This study investigates the impact of IT expenses and assets on administrative costs in local governments. IT costs incurred by local governments can contribute to the reduction of future administrative costs by improving service processes through online administrative procedures, increasing business efficiency through data utilization and digital transformation, and introducing cloud computing in local governments. Further, based on the uniformed accounting standards in Japanese local governments, “software” could be measured if it reduces future costs through the use of such software. We hypothesize that there is a negative relationship between IT expenses/software and administrative costs in local governments. The empirical results show that the coefficient of the IT expenses is not statistically significant, while the coefficient of the software is consistently estimated to be positive and significant in relation to current and future administrative costs. These results suggest the low possibility that IT expenses and assets in local governments improve administrative costs, rather IT expenses and assets may be temporarily worsen their administrative costs.

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　In this research we focus on management accounting information sharing under idiosyncratic transaction relations. Specifically, based on the questionnaire survey targeted Japanese manufacturing firms, we explore the associations between asset specificity and sharing of management accounting information （i.e., operational information and cost information）. The results indicate that asset specificity facilitates operational information sharing, whereas prevents cost information sharing. Additionally, operational information sharing enhances cost information sharing with partner firms.

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　This paper regards shareholder perks as one of the characteristic behaviors of Japanese firms, and it analyzes them from the perspective of the manifestation of “herd behavior.” The results show that firms tend to implement shareholder perks more frequently when other firms in the same industry have had shareholder perks in the previous year. However, no significant results were obtained regarding whether the top firm in the same industry has shareholder perks in the previous year. These suggest that firms do not follow top firm in the same industry but rather “herd behavior,” in which they observe the trends of other firms in the same industry, where they make decisions on implementing shareholder perks.

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　This study focused on certified nonprofit organizations in Japan and investigated the accountability of nonprofit organizations to their beneficiaries. The survey results showed that more than half （55.9%） of the certified NPOs recognize the beneficiaries as the targets of their accountability. As for the contents that certified nonprofit organizations emphasize in their explanations to beneficiaries, 75.7% of the respondents answered that the specifics of their work activities were the most important, and 68.9% of the respondents answered that written explanations of their achievements and status were the most important means of explanation. The results of the analysis on the factors that determine how accountability is fulfilled showed that the area of activity and whether the beneficiaries are perceived as accountability recipients tend to influence the content and means of explanation. On the other hand, there was no evidence that the size of the organization had an effect on how accountability to the beneficiaries was fulfilled.

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　Local governments disclose financial statements based on uniform standards at the request of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. However, how we can use the financial statements is still an open question. Prior studies on public sector accounting indicated the possibility of interperiod equity by temporarily using the fund transfer instead of decreasing expenditures. This study focuses on the deficit in the financial statements on a uniform basis and expects that there is the positive relationship between the size of deficit and the fund transfer. The empirical analysis using data for 4,115 local governments from 2016 to 2018 shows that the positive relationship between the size of deficit and the fund transfer. Further, we also find that this relationship is strengthen in election years and depends on the increase in property cost. This study contributes to accounting research by providing evidence of the relationship between the accrual-based deficit and the fund transfer may undermine interperiod equity.

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　Based on a case study of Borderless Japan Co., Ltd., this study aims to illustrate the institutionalisation process of a management accounting system—from the emergence to the formalisation of social impact in developing social businesses. More specifically, by applying institutional entrepreneur theory, we analyse how the company institutionalised social impact as the formal system to reproduce the founders’ experiences. The case analysis shows that the reflexivity of the institutional entrepreneurs, who are embedded in the institutional contradiction between the social and economic logics inherent in social business, is significant in the institutionalisation. Furthermore, an important process for this institutionalisation is the theorisation of social impact as an organizational normative rule. This influences new social entrepreneurs and their businesses to maintain the fundamental principle of social business: the pursuit of social impact as an end and economic profit as a means.

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