Tacit coordination as a background practice to accounting practices – reflections on Vollmer’s case for a sociological super-theory of accounting

Ahrens, Thomas

doi:10.1108/qram-10-2021-0187

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…the specific questions being asked, the specific targets being set) which matters here only or primarily, but the process of setting targets in the first place or of documenting important decisions made. Establishing such a process is a way of creating an infrastructure for the subsequent exchange of accounts (Ahrens, 2022; Vollmer, 2019). Written documentation can be used to raise questions during meetings, and the definition of targets produces a precedent for coming back to these targets in the next conversation.…”

Section: Empirical Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between consultation and control: how incubators perform a governance function for entrepreneurial firms

Flanschger

Heinzelmann

Messner

2023

AAAJ

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PurposeThis paper examines the governance function that incubators perform for entrepreneurial firms. The authors demonstrate that this governance function has both a consultative and a control dimension and illustrate how these are enacted in the interactions between incubators and entrepreneurs. The authors also show how these interactions come into being and how entrepreneurs assess the value of the governance role played by incubators.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a cross-sectional interview study with entrepreneurs of 21 start-ups that were hosted by three different incubators. The start-ups are all early-stage technology firms. The analysis in the paper follows an inductive approach.FindingsThe authors find that the governance role of incubators is about both consultation and control. Consultative forms of governance include providing input and advice as well as questioning ideas and assumptions. Controlling forms of governance comprise setting targets and tracking progress as well as enforcing structures and documentation. The authors furthermore show that governance episodes are triggered either by the entrepreneurs themselves or by the incubator. In the former case, such episodes are mainly about consultation, while in the latter one, they often have a pronounced control element, which materializes particularly through regularly enforced meetings. Most entrepreneurs seem to appreciate this control element, acknowledging that, in its absence, they would lack the self-discipline of doing some things that need to be done.Research limitations/implicationsThis study’s findings extend prior research on inter-organizational relationships and the types of governance mechanisms observed therein. The authors show that a strict separation between actors who offer consultation and those who exercise control is too simplistic. Incubators influence entrepreneurial firms both through consultative and controlling forms of governance. In terms of limitations, this study’s analysis focuses on the perspectives of entrepreneurs, and the authors did not include the perspectives of incubators nor did the authors directly observe meetings between these two parties.Practical implicationsThis paper provides examples for how entrepreneurial firms can benefit from being part of an incubator.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the discussion of the governance of inter-organizational relationships by focusing on incubators. In so doing, the authors also complement extant literature on management control in entrepreneurial settings by showing how the incubator fulfills a control function for entrepreneurs before these implement control mechanisms themselves.

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Section: Empirical Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between consultation and control: how incubators perform a governance function for entrepreneurial firms

Flanschger

Heinzelmann

Messner

2023

AAAJ

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“…5.As suggested in another commentary on Vollmer’s paper, tacitness can be materialized in “layered infrastructures” that provide the basis for open-ended framing and contextualizing processes (Ahrens, 2022, p. 1).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do accounts pass? A discussion of Vollmer’s “Accounting for tacit coordination”

Palermo

2022

QRAM

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Purpose Building on the notes prepared for a roundtable organized by qualitative research in accounting & management (QRAM) about the paper titled “Accounting for tacit coordination: The passing of accounts and the broader case for accounting theory” (Vollmer, 2019), this paper aims to extend our understanding of “tacit coordination towards the passing of accounts” and its implications for research on accounting as a social practice. Design/methodology/approach Building on a selective review of previous studies of accounting “in action” and one illustrative vignette, this paper teases out specific aspects of Vollmer’s argument, which is much broader and ambitious in nature. The aim is to go deeper on one issue – “tacit coordination towards the passing of accounts” and the role of (accounting) practitioners as “stewards of silence” – to encourage further work that unpacks the dynamics and tensions that occur when practitioners seek to tacitly coordinate towards the passing of accounts. Findings This paper shows how our understanding of the relationship between “tacit coordination” and the “passing of accounts” can be enriched by examining how (accounting) practitioners deal with pressures towards explication. To this end, this paper develops three propositions, which focus on how organizational status, organizational complexity and temporal dynamics may affect the extent to which (accounting) practitioners are able to tacitly coordinate towards the passing of accounts. Practical implications The three propositions presented in this paper can be used in future studies to further explore the dynamics of tacit coordination towards the passing of accounts and therefore contribute to a more fine-grained illustration of some of the ideas presented in the paper by Vollmer (2019). Originality/value This paper sketches the contours of an approach that has the potential to make some of the ambitious ideas presented in Vollmer’s paper more actionable in future studies.

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“…When we allow such concepts to count as extensions of accounting theory, accounting theory begins to blend into the most normal of vocabularies in use among social researchers. Just as much as ethnographic writing becomes a “theory-oriented practice” (Hirschauer, 2006, p. 415), accounting theory arises organically from social studies of accounting that trace and amplify the ripples made by the tacit coordination of practice (see also, in this issue, Ahrens, 2022). Breaking the silence of the social is simultaneously a practice of documentation and a practice of theorising, across a broad range of vocabularies and registers.…”

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confidence: 99%

Accounting theory, ethnography, and the silence of the social

Vollmer¹

2023

QRAM

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Purpose This paper aims to offer a reflection on the alliance between accounting theory and social research in general, focussing on the conjunction of accounting theory and ethnography in particular. Design/methodology/approach The author builds on Stefan Hirschauer’s methodological reflections on ethnography and the “silence of the social” to briefly re-articulate some of the ideas the author had associated, in an earlier piece, with the investigation of tacit coordination in accounting. Findings Ethnography is an intrinsically theoretical practice and also a particular form of accounting. As such, it presents a paradigm case for how accounting theory builds on, and emerges from, social research in joint efforts of breaking the silence of the social. Ethnographic research, like the practice of accounting and social research more generally, is associated with a stewardship of silence and an “ethics of mattering” (Karen Barad), and accounting theory is an invitation to reflect on the underlying practices of (dis-)articulation. Originality/value The paper invites readers to engage with accounting practice as a topic of systematic theoretical interest in exploring how we put the world on the record, understand the choices we make in the process and the silences we let lie.

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Tacit coordination as a background practice to accounting practices – reflections on Vollmer’s case for a sociological super-theory of accounting

Cited by 3 publications

References 42 publications

Between consultation and control: how incubators perform a governance function for entrepreneurial firms

Between consultation and control: how incubators perform a governance function for entrepreneurial firms

How do accounts pass? A discussion of Vollmer’s “Accounting for tacit coordination”

Accounting theory, ethnography, and the silence of the social

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