in a niche journal, but the findings are related to wider public sector accounting literature.Practical implicationsPublic sector practitioners, but also researchers, need to move away from a focus on public sector reforms due to contextual circumstances leading to built-in failures and concentrate instead on understanding how the accounting repertoire works in practice, including routes for improvements therein.Originality/valueAn original framework for analysing public sector accounting research in emerging economies is proposed, which, among others, distinguishes between various ambition levels for achieving NPM reforms.

The future of public sector accounting research. A polyphonic debate

“…The new special issue, edited by Adhikari et al (2021), of Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies ( JAEE ) sheds light on unintended consequences of NPM reforms in the process of adopting new accounting and budgeting practices. A review of van Helden et al (2021) on PSA in emerging economies shows that many papers attempt to explain failing accounting innovations with reference to the local context in which they are embedded, including political instability, poor governance and a lack of capabilities. The specific reviews on International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) adoption in emerging economies conducted by Polzer et al (2022a, 2022b) offer a holistic understanding of where and at what stages reforms stand in emerging economies, and what factors influence the progression of reforms to the next stage of diffusion.…”

“…At least three different development discourses have been identified over the years, and researchers have mainly focused on showing how different accounting technologies have been embedded in these discourses (van Helden and Uddin, 2016). More recently, van Helden et al (2021) identified a lack of limited accounting research on the ways in which different accounting technologies have been involved in state-led developments. Instead, extant work has mostly covered the NPM-driven market-led development discourses in which accounting technologies such as accrual accounting and IPSASs, long-term budgeting and performance reporting and auditing have served as key technical tools through which to improve governance and accountability and facilitate economic advancement (van Helden et al , 2021; Kuruppu et al , 2021).…”

“…There is an understanding that development has become more of an analytical context than a context-specific phenomenon. As is the case with regard to publicness (Steccolini, 2019;Bracci et al, 2021), claims have therefore been made that, by rethinking development, PSAR situated in emerging economies could avoid an encounter with international organisations in the evolving post-Covid era and show how accounting is implicated in wider social issues, which have a direct bearing on people's well-being, including resilience building, co-production, creating public value and addressing climate change and other wicked problems (Kuruppu et al, 2021;van Helden et al, 2021;Polzer et al, 2022aPolzer et al, , 2022bAdhikari and Jayasinghe, 2022). As discussed in wider contexts (Steccolini, 2019), these initiatives would also enable PSA researchers to promote interdisciplinary studies in emerging economies, as well as to contribute to policymaking.…”

“…Concerns have also been raised about methodological issues and the need to promote the use of mixed methods, which would enable researchers to shed light on the efficacy of existing practices, as well as the factors triggering the large-scale reforms (van Helden et al, 2021;Kuruppu et al, 2021). Jayasinghe et al (2021aJayasinghe et al ( , 2021b argued that the application of content analysis and the disclosure scoring framework, along with semistructured interviews, has enabled them to demonstrate both the existing practices and ongoing reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa; engendering such comprehensive insights into government accounting is claimed to be challenging without the application of mixed methods.…”

Adoption of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards in emerging economies and low-income countries: a structured literature review

“…Another quarter draw on new institutional theory (Greenwood et al, 2017). Also, the overview by Van Helden et al (2021) finds that this theory has dominated PSA research in EEs and LICs in the last decade. Here, a number of studies delve into the different aspects of isomorphism, for example how international donors and organisations exert pressures to implement IPSASs.…”