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The objective of this case study is to evaluate the change process, under the old institutional economics (OIE) approach, that had occurred within the management‐accounting system of Brazilian bank. The present study examines the efficacy of the change process in management accounting, from the perspective of system users, seven years after its beginning.

The research is based on a case study. The study presents a literature review of institutional theory and a case study of Banco do Brasil – a large Brazilian bank that has implemented profound changes in its management‐accounting system.

The results indicate that new concepts have been effectively institutionalised and converted into new values, habits, and routines inside the organisation. The study provides new insights into management‐accounting change.

A single case study does not allow the results to be generalised to other organisations.

The study offers a conceptual structure and operational guidelines to evaluate institutionalisation of management‐accounting change processes. The main contribution of this study is to offer new operational insights on management‐ accounting institutionalisation using the conceptual framework proposed by Burns and Scapens.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of management accounting change within an Egyptian organization that implemented an extranet.

Old institutional economic (OIE) theory and Hardy's model of power mobilisation are chosen as a theoretical framework to inform the analysis of the case.

The results show that the extranet facilitated changes in information availability and business process re‐design. The findings confirm that management accounting practices have changed in the case under study and show how management accountants have become more involved in planning and control. The case highlighted some factors that facilitate the natural processes of routinisation and institutionalisation over time.

It could be argued that one limitation of this research is related to the gap between the change in leadership in TexCo (1993) and the timing of the visits (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005). However, this problem has been minimized by crosschecking memories of events through interviews. Another limitation of this study is that the author was not allowed to review some of the financial documents in TexCo. However, the author tried to verify the financial figures given by them through inter‐subject checking.

This paper fills a gap in the literature as it focuses on the process of management accounting change associated with the implementation of business‐to‐business (B‐to‐B) e‐commerce. The findings, indicate that the B‐to‐B e‐commerce has facilitated the change in the management accounting practices towards decision support and control. Implementing the B‐to‐B e‐commerce system in TexCo facilitated greater control over inventory and invoicing. It improved the planning process through providing the accountants with accurate and real time information about sales, receivables, cash collection and inventory turnover. The system also facilitated the settlement process, the performance evaluation of TexCo's exhibitions; and saved the time and effort of the accountants during the stocktaking process. The case suggested that there are some factors that may facilitate the processes of routinisation and institutionalisation.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an institutional entrepreneurship approach to examining management accounting change triggered by social and environmental concerns.

The study begins with a literature review concerning the role that old institutional economics and new institutional sociology have played in the study of management accounting change, underlining strengths and weaknesses. To deal with the main weaknesses, the institutional entrepreneurship approach is presented and utilized as the basis for the development of a conceptual framework, which is contextualized to the examination of management accounting change triggered by sustainability issues.

Management accounting change literature has not paid enough attention to the social constructivist roots of institutional theory. Through the application of a conceptual framework inspired by institutional change models and institutional entrepreneurship literature, this paper proposes another approach to examine how new management accounting practices are socially constructed during the course of organizational change, particularly in response to sustainability concerns.

This new framework has not yet demonstrated its explanatory power in a particular field.

The paper examines management accounting change as a social construction process led by institutional entrepreneurs who aim to mobilize resources and negotiate the definition and implementation of sustainability strategies and new management accounting practices, which will take environmental and social issues into consideration, in order to reach an agreement on the pre‐institutionalization, diffusion and institutionalization of sustainable practices.

This paper aims to introduce and discuss a new contextual framework to explain the processes of management accounting change in various organizations.

Having an institutional perspective, the paper develops a “conceptual contextual framework” of management accounting change. The methodology to accomplish this theory building consists of an integration of a number of different works summarizing the common elements, contrasting the differences and extending the work in some fashion. Particularly, it draws on theoretical triangulation by adopting three approaches: old institutional economics for internal processes and factors (Burns and Scapens, 2000); new institutional sociology for external processes and pressures (Dillard et al., 2004); and power and politics mobilization (Hardy, 1996).

The proposed framework provides an understanding of the complex “mixture” of interrelated factors that may influence management accounting change at multi-institutional levels: political and economic level, organizational field level and organizational level.

The framework extends institutional theory-based management accounting research as well as provides a comprehensive basis for examining dynamics of accounting in the institutionalization process. Through further research, the framework will be extended and refined.

The paper has practical implications for practitioners and officers as well as for the accounting profession and academics alike.

The proposed contextual framework provides insights into the processes of change by focusing attention on the underlying institutions that encode accounting systems or practices in three institutional levels: political and economic level, the organizational field level and organization level. Examining the tension between institutionalized beliefs and values that may occur between these three levels of institutions will enhance our understanding of management accounting change in organizations.

Worldwide efforts to transform the public sector under the theme of “New Public Management” have been concerned with the issues of organizational change management. The change in the Accounting sector is one of the pillars of such efforts. This paper promotes the importance of leadership roles within the accounting change process by studying them within the context of a corporatized public sector entity. It offers a longitudinal analysis (1998‐2005) through the framework of “levers of control”. Leadership roles within the accounting scenario are compared with leadership roles within the engineering scenario to demonstrate the importance of accounting in mediating leadership roles, and in the end, promote the organization’s operational and financial performance. Through the framework of levers of control, this paper examines the different approaches and styles of an organizational leader in aligning beliefs systems among the workers, and creating management control systems through the mobilization of accounting calculative and constitutive power. This paper argues the importance of studying the characteristics of good leadership with in the organizational transformation process, particularly within the change management accounting practice that could lead to better organizational performance of the organization.

