Emerging Themes in Management Accounting and Control Research

Abstract

Organizations are at an interesting inflection point where existing paradigms are insufficient. The focus on execution as the main source of competitive advantage has been the dominant paradigm since the late 19th century. It is not enough. The dynamism brought by billions of people joining the market economy and by the exponential development across a large number of technologies requires complementing execution with managing for creation. Management accounting and control is not immune to these changes. Rather, its future development will determine its relevance to management. This paper reflects on some of the opportunities opening for this management discipline to keep its significance to managers. The paper explores new challenges in supporting execution and its role in creating new sources of value.