How to Innovate Management Accounting for Public Sector: An Italian Case Study

Abstract

In recent years, the general reform of public sector has also interested accounting policies, techniques, and tools in order to make them as clear and understandable as possible. Thus, citizens and private organizations are even more demanding for a new and deeper disclosure of public accounting policies, fundamental to make them properly understood. This seems to be particularly important also because understanding public accounting policies is quite complex, because they highly vary not only among different countries, but also within a single country. It is also to be noted that in modern society, financial issues play a pivotal role in terms of public organizations’ efficiencies and competitiveness. This paper aims to investigate the spread and the application of emerging accounting policies and practices designed for public organizations. The analysis of a specific case study, settled in Italian context, points to better understand how public managers perceive the introduction and the results achieved through emerging accounting tools. The analysis offers some interesting insights in terms of new management accounting policies appliance to public organizations, in order to better respond to the emergent need for a much more open and transparent public management.