Management accounting change: critical review and a new contextual framework
Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change
ISSN: 1832-5912
Article publication date: 2 November 2015
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce and discuss a new contextual framework to explain the processes of management accounting change in various organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Having an institutional perspective, the paper develops a “conceptual contextual framework” of management accounting change. The methodology to accomplish this theory building consists of an integration of a number of different works summarizing the common elements, contrasting the differences and extending the work in some fashion. Particularly, it draws on theoretical triangulation by adopting three approaches: old institutional economics for internal processes and factors (Burns and Scapens, 2000); new institutional sociology for external processes and pressures (Dillard et al., 2004); and power and politics mobilization (Hardy, 1996).
Findings
The proposed framework provides an understanding of the complex “mixture” of interrelated factors that may influence management accounting change at multi-institutional levels: political and economic level, organizational field level and organizational level.
Research limitations/implications
The framework extends institutional theory-based management accounting research as well as provides a comprehensive basis for examining dynamics of accounting in the institutionalization process. Through further research, the framework will be extended and refined.
Practical implications
The paper has practical implications for practitioners and officers as well as for the accounting profession and academics alike.
Originality/value
The proposed contextual framework provides insights into the processes of change by focusing attention on the underlying institutions that encode accounting systems or practices in three institutional levels: political and economic level, the organizational field level and organization level. Examining the tension between institutionalized beliefs and values that may occur between these three levels of institutions will enhance our understanding of management accounting change in organizations.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the helpful comments by Prof Robert Scapens, Prof Trevor Hopper, Prof Paolo Quattrone and Prof Jan Mouritsen. The paper has benefited from helpful comments by the participants of the AAC (2011) and ENROAC (2012) Conferences held in Romania and Italy, respectively.
Citation
Alsharari, N.M., Dixon, R. and Youssef, M.A.E.-A. (2015), "Management accounting change: critical review and a new contextual framework", Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 476-502. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAOC-05-2014-0030
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited