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This paper analyses the extent to which public sector (PS) and non-profit (NP) organisations' reports and reporting processes adopt an IR framework as model of dialogical accountings and accountability (DAA) for dialogue with stakeholders.

The paper provides an overview of accountings and accountability in PS and NP organisations. The concept of dialogical communication with stakeholders is studied. The theoretical framework of DAA is supported by empirical investigation through the case studies of two organisations, one PS and one NP organisation. To contextualize findings from the case study, Estonian private schools' published management reports were analysed to explore integrated reporting (IR) elements. The paper ends with discussion and conclusions.

NP and PS aimed to improve their reporting practices. Reporting in the PS organisation were based on traditional accounting and accountability models which work in stable and non-competitive environment. IR, as a format for DAA, could bring added value to the PSO, but the mechanisms to make it work are missing. The NP organisations were already spontaneously practising some IR elements. After learning about IR, the NP organisation committed to IR principles and benefited from its guidelines. Implementing IR together with the concepts of dialogical communication, the organisations could create and benefit from better cooperation with their stakeholders both internally and externally.

The case study research does not allow for generalisation of the results, which are limited to the case organisations' context and based on their management's subjective opinions. The limitation of qualitative content analysis as a research method in current study, is its possible subjectivity. The limitation is represented by the fact that only one year's data was for analysis.

This paper can be useful to any PS or NP institution willing to enhance its public accountability and developing dialogue with stakeholders for creation and innovation. This study serves to inform organisations that are searching for ways to improve awareness of IR for communication and co-creation purposes.

This study could help in defining the framework for a larger scale IR-related study in finding trends in PS and NP organisations. The study is a platform for exploring the aspects of developing dialogue with different stakeholders of IR implementation and application process.

The conceptual novelty of the research lies in connecting IRF and dialogical communication concept. The focus is to understand how IR expedites dialogical communication in light of IR framework. In current paper, we observe the presence of IR elements in public sector and non-profit sector organisations' reports.

The purpose is to understand the manner in which companies use management accounting and control systems (MACS) for dialogical communication in assisting collaboration and the coordination of actions. The task of the research is to answer the following questions: why is it important to support dialogical communication by MACS in the organisation? Who are the salient stakeholder(s) in a company implementing collaboration and cooperation? How does one analyse and understand the role of MACS as a medium for supporting dialogical communication? Which aspects of dialogical communication are (not) fulfilled in the implementation of MACS and why?

This study's philosophical assumptions are based on relational constructivism as a social science perspective. This study uses a participative action and observation case study as its methodology.

Based on this case study, it can be concluded that most of the assumptions that dialogue could take place were fulfilled in departments in need of changes for competition and economic reasons. In the departments that did not need changes, assumptions of mutual openness, mutual confirmation and non-manipulation were not fulfilled – information from MACS was hidden and censored. The open dialogue by MACS between ground and senior groups was prevented resulting in a lack of information on different practices at the organisational level. One assumption that was problematic even in departments in need of changes was the assumption of non-evaluation. There is a paradox or contradiction between the contemporary business environment needing innovativeness and creativity, which means free and open communication without evaluation, and the coordination and control function which is a common part of MACS.

In this study, the data collection, documentation and analysis were carefully conducted and several methods applied to deal with possible bias. Nevertheless, the problem of the observer bias cannot be entirely eliminated since an individual researcher can never be separated from his or her background, philosophical views and experiences.

The paper makes a strong practical contribution. Based on this case study, it has been demonstrated that MACS could be a medium to support dialogue between senior and ground levels if: senior management sees the need for dialogue between organisational members; management and other organisational members support and believe in dialogue which could be mediated by MACS.

The conceptual novelty of the research lies in tying the concept of dialogue in the environment of stakeholder capitalism with the MACS framework. The contribution of this research is to shed more light on the role of MACS as one option of mediums for supporting dialogue between top and ground-level managers.

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.