Parallel accounts, parallel accountabilities: How translation challenges narrative reporting research
指出组织用不同语言提供的叙事账目并非简单等同，而是构建不同世界的平行账目，通过芬兰跨国公司案例展示其对叙事报告研究、透明度、伦理和质量的深远影响。
Organisational accounts are often awarded considerable significance in societies, not least because of their proposed beneficial implications. However, we argue that in accounting research the narrative (non-financial) accounts, often given by organisations in more than one language, have been approached in a limited way. Drawing on foundational concepts from the discipline of Translation Studies, we demonstrate that accounts provided in different languages are not just one equivalent account copied across languages but in fact an ‘account multiple’ of several parallel accounts . Organisations (can) use such parallel accounts to address different audiences, simultaneously constructing different worlds where accountability does not remain the same. Alongside our theoretical discussion, we illustrate parallel accounts through an empirical analysis of the Finnish and English language account(s) a Finland-based MNC gave on its social responsibility. We argue that considering different language accounts as parallel accounts has significant implications for research on narrative reporting, including how scholars interpret organisational accounts, their use and potential implications, with consequences extending further into research transparency, ethics and quality.