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The goal of this paper is to use a coherent conceptual framework to discern variables (triggers) that affect a management accountant's role in an organization, thereby generating a comprehensive empirical picture of the management accountant profession in The Netherlands. Similar research was conducted in 2004, which allows a comparison of the data to see if, and to what extent, developments in the profession have taken place.

Using survey data, groups of management accountants are distinguished based on coherent combinations of activities. Factor and cluster analyses are applied to obtain a segmentation of the data. By doing this, it is established if homogeneous groups of management accountants can be distinguished, how many groups there are and what the characteristics of these groups are in terms of activities.

It was found that controllers either operate as “reporting business analysts” or “business system analysts”. Whether someone is found to be a reporting business analyst or business system analyst is among other things affected by personality traits, a person's experience in finance and accounting, the financial status of an organization and changes in laws and regulations.

The conceptual framework proposed integrates several previous studies on the roles of management accountants. It allows an analysis of their activities, yielding an empirically founded classification of management accountants in groups. In addition, possible factors underlying this classification can be discerned. As this is a generally applicable framework, it can, at a later stage, be used to make a comparison between countries, for instance in Europe.

The resulting picture of the management accountant profession provides information on how to form or even design the financial function in an organization. Apparently, the developments in the profession reflect changes in the business environment and society as a whole, as it seems that internal analysis and risk management have become more fundamental to the profession.

This research uses an original framework covering several previous studies to generate a comprehensive empirical picture of the management accountant profession in The Netherlands. The framework is used to track changes over a three‐year period.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a framework of management control that accommodates phenomena found in literature, like the importance of social factors for coordinating behavior, rule‐following behavior and the evolutionary nature of control. Phenomena that the dominant economic view, based on self‐interested actors and financial incentives, cannot easily absorb.

The framework characterizes control as the coordination of behavior in organizations. It is based on two‐stage rationality in which rule‐following behavior gives meaning to self‐interest, and in doing so, coordinates behavior.

Management control of two‐stage rational behavior involves managing the various elements of the framework in combination. The evolution of the coordinating rules in an organization will be partly autonomous and partly formed within the organization. Therefore, management control entails influencing the development path of the organization. Although it is concerned with the formation of controls in an organization, it is not exclusively concerned with the design of controls.

The framework provides broader opportunities for managing an organization than the theory based on simple rational choice.

In this socio‐economic approach, management will not consider controlling the “economic man” to be its core activity; instead, management will be coordinating the behavior of authentic human beings.

These aspects of management remain undervalued in mainstream literature on management control. The non‐mainstream literature does pay attention to these aspects; however, they are seldom integrated in one theoretical structure that is based explicitly on a broad conception of human behavior. The socio‐economic view can offer valuable insight into management and organization.

In accounting literature, there is a strand of thought that is founded on the old institutional economics. One of the problems is that institutional theory can demonstrate resistance to change, not the formation of change. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to theory formation, in particular to enrich the institutional framework for understanding change, by showing how medical specialists in hospitals, in particular urologists, shape change processes in organizations as reflected in behavioral routines. The results will also contribute to the empirical understanding of medical specialists' behavior. This could generate dynamic accounts of organizational change and help to find a way towards an enhanced framework.

In Dutch hospitals a new management control tool is implemented, which is the diagnose treatment combinations (DTC) system. A DTC is a way to describe the required medical procedures for a specific illness in a hospital. Here, an investigation is carried out on how and if the behavior of medical specialists changes because of this introduction.

After analyzing interviews with urologists, four common themes are distinguished and scripted behavior is described. The individual tracks in scripts can be distinguished, but there is more. This is the story that gives coherence to the various behaviors and shows how the arrangement of behavioral routines in an organizational context forms organizational change through time.

This research was based on the institutional perspective. Another view on management control would emphasize other aspects of behavior. In addition, this was only based on one specialism in three hospitals, so generalizability of the results will be low.

The results contribute to empirical understanding of medical specialists' behavior.

The results will contribute to the empirical understanding of medical specialists' behavior and it will contribute to theory formation in management control literature, in particular by enriching the institutional framework for understanding change.

The research goal was to trace behavioural patterns of management accountants, comprising activities and courses of action, in order to enhance understanding of the management accounting profession.

Protoscripts were derived, using interview techniques and a research method called “interpretive interactionism”. These protoscripts depict observable, recurrent activities and patterns of interaction characteristic for a group of persons, and can be used in various types of situations.

The paper describes the procedure and outcome of the collection of behavioural protoscripts used by management accountants and controllers, as well as their possible ordering.

The findings enlarge understanding of the controller profession, but are limited solely to controller activities. The protoscripts collected are stereotypical, at least for the controllers interviewed. Of course, all human experience is interpretation and it should be acknowledged that interpretations are never complete.

The control mechanisms and instruments that emerge in an organisation are the result of several interrelated factors and processes. Of special interest here is the behaviour of management accountants and controllers in shaping, maintaining and exerting control. Behavioural protoscripts can show how management accountants give contents to their role and structure their daily work.

Scripted behaviour of management accountants has received little prior research attention, especially in combination with the research method of interpretive interactionism.

In theory, action learning programs should lead to personal growth, and thereby also to organizational growth. Especially the occurrence of organizational growth can be questioned however. Three explanations are offered to explain the lack of organizational growth that seems to result when action learning programs are evaluated in practice: differences in perspectives, group problems, and hold‐up effects. They all turn out to serve as valuable explanations.

The traditional view of accounting as something that constrains innovation and conflicts with creativity is giving way to a more contemporary belief that accounting can enable innovation and support the innovative process. This paper aims to examine this evolving relationship between accounting and new product development (NPD) by exploring how interactions between NPD participants at various stages of the NPD process help to achieve the appropriate balance between firmness and flexibility which is necessary for NPD success.

A case study method is adopted. Strong structuration theory (SST) is used to examine the complex interactions that take place between managers at various stages in the NPD process, while the concept of minimal structures is drawn upon to explore how these interactions influence the role of accounting in NPD and help to achieve the desired balance between firmness and flexibility.

The findings of the study reveal that the use of accounting information in NPD is not necessarily prescriptive or normative but is embedded in the everyday interactions taking place throughout the organisation. Formal accounting information, which could be characterised as “push” information, is prepared and presented by the accountant as a formal requirement of NPD, where it is relied upon by the NPD Steering Committee to make stage-gate decisions in the latter stages of the process. This formal accounting information supports the technical structures within the minimal structures framework. Informal accounting information, which could be characterised as “pull” information, is prepared and used by the NPD team to make decisions from the early stages of NPD, often before the formal process has even begun. This information is regarded as a language or given understanding, and is often not even recognised as accounting information by those using it. This type of internalised language formulates the social structures discussed within the minimal structures framework. Together, the formal and informal use of accounting information, and the interactions implicated therein, provides the organisation with the appropriate balance of firmness and flexibility required to effectively govern the NPD process.

The paper contributes to accounting and innovation literature by using SST and minimal structures to explore interpersonal interactions in an NPD context.