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Summary Papers Management Accounting Change 2023
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Papers MAC 2023Inhoudsopgave
Week 1.......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Otley, D., The contingency theory of management accounting and control: 1980–2014, Management
Accounting Research, 2016, 31: 45–62................................................................................................................2
Chenhall, R. H., Management control systems design within its organizational context: Findings from
contingency-based research and directions for the future. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2003,
28(2): 127–168...................................................................................................................................................12
Week 2........................................................................................................................................................ 30
Roberts, Peter W.; Greenwood, Royston, Integrating transaction cost and institutional theories: Toward a
constrained-efficiency framework for understanding organizational design adoption, Academy of
Management Review, Apr97, Vol. 22 Issue 2, p346, 28p...................................................................................30
Tsamenyi, Mathew, Cullen, John, Gonzalez, Jose, Changes in accounting and financial information system in a
Spanish electricity company: A new institutional theory analysis, Management accounting research 17(4),
2006, p. 409-432................................................................................................................................................38
Week 3........................................................................................................................................................ 45
Burns, John; Scapens, Robert W., Conceptualizing management accounting change: an institutional
framework, Management Accounting Research, Mar 2000, Vol. 11 Issue 1, p3, 23p.......................................45
Cruz, I. et al., Institutionalization and practice variation in the management control of a global/local setting,
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2009, Vol. 22, Issue 1, pp. 91-117...........................................54
Week 4........................................................................................................................................................ 56
Gioia, Dennis A.; Poole, Peter P., Scripts in Organizational Behavior, Academy of Management Review; Jul84,
Vol. 9 Issue 3, p449, 11p.....................................................................................................................................56
Choo, F., Cognitive scripts in auditing and accounting behaviour, Accounting, Organizations and Society,
1989, Vol. 14, issue 5/6, p. 481, 13p..................................................................................................................61
Tillmann, K., Goddard, A., Strategic management accounting and sense-making in a multinational company,
Management Accounting Research, 2008, Vol. 19, pp. 80-102.........................................................................66
Week 6........................................................................................................................................................ 71
Becker, Markus C., Organizational routines: a review of the literature, Industrial & Corporate Change,
Aug2004, Vol. 13 Issue 4, p643, 35p..................................................................................................................71
Week 7........................................................................................................................................................ 78
Malsch B., Gendron Y., Grazzini F., Investigating interdisciplinary translations: The influence of Pierre
Bourdieu on accounting literature, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2011, Vol., 24, Issue 2, pp.
194-228..............................................................................................................................................................78
Spence, C. and Brivot, M., ‘No French, no more’: language-based exclusion in North America’s first
professional accounting association, 1879–1927, Accounting History Review, 2011, Vol. 21 Issue 2, pp. 163–
184......................................................................................................................................................................82
Week 8........................................................................................................................................................ 87
Sathe, V. (1983). The controller’s role in management. Organizational Dynamics, Winter, 31–47..................87
, Lambert, C., & Pezet, E. (2010). The making of the management accountant – Becoming the producer of
truthful knowledge. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 36(1), 10–30.......................................................91
Van der Steen, M. P. (2022). Identity work of management accountants in a merger: The construction of
identity in liminal space. Management Accounting Research, 100792.............................................................96
Week 1
Otley, D., The contingency theory of management accounting and
control: 1980–2014, Management Accounting Research, 2016, 31:
45–62.
1. Introduction
Control systems are increasingly required to operate across organisational boundaries. The
developments in management accounting began with the introduction of activity-based costing (ABC)
in the early 1980s, although this concentrated on generating information for improved decision-
making rather than control. However, it was rapidly followed by other techniques often lumped
together under the general heading of strategic management accounting.
However, the dominance of accounting control was challenged in the early 1990s by the codification
of what has become the most widely adopted technique in modern organizations, the Balanced
Scorecard (BSC), which combined both financial and non-financial performance measures into a
single integrated framework. The scope of management control increasingly began to include issues
of both strategic and operational control that had been specifically excluded (for reasons of simplicity
and convenience).
The context in which management accounting and control is practiced has also undergone substantial
change. Organizations have become less hierarchical and many have restructured themselves to focus
on their ‘core businesses’, leaving more peripheral activities to be outsourced.
Finally, technological developments continue to drive change at an increasing rate, not least in the
changes to business practice which have been made available by modern computer technology and
the internet.
