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The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of a multidivisional structure on the implementation of lean manufacturing. It investigates how the controls employed by the corporate level impact the local implementation of lean manufacturing.

The paper reports on case studies in three subsidiaries in different multidivisional organisations.

The paper finds that lean manufacturing can be severely constrained by the accounting-based controls which are commonly in place in a multidivisional structure. Depending on the degree of centralisation, subsidiaries may be restricted to implementing lean tools in a fragmented way, rather than acting according to a coherent set of principles.

Companies may have to accept that being part of a multidivisional organisation can imply that their lean implementation is more gradual and piecemeal than they prefer. The paper proposes several ways to mitigate the constraints that may arise from incompatibilities between accounting-based controls and lean controls.

This study contributes to the literature about external constraints on production innovations, such as lean manufacturing. It highlights how the organisational context creates local conditions that may be detrimental to the implementation of lean manufacturing.

This paper aims to explore the influence of specific characteristics of the public sector in developing countries (i.e. a low‐institutional capacity, a limited involvement of stakeholders, and high levels of corruption and informality), and of reforms of this sector, on public sector performance measurement (PSPM).

Based on a review of prior literature, the paper develops understanding of the demand for and supply of performance information in developing countries, and of changes in this area.

The paper argues that public sector organisations in developing countries are likely to face an unbalanced position, i.e. disequilibrium between the demand for and supply of performance information. More precisely, the public sector reforms – which are partly stimulated by a growing involvement of some stakeholders – lead to an increasing demand for performance information but, because of the low‐institutional capacity and the high level of corruption, this increasing demand is not always followed by a sufficient supply of performance information. This leads to an “unsatisfied demand” position.

The paper concludes with an overview of issues related to PSPM in a developing country context that require further investigation.

The arguments presented in this paper are summarised in an overview of factors that influence the demand for and supply of performance information in the public sector in developing countries. This overview might be helpful to those who are involved in the design of performance measurement systems in these countries.

So far, relatively little is known about PSPM in a developing country context. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap.

This paper seeks to introduce, summarise, and reflect on the key themes and findings raised by the seven papers selected for this special issue devoted to management accounting in less developed countries (LDCs).

The conclusions are drawn from desk research generally and the articles contained in this collection.

This paper finds that accounting research in LDCs needs to address issues of poverty reduction, corruption, community involvement, history, culture, and politics, and examine a wider spectrum of organisations ranging from households to non‐governmental organisations.

Effective management accounting in LDCs may require broader, simpler, open and transparent, sometimes informal systems developed locally.

This paper presents a collection of mainly empirical papers on an important but neglected topic, namely how management accounting might aid economic development in poor countries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how management control (MC) within governmental departments is used in times of austerity, and how insights from agency and stewardship theory can enhance the understanding of this issue.

The authors distinguish two types of MC (constraining and facilitating) based on their different assumptions regarding human behavior (agent-like and steward-like). The authors empirically analyze changes in the use of these types of MC in four cases located in two municipalities. The collected data consists of 51 semi-structured interviews, desk research and multiple field observations.

The authors find that MC at the departmental level becomes more constraining in times of austerity. The authors suggest that an overemphasis on constraining MC has negative consequences. It can, for instance, evoke agent-like, opportunistic behavior while it disregards potential steward-like behavior. These negative consequences are less prevalent when there is a simultaneous increase in emphasis on the use of facilitating MC elements.

The authors acknowledge “human ambivalence,” i.e. an employee’s recurring choice between agent-like and steward-like behavior, and illustrate the dangers of overly relying on constraining types of MC. The authors also contemplate alternative strategic managerial responses to austerity in a public sector context.

This paper aims to explore the relationships among cost accounting systems structure and information quality properties through an integrated framework of cost system design and use.

In the framework, cost accounting systems structure is defined in terms of the level of detailed information existence, the cost disaggregation according to behaviour, the scope of variances calculation and the frequency of cost information provision. Cost information quality expresses its perceived usefulness by the users in terms of relevance, accuracy, timeliness, usability, compatibility with their needs, up‐to‐datedness, reliability and thoroughness for decision‐making purposes. In order to investigate the existing relationships, data were gathered from 119 leading Greek manufacturing companies via a questionnaire survey.

The empirical findings indicate that the majority of cost accounting systems structure characteristics exert a statistically significant positive influence on cost information quality dimensions. Only the systems' ability to disaggregate costs according to behaviour and their capability to generate customized to user specifications reports were not found to be statistically significantly associated with information quality.

The authors believe that their conclusions have important implications for researchers and professionals with respect to cost systems design as well as cost systems evaluation.

The innovation of the study lies in the development of an integrated framework that encompasses both cost systems structure characteristics and cost information effectiveness features.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the Troika’s advent played in the progress of the budgeting and the financial reporting systems reform at the Greek central government level.

The approach of an extreme country case study is adopted. The data used in the paper have been identified through document analysis performed on the relevant documents produced by the Troika, the Greek Ministry of Finance, and other relevant sources. The reform process is seen through the lens of the neo-institutional theory and the resource dependency theory.

Although both reforms targeted the introduction of best international practices – particularly useful in periods of financial distress and scarce resources – the advent of the Troika affected their progress and changed the priorities. As a result, the reform was redirected toward strengthening the cash budgeting system.

The study is subject to the limitations of an extreme case study research.

This is a case where resource dependency changes political priorities and directions and affects the evolvement of state budget and accounting reforms under way.

The role of external fund providers in public sector financial management reform priority-setting, in the case of a developed Eurozone country, is analyzed. The study contributes to the research agenda on accounting practices in times of austerity.