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Purpose Academic interest in role changes of management accountants (MAs) has increased during the past two decades. Role changes imply identity reconstructions as they do not only require an external legitimacy, but professionals have to internalize a new role script. Thus, this paper aims to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the ongoing changes concerning MAs by providing an identity perspective. Design/methodology/approach This paper systematically reviews the literature on the changing role of MAs from an identity perspective, based on a conclusive sample of 64 articles. Findings This review identified several external factors such as professional associations and educational institutions as well as organizational and individual factors that impact MAs’ identity and act as change drivers. MAs’ identity is linked with their image in the public and within the organization and is challenged by increasing demands, conflicting expectations and technological progress. Hence, the literature sample illustrates a fragmented and contradictory picture regarding the changes of MAs’ identities and roles and displays that the idea of a simple movement from one identity to another is misleading. Furthermore, the identity perspective offers new issues for management accounting research, practice and education such as nested identity, multiple or desired identities. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to review the literature of MAs’ changing identities and roles from an identity perspective. This perspective enables a novel focus on internal views, perceptions and internalized meanings of MAs connected with their role instead of exclusively debating changed external behavior expectations.

Purpose While extant research does mention performance management systems as antecedent to a management accountant’s role, and that there is tension between both, there is little detailed research. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the extent to which a performance management system interacts with the role of a management accountant. Design/methodology/approach The study is a cross-sectional field study, using interviews with paired management accountants and operative managers in 16 multinational organisations in Germany. The perspectives of both management accountants and operative managers are analysed separately. The role episode model theoretically informs the study. Findings The findings reveal management accountants distinguish between three roles of scorekeeping, controlling and business support, similar to prior literature. By contrast, operating managers are concerned with the value-adding and non-value-adding character of activities and thus support a dichotomy of management accountants’ roles. Drawing upon the role episode model, this study elucidates the interplay between performance management systems and the roles of management accountants, which encompass both role-taking and role-making dynamics. Additionally, this study contributes to management control literature by operationalising the components of a performance management system framework and linking them to the role of management accountants, as proposed by role antecedents in previous literature. The study also uncovers factors influencing role-taking and role-making, alongside examining the repercussions of role consensus or conflict based on the interaction with the operating manager. Research limitations/implications This paper is subject to the normal limitations of case study research and generalisation. The findings may also be influenced by the cultural context of the study. Originality/value An updated role episode model is presented, highlighting further performance management systems’ components. The study also reveals factors enabling and/or inhibiting the management accountants’ business support role and the impact of role consensus/conflict.

Recent developments in digital technology have revitalized interest in the relationship between technology and management accounting. Yet, few empirical in-depth studies have assessed how digital technologies influence the roles of management accountants. This paper builds on the concept of jurisdiction to illuminate the relationship between management accountants, expert knowledge and digital technology. The study identifies and describes competition over jurisdiction between management accountants and other groups of employees. The study describes a shift for divisional management accountants towards narrower roles in their tasks and expectations, while business-oriented roles at group level are found to entail expanding tasks and expectations. In doing so, management accountants are divided into two divergent categories facing different expectations: divisional and group level management accountants. Through a case study in the technology-oriented finance sector, the paper contributes to the debate on the roles of management accountants in a number of ways. First, it describes how digital technology can contribute to narrower and more specialized roles. Second, it describes how digital technology can contribute to competition between professions. Third, it elucidates how digital technology contributes to changes in the behaviour of decision makers, and in their expectations toward, and the involvement of, management accountants. Fourth, it details how the changes contributed by digital technology in the roles of management accountants can act as mediators in the identity-work of management accountants. Finally, it empirically describes the relationships between digital technology and management accountants’ roles.

