The role of non-human actors in the acceptance of management accounting: the case of a Moroccan public establishment

Lean management is a philosophy that seeks the continuous improvement and meeting customer demands, through the elimination of any and all types of wastes. Initially rooted in Toyota corporation’s production system, lean management has rapidly spread to various manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors. Yet, even with such spread of lean management implementation, our understanding of the developments in organisations’ management accounting system (MAS) in the context of lean is still ambiguous. The available literature either from the academic or the consultancy domain problematises the traditional accounting system to work with lean management and suggest either shedding traditional accounting practices at all or using ‘lean accounting’ as a ‘lean-tailored’ accounting system. However, neither the academic nor the consultancy literature succeed in developing an overall theoretical conceptualisation of how an organisation’s MAS works with lean. Nor do they provide an in-depth investigation of the role played by the main lean accounting practice; Value Stream Costing (VSC) and the factors affecting its acceptance or rejection. Additionally, management accounting literature has not contributed much to our academic knowledge on the MAS associated with lean management as a form of horizontal organisation and process innovation. Hence, this research aims at developing a theoretical conceptualisation of the developments in organisations’ management accounting system (MAS) in the context of lean management. Additionally, the research seeks to investigate the performative role of the lean accounting VSC practice and explore the factors affecting managers’ willingness to accept or reject its implementation.A longitudinal case study informed by the use Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Michel Callon’s (2007, 2010) performativity thesis, is conducted on one of the factories of a multinational manufacturing organisation, adopting a lean management system. ANT’s elements of the ‘sociology of translation’ (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1986; Latour, 2005) are used first to develop a literature driven conceptualisation of the current discourse in both consultancy and academic literatures on the MAS associated with lean. Empirically, various human and non-human actors are identified at both the organisation’s local and global levels. Callon’s (1986) and Latour’s (1986, 1996) four moments of translation are used to interpret actors’ interactions making up the developments in organisation’s MAS. Callon’s (1998a) concepts of framing and overflow and performativity thesis (Callon, 2007, 2010) are then used to develop an empirical driven theoretical conceptualisation of the developments in organisation’s MAS in the context of lean. The research tested the performativity of VSC by tracing its effects on product cost and analysed if, or to what extent, the organisation is willing to implement it. The research contributes to both academics and practitioners through providing new nuances on the operation and developments in organisation’s MAS and practices in the context of lean. It also, responds to calls from both management accounting and lean management literatures to the develop more context related management accounting research and provide in depth empirical analysis on the management accounting practices relevant to lean management. The use of ANT unpacked new insights on the social and technical aspects of the developments in an organisation’s MAS in the context of lean. Such aspects include; the influential role of management accountants and consultants in lean organisations, the performative role of operating structures in lean settings and the association between the performativity of accounting calculations and management accounting relational ontology. The literature driven theoretical conceptualisation shows that, more research is needed on actors’ interactions forming the fabrics of organisations’ MAS and how its calculations interact with other actors in a process innovation such as lean. In terms of VSC, the practice performed in an opposite direction to the predictions made for it. In the case study conducted, VSC was mobilised by the factory layout and intentions of the organisation actors; both locally and globally, which may have distorted the expectations from its implementation. Additionally, it was found that committing to a lean accounting tool as VSC can be difficult in the context of headquarters’ pressures and political unrest. Successful VSC implementation, requires organisations to review their needs for product unit costs along with, the construction pattern of their value streams. It is suggested that more case study research is required at the intersection between both MAS and lean management research areas, to help expand academics’ and practitioners’ understanding of the operation and development in the MAS’s of companies implementing a lean management system. Additionally, it would be helpful to provide more empirical evidence on the conditions needed for VSC implementation and continue to explore the role played by other management accounting or lean accounting practices in lean organisations. This strand of literature is still evolving and lacks codification.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify how nonhuman actors contribute to solidarity in independent new film production. Specifically, it examines independent new film productions from a relationalist perspective, using actor-network-theory (ANT), which considers humans and nonhumans as equivalent actors and analyzes phenomena based on their interactions with each other. The research method used was ethnography with a focus on participant observation. One of the authors, a filmmaker and researcher, observed the inner workings of the filmmaking activity, while the other author observed the observer from an anthropologist’s perspective. In a previous paper, we found from the process of translation that the two nonhuman actors of the film’s original story and funding are inextricably linked, and the agency of the human actors surrounding them interacts with and transforms the nonhuman actors (Coney and Ito, 2021). In the present study, we analyzed the interaction with the solidarity among human actors in the process of film production by closely following the linkage of nonhuman actors such as provisional publicity materials, in addition to funds and scripts. In the process of filmmaking, the nonhuman actors often encounter unforeseen circumstances such as budget adjustments and filming postponement, but despite the setbacks, the nonhuman actors form a network in which they accept each other’s roles, and filmmaking is promoted by solidarity as human actors of the film become more interdependent through the agency working as an inclusive collective. The results of the study revealed that the human actors in film are interdependent and that their solidarity promotes filmmaking.

