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This paper provides, first, a historical perspective of accounting research relating to Asian/Pacific countries as seen from the vantage of the leading international journal in the United States and, second, a bibliographical data base and index of twenty‐six years of articles on this region of the world. It accomplishes the first objective by presenting a tabular profile of research in international accounting as it pertains to countries in the Asian/Pacific Rim region as shown in articles published in the International Journal of Accounting (formerly, the International Journal of Accounting, Education and Research) and related publications which appeared from 1965 to 1990. The articles are classified according to country, research methodology, subject, and five‐year time periods. The paper accomplishes the second objective by providing an annotated bibliography of 125 articles on Asian/Pacific Rim countries and indices by country and methodology, and subject.

Presents a study which seeks to add to the body of knowledge that relates strategies to organizational performance. Examines the role of manufacturing performance measures to evaluate managers’ performance for firms pursuing strategies of manufacturing flexibility. Proposes that enhanced performance will be associated with the interaction between manufacturing flexibility and use of manufacturing performance measures. Sets out the results of a survey of 37 organizational units to provide support for this proposition. Concludes that the performance of entities that had a high degree of manufacturing flexibility were positively associated with the extent to which managers were evaluated using manufacturing performance measurements.

This paper aims to map the research on management accounting (MA), clarifying its current role and identifying gaps and opportunities for future research.

In this paper, 784 papers were reviewed for the 1958–2019 period, published in 220 scientific journals indexed on Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded [SCI-EXPANDED] and Social Sciences Citation Index [SSCI]). In the process, content analysis, regression analysis and bibliometric analysis were used.

The most relevant journals, authors and topics in MA, along with trends and patterns in the literature, were identified. Seven clusters that represent the overall thematic research structure of the MA field were also identified. This study shows that MA is becoming a multidimensional management decision-support instrument covering all organizational dimensions. As such, the research on MA is following the recent concerns with the sustainable development and digitalization of business processes.

Based on the findings of this research study, theoretical and practical implications for MA researchers were provided. These findings could also be useful to industry practitioners to improve their knowledge of emerging trends in MA practices, strategies and concepts.

Based on bibliometric and content analysis, a framework that shows an organizational, market and social context for the evolution of MA over the past 60 years was provided. It highlights the dynamics of MA alignment with organizational and external environment changes. Future research opportunities and implications for researchers and practitioners were also identified.

This paper aims to conduct an analysis of management research based on impact measures, with a focus on the accounting discipline and the environment theme. Using author and journal data as units of analysis, this study seek to determine the representation of environmental accounting researchers among the most cited accounting authors and the consideration given to environmental issues in the impact assessment of management journals.

This study collects and quantitatively analyzes the publications and citations of the 50 most cited accounting authors and run a principal component analysis on a collection of journal-centered indicators and rankings.

This study finds that – among the most cited accounting authors – environmental accounting researchers hold a relatively influential position although their research is mainly published in non-top-tier accounting journals. This study also documents that some environment-themed journals suffer from significant disadvantages in peer-reviewed journal rankings.

Environmental accounting researchers are likely to disseminate their research in other media than in top-tier journals. This may have an impact on the academic viability of this field.

Despite their strong connection to societal issues, some research themes could become understudied if journal rankings are not able to consider publication outlets in a more comprehensive way. There is a strong need for a broader consideration of scientific production, particularly in relation to its overall societal impact.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time an empirical analysis, combining author and journal data and documenting such findings, has been presented for publication. This study means to provide some descriptive insights into where environmental accounting researchers and environment-themed journals stand.

This article uses a survey of Certified Management Accountants (CMA) in the six Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to examine the importance that CMAs place on a number of management accounting practices for the efficient operation of their business and to determine the degree of adoption of that management accounting practice by their organization. The findings indicate a large discrepancy between what accountants consider effective management accounting tools and the use of those tools by their companies’ senior management team. Evidence suggests that companies in the GCC rely on the traditional management accounting practices rather than the more recently developed tools. In addition, the management accountants of GCC companies feel that it would be more important for their businesses to emphasis a range of non‐financial tools as well as to adopt a more strategic management focus using tools.

The purpose of this study is to present the evolution of thinking on the role of management control systems (MCSs) in innovation, according to the development of control practices, and to provide a reflection on the achievements of the more recent literature.

This paper assesses articles, books and book chapters that have explored MCSs in innovation, together with seminal works on management accounting and control.

