Contemporary management accounting research informs us of the recent emergence of the new role of management accountants . From the traditional role of “bookkeepers ” they have become more “business-oriented” (Granlund and Lukka 1998) more of a “business partner” type (Järvenpää 2007; Beard 1994; Bougen 1994; Friedman and Lyne 2001; Dimnik and Felton 2006; Jeacle 2008; Chen et al. 2012). In everyday practice, the new business-oriented role takes various shapes, being specific to local contexts (Ahrens 1996, 1997; Ahrens and Chapman 2002, 2007; Jørgensen and Messner 2010; Fauré and Rouleau 2011; Morales and Lambert 2013; Nama and Lowe 2014; Janin 2016). Management accounting research has suggested a few key drivers that have contributed to the emergence of this new role over time (Byrne and Pierce 2007). On the macro-level, there are the broad changes in the sociopolitical environment and economic forces (Loft 1986; Miller and O’Leary 1987; Berland and Chiapello 2009). Within the organization the new role has been associated with the changes in corporate culture , broader organization restructuring , and general changes in management philosophy (Simon et al. 1954; Granlund and Lukka 1998; Ahrens and Chapman 2002; Burns and Baldvinsdottir 2005; Järvenpää 2007; Nor-Aziah and Scapens 2007; Ahrens and Mollona 2007; Lambert and Pezet 2011; Lambert and Sponem 2012; Goretzki et al. 2013). At the micro-level, significance has been placed on the agency of key players, such as the leaders of organizations and in particular the leaders of the finance functions (Hopper and Macintosh 1993; Chua 1995; Briers and Chua 2001; Burns and Baldvinsdottir 2005; Baxter and Chua 2008; Goretzki et al. 2013), the operational managers (Hopper 1980; Windeck et al. 2015), as well as the management accountants themselves (Byrne and Pierce 2007; Goretzki et al. 2013; Morales and Lambert 2013; Janin 2016; Guo 2017).
Being business oriented (Granlund and Lukka 1998; Ahrens and Chapman 2000; Burns and Baldvinsdottir 2005; Byrne and Pierce 2007; Goretzki et al. 2013) for today’s management accountants means placing an increasing emphasis on a more strategic, forward-looking, and collaborative role orientation (Granlund and Lukka 1998; Burns and Baldvinsdottir 2005; Byrne and Pierce 2007). However, becoming business oriented might not be straightforward. It has been found that not all management accountants are orienting toward business. Some of them are found to have “irreconcilable” role orientation toward the narrower accounting role, while the others are oriented toward a broader “business partnering” (Järvenpää 2007; Friedman and Lyne 1997; Burns and Baldvinsdottir 2005; Byrne and Pierce 2007). This indicates the importance of understanding the process through which management accountants internalize their new role, an area about which we still have little knowledge (Goretzki et al. 2013; Guo 2017).
1.1 The Emergence of the Business-Oriented Role of Management Accountants
The realm of management accountants ’ activities has been internally oriented toward their internal clients, for example the general managers, production managers, and sales managers; providing support in “scorekeeping,” that is, traditional performance record keeping and producing periodic financial reports such as budget and actual numbers; “attention directing,” such as performing variance analysis, and “problem-solving” or internal consulting, in terms of preparing special financial analyses to aid in decision-making—such as whether to invest in a particular machine or not (Simon et al. 1954). These activities can also be broadly categorized as “controlling” (scorekeeping and attention directing), which is detached from the business, and “consulting” (problem-solving), which is more oriented toward the business, as management accountants align themselves more with the operating managers (Mouritsen 1996; Ahrens 1996, 1997). In some cases the realm of activities has broadened to include specialized financial areas of banking, international cash management, capital structure, and administration, with direct involvement in customer credit and suppliers’ relationships as well. Management accounting research has attributed these developments mainly to broad sociopolitical and economic forces, organizational changes, and the agency of key organizational players.
1.1.1 Sociopolitical and Economic Influences
The management accountants ’ role orientation has been associated with the broader development in the sociopolitical situation. For example, it has been suggested that management accounting practice such as budgeting emerged out of concern for the failure of capitalism during the 1930s to 1950s, which caused major economic problems such as unemployment after the two world wars. Instead of going back to the prior system, which favored the privileged few—the owners, rather than the employees—social reformers decided to “fix” capitalism by implementing budget control systems, responsibility accounting, and management by objectives, which enabled the employees to share wealth with the owners. In this context of the new “spirit of capitalism” (Berland and Chiapello 2009), management accounting practice emerged not just as a calculative practice but also as a disciplinary practice (Loft 1986; Miller and O’Leary 1987), with management accountants tending to orient hierarchically toward top management to help in the process of monitoring and controlling as they worked toward the overall corporate goals (Hopper and Macintosh 1993).
1.1.2 Organizational Changes
The wave of economic forces during the 1980s and 1990s affected corporate culture and management philosophy in such a way that it led to broad organization restructuring , which in turn provided an opportunity for the general increase in business orientation of management accountants (Granlund and Lukka 1998; Järvenpää 2007). During this period big companies expanded their operations across national borders and became internationalized or globalized. Faced with fiercer competition at home and abroad, managements shifted their attention toward customers and cost management. In the beginning this development led to decentralization of formerly centralized functions, such as production, sales, and finance , to accommodate the higher need for control and cooperation among dispersed units of operation that spanned national borders. Management accountants’ teams were also reorganized into those who were located centrally, performing traditional bookkeeping and preparing reports, and those located within the dispersed operating units to watch over the company’s well-being, taking part in management decision-making and becoming advisors and sometimes change agents. This latter group of localized management accountants was characterized as being “business oriented”; that is, placing more emphasis on the future and strategic imperatives, for example by using financial forecast or estimates for strategic decision-making rather than being concerned about the accuracy of the past data as their colleagues at the corporate center were;...