University of Edinburgh Business School

Institute of Public Sector Accounting Research (IPSAR)

• Introduction
• Conferences
• Current Research
• Events
• Journal
• Members

Introduction

IPSAR was established in 1987 at the University of Stirling and in 1991 it transferred to the University of Edinburgh. Initially, IPSAR was funded by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, the Public Finance Foundation, the Scottish Chartered Accountants Trust for Education and Wang UK. Subsequently it has attracted external funding from the ESRC, Leverhulme, Nuffield, ICAS, CIPFA, CIMA, EU and government departments.

Mission statement of IPSAR

To identify, develop and promulgate principles and practices for best accounting in the public sector.

Director

The director of IPSAR is Professor Irvine Lapsley.

Conferences

Recent conferences

IPSAR is involved in 3 conference activities:

• 1. The New Public Sector (NPS) Seminar

  The NPS Seminar is chaired by the Director and Professor Peter Miller of LSE. This seminar series started in 1996, as a result of a successful bid to the ESRC Seminar Series competition. Subsequently, this seminar series has received sponsorship from the Research Foundation of CIMA and from the British Accounting Association (Public Services Interest Group), which is funded by CIPFA. There are three parts to this event: presentations of academic papers; a round table of external experts; and a doctoral forum. Recent NPS seminars have been on: Government Budgeting in the Global Recession (2009); Accounting in Cities (2008); E-Government (2007); Targets and Performance Measurement (2006); Public-Private-Partnerships (2005). This event has an international participation. In 2009, this event attracted participants from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, Ireland and the UK.

  This year's NPS Seminar is being held at the University of Edinburgh Business School on 8th and 9th November 2012 and the theme will be "Strategic Thinking in Public Services". General enquiries can be made by emailing yvonne.crichton@ed.ac.uk.

  View the NPS Seminar Call for Papers

• 2. The EIASM Public Sector Conference

  The Director of IPSAR is Chair of the Scientific Committee of the EIASM Public Sector Conference. This has been held in Amsterdam (2008) - co-chairs, Tom Groot, Jan Van Helden, Henk ter Bogt, Tjerk Budding and Irvine Lapsley; Siena (2006) - co-chairs, Riccardo Mussari and Irvine Lapsley; Oslo (2004) - co-chairs, Åge Johnsen and Irvine Lapsley. In 2010 the EIASM Public Sector conference will be held at Copenhagen Business School (co-chairs, Peter Skaerbek and Irvine Lapsley.

  Call for papers - see the EIASM Website.

• 3. The EIASM Third Sector Research Workshop

  In June 2011 the (bi-annual) Eighth Workshop "On the Challenges of Managing the Third Sector" in Galway (Ireland, UK). Previous editions were held in Brussels(1997), Edinburgh (1999), Brussels(2001), Fribourg (2003), Belfast (2005), Venice (2007), and Nantes (2009) respectively. The best papers of each edition were selected to be submitted for a special issue of an academic journal in the field of nonprofit research or general management. The Nantes one is still in process (special issue of European Management Journal EMJ), the previous ones were:

  JEGERS M., LAPSLEY I. (eds.), Accountability in non-profit organisations. Special Issue of Financial Accountability and Management, 14,3,1998.
  JEGERS M., LAPSLEY I. (eds.), Accounting and management in the third sector. Special Issue of Financial Accountability and Management 17,1,2001.
  JEGERS M., LAPSLEY I. (eds.), The 21st century challenge: managing charitable entities as business enterprises. Special issue of Financial Accountability and Management 19,3,2003.
  HELMIG B., JEGERS M., LAPSLEY I., TAYLOR R. (eds.), Managing nonprofit organizations. Special issue of Voluntas - International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 15,2,2004.
  HELMIG B., HYNDMAN N., JEGERS M., LAPSLEY I. (eds.), On the challenges of managing the third sector. Special issue of Zeitschrift Offentliche und gemeinwirtschaftliche Unternehmen (Journal for Public and Nonprofit Services), Special Issue 34, 2006.
  HELMIG B., JEGERS M., LAPSLEY I., PANOZZO F. (eds.), Special Issue on Charities: The Recurring Questions, Special Issue of Financial Accountability & Management, Vol. 25 No. 1, 2009.

Current research

The major focus of IPSAR's research is on accounting within New Public Management reforms. It has conducted a major international study of governmental accounting with colleagues from the UK, Norway and New Zealand, which was sponsored by ESRC and CIMA. IPSAR members have also conducted externally funded research on performance measurement in health care which was sponsored by the British Academy. Research has also been undertaken on primary health care (Iris Bosa) and on the work of the National Audit Office (Tom Brown). Research has also been undertaken on the Audit Society and on capital accounting in local government by the Director with Professor Arnaboldi (Milan) with the support of the British Accounting Association. Currently Professor Arnaboldi and the Director are engaged on the transfer of ideas from the private to the public sector, specifically on risk management, which is sponsored by CIMA.

The doctoral research within IPSAR includes: (1) Governance in Charities (Vicky Lambert); (2) State Investment in Banking (Elisa Henderson); (3) The Audit Society in the NHS ( Alison Cumming); and (4) A Comparative Study of E-Health in the UK and Italy (Maria Cucciniello).

Recent Events

• Irvine Lapsley contributed to the Symposium on Health Care Accounting at the EAA, Rotterdam, May, 2008.

• Irvine Lapsley examined Ph.Ds at Sydney University (English) in 2008 and at Lund University (Thomasson) in 2009.

• Irvine Lapsley was Visiting Professor at Mannheim Business School, November 2009.

• Irvine Lapsley was invited to give a plenary lecture at the Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research (CIGAR) Conference in Modena, Italy, on May 28-30 2009.

Research Journal

The leading international research journal in public sector accounting, Financial Accountability and Management (FAM), now in its 26th volume, is edited in IPSAR. FAM, which was established in 1985, is sponsored by The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and published by Wiley-Blackwell.

More details available from the journals page, or visit Wiley-Blackwell.

Members

• Professor Irvine Lapsley (Director)
• Dr Iris Bosa, Lecturer in Accounting
• Tom Brown, Lecturer in Accounting
• Maria Cucciniello, PhD student
• Alison Cumming, PhD student
• Elisa Henderson, PhD student
• Vicky Lambert, PhD student
• Professor Arthur Midwinter, Visiting Professor

International Associates

• Professor Michela Arnaboldi, Politecnico di Milano
• Professor Dana Forgione, University of Texas at San Antonio
• Professor James Guthrie, Sydney University
• Dr Nathalie Halgand, Nantes University Business School
• Professor Marc Jegers, Vrije University, Brussels
• Professor Åge Johnsen, Oslo University College

Associate Members

• Professor Kath Melia (HSS)
• Claudie Pagliari (Medical School)
• Professor Jill Schofield (Org.Studies)

Secretary

• Yvonne Crichton
  Telephone: 0131 650 3791
  Email: yvonne.crichton@ed.ac.uk

Address

• The University of Edinburgh
  29 Buccleuch Place
  Edinburgh
  EH8 9JS
  UK
  Telephone: 0131 650 3790/1
  Email: IPSAR@ed.ac.uk