Accounting research in developing countries: potential policy implications | Original Thinking Podcast

This episode will be hosted by Javed Siddiqui, Professor of Accounting, Alliance Manchester Business School.

Pressures from various donor agencies (such as the World Bank), combined with the pursuit of legitimacy by governments in many developing countries, have resulted in various western accounting and corporate governance mechanisms to be exported to the developing world.

Accounting researchers have identified the inherent limits to what (western) governance systems can achieve, especially in certain (non-western) contexts, and have often termed these practices as ‘ritualistic’. Drawing from his personal research journey, Professor Javed Siddiqui will discuss the potential policy implications of such research.

For example, given the presence of weak capital markets, where investors do not really appreciate the value of a ‘good’ audit, and the reasonable success of various supply chain certification schemes, is there a scope for changing the focus of auditing and governance mechanisms in developing economies (as suggested by the Brydon review)? If so, what is stopping certain forms of change from coming within? Also, given the tendency of governments in developing countries to adopt western governance mechanisms without considering the context, do regulators in western countries need a more cautious approach towards policy development?

Javed is a Professor of Accounting at the Alliance Manchester Business School, and the school Director for post-graduate taught (PGT) programmes, responsible for a portfolio of fifteen specialised MSc programmes. Javed joined Manchester Business School as a Lecturer in 2008, and was promoted to a Senior Lecturer in the same school in 2015. His primary fields of research are auditing, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, especially in the context of developing economies. His research has been funded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, UK. Professor Siddiqui worked with international development agencies, such as the World Bank and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Big Four accountancy firms, as well as national level professional accountancy bodies.

This event will be facilitated by Christopher Humphrey, Professor of Accounting in the Accounting and Finance division of Alliance Manchester Business School.