Management accounting networks in corporate processes – a cross-national study

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Endenich ◽  
Rouven Trapp ◽  
Michael Brandau
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Field Study ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
National Study ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Corporate Context ◽  
Management Accountants

Purpose This study aims to compare styles of management accounting (MA), i.e. the way in which MA influences corporate decision-making, in German and Spanish companies. The study illustrates relevant differences by comparing the role of management accountants in decision-making processes and puts a particular emphasis on their networking activities in a corporate context. Design/methodology/approach This study builds on field study data from semi-structured interviews with senior management accountants in German and Spanish companies. The authors analyze the data within the framework of the actor-network theory (ANT). Findings In the sampled German companies, strong networks between management accountants and other corporate functions have been established, whereas the corresponding Spanish networks are emerging but remain fragile because of interference from anti-programs, mistrust and defensive departmental attitudes. Although MA in Spain has established only few accepted routines and remains distant from managerial decision-making, it enjoys an unquestioned standing in the German companies, because its routines and procedures are embedded into corporate culture. This embedding is facilitated by not only information technology but also relatively simple tools such as templates, timetables and standardized agendas. Research limitations/implications The present study underlines how combining the field study approach with rationales from ANT can provide relevant insights into MA practices in its corporate context. Practical implications The present study provides guidance for management accountants striving for an increased influence on corporate decision-making and an improved collaboration with corporate management. Originality/value The authors extend the traditional spectrum of theoretical approaches in comparative MA studies. The ANT lens allows to show how styles of MA are shaped by interdependencies between institutional settings and networking processes. In this way, this paper complements previous cross-country research, which has mainly relied on contingency theory to examine static, country-specific differences in relation to distinct environmental and cultural conditions.

Dealing with the visibility created by accounting numbers – A case study of cost accounting translation in a transitional economy

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-303
Author(s):  
Catalin Nicolae Albu ◽  
Nadia Albu ◽  
Flavius Andrei Guinea ◽  
Mathew Tsamenyi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Construction Companies ◽  
Cost System ◽  
Costing System ◽  
State Taxation ◽  
The Cost

PurposeThis paper investigates the process of translating a costing tool into operational use in the context of a transitional (post-communist) economy, where local institutions challenge the rationality of western methods.Design/methodology/approachBy mobilizing Actor–Network Theory, in particular Callon's four moments of translation, and by drawing data from an interventionist research, the paper focuses on the process of change instilled by the implementation of a costing tool in 20 Romanian construction companies.FindingsThe costing system is initially problematized as a tool for rational decision making. However, the visibility over the accounting figures generated by the costing tool instilled new roles for the cost system to manage internal and external interdependencies. First, two costing datasets were created, one for decision making and one for tax purposes, to manage the relationship with the state taxation authorities. Second, since the costing tool generated visibility over the field practices as well, engineers convinced management to drop the decision-making set of costs. The costing tool ultimately only became used for tax optimization, an originally unintended use, reflecting its translation process.Research limitations/implicationsBy taking an interventionist approach, the paper contributes to theorizing accounting in transitional economies by bringing their economic idiosyncrasies into the analysis.Practical implicationsThe results inform managers about the intended and unintended consequences of management accounting tools and about actors' role in shaping their use.Originality/valueOur research responds to recent calls to study how organizations configure their control systems in a rapidly changing environment and what is the role of management accounting in these arrangements.

Economic crisis as a driver of management accounting change

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Endenich
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Accountants ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Statistical Sense

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate change processes within German and Spanish management accounting which are induced by the recent economic crisis. To illuminate these changes, a particular emphasis is put on budgeting processes and the role of management accountants. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional field study that mainly builds on interviews with senior management accounting executives in nine German and nine Spanish companies was conducted. The German and Spanish companies were matched in terms of industry and size to assure comparability of the two national samples. Findings – The most recent economic crisis represents a crucial driver of management accounting change in the companies comprising my sample. Whereas budgeting is increasingly performed continuously, the empirical evidence suggests that opportunities are continually evolving that might result in a more powerful position of management accountants within corporate decision-making processes and an improved image of management accountants. Research limitations/implications – The findings of this study should not be generalised in a statistical sense. However, the results may be used as the basis for qualitative and quantitative follow-up studies. Practical implications – The paper provides several examples which demonstrate, that management accountants can improve their image and their influence on corporate decision making in times of economic crisis. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature by providing both theoretical refinement of and empirical evidence on propositions on the influence of the economic crisis on management accounting.