B y any measure, Robert Newton Anthony (1916–2006) was a giant among 20th century academic accountants. After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree from Colby College, he matriculated to the Harvard Business School (HBS), where he earned his M.B.A. and D.B.A. degrees. Bob spent his entire academic career at HBS, retiring in 1983. He is best known as a prolific writer of articles, textbooks, and research reports. He was inducted as a member of the Accounting Hall of Fame (1986), was a recipient of the American Accounting Association’s (AAA) Outstanding Accounting Educator Award (1989), and then was the second recipient of the AAA Management Accounting Section’s Lifetime Contribution to Management Accounting Award (2003), as well as serving as President of the American Accounting Association (1973–1974). In addition, he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Management (1970). These honors indicate that he was, indeed, a significant contributor to the development of his chosen field of management accounting for over 50 years, and highly respected by his peers. They do not indicate why. My intention is to answer that question. Bob Anthony was the ideal person to be a leader in the post-World War II movement that changed cost accounting into management accounting. He possessed broad interests and not only was an academic, but also was interested in solving problems found in the real world. He was equally comfortable working as an academic and as a manager. He served as Under Secretary (Comptroller) in the Department of Defense for his old friend and fellow Harvard Business School graduate, Robert S. McNamara, from 1965 to 1968. While at the Department, Anthony earned the Defense Department Award for Public Service for developing a system of cost management and control for the Department (Harvard University Gazette 2006). Though many identify him with the diverse set of textbooks he authored or co-authored, he also undertook what we now would identify as field research, e.g., Anthony (1952). His interest in studying accounting and management in a real-world setting informed his views on what

This paper reports the results of a questionnaire survey investigating organizational and environmental determinants of the rate of changes in management accounting and control systems (MACS) within Australian manufacturing firms. The Australian findings are also compared with the findings of two related prior studies [Libby, T., and Waterhouse, J. H. 1996. Predicting change in management accounting system. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 8, 137-150; and Williams, J. J., and Seaman, A. E. 2001. Predicting change in management accounting systems: national culture and industry effects. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 26, 443-460]. The change rate for a list of 23 components of MACS and the extent to which this rate is associated with intensity of market competition, decentralization, organizational capacity to learn, and firm size are reported. The study uses survey responses of 34 managers, drawn from a cross-section of Australian manufacturing companies. In the current study, the average number of changes in MACS in the sample organizations was 5.29 times in the period 2003-2005; this was 15.7 percent more than the average of 4.46 changes reported by Libby and Waterhouse and 44.8 percent more than the average of 2.92 changes reported by Williams and Seaman in their sample manufacturing firms. Consistent with Libby and Waterhouse, the results provide strong support for a positive association between the rate for changes in MACS and intensely competitive environments. Also, consistent with Libby and Waterhouse and Williams and Seaman, organizational capacity to learn was found to be an important predictor of the rate for changes in MACS. However, contrary to expectation, the rate for changes in MACS is not significantly associated with decentralization. On the other hand, contrary to Libby and Waterhouse and Williams and Seaman, firm size appeared to be an important predictor of the rate for changes in MACS.

