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The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study designed to understand how involved controllers are in management decision processes, what causes more or less involvement in those processes, and whether involvement is significantly associate with performance.

To test the research propositions developed from a review of prior literature, data were collected from large Italian corporations using a questionnaire survey.

The results show that most of the controllers are at least somewhat involved in management decision processes, and some are highly involved. A complex set of factors determine the extent and breadth of controller involvement. Controller involvement in either strategic decisions, operating decisions, or both types of decisions is positively related to some situational variables, including capital intensity, operating interdependency, line managers' financial competence, formalization of strategic planning and budgeting processes. It is negatively related to the use of controller positions as training for line roles. Overall, controller involvement was found to be positively associated with performance.

This study provides support for some prior research findings and some extension of prior theory. Some findings were not consistent with expectations. This study was based on a small sample – 17 organizations; it used some crude measures and scales; and the findings can be generalized reliably only to the population studied here – large Italian industrial firms. More research is needed for further tests and explorations of these findings.

This research supports modern advice given to involve controllers highly in management decision‐making processes, but it also refines that advice by showing where high involvement is more (or less) desirable.

These results provide some useful support of prior findings and some modifications and extensions that further our understanding in this area of importance both to researchers and practitioners.

The authors examine the extent to which a controller's involvement in project functions (namely definition and scope, organization, constraints management and risk management) cascades down to project performance.

The authors test the study’s framework using survey data from a sample of project leaders in German and Swiss firms. Responses were analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) technique.

The authors find that controllers contribute to project success via the previously described project functions. Further, the study reveals the crucial role of controllers in managing uncertainty and project risks.

Although the arguments used in this research were not country specific and suggest that the findings of this study also apply to the controller professional in general, this study clearly acknowledges that further research is needed to address the effects of this role in different jurisdictions given the specific characteristics of controllers acting in German-speaking countries.

The authors provide insights on the role of controllers at an operational level, like project management, highlighting the need for controllers to support an effective project governance.

The authors add to the literature by examining the role of controllers in highly knowledge-intensive, highly pressured, task-driven, interdependent and dynamic operational settings, thus contributing to a better understanding of how controllers function at an operational level. The authors also strengthen a broader role of controllers in project management that goes beyond their historical controlling activities to include more modern functions, extending previous studies analyzing their professional identity.

The plethora of changes in the corporate governance landscape over the past two decades has the potential to tighten governance regimes and influence the preference of supervisory board members vis-à-vis the involved decision-making role of business unit (BU) controllers and their independent fiduciary role. Stricter financial reporting and compliance requirements may lead organizations to prioritize the latter role. However, recent studies support the need to balance these roles, inducing the potential for role conflict. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the influence of a tight and loose governance regime on this balance as preferred by supervisory board members.

This study uses a unique data set from an experiment among 73 supervisory board members. The authors take their perspective because compliance with governance codes and corporate policies are relevant topics for their function.

The authors find evidence for the preference of supervisory board members for “all-round” BU controllers who, irrespective of the governance regime, demonstrate substantial levels of fiduciary and decision-making qualities and deal with the resulting role conflict.

The outcomes of the experiment among supervisory board members provide evidence for their preferences concerning the balance of the two primary controller roles and for the potential of role conflict. The authors have not found studies that provide such empirical evidence.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate which factors stimulate or hinder the influence management accountants operating at the business unit (BU) level have on the decisions taken by their BU manager(s).

The authors collected data from 119 management accountants in 77 Dutch, multi-divisional organizations, using surveys.

The study shows that influence on managerial decisions can have two forms: influence on strategic decisions, and influence on operating decisions. Influence on strategic decisions is positively related to the degree of decentralization of an organization. It also depends on whether a management accountant is more extravert and emotionally stable. There is a negative relationship between influence on operational decisions and management accountants’ agreeableness. Not being sufficiently critical may well diminish their influence on operational affairs.

