Fábio Frezatti

Evaluating management accounting change according to the institutional theory approach

Purpose – The objective of this case study is to evaluate the change process, under the old institutional economics (OIE) approach, that had occurred within the management‐accounting system of Brazilian bank. The present study examines the efficacy of the change process in management accounting, from the perspective of system users, seven years after its beginning.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a case study. The study presents a literature review of institutional theory and a case study of Banco do Brasil – a large Brazilian bank that has implemented profound changes in its management‐accounting system.Findings – The results indicate that new concepts have been effectively institutionalised and converted into new values, habits, and routines inside the organisation. The study provides new insights into management‐accounting change.Research limitations/implications – A single case study does not allow the results to be generalised to other organisations.Originality/value – The study...

Management accounting profile of firms located in brazil: a field study

Companies must have resources that provide competitive advantages and are important factors for success. There is a great variety of such resources-including information systems, concepts of participation, models, and organizational structures. These can be referred to as components of managerial practice. Each company can be characterized as having a unique configuration of tools that can be recognized as the company profile. This paper analyzes the conceptual adherence (i. e., the relationship between theory and practice) of the managerial accounting practices of medium-sized and large Brazilian companies. Statistical multivariate analysis has allowed for the identification of five clusters within the group of companies studied. The main conclusion for the sample is that conceptual adherence to tactical components is greater than to strategic components. In addition, it is apparent that the newer components have not been widely adopted in the sample, similar to other field studies in the UK and USA

A contribuição das teorias do ciclo de vida organizacional para a pesquisa em contabilidade gerencial

Este trabalho objetiva caracterizar, em uma perspectiva teorica, as contribuicoes das teorias do ciclo de vida organizacional sobre a pesquisa em contabilidade gerencial. Alem disso, levanta os principais autores, as instituicoes e os paises vinculados a pesquisa sobre ciclo de vida organizacional. E desenvolvida uma analise bibliometrica por meio da base de dados ProQuest®. De um total de 22 trabalhos sobre ciclo de vida, seis utilizam como base teorica o ciclo de vida organizacional e apresentam contribuicao para a pesquisa em contabilidade gerencial. Conclui-se que o sistema de contabilidade gerencial sofre variacoes a medida que fatores configuracionais internos e externos da empresa se modificam ao longo das diferentes fases do ciclo de vida organizacional. E evidenciada a existencia de uma concentracao de trabalhos sobre as principais teorias de ciclo de vida organizacional em universidades do Canada. Principalmente, em razao do elevado numero de citacoes dos trabalhos desenvolvidos por Danny Miller (Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales) e Peter Friesen (Faculty of Management, MacGill University).

O entendimento da contabilidade gerencial sob a ótica da teoria institucional

Este trabalho tem como objetivo refletir sobre o paradoxo da estabilidade dos sistemas de contabilidade gerencial, ou seja, sobre as razoes pelas quais as organizacoes, na pratica, utilizam muito pouco a base conceitual disponivel na teoria. A base conceitual da teoria da contabilidade gerencial e fundamentada na teoria neoclassica da firma, cujos pressupostos basicos sao: (i) a maximizacao racional dos agentes economicos e (ii) o equilibrio geral proporcionado pelas forcas de mercado. O estudo de carater teorico apresenta criticas a teoria neoclassica e demonstra que, segundo a abordagem da denominada velha economia institucional (OIE - old institutional economics), a contabilidade gerencial praticada pelas empresas e uma instituicao formada a partir de habitos e rotinas que dao sentido aos relacionamentos dos grupos da organizacao. O estudo indica que as organizacoes nao utilizam em larga escala as novas abordagens de contabilidade gerencial porque os processos de institucionalizacao dos novos conceitos efetivamente nao ocorreram.

Análise dos traços de tendência de uma amostra das revistas científicas da área de contabilidade publicadas na língua inglesa

As publicacoes academicas sao importantes pontos de sustentacao do trabalho cientifico desenvolvido no mundo. Identificar o veiculo adequado para a publicacao que se pretende e uma tarefa nao muito facil, principalmente para os estudiosos oriundos de paises cuja lingua nao seja a inglesa. Isso se verifica pela nao familiaridade com as definicoes, criterios e procedimentos gerais que permitam o entendimento e decisao por parte do estudioso. Nesse sentido, este artigo pretende identificar caracteristicas de algumas das principais tendencias observadas pelas revistas cientificas que veiculam temas de interesse da classe contabil.Trata-se de um estudo exploratorio com pretensoes de continuidade ao longo do tempo.

