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Theorising strategic investment decision-making using strong structuration theory

Elaine Pamela Harris (Business School, University of Roehampton, London, UK)
Deryl Northcott (Accounting Department, AUT University, Auckland, Australia)
Moataz Moamen Elmassri (Business School, University of Roehampton, London, UK)
Jari Huikku (Accounting Department, Aalto University School of Business, Helsinki, Finland )

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

ISSN: 0951-3574

Article publication date: 19 September 2016

5436

Abstract

Purpose

In the field of strategic investment decision making (SIDM) a body of research has grown up via international case studies and organisation-based fieldwork. However, there has been little systematic theorisation around SIDM processes and practices. The purpose of this paper is to show how strong structuration theory (SST) can be employed to guide how future SIDM studies are conducted and theorised.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw upon the concepts from SST to reanalyse prior empirically based work. The authors apply SST-informed analysis to four SIDM case studies selected from the total of 18 published over the period 1970-2016 to explore the utility of SST compared with other approaches.

Findings

The analysis highlights the role of agents’ knowledgeability and position-practice relations in SIDM, which has largely been neglected by prior studies. The authors demonstrate the potential of SST to inform meso-level theorising by applying it to four published case studies. Whilst the authors argue for the adoption of SST, the authors also identify key methodological and conceptual issues in using SST in SIDM research.

Research limitations/implications

The examples and recommendations could assist management accounting researchers, particularly those engaged in case studies and organisational fieldwork, to build knowledge via the improved comparison, integration and theorisation of cases undertaken by different researchers in different contexts.

Originality/value

The authors offer a bridge between SST concepts and case study evidence for theorising, carrying out and analysing case study and field research on SIDM.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the constructive comments of the anonymous reviewers. Special thanks go to the guest editors of this themed issue for their helpful guidance regarding the final revisions to this paper. The authors would also like to thank colleagues who commented on previous versions of this paper, including participants at the ENROAC Conference at the National University of Ireland in Galway and the ninth New Zealand Management Accounting Conference at Lincoln University in 2015, and especially those at the two SST workshops at the University of Glasgow in 2015 and at the IAE Paris, Pantheon-Sorbonne in 2016.

Citation

Harris, E.P., Northcott, D., Elmassri, M.M. and Huikku, J. (2016), "Theorising strategic investment decision-making using strong structuration theory", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 29 No. 7, pp. 1177-1203. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-03-2015-2005

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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