Corporate governance and board accounts: exploring a neglected interface between boards of directors and management |
| |
Authors: | Daniel Johanson |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Accounting, Auditing and Law, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH), Bergen, Norway |
| |
Abstract: | There is an absence of research about what information boards of directors have access to and how they use that information.
The purpose of this paper is to explore and theorize about the content and use of information to boards of directors. The
paper introduces and elaborates on the concept of ‘board accounts’, which is defined as the information supplied to boards
of directors by top-management. The paper locates the board accounts in the Swedish institutional setting and demonstrates
how the concept can be operationalized in an empirical setting. On the basis of a unique material of archived board records
in a Swedish company, the paper explores the board accounts over a period of 10 years (1989–1998). It is found that while
use of the board accounts in the case study company changes considerably over time, the content of the board accounts remains
largely unchanged. This raises questions about where and when directors receive information, the reliability of the information
in the board accounts, and recent attempts to integrate corporate governance and management accounting (CIMA, Performance
reporting to boards: a guide to good practice, 2003; CIMA strategic scorecard: boards engaging in strategy, 2005; Seal, Management
Accounting Research 17(4):389–408, 2006). Finally, the paper discusses the merits of historical archive-based approaches in
this field and possibilities for future research.
Daniel Johanson
is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Accounting, Auditing and Law at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business
Administration (NHH) in Bergen. His research is currently focused on how boards of directors work with accounting information
and the diffusion of corporate governance codes. |
| |
Keywords: | Corporate governance Boards of directors Management Board accounts Management accounting Corporate strategy Archive-based approach |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|