Evaluative Infrastructures: Accounting for Distributed Network Production

Martin Kornberger, Dane Pflueger, Jan Mouritsen

Publikation: Konferencebidrag › Paper › Forskning › peer review

Resumé

To date, much of the accounting literature focuses on control and coordination within and from the perspective of organizations, reflecting what Hopwood described as accounting’s “hierarchical consciousness”. Inspired by the growing phenomenon of network organizational forms such as eBay, AirBnB or Uber, this paper develops the concept of evaluative infrastructures for a heterarchical modus of accounting. Evaluative infrastructures are decentralized accounting practices that underpin distributed production processes. They are evaluative because they deploy a plethora of interacting devices, including rankings, ratings, reviews, audits etc. to establish orders of worth. They are infrastructures because they provide the invisible yet essential mechanisms for distributed production processes to occur. Put metaphorically, if cost accounting provided the numerical infrastructure for the hierarchical firm, evaluative infrastructures provide the accounting practices for networks. Illustrating the concept of evaluative infrastructure with the extended example of eBay, the paper’s contribution is to extend accounting scholars’ analytical focus from hierarchical settings to heterarchies. This analytical shift from management accounting to evaluative infrastructures includes a focus on relationality (evaluative infrastructures do not represent or reference but relate things, people and ideas with each other); generativity (evaluative infrastructures do not territorialize objects but disclose new worlds); and new forms of control (evaluative infrastructures are not centers of calculation; rather, control is radically distributed, whilst power remains centralized).
OriginalsprogEngelsk
Publikationsdato2016
Antal sider41
StatusUdgivet - 2016
BegivenhedThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2016: Making Organizations Meaningful - Anaheim, USA
Varighed: 5 aug. 2016 → 9 aug. 2016
Konferencens nummer: 76
http://aom.org/annualmeeting/

Konference

KonferenceThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2016
Nummer76
LandUSA
ByAnaheim
Periode05/08/2016 → 09/08/2016
Internetadresse

Bibliografisk note

CBS Bibliotek har ikke adgang til materialet

Emneord

  • Infrastructure
  • Network production
  • Evaluation

Citer dette

Kornberger, M., Pflueger, D., & Mouritsen, J. (2016). Evaluative Infrastructures: Accounting for Distributed Network Production. Afhandling præsenteret på The Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2016, Anaheim, USA.
Kornberger, Martin ; Pflueger, Dane ; Mouritsen, Jan. / Evaluative Infrastructures : Accounting for Distributed Network Production. Afhandling præsenteret på The Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2016, Anaheim, USA.41 s.
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Kornberger, M, Pflueger, D & Mouritsen, J 2016, 'Evaluative Infrastructures: Accounting for Distributed Network Production' Paper fremlagt ved The Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2016, Anaheim, USA, 05/08/2016 - 09/08/2016, .

Evaluative Infrastructures : Accounting for Distributed Network Production. / Kornberger, Martin; Pflueger, Dane ; Mouritsen, Jan.

2016. Afhandling præsenteret på The Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2016, Anaheim, USA.

Publikation: Konferencebidrag › Paper › Forskning › peer review

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N2 - To date, much of the accounting literature focuses on control and coordination within and from the perspective of organizations, reflecting what Hopwood described as accounting’s “hierarchical consciousness”. Inspired by the growing phenomenon of network organizational forms such as eBay, AirBnB or Uber, this paper develops the concept of evaluative infrastructures for a heterarchical modus of accounting. Evaluative infrastructures are decentralized accounting practices that underpin distributed production processes. They are evaluative because they deploy a plethora of interacting devices, including rankings, ratings, reviews, audits etc. to establish orders of worth. They are infrastructures because they provide the invisible yet essential mechanisms for distributed production processes to occur. Put metaphorically, if cost accounting provided the numerical infrastructure for the hierarchical firm, evaluative infrastructures provide the accounting practices for networks. Illustrating the concept of evaluative infrastructure with the extended example of eBay, the paper’s contribution is to extend accounting scholars’ analytical focus from hierarchical settings to heterarchies. This analytical shift from management accounting to evaluative infrastructures includes a focus on relationality (evaluative infrastructures do not represent or reference but relate things, people and ideas with each other); generativity (evaluative infrastructures do not territorialize objects but disclose new worlds); and new forms of control (evaluative infrastructures are not centers of calculation; rather, control is radically distributed, whilst power remains centralized).

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Kornberger M, Pflueger D, Mouritsen J. Evaluative Infrastructures: Accounting for Distributed Network Production. 2016. Afhandling præsenteret på The Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2016, Anaheim, USA.