Moving from the traditional phase where MCSs were seen as detrimental to innovation, the literature has now reached a new consensus that attributes a positive role to control. In this recent phase, it arises from the literature that MCSs in the realm of innovation should embrace a multiplicity of controls; MCSs depend on the magnitude and innovation mode of a company; MCSs evolve over time; and that synergies and tensions are expected to arise. Adding these factors to the inherent complexity of innovation, the assertion is that qualitative approaches should be undertaken to infuse the field with more fine-grained evidence. It is also proposed that this methodological approach be used to address the following points: (1) the use of multiple controls; (2) synergies and tensions; and (3) behavioural aspects of controls in relation with innovation.

The paper is of value for researchers who have an interest in studying the use of MCSs in innovation and in qualitative research and proposes some areas of research that could be explored.

Job advertisements are important means of communicating role expectations for management accountants to the labor market. They provide information about which roles are sought and expected. However, which roles are communicated in job advertisements is unknown so far.

With a text-mining approach on a large sample of 889 job ads, the authors extract information on roles, type of firm and hierarchical position of the management accountant sought.

The results indicate an apparent mix of different role types with a strong focus on a classic watchdog role. However, the business partner role is more often sought for leadership positions or in family businesses and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME).

The main limitation is the lack of an agreed-upon measurement instrument for roles in job offers. The study results imply that corporate practice is not as theory-driven as is postulated and communicated in the management accounting community. This indicates the existence of a research-practice gap and tensions between different actors in the management accounting field.

The results challenge the current role discussion of professional organizations for management accountants as business partners.

The authors contribute the first study, which explicitly analyzes the communication of roles in job offers for management accountants. It indicates a discrepancy between scholarly discussion on roles and management accountants' work from an employer's perspective.

Historically, South Africa’s apartheid policies had a negative effect on the financial performance of the South African beverage industry. This effect was characterised by the non‐participation of South African companies in the global market and the presence of foreign enterprises in the domestic market. From 1994, South African industries have been increasingly exposed to new opportunities and forces. Globalisation, deregulation, changing manufacturing systems and the entry of foreign competitors in the 1990s exposed the local industry to competitive challenges in the domestic and the global market. This study examined the impact of changing levels of competition on the performance of strategic business units and the mediating role of management accounting in the South African beverage industry. The methodology employed to investigate this relationship comprised both a survey and a case study. The results indicate a positive correlation between the level of competition and the performance of business units. The results furthermore indicate that enterprises can utilise a management accounting system (MAS) as a strategic response to competition. The increased use of MAS will, in turn, improve the performance of an enterprise. Enterprises that do not respond positively to competition will not survive.

The purpose of this paper is to explore several contingency variables, namely environmental uncertainty, business strategy, technological advancement, market to book ratio, size, profitability and industry type in the context of management accounting and the availability of internal intellectual capital (IC) information.

A questionnaire was developed and posted to the managers of Malaysian companies. A multiple regression statistical technique was employed to analyse the data.

It is found that business strategy and technological advancement of customer service relate positively to the availability of internal IC information in Malaysian companies.

The relatively small response of usable replies to the questionnaire survey is a limitation of this paper. The finding implies that companies with more internal IC information are more likely to be those of product differentiators and those who have undergone technological advancement of customer service. Malaysian companies tend to have a strong customer orientation and place great emphasis on managing customer capital (CC). Future research can investigate the types of IC information used by Malaysian managers to manage their CC.

This paper contributes to the literature as it examines the relationship between context and IC within a contingency theory framework. Unlike other research which relates to external IC disclosures with firm‐specific variables, this research links contingency factors to internal IC information from related fields (management accounting and external IC reporting).

The purpose of this paper is to develop a proposal for a new conceptual framework for management control systems (MCS) in R&D units.

The paper is a descriptive study that reviews the control literature and proposes an MCS framework in the light of four key elements: desired ends, actors, control implementation, and control tools.

The study found two sub‐elements of desired ends (directional and yardstick) to be complementary in a low level of uncertainty, while directional should be emphasized more in a high level of uncertainty. Five sub‐elements of actors are used differently along the levels of uncertainty. The timing and use of formal and informal control types are found to be different regarding the level of uncertainty. Finally, the dimension and the value of control tools are used differently in those two distinctive situations.

The paper is limited to a descriptive study that may have further implication for research by using the framework to investigate the MCS applied by R&D units.

The four key elements of MCS may be used in practice by developing a detail measure of each element to suit the condition of the unit.

The paper is a new way of looking at MCS, broadening the comprehension, and introducing new MCS key elements.