Routledge Companion to Accounting Communication

One of the prime purposes of accounting is to communicate and yet, to date, this fundamental aspect of the discipline has received relatively little attention. The Routledge Companion to Accounting Communication represents the first collection of contributions to focus on the power of communication in accounting.

The chapters have a shared aim of addressing the misconception that accounting is a purely technical, number-based discipline by highlighting the use of narrative, visual and technological methods to communicate accounting information. The contents comprise a mixture of reflective overview, stinging critique, technological exposition, clinical analysis and practical advice on topical areas of interest such as:

• The miscommunication that preceded the global financial crisis
• The failure of sustainability reporting
• The development of XBRL
• How to cut clutter

With an international coterie of contributors, including a communication theorist, a Big Four practitioner and accounting academics, this volume provides an eclectic array of expert analysis and reflection. The contributors reveal how accounting communications represent, or misrepresent, the financial affairs of entities, thus presenting a state-of-the-art assessment on each of the main facets of this important topic. As such, this book will be of interest to a wide range of readers, including: postgraduate students in management and accounting; established researchers in the fields of both accounting and communications; and accounting practitioners.

Lisa Jack is Professor of Accounting at the University of Portsmouth Business School, UK. Her research interests encompass performance measurement, accounting in food supply chains and management control. She is the author of a book on benchmarking as well as several research papers, book chapters and CIMA reports

Jane Davison is Professor of Accounting at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her research interests include visual and narrative perspectives on accounting. She is widely published in major international journals, co-editor of several journal special issues, co-founder of the inVisio research network and associate director of the Bangor Centre for Impression Management in Accounting

Russell Craig is Professor of Accounting at Victoria University, Australia. His main research interests include financial reporting, international accounting and the accountability discourse of executives. He is the co-author of CEO-Speak: The Language of Corporate Leadership (2006, McGill Queens University Press) and over 150 research papers, research monographs and book chapters