Harmonizing management accounting in international subsidiaries: beyond national borders

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Endenich ◽  
Andreas Hoffjan ◽  
Teresa Schlichting ◽  
Rouven Trapp
Keyword(s):  
Field Study ◽  
International Business ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Multinational Companies ◽  
Strategy Implementation ◽  
Accounting Systems ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Units ◽  
Management Accounting Systems ◽  
Management Accountants

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore if and how companies strive for a harmonization of management accounting systems in their international business units to support company-wide consistent strategy implementation and to analyze the underlying drivers and pitfalls. Our paper is motivated by the tension between the need for consistent strategy implementation in the different international business units of multinational companies and the traditional differences in management accounting practices across countries. Design/methodology/approach – The field study comprised semi-structured in-depth interviews with management accounting experts in selected German and Spanish business units of 15 major German multinational companies. Findings – The authors identified strong efforts for company-wide harmonization of management accounting practices and found that beside explicit initiatives set by corporate headquarters, more implicit pressures such as the education of management accountants, the work of global consultancies and the use of standardized ERP-systems constitute strong drivers of the identified harmonization. Practical implications – The findings highlight implicit pressures as important drivers of the harmonization of management accounting systems in the international business units of multinational companies. Taking these implicit pressures into consideration can help multinational companies striving for a harmonization of business unit management accounting for consistent strategy implementation. Originality/value – Building on a unique sample of pairs of German and Spanish business units of 15 major German companies, the field study explores harmonization practices and its drivers in multinational companies.

How to de-bias investment judgements–unpacking bias and possible remedies in a capital investment context

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Scherm ◽  
Bernhard Hirsch ◽  
Matthias Sohn ◽  
Miriam Maske
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Managerial Decision ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Decision Context ◽  
Investment Decision Making ◽  
Management Accountants

PurposeResearch on biases in investment decision-making is indubitably important; however, studies in this context are relatively scarce. Unpacking bias has received attention in the psychological literature yet very little attention from management accounting research. This bias suggests that the perceived probability that an event will occur generally increases when the event's description is unpacked into a disjunction of subevents. The authors hypothesize that for a capital investment decision context, managers' judgement of the probability of a future event depends on whether the event is described as one packed event or is unpacked into several disjoint subevents. Additionally, the authors propose that altering the format of the description of an event's occurrence from percentage values to relative frequencies reduces unpacking bias.Design/methodology/approachTo test the study’s hypotheses, the authors conducted two experiments based on a 3 × 2 mixed experimental design in which manager participants were asked to estimate the failure probabilities of technical systems in the context of an investment decision.FindingsThe authors provide evidence that unpacking bias occurs in an investment scenario, which can be characterized as a high-stakes decision context. Changing the format in which probabilities are presented from percentage values to relative frequencies significantly reduces the bias.Research limitations/implicationsAdditional instructions did not further reduce unpacking bias.Practical implicationsFor investment decisions under uncertainty, performance indicators in management templates should be presented in relative frequencies to improve managerial decision-making. The fact that the authors could not show an additional effect of instructions in management accounting reports indicates that it is challenging for management accountants to reduce the biased decision-making of managers by “teaching” them through the provision of instructions.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to accounting research by illustrating unpacking bias and by deriving a debiasing mechanism in a capital investment decision context.

scholarly journals Management Accounting Information in Vietnamese Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 130
Author(s):  
Thi Tu Oanh Le ◽  
Thi Ngoc Bui ◽  
Manh Dung Tran
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Accounting Information ◽  
Free Trade Agreements ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Employment Opportunities ◽  
Management Accountants ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Planning Decision

The small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam play an increasingly important role in the economy by the amount (representing 97.7% of Vietnam firms), contribute economic development and create more employment opportunities. However, because of economic crisis, financial downturn, unhealthy competitions, free trade agreements and others, the number of SMEs recently is downsizing in firm size, human resources and more and more SMEs go bankruptcy in the context of Vietnam. This situation may be due to the enterprise use ineffective management accounting tools.This article reviews and assesses the creation and use of management accounting information which has an important part to play with respect to planning, decision-making, monitoring and controlling of the activities of SMEs in Vietnam. Data collected from a posted survey of five enterprises with twenty two interviews of directors, chief accountants and management accountants. The results show that management accounting information has not really been interested from managers and accountants. Management accounting information is weak in quantity and poor in quality; administrators are operating firms primarily based on personal experiences. Therefore, management accounting information has not been promoted in the management, monitoring and decision making of SMEs in Vietnam. The addition of management accounting knowledge for managers and accountants is necessary for development of SMEs.

