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Constructing and co-authoring controller’s practice through cloud technologies: the case of IKEA Italy

Lino Cinquini (Piazza Martiri della Libertà, 33, 56127, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy)
Antonio Leotta (Department of Economics and Business, University of Catania, Catania, Italy)
Carmela Rizza (Department of Economics and Business, University of Catania, Catania, Italy)
Daniela Ruggeri (Department of Economics and Business, University of Catania, Catania, Italy)
Andrea Tenucci (Piazza Martiri della Libertà, 33, 56127, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy)
Mariastella Messina (Department of Economics and Business, University of Catania, Catania, Italy)

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management

ISSN: 1176-6093

Article publication date: 8 October 2024

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the controller’s practice is constructed through the use of cloud technologies. Thus, the authors explore the possibilities that cloud technologies offer and how, through these technologies, actors can co-author a process that leads them to relate themselves to the world.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopt pragmatic constructivism to investigate the construction of the controller’s practice through cloud technologies. Drilling down to a single case study, they chose two IKEA stores in Italy to ascertain, through interviews, how the controller’s practice has changed since switching to a cloud-based information management platform.

Findings

This case evidence sheds light on how cloud technologies help to construct the controller’s practice. Managers' interactions are now partly governed and partly supported by information in the cloud. Workers can collect and share data, promoting knowledge production at a range of organisational levels.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to studies on the hybrid nature of management control practice. The authors underline how using cloud technologies helps to construct controller’s practice. More specifically, using cloud technologies allows the controller to orchestrate a co-authoring process through which managers integrate facts, possibilities, values and communication to form a functioning construct causality. Overall, the result is better support for decision-making.

Keywords

Citation

Cinquini, L., Leotta, A., Rizza, C., Ruggeri, D., Tenucci, A. and Messina, M. (2024), "Constructing and co-authoring controller’s practice through cloud technologies: the case of IKEA Italy", Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-12-2023-0251

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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