Reserve and regulatory objects in accounting theory and practice: origins and evolution of the world accounting thoughtwithin the framework of the developments by the Western Ukrainian scientists of the 19th – middle 20th cent. (Opinion from the modern age perspective)

Abstract

There are growing risks in the conduct of financial and economic activities by economic agents in the conditions of the modern economy, and because a reliable information base is needed both for management purposes and for market counterparties regarding the means actually available at an enterprise to overcome the risk of loss (reduction) of capital. Accounting and public reporting is the only tool that provides information in formalized data on the size of the reserve and insurance potential established by an entity. However, there are a number of problematic issues in modern theory and practice regarding the objective display of reserve and regulatory objects in the accounting and their provision in the public financial (corporate) reporting that actualize the multi-vectoral research both in the subject area of knowledge and in the system of interdisciplinary researches. The hypothesis of this research is the assumption of elaboration in past developments, including Western Ukrainian scholars, relevant to the modern theory and practice of ideas that can objectively be considered appropriate for the improvement of modern accounting of capital reserves, a means to enhance the validity of managerial decisions to a more adequate information provision. The article analyses the historical stages of the development of reserve and regulatory objects of accounting, evaluates the fundamental principles of the formation of accounting reserves in different accounting concepts in the evolutionary aspect by distinguishing the relevant ones among them for modern research. The scientific legitimacy of the ways and approaches proposed in this article to improve the conceptual foundations of the reservation system in modern accounting rests upon the use of historically formed ideas and is based on the following approaches: it is argued that accounting tools are an important component of any paradigm of reserve management, the only formalized information tool for disclosing the real state of the security of the capital employed by an enterprise; the formation of reserves is a consequence of one of the principles of accounting – the assumption of continuity of an enterprise, embodied in the modern concept (paradigms) of sustainable development. Using general scientific and interdisciplinary methods of cognition, traditional methods for historicalanalytical analysis (historical and retrospective, historical and comparative methods) and the techniques special for the sphere of accounting, the theoretical generalization was conducted of systematic approaches to organization of computational practise, evolutionary disposition of reserve and regulatory articles in accounting system and their characteristic positioning in separate accounting concepts and theories. A separate component of the study is the historiographical analysis and assessment of accounting reservation in unexplored works of Western Ukrainian theoreticians and in the practice of accounting. On the basis of the performed exploration, the following reasoning was provided regarding the author's conclusions about the appropriateness of the use of certain aspects of the historical developments in respect of regulatory principles in modern norms and regulation in any system of accounting standardization and the suggestions were substantiated about ways to adapt public accounting and financial reporting needs of modern economic conditions. On the basis of the received results, the expediency of use of approaches and techniques of organic and econometric balance theories was substantiated for the development of modern accounting reserve and regulatory objects, which confirms the relevance of research of such direction in general, and of this one in particular.