The religious imperative of cost accounting in the early industrial revolution

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warwick Funnell ◽  
Robert Williams

Purpose – The paper aims to extend research which has sought to explain Britain's early success as an industrial power by identifying the influence of religious doctrine of the Dissenting Protestant churches on the development of accounting practices in the factory. The concern is not with specific accounting practices but with the social and moral environment which provided the incentives and permissions that encouraged late eighteenth century English industrialists to develop the practices that they used. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on the highly influential writings of social theorists such Weber, Sombart and Tawney to identify the religious doctrines that both motivated and justified the rational, ideological business practices of prominent businessmen. Findings – The rise of accounting as a powerful tool of control and discipline was significantly assisted by the teaching of the Dissenting Protestant churches on “calling”. Religious beliefs provided permissions, justifications and incentives which underpinned the entrepreneurial energies, opportunities and successes of the early industrialists. Accounting could be seen to assume almost the aura and nascent legitimacy of a religious practice, a means of sanctifying practices which were otherwise reviled by social elites. Originality/value – Despite encouragement from accounting researchers for histories of accounting which give greater credence to the reflexivity between accounting and society, this has yet to find a significant presence amongst the searches for beginnings in cost accounting where economic and management factors remain the overwhelming focus. Religious beliefs are shown to have been especially influential in the adoption of accounting practices by early industrialists who were frequently members of the Dissenting Protestant churches.

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 737-749 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harish Kumar ◽  
Manoj Kumar Singh ◽  
M.P. Gupta

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the influencing characteristics of user-generated content over perceived structure of social platforms to plan various business practices to improve the social commerce activities especially in emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach In first step, key factors are identified from the systematic literature studies and experts’ opinion. Second, total interpretive structural modeling is used to interpret the complexity of relationships among various factors. Further, fuzzy-MICMAC analysis is used to determine the most driving factors to improve the social commerce. Findings The study illustrates hierarchical relationships that can help policy designers, business leaders and decision makers to gain maximum benefits of mining the user-generated content to implement the people-oriented changes to improve economic capability of a country. Research limitations/implications The applicability of the study findings can be deployed mostly in emerging economies. The study has not considered the data security, cyberbullying, authenticity and reliability of shared content spread virally over social sites. Practical implications The paper will assist policy makers, business planners and solution providers to give importance to public-led influencing patterns to offer business solutions based on people demand and choices. Social implications The customers’ engagement, sharing reviews, getting suggestions from other people and finding new trends through user-generated content would enable higher social commerce activities. Originality/value The paper develops hierarchical relationships to represent the advancements in business and marketing activities based on influencing patterns and behavior of users over social sites.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Vinodan ◽  
S. Meera

Purpose Tamil Nadu, the southern provincial state of India attracts the highest number of domestic as well as international tourist to India. Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu is the much sought-after destination for tourists and attracts a large number of visitors. Considering the transformational role of tourism with its focus on community-in-need, tourism can usher opportunities for both not-for-profit and for-profit social entrepreneurship (SE). At this juncture, the number of poor people in the city is relevant, which is almost 40% of the population seeking livelihood opportunities. SE operating for-profit model is often construed sustainable and appropriate in the context of tourism. Considering the relevance of such innovative actional approaches, this study aims to explore the potential of for-profit SE in the the city of Chennai. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted the exploratory sequential method. The social drivers and challenges of SE in Chennai were explored through expert in-depth interview and the dimensions of challenges were explored through factor analysis. Findings The study result indicates that the social drivers of SE in tourism can be broadly classified into concurrent social drivers and latent social drivers, which encompass the potential for social bricoleur, social constructionist and social engineer typologies. There are five dimensions for the challenges for institutionalizing tourism-based SE in the city of Chennai i.e. community concerned, industry specific, sustainability centric, governance oriented and collaboration centered. The study concluded with future directions for the institutionalizing SE, creating social value and fostering community-level transformation in tune with sustainable development goals (SDGs) in tourist destinations of the city of Chennai. Research limitations/implications The study considered existing wage employees of various vendors in tourist destinations of the city with an assumption that these wage employees are interested in entrepreneurship possibility. Practical implications SE assumes relevance in the context of inclusive tourism and toward the attainment of SDGs through tourism, as an economic activity. The outcome of the study can be a catalyst to stimulate alternative business models for local development; persuading existing business enterprises to follow more responsible business practices in city destinations, thus promoting more pragmatic socio-economic outcomes to the underprivileged, through tourism. Originality/value Social drivers and challenges are unique in the context of tourism especially in the Indian context as there was no such attempt to consolidate these aspects as a move toward inclusive tourism by strengthening the grass-root level participation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 577-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Lynch-Wood ◽  
David Williamson