Educating management accountants as business partners

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-541
Author(s):  
Morten Jakobsen ◽  
Falconer Mitchell ◽  
Hanne Nørreklit ◽  
Mihaela Trenca
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Business Partner ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Partners ◽  
Pragmatic Constructivism ◽  
Ability To Act ◽  
Management Accountants

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a paradigmatic foundation for educators to prepare students of management accounting for the new demands of the role of trusted business partner in practice. Design/methodology/approach The paper argues for the use of pragmatic constructivism as a basis for development of a paradigmatic foundation for educating advanced students of management accounting. Furthermore, it contains an empirical insight through a case example of how pragmatic constructivism can be used as a pedagogical tool in different management accounting educational situations. Findings The analysis shows how pragmatic constructivism can be used as a less reductionist paradigm than realism to tackle the research-teaching-practice deficiencies found in conventional thinking on accounting education. Pragmatic constructivism is shown to provide important methodological and conceptual elements in developing, understanding and guiding the application of management accounting techniques in dynamic business practices. Placing an emphasis on teaching methodological skills relevant for management accountants is shown to have an important impact on students and their ability to act as business partners. Research limitations/implications The analysis is exploratory in the sense that a new paradigmatic framework for educating students of management accounting to be business partners is outlined and illustrated through its implementation in a specific master’s degree programme. However, this analysis should be viewed as only a first step towards developing pragmatic constructivism as a paradigmatic foundation for teaching management accounting as a basis for a business partner role. Originality/value The proposed use of research on pragmatic constructivism as a basis for management accounting education to support a future business partner role is novel in the literature on management accounting. The value of its application lies in its potential to create successful utilisation of the practices of management accounting.

Data analytics by management accountants

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Spraakman ◽  
Cristobal Sanchez-Rodriguez ◽  
Carol Anne Tuck-Riggs
Keyword(s):  
Data Analytics ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
External Data ◽  
South Central ◽  
Management Accountants ◽  
Central Canada ◽  
Financial Data Analysis ◽  
Rich Data

Purpose This paper aims to understand how the tasks of management accountants (MA) are affected by data analytics (DA). Design/methodology/approach A qualitative methodology was deemed most appropriate given the exploratory nature of the research questions (RQ). In total, 10 open-ended interview questions were used to gather the evidence. The case study design was inductive, yielding rich data from 29 respondents representing 20 different organizations. Findings Answers were provided to three interrelated RQs about the use of DA by MA, namely, what are their responsibilities? How does this work support inference, prediction and assurance? And how can they ensure insights from DA can be turned into decisions that add value? The findings also indicate that MA have not taken charge of the data analytic opportunities and at present, their activities remain largely focused on descriptive and financial data analysis rather than more complex activities using external data, operational data and modeling. Research limitations/implications The limitation of this research is that it is based on a relatively small, geographically restricted sample (20 organizations in south-central Canada) as well by interviews that were only 60 min in duration. Practical implications Provides a base for the existing practice of management accounting with DA. Social implications Explains the social relationship between DA and management accounting. Originality/value Documented and explained the extent of actual DA use by MA.

