Metaphors and accounting for stock options

This essay explores the role that metaphor has played in the conceptualization of the controversial accounting for stock options issue. We explore the particular metaphors engaged within the stock options discourse over time through reference to dialogues appearing in the professional and popular business press and related hearings. Our analysis begins with the 1993 issuance of a FASB exposure draft (to require expense recognition) and ends with the reconsideration of the accounting for stock options issue by the FASB in 2003. We find that the dominant metaphors engaged change over time and differ markedly in their renderings of stock options and stock options accounting. Metaphors appearing earlier in the debate, engaged against the backdrop of a stalled economy and high hopes for an economic recovery driven by the tech industry, carry positive attitudes with respect to the use of options with corollary rational prescriptions for accounting policy. In contrast, later metaphors, engaged within a markedly different socio-economic frame, carry derogatory attitudes with respect to the use of stock options implying decidedly different rationalizations regarding accounting policy. We close by discussing the significance of metaphor in accounting policy debates.