Institutionalization of management accounting rules and routines in a private educational foundation in Santa Catarina: institutional approach of the Brazilian third sector

Purpose: To verify the change of rules and routines of management accounting of a third sector organization in the light of the Old Institutional Economy (OIE). Methodology: To analyze the institutional change in management accounting, documentary, descriptive and qualitative research was carried out. The research was carried out at a private educational foundation in Santa Catarina, selected for being a member of the third sector and for its accessibility. Data collection took place through interviews and documents, between the months of September 2018 and February 2019. For data analysis, qualitative content analysis was used. Results: In the institutional approach, the change in management accounting for the Foundation was classified as formal, revolutionary and progressive. The institutionalization of management accounting rules and routines was promoted by the need for management to have more agile and secure tools to support decision making. The rules and routines of management accounting have been modified and / or abandoned, over time, with the reconfiguration of existing practices, for their innovation. The integration of the Foundation’s systems based on the standardization and sharing of accounting and tax information has provided an improvement in the quality of information, better integration with the tax authorities and faster access to information, giving rise to more efficient, safe and useful management controls. Contributions of the Study: The research contributes to the accounting literature by presenting empirical evidence on the process of institutionalization of management accounting over time, in Brazilian third sector organizations, suggesting new studies. As a practical contribution, there is the possibility of improving the management models of third sector organizations through the understanding of the dynamics used in the process of change in management accounting, by the agents involved.