In the UK, the need for more quantitatively-skilled citizens and employees has been widely publicised. This skills deficit has prompted a wide range of policy initiatives and academic research into quantitative methods (QM(s)) learning-teaching across all levels of education. Although the academic literature has provided useful insights into the learning-teaching of QM(s), it has overlooked key questions concerning the character of QM(s) across Social Science disciplines and the role of non-human actors. This thesis begins to fill this gap in the literature by adopting Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to explore the learning-teaching of QM(s) within four Higher Education Social Science subjects. To investigate the actor-networks that QM(s) is comprised of, and located within, an assemblage of methods was used, including: semi-structured interviews, concept mapping, participant observation and document analysis. Together, these methods capture QM(s) across Harvey’s (2004) three spaces (abstract, relative, and relational), supplementing ANT’s own relational understanding of space(-time). Challenging the passive and singular framings of QM(s), presented within policy initiatives and the literature, here, QM(s) was found to be a character occupying multiple positions of agency, taught content, and locations on participants’ concept maps. Within the teaching-learning environments, the construction of QM(s) as linear, fixed and learnt through doing was translated by worksheets and correct answers, producing a characterisation of QM(s) as a passive, linear activity of completing tests. When placed within disciplinary actor-networks, QM(s) was identified as performing a variety of roles: providing patterns/trends; offering reliable answers and predictions; aiding theory testing; and assisting decision-making. However, these positionings were being challenged by new techniques, software, and learning-teaching environments. These findings imply that instead of a focus on differentiating QM(s) knowledge, to successfully integrate QM(s) with disciplinary knowledges attention should be given to QM(s’) link to data and theoretical positionings. Overall, this thesis provides an original contribution to knowledge through its adoption of ANT, a theory not before applied to QM(s) learning-teaching research. In doing this, it challenges common assumptions made within the literature to provide new insights into the character of QM(s) and the role of previously overshadowed non-human actors.

Purpose – This study aims to establish the existence of Management Accountant’s Expectation Gap and its perceived variability with management accountants’ competence, management accounting system and organizational structure. As a corollary, it examines the contribution made by management accountants’ competence, management accounting system and organizational structure in closing Management Accountant’s Expectation Gap. Design/methodology/approach – This study is cross-sectional and correlational, and it uses firm-level data that was collected by means of a questionnaire survey from a sample of 242 manufacturing firms in Kampala – Uganda. Findings – Results suggest that management accountants’ competence, management accounting system and organizational structure are significant predictors of Management Accountant’s Expectation Gap. Research limitations/implications – This study focuses on manufacturing firms in Uganda, and it is possible that these results are only applicable to the manufacturing sector. More research is therefore needed to further understand the contribution of management accountants’ competence, management accounting system and organizational structure in narrowing Management Accountant’s Expectation Gap in other sectors such as the accounting firms. Practical implications – The results suggest that policy makers prescribe qualifications for management accountants and outlining roles of management accountants in the accountants’ act 2013 to ensure that management accountants engage in the right roles thus closing the Management Accountant’s Expectation Gap. Originality/value – According to Budding and Wassenaar (2021) study, there is a Management Accountant’s Expectation Gap however, no research has hitherto been undertaken that investigates the individual contribution of Management accountants’ competence, management accounting system, organizational structure in closing the gap.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to comprehensively review the empirical literature on management accounting and control in family businesses and to identify future research avenues. Academic interest in the field of management accounting and control in family businesses has increased considerably during the past decade. Family businesses constitute a unique organisational form that apparently faces a lower degree of information asymmetry compared to non-family businesses. In turn, this may limit their need for management accounting and control systems. However, recent reviews of accounting in family businesses have not yet comprehensively reviewed the literature on management accounting and control. The present paper aims to close this gap. Design/methodology/approach – This review follows the guidelines proposed by Tranfield et al. (2003) for conducting a systematic literature review. This paper has identified 33 relevant articles, which were scanned for findings on the antecedents, configurations and outcomes of management accounting and control in family businesses. Findings – Management accounting and control seem to be generally less relevant to family businesses than to non-family businesses. This review suggests, however, that this finding is true primarily for smaller firms, not for larger firms. In family businesses, mutual trust, family-specific goals and the centralisation of power emerge as important antecedents of management accounting and control, but they are also affected by the use of management accounting and control instruments. Research limitations/implications – This paper identifies a need for more research concerning institutionalisation and the instruments of management accounting and control in family businesses. Future studies on this topic should include more demographic characteristics to isolate the family effect from other corporate governance effects, as this has been disregarded by most extant studies. Originality/value – This paper is the first comprehensive review to provide a synthesis of the literature on management accounting and control in family businesses.