PurposeExpectations regarding the participation of management accountants (MAs) in the promotion of sustainability of multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been poorly realised. This raises the question of whether MAs are invited to join in sustainability promotion or does sustainability not fit the perceived professional role of MAs. We suggest that the development of individual-level engagement of corporate sustainability is required for MAs to start contributing to corporate sustainability.Design/methodology/approachWe utilise the psychological ownership theory to investigate how MAs’ professional role could develop to incorporate advancing sustainability. Our qualitative study is based on 32 interviews conducted in seven local business units of three different technology-oriented MNEs.FindingsWe reveal features connected to the professional role of MAs that may impede the activation of the routes to psychological ownership of corporate sustainability, thus undermining their involvement in corporate sustainability enhancement. Moreover, we show that MAs’ own perceptions of their professional role may impede the stimulation of the routes.Originality/valueFrom a managerial viewpoint, our study helps readers to understand how the routes to psychological ownership of corporate sustainability could be cultivated in the development of the future role of MAs. It also gives input for MA professional organisations and MA professional education providers to develop conditions that foster sustainability thinking among MAs. Moreover, by integrating the examination of MAs’ professional role with the psychological ownership theory, we broaden the theoretical scene both in management accounting and in business sustainability research.

Purpose This paper aims to identify, discuss and provide suggestions for how the phenomenon of business analytics and its elements may influence management accounting and the accountant. Design/methodology/approach This paper not only identifies a number of studies from academic journals but also reports from professional consultancies and professional accounting bodies concerning future opportunities and implications for management accounting in combination with business analytics. Findings First, it was found that both academic articles and professional accounting bodies suggest changes for management accounting. Second, it shows that topics such holistic views, fact-based decisions, predictions, visualization and specific hard core skills are the most important for the accountant. Finally, the paper demonstrates that there are different ambition levels for the management accountant, depending on if s(he) wants to be on a descriptive, on a predictive or on a prescriptive level. Originality/value Even though the paper is general in nature, the paper discusses a phenomenon that for some reason has been ignored by practitioners and researchers. The true value of the paper therefore lies in making practitioners and researchers more aware of the possibilities of business analytics for management accounting, and through that, making the management accountant a real value driver for the company.

PurposeThe purposes of this paper are to explore accounting talk events and to contribute to the literature by presenting a model of accounting talk genres.Design/methodology/approachIn the qualitative tradition, interviews were conducted with accountants in both private and public sector. The pandemic provided a natural experiment, as the implemented restrictions gave rise to a situation in which accountants had to prepare and communicate numbers while working remotely. Using sociolinguistics, the paper analyzes the interactions between accountants and other organizational members when remotely preparing and communicating reports.FindingsThis study develops a conceptual model that illustrates the significant influence of accounting small talk on the production and presentation of financial information. The analysis reveals various genres of accounting talk in the everyday practice of management accountants. In so doing, the study makes three contributions. First, it provides a conceptual model of accounting talk. Second, it highlights the role of accounting small talk in creating a less risky environment for reflection, which facilitates the exchange of thoughts and ideas. Third, it offers an explanation of why even so-called bean counters can benefit from accounting small talk. It suggests that such informal communication can not only enhance efficiency by helping to ensure accurate accounts but also improve quality by aligning the numbers with more realistic forecasts.Research limitations/implicationsWe encourage future studies of accounting discourse in settings that are more similar to everyday work environments. Additional insights could also be gained by drawing upon other methods, such as conversation analysis and ethnographic studies. This paper may help controllers to be more aware of how they use talk in addition to numbers. The knowledge provided here is also important for the education of future controllers.Originality/valueThe paper provides a conceptual model of how organizational members talk about accounting, which may enable a more detailed analysis of accounting talk. The study also highlights the importance of accounting small talk, which has been largely overlooked in accounting literature.

PurposeThis paper aims to critically examine the accounting and information systems literature to understand the changes that are occurring in the management accounting profession. The changes the authors are interested in are linked to technology-driven innovations in managerial decision-making and in organizational structures. In addition, the paper highlights research gaps and opportunities for future research.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopted a grounded theory literature review method (Wolfswinkel et al., 2013) to achieve the study’s aims.FindingsThe authors identified four research themes that describe the changes in the management accounting profession due to technology-driven innovations: structured vs unstructured data, human vs algorithm-driven decision-making, delineated vs blurred functional boundaries and hierarchical vs platform-based organizations. The authors also identified tensions mentioned in the literature for each research theme.Originality/valuePrevious studies display a rather narrow focus on the role of digital technologies in accounting work and new competences that management accountants require in the digital era. By contrast, the authors focus on the broader technology-driven shifts in organizational processes and structures, which vastly change how accounting information is collected, processed and analyzed internally to support managerial decision-making. Hence, the paper focuses on how management accountants can adapt and evolve as their organizations transition toward a digital environment.