The idea of the role of contingency theory is also beginning to change. Whereas initially, it developed
from the idea that no universal solution to the problems of control was feasible, it hoped that
empirical work would establish the key contingencies from which prescriptions to suit different sets
of circumstances could be developed. Even if research could progress on a much greater scale than in
the past, it is unlikely that an overall contingency model could be developed to suggest optimal
control configurations in all possible combinations of circumstances.
2. What is contingency theory?
In his overview of the contingency theory of management accounting, Otley (1980) specifies that “a
contingency theory must identify specific aspects of an accounting system which are associated with
certain defined circumstances and demonstrate an appropriate matching.” (p.413). This indicates
three areas to which attention needs to be paid.
- First, what are the aspects of the management accounting system that need to be
explained? Studies have tended to be rather arbitrary in their selection of the techniques
they focus on, with little consistency between one study and another both in the selection
and measurement of variables connected with the accounting control system.
- Second, how are the defined circumstances to be selected? Again, although the contingent
variables used by organization theorists have been extensively used here, often only a subset
are used in any study, making comparability difficult.
, - Finally, the definition of what constitutes an appropriate matching has caused significant
difficulty over the years. More sophisticated studies have used some variant of firm
performance to indicate whether an appropriate matching has been found, despite the
likelihood that management control systems (MCSs) have only a small impact on
performance, although the measures used vary. In addition, use of performance in this way is
potentially problematic as it can be argued that performance is also an independent
contingent variable in its own right which can explain the extent to which reliance is placed
on accounting systems in an organization.
However, the totality of these extended approaches implies a very broad definition of contingency
theory, which led to Chenhall’s (2007) previously quoted comment that there are inevitably a range of
contingency theories.
3. Survey 1980-2014
The literature research began by searching articles from major relevant journals. As all of these
journals provide online resources, articles were collected by keyword searches of the supporting
online platform.
In summary, the number of articles from each journal is shown in Table 1, with only the accounting
journals that contain more than four articles being included. It is notable that, although a reasonable
number of authors were located in the USA, the main journals in which this work was published are
European- or Australasian-based, rather than US-based. This probably indicates the US journal
preference for quantitative work using substantial (often publicly available) data sets and the use of
sophisticated quantitative models.
, In the 1980s, less than 5 relevant articles were published each year although this figure increased to
around 10 in the late 1990s. Despite a brief drop of publications in years 2000 and 2001, the statistics
show a generally upward trend, as shown in Fig. 1, and indicate the steadily growing amount of work
on this topic over the period.
4. Review of some selected bodies of work
4.1 Reliance on accounting performance measures (RAPM)
- Hopwood (1972, 1974a) examined the effect of senior managers giving a high priority to
accounting performance measures in evaluating the performance of their subordinates, a
style later characterized as RAPM. The main result was that where accounting performance
measures (in particular, meeting the budget for the unit) were given higher significance than
other criteria, such as long-run effectiveness, then a variety of undesirable consequences
followed.
- Otley (1978) chose a situation where he believed this result would not hold and found the
conflict results he predicted. He argued that this was therefore a contingent result
dependent upon the contingency of sub-unit interdependence.
- Otley and Fakiolis (2000): Different studies used different ways to measure the main idea
called RAPM. So, they weren't all using the same method to understand RAPM." Using the
over-arching term of RAPM was itself misleading as it covered the use of several different
measures which each focussed on different aspects of the underlying phenomena.
Budgetary control had reduced in significance as a performance measure, with non-financial
measures increasing in importance. Organizational structures had become flatter and inter-
organizational relationships had increased in importance as out-sourcing had become more
prevalent.
- The one major attempt to construct a broader framework was Simons (1995) work. He
focused on a much wider set of controls than most previous studies (categorized into
diagnostic, interactive, beliefs and boundary controls) although his formulation has proved to
be somewhat problematic as identified and then improved by Tessier and Otley (2012).
- Indeed, Bisbe et al.’s (2007) review of this concept identified five different dimensions of the
concept which had been aggregated in a variety of ways.
However, the underlying idea behind the early studies does appear to have a continuing
significance in a world that is becoming increasingly dominated by performance targets of all
types. It is therefore a pity that this stream of research seems to have dried up because of the
measurement difficulties associated with a particular set of measures designed to measure
RAPM. The underlying concept still seems sound and very relevant to modern organizations,
particularly if modified to include non-financial as well as financial performance measures and
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