Provision of mobile banking services from an actor–network perspective: Implications for convergence and standardization

Abstrak: Care Governance: Administrasi Publik di Era AntroposenPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan dan memberikan gambaran konseptual terkait paradigma care governance dan menjelaskan posisi dan peran aktor-aktor non-manusia dalam paradigma care governance. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif-eksploratif dengan jenis penelitian studi pustaka. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini ialah systematic literature review. Teknik analisis data yaitu, reduksi data, penyajian data dan penarikan kesimpulan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan secara konseptual paradigma care governance merupakan paradigma dalam administrasi publik yang berprinsip atau melandaskan praktik-praktik pada kerangka moral berbasis kepedulian dengan tujuan untuk merawat kehidupan manusia dan aktor-aktor lain yang menyebabkan kehidupan manusia menjadi dimungkinkan. Dalam paradigma care governance, publik diberikan pengertian baru sebagai keseluruhan entitas dan bukan hanya sekadar warga negara. Selain itu, care governance juga melihat bahwa aktor-aktor non-manusia dapat berperan secara aktif dalam kegiatan pengadministrasian; baik sebagai focal aktor, aktor mediator, maupun intermediaries aktor. Kontribusi penelitian ini adalah mengenalkan care governance dengan melibatkan aktor non manusia untuk memperluas wacara administrasi publik.Kata kunci: care governance; administrasi publik; aktor non-manusia; era antroposen; paradigma; actor-network theoryAbstract: Care Governance: Public Administration in the Anthropocene EraThis study aims to explain and provide a conceptual overview of the care governance paradigm and explain the position and role of non-human actors in the care governance paradigm. This study uses a qualitative-exploratory approach with a literature study research type. The data collection technique used in this study is a systematic literature review. Data analysis techniques, namely, data reduction, data presentation and drawing conclusions. The results of the study show that conceptually the care governance paradigm is a paradigm in public administration that is based on or summarizes practices in a moral framework based on care with the aim of caring for human life and other actors that make human life possible. In the care governance paradigm, society is given a new understanding as a whole entity and not just citizens. In addition, care governance also sees that non-human actors can play an active role in administrative activities; either as a focal actor, mediator actor, or intermediary actor. This research contributes by introducing care governance involving non-human actors to expand the discourse of public administration.Keyword: care governance; public administration; anthropocene era; paradigm; actor-network theory

We compare the scheme for educational dialogue analysis (SEDA) to the actor-network theory (ANT) for the analysis of educational dialogues. We show that ANT unearths the socio-material structure of classroom talk as networks in which human and non-human actors (texts, diagrams, instructions, etc.) exert power on each other. The application of ANT to classroom talk led us to identify (non-)dialogic networks when human actors are not subordinated (resp. subordinated) to other actors. Roles in networks are not predetermined but translated in interactions, and networks are often blackboxed, as the original process and circumstances of their creation might be ignored. We show then that the adoption of ANT (resp. SEDA) uncovers phenomena that SEDA (resp. ANT) did not identify. SEDA helps observe the co-construction of ideas and describe shifts from the dialogic to the non-dialogic but does not explain the mechanisms that lead to these shifts. ANT explains shifts from one network to another, as it conveys the change of power relations between the different actors, role of non-human actors, and shows how they shape the dynamics of networks in classroom talk. We draw from this comparison implications both for research and educational practice in dialogic education.

Management accounting (MA) studies disclosed the significance of MA for organizational change, progress and showed the benefit of a performance measurement process. This is the reason why management of organizations should have MA system (MAS) effectively providing information for decision-making at the acceptable costs. Issue of the right MA tools setting and correct transformation of existing system into the optimal one is not new. Nevertheless, the biggest part of scientific works related to MA is concerned with separate tools of MA and are fragmented. The main aspect of the relevance of this issue is the question what features should have modern MA and how should the existing MA systems be changed into modern ones. The objective of this paper is to examine theoretical and practical assumptions for the development of MAS adjusted with the environment of an organization. According to the mentioned objectives theoretical and practical assumptions for the development of modern MAS adjusted with the environment of an organization and satisfying management needs of timely receiving the most relevant information with no surplus costs was examined in this paper. The analysis of scientific literature, the systemization of results of different researches related to MA, the studies of business companies, the conduction of financial and managerial analysis, the synthesis of management/MA theories, methods and practical cases were made in this research. The research disclosed that MA could be assessed company-wide, seeking to find an optimal configuration of the local management accounting system (Technical - Managerial View). Also different MA theories, MAS of different companies can be compared and the best choice or conclusions can be achieved based on systemization of theories and practices (Pragmatic – Interpretive View). Besides that, relationship between MA and external environment in much wider context can be analyzed (Critical-Socio-Economic View). The performed analysis showed that MAS are strongly influenced by the internal, external environment and objectives of organization. Organizations differently pursue Return on Capital (ROE) maximization. Each type of organization has interim objectives helping them to cope with the obstacles of external/internal environment and to take advantage on possibilities. Companies performing in volatile environment use simpler MAS and vice versa, so different sets of MA tools should be applied to different types of organizations. This assumption is the key matter for the modern MA system creation. Basic principles of modern MAS development state that managers first of all should determine an organization type. Depending on that set of MA techniques adoptable to the particular organization should be determined and applied. Implementation of proposed MA tools demands to organize that on a project basis. Project team should be organized and an approval as well as the support of the top management is mandatory. Acceptance, support and involvement of all management and employees are necessary for a successful change of existing MAS. Constant monitoring of an organization type change, the assessing of MAS effectiveness and top management’s support is necessary for a successful functioning of modern MAS.