GEZ petrol station: CVP analysis and spread sheet modelling for planning and decision making

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail ◽  
Wan Nordin Wan Hussin ◽  
Mat Supian Salleh
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Fixed Costs ◽  
Product Lines ◽  
Financial Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Petrol Station ◽  
Spreadsheet Model ◽  
Income Statement

Subject area Management Accounting and Financial Modelling. Study level/applicability Undergraduate and post-graduated levels. Case overview Aiman, the Area Manager of GEZ Berhad, realised the importance for petrol station operators to have an understanding of fundamental management accounting concepts such as cost behaviour and cost–volume–profit (CVP) analysis. He also believed that the petrol station operators should be proficient in using Microsoft Excel functionality and able to construct “intelligent” financial model with extended sensitivity analysis. Being a manager responsible for training the petrol station operators, Aiman would like to introduce the CVP concepts and spreadsheet model-building process to the petrol station operators, to aid them in planning and decision making. To construct the Excel spreadsheet model, Aiman sought the assistance of Rizal, a university lecturer in accounting, who in turn gathered the relevant operational and financial data from Baron Service Station, a typical petrol station under GEZ stable. The model should be flexible enough to allow the petrol station operator to anticipate, for example: What will happen to overall profitability of the petrol station if the fuel prices go up? What is the minimum volume of fuel that needed to be sold to break even? How much extra profit can be generated if credit card sale is reduced? and Is it viable to install an automated teller machines (ATM) kiosk and incurring administrative charges from bank to lure more customers to visit the petrol station? As the petrol station sells multiple products (petrol, diesel and convenience goods), the owner is also interested to know which product lines are the most and least profitable. Thus, the model should be able to generate segmented income statement with appropriate allocation of the common fixed costs to the each of the products. Expected learning - outcomes The case discussion is intended to achieve the following learning outcomes: students are able to prepare a financial model which include a segmented contribution income statement based on the information on product mix; students are able to calculate the break-even point and distinguish between fixed and variable costs; students are able to differentiate between traceable fixed costs and common fixed costs; students are able to build a financial model that is sufficiently flexible to allow various what if analysis to be performed; and students are able to use what if analysis tools in Excel such as Goal Seek and Data Tables. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes.

Motivating managers to develop their moral curiosity

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 709-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie E. Sekerka ◽  
Lindsey N. Godwin ◽  
Richard Charnigo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Field Study ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Decision ◽  
Moral Decision Making ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Settings ◽  
Safe Spaces

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on an inward drive and commitment toward ethical discovery, which the authors refer to as the competency of moral curiosity. When directed toward moral decision making, the authors believe this ability can help managers effectively respond to their ethical challenges and contribute to an organizational environment that supports ethical performance. Design/methodology/approach – After presenting insights from the literature on curiosity and establishing its relevance, the authors describe a specific experiential learning tool designed to cultivate moral curiosity in organizational settings. The authors conduct a field study using this process to explore how moral curiosity can be strengthened through experiential practice. Findings – Results from the field study suggest that engagement in balanced experiential inquiry, a process that asks managers to reflect on their salient ethical dilemmas and then engage in both individual and collective meaning making, positively influenced participants’ curiosity toward moral decision making. Research limitations/implications – Limitations include challenges inherent to the field-study design, including lack of a control group and limited ability to predict long-term impacts of the intervention. Despite these concerns, the study has useful implications for managerial training and development. In particular, providing safe spaces where managers can discuss their ethical dilemmas is an important element of supporting their development into morally curious leaders who are interested in pursuing business ethics. Practical implications – Findings suggest that providing safe spaces where managers can discuss their ethical dilemmas is an important element of supporting their development into morally curious leaders who are interested in pursuing business ethics. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the research literature on ethics training and education for managers. The authors introduce the construct of moral curiosity as a competency that can be developed through experiential practice in organizational settings.

When Do Opportunity Costs Count? The Impact of Vagueness, Project Completion Stage, and Management Accounting Experience

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Marie Victoravich
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Opportunity Costs ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Business Partner ◽  
Project Completion ◽  
Management Accountants ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT: Management accountants have recently migrated toward a business partner role, and as a result they often assist management with the decision-making process. Thus, it is imperative that they excel at identification of relevant information such as opportunity costs. This study experimentally tests the prediction that management accounting experience mitigates the tendency to ignore opportunity costs with respect to two factors: opportunity cost vagueness and project completion stage. This study also investigates whether attending to opportunity costs has an impact on project continuance decisions. Results indicate that management accounting experience mitigates the effect of vague opportunity costs and project completion stage. It was also found that attention to opportunity costs acts as mediator and this in turn reduces the tendency to continue an existing project. This suggests that attending to opportunity costs influences decision-making and that it is likely to have an economic consequence.

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