Similarities and differences in the measurement of assets between for-profit and not-for-profit organizations under the concept of comparability

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Various discussions are taking place regarding accounting standards for non-profit organizations（Crawford et al.2018,McConville & Cordery 2018, Breen et al.2018). Accounting has seen significant development, modeling after the accounting of Public Limited Companies. Under the influence of the shift from "management accounting to financial accounting" in for-profit accounting, discussions about non-profit accounting have become common. In this context, concepts like "general-purpose financial reporting" and "comparability" are often introduced (IFR4NPO 2023).
However, what exactly is meant by "general-purpose" in business accounting? Also, who is the intended stakeholders for "comparability"? We face to questions: (1) whether the "general purpose" in for-profit accounting has applicability to non-profit accounting, and (2) whether comparability, important for investors and banks, is a useful concept in the context of non-profit accounting. This approach considers both the practical costs for financial statement preparers and the societal benefits of the resulting financial reports.
In these points, to provide a clearer contrast with for-profit organizations, we have also explored non-profit organizations, including public museums without shareholders. This is because significant doubts have been raised about the measurement of cultural assets in public museums (Ferri, Sidaway & Carnegie, 2021).
Methodology
From these perspectives, we assembled an interdisciplinary team of researching museums. In addition to deductive methods, we have been using inductive approaches, drawing insights from practical settings like museums and churches. We all together conducted field research in museum storage facilities. We found that reliance on subjective "memorandum prices," which merely reconcile figures, is prevalent, and comparability has often been abandoned from the outset.
In this panel, accounting scholar Onoe discusses the issue of "comparability" within Japan's unusual non-profit accounting systems.
Similarly, accounting scholar Kudo focuses on accounting procedures for the disclosure of cultural properties while considering the beneficiaries of accounting information.
Museum scholar Deguchi raises concerns about the prioritization of accounting information in museums, where material information takes precedence in a chronological information processing method.

References

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Sub Unit

• Measuring Third Sector output and impact

Moderator

• Masayuki Deguchi, National Museum of Ethnology & Graduate University for Advanced studies

Individual Presentations

• Comparability of Accounting Information in Nonprofit Accounting Standards in Japan - Eliya Onoe, Nihon University

• Concerns about Corporate Accountingization: should financial reporting of cultural heritage be comparable? - Eiiichiro Kudo, Seinan Gakuin University

• Conflict of asset measurement from the Perspective of Nonprofit Museum Studies - Masayuki Deguchi, National Museum of Ethnology & Graduate University for Advanced studies