The DOI matches its Crossref record; 67 of the 67 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
In Search of Management Accounting Theory
Open accessAbstract
In this article we discuss the motivation for and role of theory in management accounting. We argue that theories in an applied field such as management accounting research should provide explanations that are useful for those we study – managers, organizations and society. We evaluate the nature of theories currently used and developed. Those theories that are considered theories by the research community are largely imported from other disciplines, but have hardly anything that makes them unique to management accounting. Those theories that are not currently regarded as theories by many of our colleagues attempt to explain how to apply management accounting to achieve superior performance. We argue that both forms of theories, at present, largely fail to provide valid support for practitioners. We contend that management accounting theory should help us to answer questions of what kind of management accounting systems we should apply, how, in what circumstances, and how to change them. We provide suggestions on how management accounting research could proceed to produce better theories in this regard.
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Cites
Armstrong, J. S., & Georgoff, D. M. (1988) · International Journal of Forecasting · doi:10.1016/0169-2070(88)90019-2 · Cited by 17,894
Watts, R. L., & Zimmerman, J. L. (1985) · Andalas University Repository (Andalas University) · Cited by 5,838
Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it Can Succeed Again
Flyvbjerg, B. (2001) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511810503 · Cited by 4,681
What Constitutes a Theoretical Contribution?
Whetten, D. A. (1989) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/258554 · Cited by 4,129
Chenhall, R. H. (2003) · Accounting, Organizations and Society · doi:10.1016/s0361-3682(01)00027-7 · Cited by 3,237
Theory Construction as Disciplined Imagination
Weick, K. E. (1989) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/258556 · Cited by 2,134
Performance management: a framework for management control systems research
Otley, D. (1999) · Management Accounting Research · doi:10.1006/mare.1999.0115 · Cited by 2,023
Transforming the Balanced Scorecard from Performance Measurement to Strategic Management: Part I
Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2001) · Accounting Horizons · doi:10.2308/acch.2001.15.1.87 · Cited by 1,898
Sutton, R. I., & Staw, B. M. (1995) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2393788 · Cited by 1,865
Management control systems as a package—opportunities, challenges and research directions
Malmi, T., & Brown, D. A. (2008) · Management Accounting Research · doi:10.1016/j.mar.2008.09.003 · Cited by 1,757
Self-citation
Cited by
The design and use of performance management systems: an extended framework for analysis
Ferreira, A., & Otley, D. (2009) · Management Accounting Research · doi:10.1016/j.mar.2009.07.003 · Cited by 1,412
Nitzl, C. (2016) · Journal of Accounting Literature · doi:10.1016/j.acclit.2016.09.003 · Cited by 580
Emerging themes in management control: A review of recent literature
Berry, A. J., Coad, A. F., Harris, E. P., Otley, D. T., & Stringer, C. (2009) · The British Accounting Review · doi:10.1016/j.bar.2008.09.001 · Cited by 508
Domain theory and method theory in management accounting research
Lukka, K., & Vinnari, E. (2014) · Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal · doi:10.1108/aaaj-03-2013-1265 · Cited by 299
Management Control Research and the Management of Uncertainty: Rethinking Knowledge in Management
Saulpic, O., & Zarlowski, P. (2014) · Management Control and Uncertainty · doi:10.1057/9781137392121_14 · Cited by 15
Metadata
- Authors
- Malmi, T., & Granlund, M.
- Venue
- European Accounting Review
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2009-09
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 597-620
- ISSN
- 0963-8180 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-4497
- OpenAlex
- W3122702365
- Cited by
- 336
- References
- 67
- FWCI
- 46.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