The authors put the view that management accountants at the BU level can partially affect their own role. This may also be expected by their managers. There are more opportunities for management accountants to influence strategic decisions than operational decisions. This study, however, is limited to Dutch, multi-divisional organizations. The management accountants who completed the survey also belong to the personal networks of master degree students who assisted in the data collection process, so that the sample used is not random. Data collected in another country, or in smaller companies could yield different results.

Knowing more about the complex relationship between BU management accountants’ personality traits and their degree of influence on managerial decisions allows organizations to make better-informed choices about who to appoint in such a role.

This study distinguishes between management accountants’ influence on strategic decisions and influence on operational decisions. At the BU level, these are two distinct concepts. This reinforces findings from earlier studies conducted at the corporate level. In addition, it turns out that specific personality traits of management accountants, at the BU level, affect the influence they can exert on both strategic and operational decisions taken by their manager(s).

The purpose of this study is to examine whether controllers are willing to and/or general managers are expecting them to act as business partners and, hence, to analyze the related consequences from a manager’s point of view.

This study is based on a dyadic data set gathered from 112 German head controllers and corresponding general managers in the period of March to May 2009. Drawing on the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), the authors examine controllers’ attitude, subjective norm and behavior regarding their participation in managerial decision-making. Further, the authors analyze general managers’ assessment of related outcomes, such as internal efficiency and process improvements and use covariance-based structural equation modeling to test for the theoretical relationships.

Results show that controllers’ behavior is strongly influenced by management’s expectations. Moreover, the results support the notion that business partnering is associated with organizational improvements regarding internal processes, decisions and efficiency, thereby increasing the contribution of the controllers’ department to the competiveness of an organization.

Our study focuses on a limited set of variables and does not incorporate different hierarchy levels, which could be avenues for further research. Still, our findings highlight the importance of management’s expectations as triggers for business-oriented behavior of controllers.

Theory and empirical evidence in the research area of controllers’ business orientation are still underdeveloped and, therefore, knowledge about the micro-processes and determinants on an individual level for becoming a business partner, as well as on the related outcomes of such a behavior is still limited. The results contribute to literature by highlighting the importance of general managers’ expectations as triggers for business orientation of controllers and its related benefits for the organization.

We develop and validate measurement instruments for the business partner, watchdog, and scorekeeper roles of controllers. This study addresses calls to enhance the quality of survey research in management accounting by devoting more attention to scale development and especially to construct validity. By focusing on the activity sets of the controllers’ roles, we provide a theoretically and empirically grounded picture of their current roles. The measurement instruments presented in this study enable systematic research progress on controller roles, their relationships, antecedents, and performance outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to study the work roles undertaken by financial controllers. The literature suggests a recent transformation, with the role of the finance professional making a significant shift from “score‐keeper” to a “value‐added” business partner. The paper suggests that the role has undergone a more complex change and combines elements from both of these descriptions.

The methodological approach starts by analysing job specifications of financial controller vacancies. Using survey data, it then establishes what tasks they now do. Finally, it uses interviews to understand whether financial controllers believe that they could add more value to the organisation and if any barriers exist preventing the transformation of the role.

The findings suggest that the role of financial controller has not transformed in recent years, but has instead enlarged, incorporating more “forward‐looking” elements, which are concerned with the management of the whole business. These developments have not replaced the “traditional” tasks such as reporting and control, but are supplementary to them. The research also indicates that financial controllers believe that the role should be expanded and that they could add more value, but are constrained by external pressures.

The authors acknowledge that this paper does not consider the contingent factors which shape the individual role within different types and sizes of business, but nevertheless it discusses many of the characteristics associated with the complex role.

This paper has implications for finance and accounting managers working in business, the accounting bodies and those involved in accounting education.

The research goal was to trace behavioural patterns of management accountants, comprising activities and courses of action, in order to enhance understanding of the management accounting profession.

