Social Accounting and Accountability Research Centre (SAARC)

Director – Corinne Cortese

The Social Accounting and Accountability Research Centre (SAARC) was established in 2008 within the Accounting Discipline, School of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Commerce.  It is increasingly acknowledged that accounting is not an objective, neutral practice, but emanates to a large extent from the justification and mobilisation of the agenda of private enterprises, governments, and nonprofit organisations.

Accounting and its networks of accountability are not limited in their effects to the economic, but have social and political consequences, re-forming the way in which we view the world. In identifying the social effect of existing accounting practices, and imagining new mechanisms for accounting and accountability that include social implications, SAARC researchers (in the Centre) focus on a wide range of projects, from climate change initiatives, the Kyoto protocol, to the accountability of aid agencies and accounting’s role in the deinstitutionalisation of mental hospitals.

Current research projects by members of SAA that are consistent with the Social Innovation Network are:

Kyoto Protocol and Environmental Accounting

Current work on environmental accounting has considered environmental ethics and its impact on the development of environmental accounting; the role of accounting in the negotiation of international environmental accountability for greenhouse gases (Kyoto Protocol); and considered the way environmental accounting information is being operationalised by corporations through systems such as the carbon disclosures project and web based corporate social responsibility reporting. Currently, Dr Jane Andrew is collaborating with Dr Corinne Cortese in a study on accountability mechanisms of the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Public Accountability

A current study is concerned with issues of public accountability and the impact that ‘contracting out’ has had on the delivery of services and infrastructure that are essential to communities. Specifically, Dr Jane Andrew has focused on the privatisation of prisons in Australia and how this has impacted on public accountability. She is currently using theories of neoliberalism to explore prison policies in New South Wales.  

Corporate Social Responsibility

A Corporate Social Responsibility project is currently being undertaken by Dr Corrine Cortese and Dr Helen Irvine which focuses on the way in which corporations in Australia report on their social policies.

Social Capital

Currently Dr Helen Irvine is working with Prof Sara Dolnicar and Katie Lazarevski on a paper about local volunteering organisations and the effect of grant funding on social capital.

Corporate Strategic Bankruptcy

Research is currently undertaken into the effect of institutions in shaping corporate ‘strategic bankruptcy’ in relation to James Hardie Industries and the implementation of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative in developing countries.

Social Implications of Accounting Education and Theory

Dr Kathy Rudkin, Dr Anura DeZoysa and Dr Kathie Cooper are currently working on the social implications of both accounting education and accounting theory. Currently they are widening a pilot study of accounting students’ socio-economic circumstances to a national level to expand the findings of the AVCC report.  This work is being undertaken alongside a parallel study by Nagoya University to develop an OECD country comparison in the Asia Pacific region. Dr Kathy Rudkin is also working on an accounting theory project to develop a new model of accountability beyond economic reciprocity, drawing on postmodern Baudrillary sign and gifting theory. The purpose of this project is to develop a more socially sensitive and wider encompassing notion of accountability beyond that of the neoclassical economic version associated with, for example, Agency Theory of Positive Accounting Theory.

Societal Impacts of Accounting on Public Policy Choices

Research is currently being undertaken into the societal impacts of accounting and other quantified calculus on public policy choices. A recent publication reflects on “how the direct costs that fall within the parameters of the health budget are privileged (inscribed), compared to how indirect costs that fall outside this boundary fail to be inscribed appropriately”, concluded that from a social accounting point of view, this boundary is arbitrary and an example of poor accounting.

Financial Market Trading System

This area of research focuses on the financial market trading system, financial market integration and corporate structure and governance, and includes issues of social innovation and social welfare from a societal wide view, on the understanding that the better the quality of financial markets in society, the greater the social welfare available to members. Currently Assoc Prof Gary Tian is examining trading architecture innovation in order to improve market quality, which will benefit traders and investors; studying market integration and market non-linearity to learn how to avoid financial crashes and diversify investment risk; and analysing the impact of ownership structure, capital structure and dividend payout ratio on firms’ performance and default risk in order to find the optimal corporate structures to benefit both shareholders and society.