Abstract
For decades, management accounting and control (MAC) researchers have employed a diverse set of source disciplines to predict and examine behavior, and psychology is among the most frequently drawn upon. Although the literature confirms that psychological theories are highly relevant to MAC research, the existing knowledge on this field remains fragmented. Given this background, we examine recent MAC research through a systematic review of the different subfields of psychology to investigate the development of this stream of research. To do so, we collect 125 relevant articles from nine leading accounting journals between 2000 and 2019 and analyze their contents. On this basis, we provide a detailed overview of the use of psychological theories in recent literature and identify links between specific theories and MAC topics. We find that the quantity and proportion of psychology-based MAC research and the diversity of psychology subfields all increase during our investigation period, especially between 2015 and the first half of 2019. Overall, most studies address performance measurement and evaluation topics, and social psychology concepts are the most frequently applied. However, we find considerable differences in the application of psychological theories across different MAC topics. Our review provides insights into the content of this research stream and, thus, serves as a valuable source for researchers seeking an overview of previous investigations drawing on different subfields of psychology.
Highlights
Management accounting and control (MAC) researchers have employed a diverse set of economic theories and sociological or organizational approaches to predict and examine behavior and decision-making (Hesford et al 2007; Hopper and Bui 2016; Lachmann et al 2017)
Reactions to, e.g., PME systems, compensation, rewards or incentives benefit from psychology-based explanations of behavioral patterns
A time-based regression analysis reveals a significant increase in the number and share of psychology-based articles over time, indicating that psychological theories and concepts are more frequently applied in management accounting and control (MAC) studies in recent years
Summary
Management accounting and control (MAC) researchers have employed a diverse set of economic theories and sociological or organizational approaches to predict and examine behavior and decision-making (Hesford et al 2007; Hopper and Bui 2016; Lachmann et al 2017). Previous literature studies illuminate applications of specific subfields of psychology in MAC research These studies identify cognitive, motivational, and social psychological theories frequently used in prior research (Birnberg et al 2007) and examine research analyzing subjective decision-making in MAC contexts (Luft and Shields 2009). A recent study by Kaplan et al (2018b) discusses four social psychological theories that have been or could be applied to behavioral accounting Taken together, these studies indicate that psychology is highly relevant to contemporary MAC research and spark further interest in its contents and characteristics. The aforementioned studies discuss psychological theories and, especially, the use of social psychology in MAC research, the literature lacks a recent comprehensive review of applications of theories and concepts beyond social psychology in MAC studies. Recent trends in psychology-based MAC research, such as the application of personality psychology (Holderness et al 2017; Nichol 2019), make a comprehensive review of this topic especially valuable
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