Abstract
Despite considerable research in the literature surrounding the processes and impacts of theadoption of accrual accounting in the public sector, there is a growing interest in investigating
the role of political, social and organisational settings, as well as agents, in the imposition of
accrual accounting in the public sector. Such a trend inspired me to examine how accrual
accounting was mobilised and institutionalised with respect to public sector accounting reform
in Indonesia. In addition, to fill the existing literature gaps, I focused on the different locus: a
subsequent phase where accrual accounting shifts from the macro level to a lower level.
Therefore, I concentrated on the second-stage impacts of accrual accounting adoption in public
sector asset management practices in Indonesia.
To inform the study, I used strong structuration theory because it allowed me to gain a deeper
understanding of the role of agents and structures in the context of public sector accounting
reforms in the country. Through a case study building on social constructionism and collected
data from document sources and in-depth interviews with 33 participants, I find that during the
transformation process agents in the Directorate General of Public Assets in the Indonesian
Ministry of Finance had to adjust their strategy to comply with the imposed structure of accrual
accounting. Equally, with the presence of national government balance sheets showing the
value of public assets, there was a structural pressure drawn from accrual accounting as an
important tool in the private sector to utilise public assets as a revenue source. This allowed
the Directorate General of Public Assets to be a significant contributor to the national budget.
The research contributes to the literature by examining the transformation at three different
phases—adoption, implementation and subsequent impact—juxtaposed by understanding the
changing interactions between institutional forces (structures) and agents. The study also
demonstrates that the theoretical approach used powerfully indicated an increasingly important
and evolving role for the agents across the transition to accrual accounting reforms.
| Date of Award | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Harun Harun (Supervisor) & David CARTER (Supervisor) |