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Timeliness of local auditor reporting on local government in England (2023)
Report
Ferry, L., & Midgley, H. (2023). Timeliness of local auditor reporting on local government in England. [No known commissioning body]

We welcome this Public Accounts Committee (PAC) inquiry and the National Audit Office (NAO) report, that it is based upon. Whilst for obvious reasons associated with COVID-19, financial accounts and annual reports of local authorities have been laid... Read More about Timeliness of local auditor reporting on local government in England.

Ministerial Directions (2023)
Report
Ferry, L., Murphie, A., & Midgley, H. (2023). Ministerial Directions. [No known commissioning body]

Institutional Entrepreneurship in a Supreme Audit Institution: The National Audit Office and the use of data in financial audit (2023)
Book Chapter
Ferry, L., & Midgley, H. (in press). Institutional Entrepreneurship in a Supreme Audit Institution: The National Audit Office and the use of data in financial audit. In T. Rana, & L. Parker (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Public Sector Accounting. Routledge

This chapter covers the development of digital technology in audit at the United Kingdom’s Supreme Audit Institution, the National Audit Office. It argues that this represented a case of institutional entrepreneurship in which often quite junior memb... Read More about Institutional Entrepreneurship in a Supreme Audit Institution: The National Audit Office and the use of data in financial audit.

Rationalising externally-driven change: charities and the exploitation of new-practice requirements (2023)
Journal Article
Hyndman, N., & Liguori, M. (in press). Rationalising externally-driven change: charities and the exploitation of new-practice requirements. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly,

Although legitimacy is critical when attempting to introduce new practices in the nonprofit charity sector, little is known about individual processes of legitimation within such organizations, and how legitimacy emerges and interacts with perceived... Read More about Rationalising externally-driven change: charities and the exploitation of new-practice requirements.

Hybridity, institutional logics and value creation mechanisms in the corporatisation of social care (2023)
Journal Article
Ferry, L., Wegorowski, P., & Andrews, R. (2023). Hybridity, institutional logics and value creation mechanisms in the corporatisation of social care. The British Accounting Review, Article 101244

Hybridisation of public services has increased under neoliberalism and New Public Management policies, over the past four decades since the 1980s. Hybrid arrangements for service provision blend public, private and nonprofit approaches to organising... Read More about Hybridity, institutional logics and value creation mechanisms in the corporatisation of social care.

The critical potential of institutional theory revisited - a field study of the rationalisation of budget fairness through agentic actorhood (2023)
Journal Article
Ahrens, T., Ferry, L., & Khalifa, R. (in press). The critical potential of institutional theory revisited - a field study of the rationalisation of budget fairness through agentic actorhood. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, https://doi.org/10.1108/qram-08-2021-0149

Purpose - This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the usefulness of institutional theory to critical studies. It pursues this topic by exploring some of the possibilities for allocating local authority funds more fairly for poor residents. Th... Read More about The critical potential of institutional theory revisited - a field study of the rationalisation of budget fairness through agentic actorhood.

Understanding absences and ambiguities of Post-decision Project Evaluation in the UK's PPPs: drawing from the sociology of ignorance (2023)
Journal Article
Shu, X., Smyth, S., & Haslam, J. (2023). Understanding absences and ambiguities of Post-decision Project Evaluation in the UK's PPPs: drawing from the sociology of ignorance. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj-03-2020-4451

Purpose - We explore the under-researched area of post-decision evaluation in PPPs (Public Private Partnerships), focusing upon how and whether Post-decision Project Evaluation (PdPE) is considered and provided for in UK public infrastructure project... Read More about Understanding absences and ambiguities of Post-decision Project Evaluation in the UK's PPPs: drawing from the sociology of ignorance.

A genealogical and archaeological examination of the development of corporate governance and disciplinary power in English local government c.1970-2010 (2023)
Journal Article
Ferry, L., Funnell, W., & Oldroyd, D. (2023). A genealogical and archaeological examination of the development of corporate governance and disciplinary power in English local government c.1970-2010. Accounting, Organizations and Society, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2023.101466

The paper seeks to enhance our understanding of the interaction between the development of disciplinary power in western liberal society and Foucault’s writings on governmentality, through examination of the political processes resulting from the lar... Read More about A genealogical and archaeological examination of the development of corporate governance and disciplinary power in English local government c.1970-2010.