Purpose – This paper aims to examine social licence in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Social and economic actors can assist in protecting the environment by granting firms a social licence. The social licence is regarded as a regulatory trigger, which some claim can improve organisational practices and possibly induce beyond compliance behaviour. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses data from interviews with the owners and managers of 110 manufacturing SMEs. Findings – Social licence pressures are generally weak, while traditional regulation remains essential for encouraging and sustaining environmental activity. That said, the data show important differences across firms, for some SMEs are influenced by and responsive to social licence pressures. Typically, these pressures derive from stakeholders who pursue a relatively narrow self-interest (rather than public interest) mandate, and focus on particular issues rather than broader objectives of environmental responsibility. When responding to pressures, SMEs are likely to take specific and focused actions that address specific stakeholder concerns. Research limitations/implications – Fresh insights are provided into the social licence and smaller firms. Contrary to previous views, there are circumstances where the social licence provides a limited and tailored regulatory tool for initiating change, and it typically leads to firms making alterations to business practices that tend to be low-cost and easy to implement. The social licence can provide a consensual micro-social contract and limited public interest service, and, subject to supporting circumstances, it may be extendable to other types of smaller firms. Social implications – The paper presents fresh insights into the relationship between SMEs and social and economic stakeholders. Originality/value – The paper provides new insights into how relevant stakeholders can influence the environmental behaviour of small firms.


1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-148
Author(s):  
Stanisław Pyszka

The proclamation of the encyclical Rerum Novarum by Leo XIII on 15 May 1891 gave rise to what is today called the social teaching of the Church, or more precisely of the Catholic Church, since Orthodox churches did not take up the subject and Protestant churches became occupied with social issues only in the last decades of the twentieth century. Experts agree that the proclamation of this encyclical is linked with the beginning of the social teaching of the Church. There was no previous official social teaching, if we take social teaching to be a series of formal statements made by the Magisterium of the Church. At the end of the nineteenth century the Church witnessed radical political, economic and social changes, finding itself under various influences of the prevailing ideologies (CA 4). The so-called „second industrial revolution" in economic life took place in 1870-1914. Rerum Novarum is commonly considered the beginning of the social teaching of the Church in its modern approach/ Until then the faithful were only warned of errors (Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, 15 August 1832; Pius IX, Syllabus, 1864).


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-361
Author(s):  
Yaotang Peter Lin

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to conduct a brief survey on the Catholic Church in Taiwan since its establishment by the Spanish missionaries in 1662 until today on its internal development and external relationship with the government. It is interesting to discover that, mostly, the Church has a harmonious relationship with the government, except a very few cases in which its foreign missionaries following the social teaching of the Church antagonize the government. However, it does not affect the close relationship between the Church and government in Taiwan. Design/methodology/approach It is a qualitative research on archive and books to research on the events of the Catholic Church in Taiwan in the discipline of social sciences. Historical research is in the majority of events. Findings The finding is acceptable because it is one of the few writings on the Catholic Church in Taiwan when writing on the Protestant Churches in Taiwan is flooding. Originality/value This is a ground-breaking work with academic value.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wieke Scholten ◽  
Naomi Ellemers

