دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی مطالعه دینامیک حسابداری و اعتماد - نشریه الزویر

abstract

Adapting Callon's three-phased model of translation, this paper investigates the formation and development of an outsourcing alliance. It also maps the changing connections between trust and accounting. Instead of theorising trust as a noun, the paper defines trust as situated practice: an accomplishment constructed through the actions and routinized practices of multiple actors, both human and nonhuman. Trust/trustworthiness was observed to be not one thing but many - diverse notions emerging from the ‘doing’ of routines enacted in the name of trust. Accounting was centrally entangled in the birth of the alliance, its structuring and in the routines to find and select trustworthy suppliers, to monitor them regularly in order to justify ongoing trusting, and to repair growing distrust. Finally, the origins of the alliance crucially affected its subsequent trajectory - earlier investment in finding trustworthy suppliers meant that later poor performance not only generated strong disappointment but came to be seen as a breach of trust and a failure to honour promises.

6. Conclusion

We have sought to contribute in the following ways. Firstly, we add to the few accounting studies that examine the dynamics of alliances and their association with accounting. By following the crafting of an alliance from birth, we show the centrality of accounting throughout its life. Accounting was key to the translation of concerns, of solutions and of promises of the future. It was involved in repeated trials of trust. Accounting was not a form of control that emerged after the alliance was formed but actively shaped its formation and subsequent mode of operation. We also contribute to the existing alliance research that examines the accounting-trust nexus. As indicated earlier, most prior research seeks to ‘fix’ what trust is and then focuses on examining the functional relationship between accounting and trust. Rather than fixing the phenomenon a priori, we show how diverse and situated meanings of trustworthiness emerged and were articulated through routine practices. The use of accounting as a performance measurement tool and for ‘control’ was seen as a basis for trust in this setting. We highlight temporal and affective dimensions in which there were ongoing trials of trust, feelings of disappointment that followed significant investment in searching and choosing ‘trustworthy’ suppliers but also a possible ‘cycle’ of repair work once breaches were felt to be worth repairing. We hope that future research will throw more light on how accounting and trust-as-practice connect in diverse organisational settings.