Dynamics of Creating a New Role for Business Controllers

This paper explores management accountants’ role change in a multinational corporation. The theoretical framework of this interpretative study draws on institutional entrepreneurship that highlights the importance of agency and enables the theorization of institutional changes. According to our findings, projects on new cost accounting techniques and modern information technology (ERP) serve as critical momenta in the early stages of institutional entrepreneurship that drive changes in institutionalized professional roles. The aspiring controller must creatively combine multiple resources and interests in order to attract other actors for collective action. This paper contributes to accounting literature by explaining what resources were needed, how those resources were gained, and how they were used to drive an organization-wide change in the controllers’ role. As organizational institutions are normally stable over long periods of time and difficult to change, this study gives empirical evidence on the mechanisms and requirements any one accountant or group of accountants within an organization can utilize to change a controller’s institutionalized role.