Minding Our Manners: Accounting as Social Norms
Minding Our Manners: Accounting as Social Norms
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注意我们的举止：会计作为社会规范
DOI：
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发表时间：
2005
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
S. Sunder
中科院分区：
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作者：
S. Sunder
会计标准化项目始于上世纪30年代美国证券法的通过，70年来一直稳步发展。今天，书面准则主导着会计思想、实践、监管、指导，甚至研究。公认会计原则——最初只是一个简单的英文描述——后来被大写成一个合适的名字——公认会计原则——现在用来描述那些有权对不接受这些原则的人施加惩罚的当局颁布的规章制度。财务报告是如何以及为什么陷入标准化项目，用书面规则和标准取代企业和专业行为规范？这种转变的后果是什么？会计和公司治理有哪些替代课程？我认为，严重依赖财务报告的法典化是一条错误的道路。从规则向行为规范的转变可能有助于会计和公司治理更好地恢复平衡。
The accounting standardization project, kicked off by the passage of U.S. securities laws in the 1930s, has steadily gained momentum over seven decades. Today, written standards dominate accounting thought, practice, regulation, instruction, even research. Generally accepted accounting principles - originally a mere description in its plain English meaning - have since been capitalized into a proper name - Generally Accepted Accounting Principles - and now describes rules and regulations issued by authorities with power to inflict punishment on those who do not to accept them. How and why did financial reporting get caught in the standardization project, replacing norms of corporate and professional behaviour by written rules and standards? What are the consequences of this transformation? What alternative courses are available to accounting and corporate governance? I argue that heavy reliance on the codification of financial reporting has been a wrong path. A shift from rules towards norms of behaviour may yet help accounting and corporate governance recover a better balance.