Christopher S. Chapman

Reflections on a contingent view of accounting

Abstract Despite a promising start and many subsequent studies, commentators point out that the literature has not yet developed a credible and comprehensive contingency theory of accounting. This paper argues that a major problem facing the development of an overall framework is the distinctive research characterization which has developed around such efforts. The strength of definitions of what are, and are not “contingency studies” means that essentially contingent arguments in studies which fall outside this remit are not always recognized as such. This failure to draw on this potentially rich source of ideas as to the contingent nature of accounting can only be seen as hindering progress towards the kind of credibility which the field currently lacks.

Accounting for Flexibility and Efficiency: A Field Study of Management Control Systems in a Restaurant Chain*

Whilst some field studies have suggested that management control systems can be used simultaneously to make organisations more efficient and more flexible, the contingency literature has found it difficult to address this issue in the absence of a clear and comprehensive typology for analyzing more processual uses of management control systems. This paper distinguishes between enabling and coercive (Adler and Borys 1996) uses of management control systems. Coercive use refers to the stereotypical top down control approach that emphasises centralisation and pre-planning. By contrast, enabling use seeks to put employees in a position to deal directly with the inevitable contingencies in their work. The design principles that underlie the enabling use of management control systems are repair, internal transparency, global transparency, and flexibility. Through a detailed analysis of a single case field study carried out over a two-year period, we illustrate how management pursued the objectives of efficiency and flexibility by using management control systems in enabling ways. We suggest that the four design principles of enabling use can facilitate field studies of management control systems, but that they can also be used to define an enabling typology for contingency researchers to analyze the ways in which organizations simultaneously pursue efficiency and flexibility through their management control systems.

Accountants in organisational networks

Abstract Using four case studies carried out in the UK clothing and textiles industry, this paper explores how accounting might be differentially implicated in the co-ordination of activity as organisations face higher or lower degrees of uncertainty. It is argued that one of the difficulties faced by many of the contingency studies that have addressed this problem is their conceptualisation of accounting. The present study suggests that accounting, as a tool for organisational control, exists not as a collection of techniques, but as on-going processes. As such, the individuals involved with such processes might be expected to play a substantial role in shaping them. Social network analysis forms the basis of an attempt to understand these issues.

Partnership versus Corporation: Implications of Alternative Forms of Governance in Professional Service Firms

For professional service firms (PSFs) the partnership form of governance is the most effective means of reconciling the potentially competing claims of three sets of stakeholders: shareholders, professionals, and clients. Increasingly, PSFs are abandoning this traditional form of governance in favour of incorporation and flotation. Very little is known about the implications of this trend. We examine an alliance between a partnership and a corporation and analyse the systems and structures that professionals in both firms deploy in their efforts to preserve and sustain the interpretive scheme of professionalism and partnership. We emphasise the need to develop a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between governance as a legal form and governance as an interpretive scheme.

Theorizing Practice in Management Accounting Research

Abstract This chapter presents an overview of a diverse set of studies that have sought to explore the social, organisational, and cultural specificity of management accounting whilst at the same time theorising the regularities of the management accounting phenomenon. We draw on practice theorising to identify common interests in the wide-ranging interpretive management accounting literature. We discuss in particular the approach and contribution of studies seeking to theorise practice in terms of governmentality, actor networks, systems of accountability, and situated functionality.

We are not alone: qualitative management accounting research: Rationale, pitfalls and potential

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on “Qualitative management accounting research: rationale, pitfalls and potential”, a paper by Juhani Vaivio. Design/methodology/approach - The approach takes the form of a critical reading of Vaivios paper. Findings - The paper emphasises the role of other groups interested in the practice and study of management accounting. Whilst frequently an individual activity, the research can be stronger through an awareness, at all stages, of how ones interests might engage with the interests of others – not in a quest for uniformity, but rather for mutual learning. Originality/value - The paper offers a unifying theme for approaching and understanding the wide-ranging issues raised by Vaivio.

Business Performance Measurement: Unifying Theories and Integrating Practice, Second Edition

Introduction This chapter reports on the loosely coupled performance measurement practices of a high-performing restaurant chain (Ahrens and Chapman, 2004, 2007). Over a period of four years we observed a series of initiatives aimed at “tightening up” the performance measurement systems of the case company. However, none of these initiatives resolved the desire for what the finance director towards the end of the research period called “unambiguous performance information”. Head office managers of all grades continued to demand performance measurement systems that allowed more comprehensive and detailed control over the operational decisions of restaurant managers. Whilst it was easy to see in principle how such systems could have been implemented, successive working parties did not change them. This was not for lack of market competition, and it did not result in lower performance. Indeed, managers felt competitive pressures intensify during the research period, and still managed to increase both the market share and the profitability of the case company. What we were faced with was a high-performing company in a competitive industry that endeavoured to rectify the flaws of its performance measurement system, yet did not. We think that this case holds a lesson for those who are interested in performance measurement system implementation, because it combines high performance with a handling of performance measurement issues that would seem to violate an implicit cornerstone of much of the performance measurement literature.