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Several scholars have recently highlighted the narrowness of accounting research regarding it as a threat to scholarly developments in the field. The aim of this study was to chart progress in management accounting research using a sample of doctoral dissertations published in Finland. In particular, the study examines the range and diversity of research strategic choices in Finnish dissertations over time, including the topics and methodological and theoretical approaches chosen. The authors also briefly compare findings over time and with other progress studies.

A longitudinal historical investigation was selected. All of the 80 management accounting doctoral dissertations published in Finnish business schools and departments during 1945-2015 were analysed.

The findings reveal that an expansion of doctoral education has led to an increasing diversity of research strategic choices in Finland. Different issues have been of interest at different times; so, it has been possible to cover a wide range of cost, management accounting and other topics and to use different methodological and theoretical approaches over time. Consequently, management accounting has become a rich and multifaceted field of scientific research.

While this analysis is limited to doctoral research in Finland, the results should be relevant in advancing the understanding of the development of management accounting research.

Overall, the findings support the view that there have been, and continue to be, many ways to conduct innovative research in the field of management accounting.

Dissertation research in this field has been extensive and vital enough to educate new generations of academics, guarantee continuity of the subject as an academic discipline and make management accounting a significant academic field of research.

The paper contributes to current research on management accounting change by an analysis of a sample of doctoral dissertations.

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the social aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by studying a case of organizational downsizing.

The paper uses a theoretical framework consisting of stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory together with the concept of social contract. Textual analysis methods are used to analyse and interpret the empirical data, which consist of mass media articles.

The main finding is that key stakeholders, especially employees and their representatives and the multinational corporation (MNC) itself perceive social aspects of CSR differently. The economic dimension dominates the social aspect in the corporate representatives' argumentation. Accounting information is used as a rhetorical tool to legitimise the downsizing actions rather than for purposes of accountability and transparent informative content.

The research is based on a detailed analysis of a specific context. This may limit the wider applicability of the findings. Even so, it adds insights to the academic literature on the varying conceptions of the social responsibilities of corporations, perceived not only by the firm itself, but also by different stakeholders.

The paper contributes to the literature on CSR by investigating understandings of corporate social responsibility in a case where the economic and social responsibilities of a firm are publicly debated. The study also links the theoretical debate on corporate social responsibility to a context with a complex range of political and social factors affecting the construction of the social and economic responsibilities of a firm.

In recent years, accrual accounting has become increasingly popular in many governments. Yet some questions remain unresolved. Previous literature questioned whether all governmental assets should be capitalized. Whereas those studies mostly focussed separately on a limited number of assets, such as infrastructure, military assets or heritage assets, the purpose of this paper is to expand these views by taking a holistic approach to their treatment.

The paper is based on a literature review combined with archival data, being the IPSAS (International Public Sector Accounting Standards).

The analysis distinguishes between the business and government sectors of the economy and argues that business accounting for assets cannot be applied to the public sector without significant modification. Secondly, within the public sector, it is argued that “businesslike assets” (such as normal buildings and equipment) should be distinguished from “specific governmental assets” (such as art galleries), where the latter should be reported off balance sheet as community assets held in trust by governments for community enjoyment.

The current paper presents a solution for recognizing capital assets in different situations.

The paper reveals some basic differences in points of view between the governmental dimension versus a businesslike dimension in considering capital assets.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how local governments implement non‐mandatory performance measures (PM), the types of PM employed, the degree of their usefulness in decision making and/or accountability, and their outcomes.

The information was collected through a questionnaire sent to the expert managers in charge of developing PM for Spanish local governments with more than 50,000 inhabitants. In addition, data sources were triangulated through an analysis of the performance indicators published in the notes to the local governments' financial statements and in their web sites.

The implementation of PM in Spain follows a top‐down approach in which each local government can choose whether to implement PM, how to implement them, and what information to disclose. Implementation features a high degree of involvement on the part of managers and little involvement on the part of medium‐ and street‐level staff. PM are used primarily for budgetary and strategic management planning and long‐term decision making.

The paper will be useful to academics and practitioners to enable better understanding of the problems associated with introducing and using non‐financial, non‐mandatory PM. The Spanish case is similar to that of most continental European countries, in the leeway their local governments have in implementing their own PM systems.

The paper sheds light on the application of an interesting aspect of public sector management accounting and contributes to the literature by analyzing the application of a non‐mandatory PM system in a non‐Anglo‐American context.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of innovation capability and to show how the linkage between innovation capability and performance measurement can be formed.

The study is based on current literature of innovation capability and performance measurement and matching these two to find out how the measurement of innovation capability should be organized.

The paper describes the concept of innovation capability and presents a performance measurement framework for the measurement of innovation capability and its effects. As a result, a conceptual framework with five perspectives for measuring the relationship between innovation capability and business performance is presented. Also, the link between innovation capability and an organization's business performance is disclosed.

The paper shows a way forward of how to define measures of business performance in such a way that they are led from the development of innovation capability.

The purpose of the paper is to report the findings of a study of the relation between perceived environmental uncertainty and the abandonment of traditional annual budgets.

The paper is based on the use of data from a survey among the largest Danish companies. The hypothesized relationships are tested by the use of logistic regression.

The results show no sign of a relationship between perceived environmental uncertainty and the abandonment of traditional annual budgets. Instead, the results show a positive relationship between competition in the environment and the adoption of rolling forecasts.

Instead of focusing on the budgeting system in isolation, future research should, to a larger extent, focus on management control systems as a package.

The results indicate that a competitive environment could be handled by retaining budgets but supplementing them with rolling forecasts.

This paper is among the first to investigate the relationship between environmental uncertainty and the abandonment of traditional annual budgets.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the way strategic approach to business process management (BPM) impacts organizational performance, both its financial and non‐financial aspects, using empirical data from Croatian firms. The impact of strategic approach to BPM on process performance measurement (PPM) is examined as well.

A questionnaire survey was conducted on a sample of 194 manufacturing and service firms in Croatia and propositions were tested using a structural equation model with SAS software.

The results suggest that PPM practice is positively related to strategic approach to BPM. The impact of PPM on non‐financial performance has been found, as well as the impact of non‐financial performance on financial performance, thus indicating an indirect influence of PPM on financial performance.

The paper extends the previous research that exclusively investigated impact of BPM to organizational performance. The authors extended results of previous research and found that strategic approach to BPM is an important push factor for implementation of PPM, and that PPM is an important link between BPM and improved organizational performance.