This paper aims to examine how and why management accounting practices are linked to an organization's identity and identity discrepancies.

A qualitative field study of a one‐year change project in a large manufacturing company is used as the basis for the analysis.

The empirical study reveals how discrepancies between organizational members' perceived identity and their construed external (and desired future) image both influence and are influenced by emergent accounting practices. Empirical evidence suggests such a reciprocal relationship between accounting and identity, since accounting practices are an important means of (de)legitimizing an organization's current self‐perception.

The uncovered reciprocal relationship between management accounting practices and organizational identity (discrepancies) have implications for a broader literature, including the works on how different forms of control interact as a “control package” and the discourse on potential sources of organizational identity change.

Although it has previously been suggested that management accounting may be an important means for, as well as an outcome of, processes of identity (re)constructions in organizations, this study suggests a more complex interplay than has previously been noted in the literature. Specifically, it was found that organizational identity may for a considerable time work as a highly influential and largely unquestioned categorical imperative, signifying the boundaries of appropriate organizational action. At times, however, accounting practices may spark (re)constructions of identity discrepancies through: providing identity‐inconsistent evidence; and using (new) measures in a “feed‐forward” manner to explore possible ways to close such perceived discrepancies.

This chapter focuses on how changes in management control systems in a manufacturing company could be affected by the interplay of institutional forces and power mobilization over an extended period of time (1946–1975).

The chapter is grounded in the ‘hybrid’ theoretical framework developed by Yazdifar, Zaman, Tsamenyi, and Askarany (2008) which ties old institutional economics, new institutional sociology and power mobilization frameworks to provide a holistic view of a process of change. Historical analysis contributes to an understanding of the institutional context. The research has been developed by a longitudinal case study by using archival data.

The chapter provides us with an insight into management accounting change during an extended period of time dominated by political instability, economic turbulence, social tensions and change in the company’s presidency. The study suggests that changes were dependent on a complex set of relationships and preconditions, that the specificity of the company’s accounting controls was tied to isomorphism forms and power relationships internal to the company, while pressures from the external environment did not impact significantly on control systems architecture and functioning of the company.

The use of qualitative approach (as longitudinal case studies) is often criticized because its results are not generalizable and replicable.

The chapter clarifies the theoretical underpinnings of the institutional frameworks and power relationships and suggests areas for institutional and interdisciplinary research into management change.

Most research on management accounting change relates to practices in developed countries. This paper reports on a field study of management accounting change in the South African context. It uses a contingency theory framework within four retail companies to understand the processes of their management accounting systems change and to explore the rationales for such change processes. The findings indicate considerable changes in management accounting systems within the four cases. Such changes include increased use of contemporary management accounting practices notably activity‐based cost allocation systems and the balanced scorecard approach to performance measures. The paper suggests that recent environmental changes in the South African economy arising from government reform/deregulation policy and global competition largely facilitated the management accounting change processes within the participating organisations.

This paper seeks to concern itself with the determination of the effect that external factors have on the design and implementation of management accounting systems in a developing economy which has in the last decade experienced fluctuating levels of environmental uncertainty.

This is explained through the use of a case study involving interviews and archival data in a company over a ten‐year period, a period involving considerable environmental change. It explores, how the organisation responded to the changes experienced over that time and the extent to which this impacted management accounting.

The study finds that the management accounting and control systems used are more mechanistic in times of environmental and political stability, but become more organic in periods of greater uncertainty.

The challenge of relying for this research on respondents' recall of events occurring some years previously is acknowledged and steps taken to minimise this are identified. The results of any case study research are not widely generalisable beyond the context in which it is studied.

This study offers insights into management accounting and control systems as they are implemented in an underdeveloped country where uncertainty stems from political fluctuations.

This research sees environmental uncertainty stemming from changes in the political structure and this precipitates changes in markets and their structures. Companies operating in those markets are influenced by and need to react to such changes.

Malaysia has moved towards global competitiveness. As an important contributor to the Malaysian economy, this change makes manufacturing companies in Malaysia need to ensure that their business operation and management cope with the current changes. To do this they need to reconsider their existing management accounting practices more than ever. Therefore, this study is carried out to determine how changes in management accounting practices in Malaysian manufacturing companies took place in response to a changing business environment and the effect of changes on performance.

A structured questionnaire survey is used to collect the data from various manufacturing companies in Malaysia. The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturer Directory is used as a sampling frame.

The results show that the level of changes in management accounting practices increased over the five year period from 2003 to 2007. The changes mostly occurred through the introduction of new practices, replacement of existing practices and modification of the way existing practices were used. Findings in this study also reveal that there are no significant differences in management accounting practices among local and foreign companies, or between small and medium, and large companies. This study also support previous research in terms of the positive relationship between changes in management accounting practices and performance.

Taken together this research outcome has contributed to the existing management accounting change literature especially in a developing economy setting.