GOVERNANCE, ACCOUNTING & DEVELOPMENT

GAD

GAD is a research group at Halmtsad University, having the aim at developing knowledge about the governance and management of organisations and its implication on organizational development. This will be achieved through focusing on the subject of accounting and finance in a broad sense and including areas such as managerial accounting (including management control), financial accounting, auditing, corporate finance and corporate governance.

The research is methodologically and theoretically unconstrained and no preferences are given to nomothetic or idiographic approaches. Instead a pragmatic/realist methodology is favored. However, one ambition is to build a research program using eclectic accounting theory. This implies a fusion of institutional theory where the creations of cognitive categories are emphasised, and economic rational theories such as agency theory, emphasising instrumental action. Hence the eclectic approach emphasizes rational choice within the institutional frame in which organisations operate. This theoretical approach will be applied on the diverse areas included in GAD, such as development and choice of accounting standards, determinants of audit costs, corporate social responsibility, accounting ethics and the use of accounting information in growth firms. One implication of the governance aspect is the consideration of property right variation, meaning that GAD will try to stimulate variance on organizational forms, considering private firms and public firms, small newly established firms and large old firms. The program is preliminary and it is in its first stage of conception.

In order to disseminate the research, we have a working paper series.