Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN › Conference paper › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN › Conference paper › peer-review
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TY - CONF
T1 - Framing numbers - Accounting as discourse
T2 - European Group for Organizational Studies Colloquium 2019 in Edinburgh
AU - Tarim, Emre
AU - Musacchio, A.L.
AU - Torfason, Asgeir
PY - 2019/6/4
Y1 - 2019/6/4
N2 - The global financial crisis that started in the USA in 2007 and spread to the rest of the world led to a near collapse of the financial system . The crisis also showed that the analytical substance taken for granted in accounting information was questionable . In this paper we argue for a constitutive communication perspective on discourse as the location of agency in financial accounting failures. In particular we look at framing as the main way of defining, interpreting, evaluating and remembering accounting numbers in the banking sector. Focussing on the Swedish banking sector over a 12 year period including the global crisis years, we find out via the analysis of financial statements and interviews with employees of four major banks that official cash flow numbers published in annual financial statements did not function as signals for potential problems ahead. We call this failure the counterperformativity of cash flow numbers and explain it by focussing on the the communicators and receivers of cash flow numbers and the cultural framings in which all of them exist.
AB - The global financial crisis that started in the USA in 2007 and spread to the rest of the world led to a near collapse of the financial system . The crisis also showed that the analytical substance taken for granted in accounting information was questionable . In this paper we argue for a constitutive communication perspective on discourse as the location of agency in financial accounting failures. In particular we look at framing as the main way of defining, interpreting, evaluating and remembering accounting numbers in the banking sector. Focussing on the Swedish banking sector over a 12 year period including the global crisis years, we find out via the analysis of financial statements and interviews with employees of four major banks that official cash flow numbers published in annual financial statements did not function as signals for potential problems ahead. We call this failure the counterperformativity of cash flow numbers and explain it by focussing on the the communicators and receivers of cash flow numbers and the cultural framings in which all of them exist.
M3 - Conference paper
Y2 - 1 July 2019 through 3 June 2020
ER -