Purpose This paper aims to identify social psychological root causes of misconduct by traders and offers practical guidelines to prevent misconduct. Design/methodology/approach The authors use insights on social psychological mechanisms to examine current business practices observed in the context of supervisory activities. Case examples were collected at Dutch and European banks, including major institutions. This is an opinion peace that interprets regulator experiences from a social psychological perspective. Findings The authors characterize standard responses to misconduct in trading as reactive and elucidate why this “bad apples” perspective is insufficiently effective. As an alternative, the authors address the social psychological root causes of misconduct within trading teams. The “corrupting barrels” model identifies ineffective error approaches, outcome inequality and dysfunctional moral climates as contextual root causes in team dynamics. The model uses current insights from empirical research in psychology to do so. Practical implications This paper specifies practical guidelines that help prevent future misconduct among traders. Originality/value Addressing the contextual root causes of misconduct at the team level will help banks and financial supervisors to improve their effectiveness in preventing misconduct. In the context of standard “bad apples” approaches, the “corrupting barrels” model offers an original perspective.


1990 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Nikitin

In 1820, the Manufacture Royale des Glaces, founded in 1665 and also named Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, opted for double entry bookkeeping and cost accounting. At that time, both economic (industrial revolution) and juridical (abolition of the privileges and emergence of competition) events explain that change of accounting methods. From 1820 to 1880, the accounting system was progressively improved; most of today's cost accounting problems were discussed by the Board of Directors and in 1880 the accounting system was already very similar to today's full cost method.


Author(s):  
Susan E. Whyman

The introduction shows the convergence and intertwining of the Industrial Revolution and the provincial Enlightenment. At the centre of this industrial universe lay Birmingham; and at its centre was Hutton. England’s second city is described in the mid-eighteenth century, and Hutton is used as a lens to explore the book’s themes: the importance of a literate society shared by non-elites; the social category of ‘rough diamonds’; how individuals responded to economic change; political participation in industrial towns; shifts in the modes of authorship; and an analysis of social change. The strategy of using microhistory, biography, and the history of the book is discussed, and exciting new sources are introduced. The discovery that self-education allowed unschooled people to participate in literate society renders visible people who were assumed to be illiterate. This suggests that eighteenth-century literacy was greater than statistics based on formal schooling indicate.


Author(s):  
Susan E. Whyman

Hutton’s business success and social mobility are viewed in the context of Birmingham’s industrial development, a booming land market, the lack of government regulation, and the diversity of religious practice. This chapter reveals the economic framework that allowed Hutton to amass wealth. Once he settled in Birmingham, he found new ways to develop business skills and make money. Early failure stiffened his resolve, taught him lessons, and led him to focus on selling paper, instead of books. Convinced of the future value of land, he made risky speculations and accumulated large debts. A case study compares Hutton’s response to the Industrial Revolution with that of his sister, Catherine Perkins. Hutton devoted all his energies to making money and buying estates. His sister found greater happiness in her religious faith and charity. Their opposing views about land, trade, money, and religion reveal a spectrum of personal responses to rapid economic change.


Author(s):  
Thomas Brodie

This chapter analyses the impact exerted on the Catholic Church’s pastoral networks in Germany by the mass evacuation of laypeople from bombed urban areas as of 1941. Drawing on the voluminous correspondence of priests and curates despatched from the Rhineland and Westphalia to Saxony, Thuringia, Silesia, Austria, and elsewhere to minister to Catholic evacuees, this chapter provides in-depth analysis of the social and cultural histories of religious practice in wartime Germany. It demonstrates that the evacuation of laypeople—a topic long neglected within histories of wartime religious practice—exerted a profound influence on pastoral practice by the years 1943–5, placing unprecedented pressures on the Catholic clergy of the dioceses central to this study (Aachen, Cologne and Münster). This chapter therefore also casts new light on regionalism in Germany during the Nazi era.


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