Aplicação do modelo de burns e scapens para avaliação do processo de institucionalização da contabilidade gerencial

The implementation of the new systems often have a focus on profit maximization and often incorporate new values and concepts that are quite different from those used before. This study aims to assess management-accounting institutionalisation, using Burns and Scapens (2000) model. The applied methodology was a case study in the commercial area of a Brazilian bank that carried out profound changes in its management accounting. The results of this case study reveals that the conceptual structure of Burns and Scapens (2000) model can be useful as an operational guideline to evaluate institutionalisation of management-accounting change.

Diferenciações entre a contabilidade financeira e a contabilidade gerencial: uma pesquisa empírica a partir de pesquisadores de vários países

This study aims to identifying the main elements that distinguish management accounting from fi nancial accounting in different countries around the world. Evolution shows that, actually, at some time and in some situations, these two accounting branches could be similar and even equal. However, the different demands and perceptions of their users in different countries lead to a distance between them. To understand these differences, a study was carried out in 24 countries, in order to identify what elements can present differentiations between these two branches of accounting. The elements included in this study were defi ned by using a combination among different authors’ approaches. The fi eld research was developed by applying a structured questionnaire, based on a Likert scale, which was answered by specialists. The main distinctive elements of these two accounting branches are: application of standards, analytic focus, reliability level, agents which infl uence or can exert infl uence, frequency of report publication and legal requirements for trained personnel to different extents. These differences strengthen the need for an accounting information system that can equally attend to its two main user groups ‐ internal and external.

EBITDA: POSSÍVEIS IMPACTOS SOBRE O GERENCIAMENTO DAS EMPRESAS

One of the most discussed issues in Brazil recently has been the substitution of the Statement of Origins and Applications of Funds for the Statement of Cash Flow. This substitution is included in the project to change Law no 6.404/76, known as the “Law for Public Companies”. Thus it seems necessary to discuss the Statement of Cash Flow, mainly its disclosure method: direct or indirect. The theory indicates that the Direct Method is simpler to understand than the Indirect Method. However, the Indirect Method is considered to be more informative because it reconciles earnings and cash. This paper analyses the opinions of academics, market analysts and accountants, and with the objective of identifying whether one of the disclosure methods is preferred. The results indicate that there is no specific

CRÍTICAS AO ORÇAMENTO: PROBLEMAS COM O ARTEFATO OU A NÃO UTILIZAÇÃO DE UMA ABORDAGEM ABRANGENTE DE ANÁLISE?

O presente trabalho utiliza a metodologia de ensaio teorico para tratar os elementos do processo de planejamento, normalmente mencionados na literatura como sendo problemas do orcamento empresarial, por meio de uma analise integrada. A justificativa para a pesquisa esta na percepcao de que os trabalhos encontrados na literatura tratam os problemas numa abordagem reducionista, de forma isolada. A partir da revisao de literatura sobre o tema, este artigo apresenta os elementos de analise que subsidiam a construcao de uma perspectiva integrada. Estes elementos compreendem a organizacao do processo orcamentario, os sistemas de informacao, os indicadores de desempenho, a participacao, a constituicao de reservas orcamentarias, a avaliacao de desempenho, a forca do passado, o comportamento disfuncional o grau de realidade e a rigidez/flexibilidade. Como resultado, a pesquisa apresenta uma proposta para analise da visao integrada destes itens com a identificacao e agrupamento dos elementos em tres categorias: (1) estruturais; (2) de gestao; e (3) comportamentais.

The “economic paradigm” in management accounting: Return on equity and the use of various management accounting artifacts in a Brazilian context

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the profile of artifacts with superior returns in order to identify the usage of management accounting in a Brazilian context.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is part of an empirical research project based on a probabilistic sample (119 entities) from medium and large Brazilian companies, selected according to economic sector and revenues. The management accounting artifacts were identified according to the five stages of International Management Accounting Practice 1 (IMAP 1, International Federation of Accountants (IFA), 1998). Logistic regression was applied to identify the artifacts most adherent to companies with the outstanding profile.Findings – In the analysis of the five stages of IMAP 1, only the fifth stage, value management, provided the significance level to accept the hypothesis. In this stage, the artifacts that were accepted with a significance level of 90 percent were return on equity and balanced scorecard.Research limitations/implications – ...