The Fabrication of Management Accounting Systems – Why, How and What are the Consequences? A Romanian Testimony

Abstract

There is a significant body of literature on management accounting systems and their roles in organizations, based on a broad range of theories. An interesting setting for research is developing economies, because of the nature of changes characterizing their economical and accounting environment. The issue of accounting change is a fruitful field of research for management accounting (Atkinson et al., 1997), yet little is known regarding the practice of management accounting (change) in Romania. The purpose of this paper is in this context, to explore and understand the process of fabrication (in Latourian terms) of management accounting systems in several Romanian companies. Data for this study were collected between 2005 and 2010 from 20 companies acting in the constructions field. We find that an originally-well designed and internally-supported system may be detracted from its initial purposes and use via complex relationships between the actors constituting the project’s network (each of whom are animated by their own interests). This is a testimony about management accounting change and failure in our country.