Institutionalization of Strategy and Management Accounting Change in a Cooperative Bank

Abstract

In this longitudinal case study, a cooperative bank’s strategy, related performance management changes, institutionalization processes, and change drivers are studied. Old institutional economics is used in explaining how organizational routines and rules change and become taken for granted. However, there are several internal and external drivers of change in the banking sector, including organizational culture and values, EU regulation, digitalization as well as communicational gaps and power relations among organizational levels affecting the success of the change process. Results indicate that in the case bank, operating in a highly institutionalized and regulated environment, not many organizational efforts were made to support the institutionalization of new strategy and management accounting change. Efforts were often manager-specific, promoting the status quo, and preventing most change attempts from proceeding towards institutionalization. They caused ‘looping’, repeated small and unsuccessful initial attempts at change, and decoupling. Looping and decoupling took place even though organizational values were internalized well at all organizational levels, and they could be combined with performance management and the different strategies employed over time and at all organizational levels.