New Public Management (NPM) and the Introduction of an Accrual Accounting System: A Case Study of an Italian Regional Government Authority

133 Pages·2021·2.72 MB·English

by  Adriana Bruno

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN ACCOUNTING
Adriana Bruno
New Public
Management (NPM)
and the Introduction
of an Accrual
Accounting System
A Case Study of an
Italian Regional
Government Authority
123
SpringerBriefs in Accounting
Series Editors
Peter Schuster, Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Hochschule Schmalkalden,
Schmalkalden, Thüringen, Germany
Robert Luther, Department of Accounting, University of the West of England,
Bristol, UK
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11900
Adriana Bruno
New Public Management
(NPM) and the Introduction
of an Accrual Accounting
System
A Case Study of an Italian Regional
Government Authority
123
Adriana Bruno
EconomicsandManagement
University of Ferrara
Ferrara, Italy
ISSN 2196-7873 ISSN 2196-7881 (electronic)
SpringerBriefs inAccounting
ISBN978-3-030-57385-0 ISBN978-3-030-57386-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57386-7
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A mio figlio Costantino
Acknowledgements
Writing a book is not one individual’s work, rather it involves several people who
contribute to the process in different ways. Therefore, I acknowledge the efforts of
multiple people, specifically, Prof. Irvine Lapsley for his guidance throughout this
whole process; a special thanks for his hospitality during my unforgettable 6
months of visiting study research at the Institute of Public Sector Accounting in
Edinburgh,andmoreover,Profs.RiccardoMussariandPaoloRicciwhoguidedme
in my academic path. Finally, I would like to thank the Campania Region who
offered me the opportunity to collect the data as a non-participant observer.
vii
About This Book
The adoption of accrual accounting is seen as self-evident by NPM advocates
(Lapsley et al. 2009). Most accrual accounting studies are ex post studies. This
researchanalyzestheinitialstageofdevelopmentofanaccrualaccountingsystemas
the emergence of new technologies (Latour 1987). This study contributes to
understand the complexity of apparently neutral tools involved in a Public Sector
reform. This research reveals the emergence of an accrual accounting system that
relatestotechnical,managerial,andpoliticalinfluences.TheresearchsiteisinItaly,
a country where the process of reform is underway across the whole government.
The study setting for this research is the intermediate level of government (the
regional level) where a trial period was underway. The data for this study was
collectedinseveralways:compilingandanalyzinglawandkeypolicydocuments;
moreover, the discussions which took place through video call conversations in a
regioninthetrialareanalyzed.Theevidencecollectedtodaterevealsanabsenceofa
well-definedtemplatefortheimplementationofaccrualaccountingingovernment.
ix
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Prior Research on Accrual Accounting as a Public Sector
Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 New Public Management and Accrual Accounting Studies:
An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Accrual Accounting for Government: What It Means
in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3 NPM Reforms: A Brief Country Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4 Prior Studies in Accounting in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3 Science in Action by Latour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.1 Bruno Latour, the Anthropologist of Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2 Opening Pandora’s “Black Box” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.3 The Construction of Technologies: Starting from a Blueprint . . . . 24
3.4 The Strategy for Fortifying Text from Controversies. . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.5 The Construction and Fabrication of Fact: Laboratory Life . . . . . . 28
4 The “Emergence Approach” from Direct Fieldwork
Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.1 Research Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.2 Research Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.3 Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.4 Research Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.5 A Brief Overview of the Reforms in the Italian Public Sector. . . . 43
4.6 The Italian Harmonization Reform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.7 Unit of Analysis: Regional Government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.8 Campania Region, the First Year of Trial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.9 Research Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
xi
xii Contents
5 Results of Documentary Analysis Policy Arenas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.1 Human and Non-Human Actors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.2 The First Enrollment of Human Actors: The Arenas
of the Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.3 The Controversies Behind the Text of the Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.4 Policy as a Blueprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.5 The Evaluation Path, Initial Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6 Accounting in Action: Laboratory Life in Campania Region . . . . . . 77
6.1 The Translation of Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.2 The Analysis of Literary Inscriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6.3 The First Step of Emergence of Accrual Accounting . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.4 Some Stories of Doubts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.5 Accrual Accounting Implementation: New Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6.6 Some Stories of Creations: The Construction
of a New Object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
6.7 The Facticity of Accrual Accounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6.8 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Glossary.. .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 117
References.... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 119