PurposeJob advertisements are important means of communicating role expectations for management accountants to the labor market. They provide information about which roles are sought and expected. However, which roles are communicated in job advertisements is unknown so far.Design/methodology/approachWith a text-mining approach on a large sample of 889 job ads, the authors extract information on roles, type of firm and hierarchical position of the management accountant sought.FindingsThe results indicate an apparent mix of different role types with a strong focus on a classic watchdog role. However, the business partner role is more often sought for leadership positions or in family businesses and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME).Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation is the lack of an agreed-upon measurement instrument for roles in job offers. The study results imply that corporate practice is not as theory-driven as is postulated and communicated in the management accounting community. This indicates the existence of a research-practice gap and tensions between different actors in the management accounting field.Practical implicationsThe results challenge the current role discussion of professional organizations for management accountants as business partners.Originality/value The authors contribute the first study, which explicitly analyzes the communication of roles in job offers for management accountants. It indicates a discrepancy between scholarly discussion on roles and management accountants' work from an employer's perspective.

Purpose This study aims to examine the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the knowledge sharing and management accountant performance relationship. In addition, it also investigates the moderating effect of initiating structure leadership (IS-leadership style) on the relationship between self-efficacy and management accountant performance. In the literature, there is a reciprocal relationship between environmental, cognitive and personal factors, making self-efficacy unable to be maintained without environmental support, which in this research is captured through the construct of leadership style. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a quantitative methodology with a self-administration survey. This research involved 100 management accountants in Indonesia. Regression Macro Process carried out data analysis. Findings The findings of this study indicate that knowledge sharing in cognitive psychology encourages increased self-efficacy, which has an impact on improving management accountant performance. Self-efficacy mediates the effect of knowledge sharing on management accountant performance. The existence of induced environmental factors in the form of IS-leadership style has the potential to weaken the impact of self-efficacy on management accountant performance. Practical implications This study provides recommendations to companies, especially the human resources division, to consider individual psychological factors in the recruitment process. Thus, companies can carry out preventive control to manage management accountant performance behavior. Originality/value This study provides new empirical evidence for reducing the overlap between knowledge sharing and performance by applying personal, organizational and environmental factors simultaneously. This study also enriches knowledge-sharing literature on performance from a social cognitive perspective.

PurposeDrawing insights from finance and non-finance managers in Sri Lanka, this study unveils complexities and conflicts surrounding the roles of management accountants and the nature of role construction stemming from differing expectations of non-finance managers and external influences.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts the qualitative methodology and leans on role theory and new institutional sociology (NIS), as these dual theories complement each other and enable a holistic understanding of management accountants' roles, complexities and conflicts.FindingsThe findings reveal that in fulfilling their roles on par with divisional goals, amid expectations of non-finance managers and external influences, management accountants face various complexities and conflicts. Furthermore, in navigating through their roles, understanding the operational realities of work organizations and business sectors and negotiating with non-finance managers is vital.Research limitations/implicationsThis research draws evidence from a selection of finance and non-finance managers. Thus the findings are not expected to be generalized to business firms in Sri Lanka.Practical implicationsThis paper offers practitioner insights into how management accountants could construct their roles in different organizational settings, balancing the expectations of non-finance managers and external influences.Originality/valueDespite its importance, complexities and conflicts surrounding management accountants' roles amid multiple influences have attracted scant research attention. Hence this paper is a noteworthy addition to the literature. Besides, using role theory and NIS in tandem although apt, has not been the focus of prior researchers in delving into this phenomenon.