Contemporary Issues in Accounting: The Current Developments in Accounting Beyond the Numbers

The book explores the developing challenges and opportunities within the business and finance world which are likely to impact the accounting profession in the near future. It outlines a number of approaches to ensure that the accountants of the future are equipped with a useful awareness of some of the key topic areas that are quickly becoming a reality and helps bridge the gap between academia and practice. The chapters are standalone introductory pieces to provide useful précis of key topics and how they apply to the accounting profession in particular. It aims to deliver key readings on ‘hot topics’ not addressed in other texts which the accounting profession is tackling or are likely to tackle soon. Hence the book provides accounting students and researchers a solid grounding in a broad range of highly relevant non-technical accounting themes, looking at the bigger environment in which future accountants will be operating, involving considerations of strategic corporate governance issues and highlighting competences beyond the standard technical accounting skill sets.

Elaine Conway is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance at the Derby Business School, University of Derby, UK. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. She is also a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and the Chartered Management Institute. She has an MBA from Duke University, USA. Prior to entering academia, Elaine spent 17 years in various managerial roles in the automotive industry. Her research interests are corporate social responsibility, sustainable business and financial reporting.

Darren Byrne is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance and the Programme Leader for Business Accounting at the University of Derby, UK. He teaches on numerous modules covering managerial theory, project management and other disciplines that support the Business Accountant. His teaching philosophy is to draw upon his own professional experience and to help apply ideas contextually for the benefit of students’ own learning. His research interests are currently project management skills, business ethics and with the perception of professionalism within the international context. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.