了解强制性权责发生制会计对管理实践的影响:对日本地方政府行为的解释

Understanding the impact of mandatory accrual accounting on management practices:interpretation of Japanese local governments'behavior

随着20世纪80年代以来“新公共管理”理论的普及,权责发生制会计和成果管理制已成为全球标准。然而,权责发生制会计是否会带来成功,以及哪些驱动因素会带来改革的预期成效,这些都存在争议。鉴于文献中繁杂不一的论点,我们提出了两个研究问题:(1)“公共部门组织通过采用强制性权责发生制会计,是否实现了对管理实践的积极影响?”以及(2)“这些影响的主要驱动因素是什么?”为了回答这些问题,我们通过分析一项调查来研究对管理实践的影响,以确定日本地方政府财务部门人员如何看待管理实践中采用强制性权责发生制会计的收益。研究结果表明,迄今为止,他们还没有看到预期的收益,尽管他们曾期望在内部控制方面有更高的收益。然后,我们从技术理性、社会政治和制度同构的角度,全面了解强制性权责发生制会计对管理实践的影响。逻辑分析表明,在议会中没有多数党但由多个政党构成的地方政府,以及财政上对中央政府依赖较高的地方政府,其财务管理者认为收益更高。此外,我们发现,那些压力形式来自模仿其他地方政府的财务管理者认为收益更低。结果表明,一些技术理性工具、社会政治条件和制度压力改变了公共管理者采用强制性权责发生制会计的感知收益。

Accompanying the spread of“new public management”since the 1980s,accrual accounting and results-based management has become a global standard.However,whether accrual accounting results in successful outcomes and which drivers lead to the intended impacts of the reform have been contested.Given the mixed arguments in the literature,we set out two research questions:(1)“Have public sector organizations realized any positive impacts on management practices by adopting mandatory accrual accounting?”;and(2)“What are the primary drivers of such impacts?”To answer these questions,we examine the impact on management practices by analyzing a survey to ascertain how financial department officers in Japanese local governments perceive the benefits of adopting mandatory accrual accounting on management practices.The results indicate that they have so far not recognized the intended benefits,though they had expected higher benefits in internal control.Then,we use technical-rational,socio-political,and institutional isomorphic perspectives in a comprehensive approach to understand the impacts on management practices.The logistic analysis shows that financial managers in local governments that do not have a majority party in the assembly,but consist of several parties in power,as well as in those with greater financial dependence on the central government,perceive higher benefits.Further,we find that financial managers that imitate other local governments as a form of mimetic pressure perceive fewer benefits.The results show that some technical-rational tools,sociopolitical conditions,and institutional pressures change the perceived benefits for public managers of adopting mandatory accrual accounting.