The institutional pillars of management accounting function
Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change
ISSN: 1832-5912
Article publication date: 30 October 2009
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to theorize the institutional pillars of management accounting function.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a comparative case study approach.
Findings
Institutional pillars of management accounting are explored on the basis of two longitudinal case studies. Competitive/economic forces and three analytical elements of institutional theory are composing institutions: regulative, normative and cultural‐cognitive pillars. Each element is important, and all of them may work in combination, but they operate through distinctive mechanisms and processes. This paper illustrates how they provide the basis for compliance, order and the legitimacy of not the whole organization, nor of the management accounting systems but of the management accounting function. This “organizational legitimacy” of management accounting function may provide one potential additional explanation for the change and stability of management accounting in organizations.
Originality/value
This paper creates an institutional interpretation of accounting change or stability at the level of an accounting function. It illustrates how the pressure for change or stability in management accounting is collectively constituted in organisations, how it is given meaning and how individuals are making sense of things, i.e. how accounting is institutionally embedded.
Keywords
Citation
Järvenpää, M. (2009), "The institutional pillars of management accounting function", Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 444-471. https://doi.org/10.1108/18325910910994676
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited