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The purpose of this paper is to enhance the eminent work of Burns and Scapens (B&S) by introducing broader conceptualisations on organisational routines and rules into management accounting.

The paper sets out with the B&S framework. The paper is primarily conceptual in nature and with the addition of some more recent literature on organisational routines serves to bolster the underpinnings of the B&S framework. Drawing especially on the work of Feldman and Pentland, the nature of management accounting routines in particular is explored in some detail. By association, rules are also explored.

This paper proposes that an ostensive‐performative distinction of routines augments our conceptualisation of how management accounting routines can represent both a source of stability and of change (simultaneously). Also, by showing how routines can represent both structure and action simultaneously, some light is shed on the ongoing interrelationship between routines and rules as highlighted in the B&S framework and some concerns in recent literature addressed. In particular, a refined view of both routines and rules not only bolsters the work of B&S, but potentially increases its applicability as a theoretical lens to empirical studies in less formal organisations.

The proposed refinements to the B&S framework, which aim to clarify the nature of rules and routines in a management accounting context, may be particularly useful for researchers studying less formalised (or, less rules‐based) organisations. The findings emphasise the potentially more important role of the less formal concept of routines in most organisations.

The paper supports and complements the B&S framework by integrating more recent conceptual developments on organisational routines and offering some potential definitional clarity on rules and routines in management accounting.

The purpose of this paper is to address the extant and arguably excessive focus on routines in management accounting research and a relative neglect of rules. It seeks to advance our understanding of how rules and routines may interact in the technology-enabled context of management accounting and control of contemporary organizations.

The authors draw on, and develop, insights from extant literature and from two case studies to explore how rules and routines may interact.

The paper proposes a framework on the interactions of rules and routines across multiple dimensions. The authors adopt a wide notion of rules to include formal rules, rules as internal cognitive structures of human actors and rules technologically embedded in non-human actors. The authors argue that rules underlie and may precede routines, distinguish between repeated practices and routines and explore the role of technology in today’s management accounting practices.

This research shows how the process of routinization and, ultimately, institutionalization of practices involves multiple dimensions of rules, as well as both human and non-human actors. With this understanding, researchers and practitioners will be better equipped to, respectively, understand nuances of management accounting change and actually achieve change in practice.

This paper highlights the importance of rules in the routinization and institutionalization of management accounting practices and proposes a framework which explores the interactions of rules and routines across three realms: material, action and psychological. Including a material realm, related with technologically embedded rules, in the proposed framework contributes to institutional theory by acknowledging today’s increasing role of technology in organizational life.

This paper aims to investigate ways in which inertia obstructs the adoption of new management accounting rules. Drawing on the view of management accounting as organisational rules and routines, it aims to suggest various ways in which inertia can become more pronounced when new accounting rules challenge existing routines.

A longitudinal case study was conducted at one of the largest banks in The Netherlands. This bank introduced a program called “Results Oriented Management”, which produced various new management accounting rules.

The paper identifies various ways in which inertia manifested itself when new management accounting rules were introduced. Moreover, the paper shows that ambiguity and contradictions play an important role in the presence of inertia.

The identification of individual‐level habits and scripts is a difficult undertaking. Through a focus on the performative and ostensive aspects of routines, some of the processes of inertia and change on an individual level are identified. This is a relevant method for students of management accounting change.

Although it is well known that routines can produce inertia, the process by which this inertia is manifested and how this affects the adoption of new management accounting rules is still unclear. The paper aims to contribute to this understanding.

Burns and Scapens (2000) (B&S hereafter) offered a well-cited framework conceptualising management accounting change. This paper aims to provide a systematic review of how B&S has been used to inform management accounting research and presents an updated framework as a point of departure for future work.

A systematic literature review method is used to ascertain various contexts and designs of B&S-based research. After an extensive examination of citations, 77 journal articles published are identified, described and analysed.

The systematic review shows that the B&S framework has been applied in many contexts, yet its main tenets remain unchallenged. Several researchers have suggested additions and amendments, and this paper synthesises these to an updated framework. Similar theoretical advancements were noted, indicating that future contributions should be grounded in comprehensive reviews of literature.

A limitation is that the analysis is limited to journal articles and the results of the review are contingent on the authors’ reading.

An updated framework is a core contribution, serving as a basis for further advances in the understanding of the complexity of management accounting change/stability. In addition, concrete and fruitful areas for future research are presented.

Previous research has argued that little is known about the dynamics of (de)coupling. This has led to a relatively static and potentially oversimplified view on how externally imposed accountability demands are incorporated into organizational routines. The purpose of this paper is to address these calls by exploring the dynamic processes of de- and re-coupling the two institutional rules of achieving a “balanced budget” and serving “the needs of individuals” in a Swedish school context.

A qualitative case study based on 28 observations and 32 interviews with principals, administrators and teachers within a large Swedish municipality has been used.

In contrast to earlier research, the paper shows that (de)coupling is more than just a static state; it is a result of dynamic challenges and boundary maintenance. It is a state where professional groups try to both decouple and couple accounting into routines to achieve greater autonomy and control, where incarnation of one myth leads to loosening another. It is embedded in an institutional environment’s powerful actors, and when incarnation takes place at different organizational levels, it leads to less conflict in another sphere. The dynamics of (de)coupling thereby unfolds how institutional rules play out in an organizational setting.

From a practical viewpoint, this paper has provided insights into how rules operate in an organizational setting. Given that regulative authorities tend to assume that rules should be tightly coupled to practice, this paper provides a critical examination of the assumption that coupled organizations are inherently “better” than non-coupled ones. To what extent does incarnation of rules reflect the societal ideas – and for whom? By unfolding the dynamics of (de)coupling, this paper illuminates some potential issues with increased tightness between rules and routines.

The paper illuminates the ways in which institutional rules takes place on the ground, and the associated roles for accounting in such process.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the accounting performance measurement (PM) change process in a Finnish city.

Interpretive case study. Data consisted of 16 semi‐structured interviews. Analysis was based on institutional theory, particularly on “new institutional sociology” (NIS) studies.

Budgeting and accounting PM became coupled into action when various intertwined (mostly institutional) pressures affecting change converged. Perceived crises were found to accelerate accounting change by deinstitutionalization, i.e. by breaking (drastically) existing routines and myths. Further, accounting rules and routines changed somewhat independently. Further, the notion of “distance” between rules and routines clarifies the dynamic nature of coupling of institutional rules and routines. Further, analysis of both internal and external institutional pressures facilitates understanding of the case events.

Case studies cannot be generalized and so further research on public sector PM change is encouraged.

Understanding of the interplay of various organizational pressures, deinstitutionalization and institutionslization of routines may facilitate management of PM change processes.

This analysis of the pressures and rationales of PM change in a Finnish city contributes to the accounting literature by noting the complexity of public sector change pressures. For example, some changes in accounting PM in the municipal field only occur when several non‐dominant pressures align.

Drawing on recent research, which recognises the situated nature of accounting practices, the purpose of this paper is to extend the Burns and Scapens (B&S) framework and to illustrate its potential for studying the situated nature of management accounting practices. The extended framework distinguishes field-level institutions (which the authors term broader institutions) and institutions within the organisation (which the authors term local institutions). To extend the B&S framework the authors draw on recent debates in institutional theory, both new institutional sociology, where the focus is now on the institutional logics perspective, and old institutional economics, where there has been debate about the relationship between institutions and actions.

While the B&S framework focussed on institutions within the organisation, the extended framework explicitly recognises institutions which extend beyond the boundaries of the organisation. It also recognises the way in which rationality and deliberation are related to human agency, as well as the power of specific individuals and/or groups to impose new rules. To illustrate the usefulness of the extended framework the research note draws on a recent study of performance measurement in the Accounting and Finance Groups of the Universities of Groningen and Manchester.

