What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

The design and use of performance management systems: An extended framework for analysis

The present paper introduces the logical choices available in research methodologies; which enable the drawing of correct inferences to answer the various research questions that are asked by accounting researchers.It starts with an overview of research paradigms as fundamental beliefs that affect the ways to conduct social research, including the choice of a particular research methodology. The paper then details the elements of case study design, including the justification to choose case organizations. The sections that follow present an overview of the required data and collection methods and discuss the methods used to analyze the collected data. Considerations regarding research quality are also presented. This paper is a useful reference or a starting point for researchers considering qualitative multi-method case study research designs.

The Research Design Maze: Understanding Paradigms, Cases, Methods and Methodologies

In this paper we argue that theory, method, methodology, and knowledge gains in qualitative field studies are intertwined through the ongoing hypothesis development in the field. We develop our argument through a discussion of specific qualitative field studies in management accounting. We emphasise in particular the distinctive role of theory in qualitative research as relating to expression of a subjective reality more than clarification of an objective one. In considering this subjectivity we discuss the ways in which the doing of qualitative research brings to bear discipline on the researcher allowing us to assess the trustworthiness of their accounts. The intention is to develop a more appropriate basis for judging the plausibility of qualitative field studies than notions borrowed from positivistic methodology.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID868264_code21860.pdf?abstractid=816985&mirid=1&type=2

Doing Qualitative Field Research in Management Accounting: Positioning Data to Contribute to Theory

/pdf/doing-qualitative-field-research-in-management-accounting-40js2qw3ch.pdf

Doing qualitative field research in management accounting: Positioning data to contribute to theory

Interviews – Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing Second edition Steinar Kvale and Svend Brinkmann Sage Publications, 2009 The front cover of the second edition of Interviews – L...

Interviews - Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing

Management accounting change

Purpose – The paper aims to provide an overview of the rationale for qualitative research in management accounting. It discusses how qualitative research could serve the development of theory, and provides guiding principles for qualitative investigation. It also seeks to identify common problems in qualitative studies and lays out avenues for further qualitative inquiry.Design/methodology/approach – The paper relies on critical reflection and deductive logic in its discussion, drawing on a wide range of theoretical pronouncements and methodological literature, as well as on some illustrative field studies in management accounting.Findings – The paper opens a broad panorama: it emphasizes field research as a necessary counterweight to textbook appreciations of management accounting, to idealized economic models and to consultancy‐oriented agenda. It identifies how field research serves theory development in different ways, providing a set of practical principles which assist qualitative efforts. The paper...

Qualitative management accounting research: rationale, pitfalls and potential

Exploring a `non-financial' management accounting change

Accounting has not escaped The Customer's influence in contemporary organizations. Calls have been made for a quantitative knowledge that installs a new calculable space in the name of The Customer. In an organizational setting, a UK sudsidiary of Unilever, the paper traces first the introduction of this quantitative knowledge. The paper examines the order of “The Quantified Customer”, its effects on organizational action, and its disciplinary implications. But this enquiry also uncovers a rival knowledge of The Customer. The resistant local knowledge is mobilized against the new calculable space—changing the trajectory of events.

http://directory.umm.ac.id/Data%20Elmu/jurnal/A/Accounting,%20Organizations%20and%20Society/Vol24.Issue8.Nov1999/265.pdf

Juhani Vaivio

Papers

Interviews - Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing

Management accounting change

Qualitative management accounting research: rationale, pitfalls and potential

Exploring a `non-financial' management accounting change

Examining ''The Quantified Customer''