Professor Warwick Funnell , Professor of Accounting and Finance at KBS, has won the prestigious Barbara Merino Award for Excellence in Accounting History Publication for his book, Accounting by the First Public Company: The Pursuit of Supremacy. The award was presented by the Academy of Accounting Historians (AAH) at the American Accounting Association’s (AAA) Conference on Teaching and Learning in Accounting in Chicago in August 2015. The world-leading AAA represents the largest international community of accountants in academia.
Accounting by the First Public Company is co-authored with Jeffrey Robertson, and published by Routledge, New York. The book tells the story of how the Dutch East India Company dominated international trade for nearly two centuries owing little to economic principles or selection of a superior bookkeeping method. Throughout its remarkably profitable existence the Dutch East India Company never produced public accounts of its financial affairs. Accounting by the First Public Company shows how social and political responses to the challenges of Holland’s unforgiving natural landscape determined how the company was managed and the nature of its relations with its investors.
For more information, contact Professor Funnell directly at W.N.Funnell@kent.ac.uk.