It is argued that local institutions within the organisation combine with the broader institutions to shape the forms of situated rationality which are applied by individuals and groups within the organisation. Different groups within an organisation (e.g. engineers and accountants) can have different forms of situated rationality, and contradictions in these forms of rationality can be a source of institutional change or resistance to change within the organisation, and can explain why accounting changes can by implemented in different ways in different organisations and also in different parts of the same organisation.

The extended framework will be useful for studying: (1) how situated rationalities evolve within an organisation, more specifically how they are shaped by both local and broader institutions; and (2) how prevailing situated rationalities shape the responses to accounting change.

The purpose of this paper is to examine different processes four organizations use to achieve best practices. There is an apparent contradiction between projects designed to create innovation and rigid rule following used for productivity. While both contribute to best practices this study describes a third source. Employees disobeyed rules and, in some cases, the results became best practices. This study identifies three management responses to deviant employee behaviors.

This study uses a multi-case field study design built upon organizational theory in the area of work structures. It uses qualitative methods based on grounded theory. Interviews, observations and archival data were used to triangulate findings. Four firms were selected to participate. One global and one regional accounting firm were compared and contrasted with one global and one regional manufacturing firm.

The paper provides insights about how change occurs not only from intentional innovation but also from disobeying rigid rules designed to enhance productivity. It also highlights three specific management responses to deviant behavior and the conditions under which each is selected.

Because of the chosen research approach, this research may not be easily generalized. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to further test the proposed conclusions. The paper expands organizational routine theory to examine how improvisation may change the structure of a formal work process.

The paper includes management implications. It suggests that rigid conformance to rules may inhibit a possible source of best practice innovation and gives management potential reasons to rethink imposed constraints.

Relationships of supervisory action to employee performance and productivity become more important when innovation and efficiency are sought in an organization. These relationships should be examined with a specific outcome in mind. There may be a choice between control and discovery that will require further consideration by management.

Many studies look at processes, procedures and organizational routines, most assuming that what is designed is implemented. Others consider deviant behavior usually in a negative light. This paper provides insights into non-conforming actions by employees and the positive unexpected results that can occur, taking into consideration the studies that took this approach to innovation.

This paper is an analysis of knowledge creation following implementation of the world's leading quality assurance standard, ISO 9000. We combine the perspectives of Nonaka on knowledge creation (Nonaka, 1994; Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995; and Krogh, Nonaka, & Nishiguchi, 2000) with those of authors who have dealt with the dynamics of rules and routines (March, Schulz, & Zhou, 2000; Nelson & Winter, 1982; Cohen & Bacdayan, 1994). On the basis of our analysis of ISO 9000 implementation we develop observations about rules and learning and about rule integration, absorption, and renewal. Our paper fits into the growing literature on the role of learning and knowledge transfer in quality improvement and the evolution of dynamic capabilities in the firm using routines and learning mechanisms such as knowledge codification.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics involved in the emergence and change of management accounting routines. It seeks to provide an understanding of the ways in which these complex routines foster stability and change in management accounting practices.

A longitudinal case study was conducted at the Rabobank Groningen – an autonomous member of the cooperative Rabobank group – over a period of four years. The emergence of a new routine of planning and control was traced, which evolved substantially over the period of study.

It was found that the cognitive representations of the routine studied, i.e. the way it was subjectively understood, provided a temporarily stable basis for the routine. Change arose from improvisations through its recurrent performances. It was also found that change could result from complex dynamics in the routine, as opposed to viewing them as static and stable entities that react to “external” stimuli.

The research findings contribute to an understanding of the reproduction of management accounting routines and the ways in which change can arise in these routines. It provides a means to study the micro‐processes of reproduction of routines, which play an important part in institutional theories of management accounting change.

This paper places management accounting routines and their processes of reproduction at the centre of the argument to provide an understanding of the role of routines in accounting change. Since the notion of management accounting routines has not been developed extensively, this understanding contributes to studies into the nature of routines and their role in management accounting change.