In recent years, scholars have started to draw on upper echelons theory to analyze the relationship between the characteristics of top managers and management accounting and control systems. This short survey paper aims to give an overview of upper echelons theory and its current applications to management accounting and control research. The paper shows that existing research consistently finds that younger and shorter-tenured CFOs and top managers with business-related backgrounds are associated with more innovative and/or sophisticated management accounting and control systems. In contrast, the (sparse) extant results on CEO characteristics and on characteristics of top management teams are somewhat contradictory. The paper concludes with an outlook on fruitful future research avenues, which include the analysis of additional management accounting and control systems and additional upper echelon characteristics, moderators such as managerial discretion and executive job demands, and the combined effect of upper echelons and management accounting and control systems on organizational performance.

Purpose This study aims to explore how reimbursement negotiation of health-care services influences management accounting and control systems in a nonprofit private hospital. Attempts have been made to obtain an in-depth understanding that explains the choice of the cost management systems and strategies used by a hospital operating within its institutional funding environment. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a qualitative case study approach, which comprises semi-structured interviews with key informants to understand how different bases of reimbursement impact management accounting systems in a nonprofit private hospital. Findings This study highlights that, unlike publicly funded hospitals, nonprofit hospitals face multiple bases in the reimbursement process of health-care services in their institutional environment, which impact their internal processes, including management accounting systems. It also reports the organizational processes to negotiate with external funding bodies, where different funding logics were accommodated. Research limitations/implications This research focuses on a single case study, and its findings need to be interpreted carefully. Repayment systems can be different and subject to changes over time, which can influence various nonprofit hospitals to adopt different Organizational strategies that require contextual understanding. Originality/value This paper contributes to extant knowledge on how reimbursement of health-care costs affects internal organizational processes, including management accounting.

This paper investigates the potential for expanding the domain of sociological-based studies in management accounting and control systems by drawing on Bourdieu's theory of the practical logic of everyday action especially its central habitus concept that he saw as the basic indispensable concept for understanding social action. However, as Emirbayer and Johnson [2005] observe in criticizing the use of his theory in organizational theory, almost complete inattention to habitus, the third of Bourdieu's major concepts, without which the concepts of field and capital make no sense, further attests to the misappropriation of his ideas and the lack of appreciation of their potential usefulness ... [thus] the full significance of his relational mode of thought has yet to be apprehended [p. 1]. This criticism seems equally applicable to the extant body of accounting studies drawing on some of Bourdieu's ideas but which have pretty much ignored both the habitus concept and the importance of his relational perspective whereby the various concepts in his theory are somewhat vacuous on their own. Given these lacunae, this paper presents a detailed exegesis Bourdieu's logic of social practice theory and mobilizes it to illuminate the collapse of Enron's management control and governance system and practices. The analysis indicates that Enron experienced a radical shift in its habitus from the Lay/Kinder era [1986-1996] to that of the Lay/Skilling era [1996-2001] and that the former was coherent with Enron's business model and its management control systems, while the latter vitiated the company's control mechanisms rendering them ineffective and playing a major role in Enron's demise. The paper concludes that Bourdieu's theory complements and supplements previous research mobilizing structuration theory and actor-network theory.

Research examining management accounting and control systems (MACS) and innovativeness is growing. Traditionally MACS have been considered to hinder innovation activities because they would eliminate freedom and flexibility innovations require. Recent studies however suggest that also a positive relation can be assumed and therefore MACS promote innovativeness. This paper presents a systematic literature review regarding MACS and innovation and investigates (1) if management accounting and control systems may help or hinder innovation output, (2) if these systems influence innovation performance and (3) by what factors this relation is moderated. Keywords Management Accounting; Management Control; Innovation; Literature Review