Protoscripts were derived, using interview techniques and a research method called “interpretive interactionism”. These protoscripts depict observable, recurrent activities and patterns of interaction characteristic for a group of persons, and can be used in various types of situations.

The paper describes the procedure and outcome of the collection of behavioural protoscripts used by management accountants and controllers, as well as their possible ordering.

The findings enlarge understanding of the controller profession, but are limited solely to controller activities. The protoscripts collected are stereotypical, at least for the controllers interviewed. Of course, all human experience is interpretation and it should be acknowledged that interpretations are never complete.

The control mechanisms and instruments that emerge in an organisation are the result of several interrelated factors and processes. Of special interest here is the behaviour of management accountants and controllers in shaping, maintaining and exerting control. Behavioural protoscripts can show how management accountants give contents to their role and structure their daily work.

Scripted behaviour of management accountants has received little prior research attention, especially in combination with the research method of interpretive interactionism.

This study aims to take a step toward integrating research regarding the image, role and identity of management accountants by understanding how employers’ perceptions of the ideal management accountant image differ from operational managers’ perceived role expectations, how management accountants perceive their identity and how those factors shape management accountants’ understanding of who they are and want to be.

A qualitative design draws upon the case company’s 100 job advertisements and 31 semi-structured interviews with management accountants and operational managers. Those data are entwined with role theory and its core concepts of expectations and identities and also early recruitment-related theoretical aspects such as image and employer branding.

The findings reveal how employers’ perceptions of the ideal image and operational managers’ role expectations shape and influence the identity of management accountants. However, management accountants distance themselves from a brand image and role expectations. They experience identity conflict between their current and desired identity, the perception of not being able to perform the currently desired role. Although this study presents some possible reasons and explanations, such as employer branding for the misalignment and discrepancy between perceptions of employer (image), expectations of operational managers (role) and management accountants’ self-conception of the role (identity), this study argues that the identity of a management accountant results from organizational aspects of image and role and individual aspects of identity.

Image and external role expectations can challenge identity construction and also serve as a source of conflict and frustration; thus, a more comprehensive approach to studying the identity of management accountants is necessary to understand what contributes to the fragility of their identity.

The results provide an understanding of the dynamics of the image, role and identity to support management accountants and employers and to further address the suggested dissonance and ambiguities.

This study contributes by showing how the dynamics and connections between the image, role and identity influence the identity construction of management accountants. Moreover, this study shows how overpromising as a part of employer branding might not reflect the reality experienced by management accountants but may cause frustration and threaten the management accountants’ identity.

The present paper seeks to address the issue of MIS where developments in IT have had a significant impact on competencies.

This paper explores this notion which has received little coverage in IS literature to date, with a focus on the field of accounting and management control. Many authors have voiced their uncertainty about how the control function will evolve in the future. In effect, IS developments challenge controllers' legitimacy if the latters' know‐how fails to keep up with technological developments. This paper analyses the makeup of controllers' competencies and, in particular, the need for the latter to be able to use ERP systems. It proposes the concept of technological contingency as a means to understand evolutions in ERP controllers' competencies in comparison with traditional controllers.

Technological progress broadens controllers' competencies, and ERP plays the role of a medium through which increased contingency takes place. Organisations of a certain size are compelled to implement ERP, leading to management controllers having to adjust their skills set. The study provides an ERP model to be used by controllers.

The antecedents of the evolution can be more developed in another study.

The managerial impact is considerable. It is crucial for French university programmes to rapidly develop greater focus on ERP training, and job and skill referentials need to be updated in organisations, especially promotion, valorisation, evaluation, and career development systems. Being an IS specialist in a large corporation can confer real legitimacy as it becomes an imperative. For business organisations, interpersonal relations have changed completely; communication takes place through integrated tools and there is less face to face, but on the other hand relationships are pre‐ordained by IS tools. The way economic, accounting, and financial knowledge is disseminated will also change as it is communicated more explicitly.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, studies on management controllers' skills in an ERP environment are nonexistent. This is the first study on this subject.