Accountability, emergency and liberty during COVID-19 in the UK 2020-22 (2023)
Journal Article
Ferry, L., Midgley, H., & Green, S. (in press). Accountability, emergency and liberty during COVID-19 in the UK 2020-22. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj-07-2022-5931

Purpose The study explains why Parliamentarians in the United Kingdom (UK) focused on accountability through data during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as on how data could be used to improve the government’s response to the pandemic. Design/methodol... Read More about Accountability, emergency and liberty during COVID-19 in the UK 2020-22.

An international comparative study of the audit and accountability arrangements of Supreme Audit Institutions (2023)
Journal Article
Ferry, L., Hamid, K., & Hebling Dutra, P. (in press). An international comparative study of the audit and accountability arrangements of Supreme Audit Institutions. Journal of Public Budgeting Accounting and Financial Management, https://doi.org/10.1108/jpbafm-10-2022-0164

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to compare the audit and accountability arrangements of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) internationally. Design/methodology/approach: Building on a theorisation of regulatory space, extended by new audit spaces of... Read More about An international comparative study of the audit and accountability arrangements of Supreme Audit Institutions.

The future of public sector accounting research. A polyphonic debate (2023)
Journal Article
Grossi, G., Steccolini, I., Adhikari, P., Brown, J., Christensen, M., Cordery, C., …Vinnari, E. (2023). The future of public sector accounting research. A polyphonic debate. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 20(1), 1-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/qram-09-2022-0135

Purpose – The purpose of this polyphonic paper is to report on interdisciplinary discussions on the state-ofthe-art and future of public sector accounting research (PSAR). The authors hope to enliven the debates of the past and future developments in... Read More about The future of public sector accounting research. A polyphonic debate.

Municipal Corporations in England and Wales: A Tale of Two Countries (2022)
Book Chapter
Andrews, R., & Ferry, L. (2023). Municipal Corporations in England and Wales: A Tale of Two Countries. In R. Andrews, M. van Genugten, U. Papenfuβ, H. Torsteinsen, & B. Voorn (Eds.), Corporatization In Local Government: Context, Evidence and Perspectives from 19 Countries (49-72). Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09982-3_3

In the wake of the global financial crisis, local governments in the UK have been under increasing pressure to develop cost-effective and innovative approaches to public service provision. The use of municipally-owned corporations (MOCs) has emerged... Read More about Municipal Corporations in England and Wales: A Tale of Two Countries.

Public procurement as a policy tool: The territorial dimension (2022)
Journal Article
Eckersley, P., Flynn, A., Lakoma, K., & Ferry, L. (2022). Public procurement as a policy tool: The territorial dimension. Regional Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2022.2134850

We analysed 90,000 contracts involving UK local authorities between 2015-19 to examine patterns and potential drivers of regional sourcing. We found councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are much more likely to select suppliers based withi... Read More about Public procurement as a policy tool: The territorial dimension.

Regulatory space in local government audit: An international comparative study of 20 countries (2022)
Journal Article
Ferry, L., Midgley, H., & Ruggiero, P. (2022). Regulatory space in local government audit: An international comparative study of 20 countries. Public Money & Management, 43(3), 233-241. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2022.2129559

This article compares audit regulatory space in local government for 20 countries. Building upon prior research, it shows four themes of new audit space, namely ‘organization and fragmentation’, ‘independence and competition’, ‘audit scope’, and ‘ins... Read More about Regulatory space in local government audit: An international comparative study of 20 countries.

Accounting, hybrids, and hybridity - attending to the value dimension in institutional logics (2022)
Journal Article
Ahrens, T., & Ferry, L. (2022). Accounting, hybrids, and hybridity - attending to the value dimension in institutional logics. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 19(5), 696-715. https://doi.org/10.1108/qram-07-2022-0113

Purpose - This essay is concerned with the institutional value dimension in recent accounting research into hybrids and hybridity. Such research has been cognitively oriented and neglected the affective and emotional qualities of the values in which... Read More about Accounting, hybrids, and hybridity - attending to the value dimension in institutional logics.

Financial resilience! A comparative study of three lower tier authorities in England (2022)
Journal Article
Coyle, H., & Ferry, L. (2022). Financial resilience! A comparative study of three lower tier authorities in England. Financial Accountability and Management, 38(4), 686-702. https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12344

Austerity policies have affected local government for over a decade challenging their financial resilience to cope with further financial shocks. Using a financial resilience framework, this paper examines whether lower tier authorities behave in the... Read More about Financial resilience! A comparative study of three lower tier authorities in England.