P41 SIG Accounting and Accountability: Decoding Hybrid Futures - Accounting and Accountability Perspectives in Public Governance and Management

Corresponding and Review chair

Iris Saliterer, University of Freiburg, Germany, Iris.Saliterer@vwl.uni-freiburg.de 

Co-Chair

Enrico Bracci, Universitá di Ferrara, Italy

Tom Overmans, Utrecht University School of Governance

Tobias Polzer, WU Vienna

Mariafrancesca Sicilia, Universitá di Bergamo

Ileana Steccolini, University of Bologna, Essex Business School

Description

The SIG on Accounting and Accountability centers its work around the questions of how accounting impacts decisions and public services and how it helps to assist in fostering accountability in hybrid governance and organizational settings. Within the increasingly hybrid landscape of public governance and management, the roles of accounting and accountability are evolving. In line with its interdisciplinary approach, this year’s panel seeks to explore these changes from various viewpoints, including the AI-human interplay in accounting and decision-making practices, the role of accounting in promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), its contributions to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and its involvement in managing financial dynamics within public-private collaborations. We aim to understand how accounting and accountability collectively navigate these complexities and shape the future of hybrid governance and management.

While we invite submissions addressing a range of related topics, we are particularly interested in:

• The role of accounting and accountability mechanisms in promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within public services.
• The contribution of accounting to the design and delivery of SDGs-aligned public services.
• Strategies for managing finance-related tensions in inter-organizational relationships within hybrid governance structures.
• The shaping role of accounting in policies and practices within public-private collaborations
• Exploring the evolution of accounting and decision-making practices through the integration of digital technologies and human interactions.
• Implications of digital technology integration in accounting for transparency, accountability, and ethical decision-making

Contributions are invited that adopt any research strategy, as long as it effectively addresses the issues at hand and rigorously adheres to the methodology adopted, be it theoretical or empirical, quantitative or qualitative.

Highlight: 🌟 New in 2023! Innovative Format in addition to our Regular Approach! 🌟

This year, our panel is particularly excited to present an innovative format for discussing academic work. In addition to our regular panels, we are reserving a special slot for one or two early-stage research projects. The essence of this novel approach is to foster discussions that improve research questions, hypotheses, designs and instruments at crucial points. We thus encourage studies at the pre-empirical stage with a strong conceptual foundation related to the SIG themes. Please indicate this in the submission process.

The regular panels are organized as short and crisp sessions of a limited number of papers: each consisting of a 15 minute presentation, 5 minute  discussion by nominated discussants, and 10 minutes for Q & A  (thus,  a total time of 30 minutes per paper). The invited presenting authors and co-authors of accepted papers will be asked to act as discussants – i.e., to engage with comments and ask questions about the paper designated to them before the conference. Each session will be chaired  by a session chair.

Abstract submission guidelines

Submissions should be concise and not exceed 400 words, clearly outlining the purpose, methodology, (preliminary) findings and implications of the study, accompanied by 3-5 keywords that summarise the focus of your research.