A History of Corporate Financial Reporting provides an understanding of the procedures and practices which constitute corporate financial reporting in Britain, at different points of time, and how and why those practices changed and became what they are now. Its particular focus is the external financial reporting practices of joint stock companies. This is worth knowing about given the widely held view that Britain (i) pioneered modern financial reporting, and (ii) played a primary role in the development of both capital markets and professional accountancy. The book makes use of a principal and agent framework to study accounting’s past, but one where the failure of managers always to supply the information that users’ desire is given full recognition. It is shown that corporate financial reporting did not develop into its current state in a straightforward and orderly fashion. Each era produces different environmental conditions and imposes new demands on accounting. A proper understanding of accounting developments therefore requires a careful examination of the interrelationship between accountants and accounting techniques on the one hand and, on the other, the social and economic context within which changes took place. The book’s corporate coverage starts with the legendary East India Company, created in 1600, and continues through the heyday of the statutory trading companies founded to build Britain’s canals (commencing in the 1770s) and railways (commencing c.1829) to focus, principally, on the limited liability company fashioned by the Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 and the Limited Liability Act 1855. The story terminates in 2005 when listed companies were required to prepare their consolidated accounts in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, thus signalling the effective end of British accounting.

`This is a book which should be read by all students, whether undergraduate and postgraduate. It also provides a succinct guide for the manager who wishes to come to grips with this topic, or the accountant nostalgic to recollect the non too praiseworthy and indecisive history of this topic′ - Managerial Auditing Journal Corporate Financial Reporting critically examines contemporary corporate financial reporting. The complexity of the reporting process and the myriad of issues facing the directors, accountants and auditors can only be successfully understood from a firm conceptual base. Recent financial scandals clearly highlight the interrelationships between all the themes explored in this book, from financial reporting to auditing, from management′s motivations to fraud. Special features of this book include: - A critical examination of accounting ′theory′ - Senior practitioners′ insights on ′a true and fair view′ - An exploration of ′the financial reporting expectations gap′ - A discussion of the nature of ′corporate performance′ - An examination of corporate fraud - An examination of the implications of ′real-time′ reporting by companies - Discussion questions at the end of each chapter The book will be relevant to advanced undergraduate as well as postgraduate and MBA students.

An overview of the role of institutions and organisations in the development of corporate finance.

Written by a well-known author, this book makes a major contribution to the history of financial reporting, exploring the current and international aspects of standard setting. Compiled through consultation of a considerable amount of relevant literature and interviews with a large number of key players of the ASC, it analyzes the big ‘set battles’ between standard setters and preparers of financial statements, over topics such as price change accounting, goodwill, and leasing and foreign currency translation, the stand-offs which delayed development in specific areas and the smaller skirmishes which impeded the work of improving financial reporting. It covers a range of topics, including: the formulation of standards on specific topics the evolution of the institutional machinery of standard-setting the politics of standard-setting the theory of accounting standardization the emergence of a conceptual framework for financial reporting. A fine account of the period following the 1960s, charting the history of the Accounting Standards Committee, this book is an essential resource for business and finance students.

This book explores certain contemporary problems of accounting through the eyes and pens of historians. Many accounting problems are not new ones and it is therefore important to understand their history and development through the ages. This book places twentieth century studies in context and provides clues to possible solutions. The focus of this book is on companies and their financial reports and will be of use to students of economic and business history who wish to provide themselves with an accounting background in relation to the financial reports of companies they may be studying.