Abstract
This paper addresses the question of how it is possible, despite the persuasive characteristics of the business partner role, to explain the prevalence of hybrid accountants in management accounting practice. This research question is addressed from an institutional theory vantage point, suggesting that institutional drivers exist in every organization that shape the role of the practicing actors. The empirical evidence presented is drawn from a case study of a mining company pursuing a change program to transform its management accountants into business partners. The results illustrate how the hybrid accountant role is formed through an interplay among regulative, normative, and cognitive institutional drivers that influence the role of the management accountants in opposing directions. Because of the tension between facilitating and impeding institutional drivers, the change program toward business partnering results in a hybrid accountant role which is characterized by a combination of traditional and business partner traits. Hence, the conclusions suggest that the prevalence of hybrid accountants in management accounting practice can be explained by tensions between opposing institutional drivers that contribute to a compound role.
Highlights
Management accountants, sometimes described as business partners, are important actors in charge of financial information (Jönsson 2009) and play a critical role as advisors in managerial decisions (Goretzki 2013)
We aimed to identify the drivers of a hybrid accountant role in a business partner-oriented context
The results suggest a number of normative drivers of the management accountant role, some of which appear to work in opposite directions
Summary
Management accountants, sometimes described as business partners, are important actors in charge of financial information (Jönsson 2009) and play a critical role as advisors in managerial decisions (Goretzki 2013). Despite the theoretical and practical interest in the business partner, empirical research has found that the traditional scorekeeping orientation coexists with business partner traits among practicing management accountants, suggesting that the role has broadened (Friedman and Lyne 1997; Granlund and Lukka 1998; Byrne and Pierce 2007). Such empirical evidence points to a hybrid accountant with some business partner characteristics (Burns and Baldvinsdottir 2005; Weber 2011; Graham et al 2012; Lambert and Sponem 2012). The final chapter provides the conclusions of the paper, its contributions and limitations, and recommendations for future research
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