Preventing recurring material misstatements through behavioural sustainment: a 5S-based conceptual framework for financial reporting

Purpose This paper develops a conceptual framework to explain how behavioural discipline is sustained in routine financial reporting work and how such sustainment conditions the recurrence of material misstatements under conditions of reasonable assurance. Rather than treating reporting reliability as an outcome optimised through technical rules or ex post detection, the paper reconceptualises financial reporting as a behaviourally enacted process shaped by routines, accountability, and reinforcement over time. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a structured conceptual integration of accounting, management control and behavioural literature. The 5S principles – Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardise and Sustain – are reinterpreted as a behavioural process framework that explicates how reporting routines are enacted, coordinated, scrutinised and reinforced across reporting cycles. The approach is conceptual in nature and does not constitute a systematic review or a design science intervention. Findings The framework suggests that the recurrence of material misstatements is shaped less by the presence of additional procedures than by the extent to which disciplined reporting practices are behaviourally sustained over time. It explicates how 5S operates through behavioural mechanisms – such as selective attention to materiality, anticipatory coordination, anomaly questioning, accountable judgement and reinforcement across cycles – that condition how formal reporting requirements are enacted in practice, without assuming the elimination of judgement or error. Research limitations/implications As a conceptual paper, the framework does not provide empirical evidence of effectiveness and is developed primarily from literature grounded in regulated reporting environments. Practical implications The paper offers accountants, auditors, boards and regulators a conceptual lens for interpreting whether reporting routines are behaviourally sustained or have become symbolic, without implying a prescriptive intervention. Originality/value The paper reframes misstatement prevention as a problem of behavioural sustainment rather than technical optimisation, enabling recurring reporting failures to be analysed as manifestations of instability in routine enactment rather than isolated procedural deficiencies.